Government Consigned Israeli Population to be Human Subjects in a Massive Experiment

by Vera Sharav
Alliance for Human Research Protection

BBC: “Israel bought large stocks of the [Covid-19] jab in exchange for acting as the world’s guinea pig.”

On November 18, 2020, Israel’s senior health officials were caught unprepared when Pfizer announced that its vaccine was “90% effective” (revised to 95%) against Covid-19.

They had ordered millions of vaccine doses from Moderna and AstraZeneca but none for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

How then, did Israel procure an estimated four to five million doses of the Pfizer vaccine in December 2020 – enough to vaccinate at least two million people?

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu sought to show that he singlehandedly saved the day; as did Donald Trump when he launched Operation Warp Speed, to accelerate the production and distribution of Covid-19 vaccines.

Both heads of state entered into secret contracts with vaccine manufacturers. Both failed to disclose to their constituents that the COVID-19 (mRNA) vaccines are experimental.

• The COVID-19 vaccine phase 3 clinical trials have not yet been completed. This is why both the Pfizer and Moderna mRNA vaccines have NOT been licensed by the FDA. Both vaccines received “Emergency Use Authorization” (EUA): “a mechanism to facilitate the availability and use of medical countermeasures…Under an EUA, FDA may allow the use of unapproved medical products.”^[i]
• The safety of these experimental vaccines has not been established during the frenzied pace of production and distribution. The sheer speed at which the vaccines were developed and tested precluded obtaining sufficient information about adverse side effects; in particular, serious, long term adverse effects.
• Furthermore, mRNA technology used in these vaccines is also experimental.^[ii] No other vaccines using this technology have been approved. The long-term risks are unknown.
• As of January 27, 2021, Johns Hopkins’ tracking system states that the infection fatality rate in the U.S. is 1.7%; in Israel it is 0.7%.^[iii]

According to the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC), as of Dec. 18, 2020 (just when mass vaccinations began), the adverse event rate following Covid-19 vaccination was 2.79%.^[iv]

This would indicate that the short-term risk of harm from the vaccine is far greater than the risk of dying from COVID-19.

• On December 10^th, at FDA’s advisory committee meeting to evaluate Pfizer’s vaccine for use under EUA, Dr. Kathrin Jansen, Pfizer’s lead representative, acknowledged that despite being vaccinated with Pfizer’s vaccine, monkeys became infected when they were exposed to the virus.^[v] Pfizer did not test whether vaccinated people could also become infected when exposed to the virus. It is, therefore, entirely possible that the Covid-19 vaccine is no defense against infection.
• On January 26 2021, the World Health Organization posted the latest news about the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine: What You Need to Know, in which the WHO confirmed lack of efficacy evidence: “We do not know whether the vaccine will prevent infection and protect against onward transmission. Immunity persists for several months, but the full duration is not yet known. These important questions are being studied.”^[vi]
• The acknowledged lack of evidence for the protective value of both of the mRNA vaccines refutes the widely publicized “90% -95% effectiveness” claims. The absence of evidence for the protective value of these vaccines eliminates the justification for exposure to the risks; and undermines the claimed need for these vaccines.

The high degree of panic generated by continuous, fear-generating claims about the virus, led public health officials to discard the precautionary principle in medicine – “First, do no harm”.

Despite serious uncertainty, officials proceeded full speed ahead, with mass vaccination.

It is astonishing that the government of Israel entrusted the health of the people to Pfizer; by entering into a secret contract that enrolled the Israeli population to become research subjects, without their knowledge or consent.

Under the contract, Real World Epidemiological EvidenceCollaboration Agreement,^[vii] the government signed a commitment to vaccinate the entire seven million adult population and to provide weekly data on its citizens during a 24-month surveillance follow-up study.

The government disregarded potentially serious medical risks from the experimental vaccine and risks to privacy.

Israel is considered an ideal place for a vast epidemiological study, encompassing 9.3 million people, because of its universal, state-sponsored healthcare system in which insurers maintain 40 years of digitized medical records, including vaccination records for each Israeli citizen.

This centralized system helped Israel administer more than 2 million doses of the vaccine in under a month. In exchange, Israel received priority delivery of millions of doses of the vaccines.

Netanyahu stated that the reason Israel received so many vaccine doses so quickly is that:

“Israel has committed to send Pfizer data and details especially gathered for them, including the consequences of the inoculations, side effects, efficacy, amount of time it takes to develop antibodies according to different types of population, age, gender, preexisting conditions etc. The agreement extensively details the various parameters that will be sent to Pfizer.”^[viii]

Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak pointed out that Pfizer is using the Israeli population as a “perfect testing ground” for its COVID-19 vaccine.

“This data is a treasure trove for Pfizer. It’s a huge asset to Pfizer, because it lets them show that when someone dies after being vaccinated – and people my age tend to die more often – he didn’t die because of the vaccine, but as a result of some background illness.”^[ix]

• Israeli citizens became the unwitting human subjects of a massive, unethical, unapproved, non-consensual human experiment. The public was not informed that (a) the vaccine is experimental; (b) the population was being used as human subjects for a two-year epidemiological study; the data is meant to be shared with foreign countries and journals;  the secrecy of the contract has led to strong suspicions that (c) their personal medical record – “a data treasure-trove” – would be shared with Pfizer

“In effect, Bibi [Netanyahu] has signed up his people, all seven million citizens aged 12 years and over, without our informed consent, to become the first country in its entirety to do human testing on a technology which has been, for many decades, attempted and failed in the laboratory…Our citizens must first and foremost define the discussion in order to accurately weigh the choices…[We] have been given little information at all and that includes complete opacity of data on the unfolding outcomes of adverse reactions currently taking place.”^[x] [Ilana Rachel Daniel, Arutz Sheva, Israel National News]

Pfizer seeks to obtain basic safety and efficacy information that it lacks, in order for its vaccine to be eligible for an FDA license. No vaccine has ever before been administered to millions of people without having met safety and efficacy requirements.

The following information must normally be obtained during controlled clinical trials prior to public distribution.

First, the company needs to demonstrate that the vaccine is effective in preventing infection when one is exposed to the virus.

Second, serious adverse effects need to be identified and their frequency and duration determined.

Third, the risk for specific populations, including children, pregnant women and the elderly need to be identified and weighed against the benefits.

Fourth, causes of deaths during the trial need to be documented.

On January 19, 2020, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that over 12,400 Israelis who had been vaccinated tested positive for Covid – that’s 56.6% of the 189,000 vaccinated people.

Dr. Nachman Ash, Israel’s national pandemic coordinator, warned on Army Radio that:

“Many people have been infected between the first and second injections of the vaccine. The protective effect appears “lower than we thought [and] lower than [the data] presented by Pfizer.”

He warned that restrictions will continue longer than expected. “With COVID-19 mutations, third lockdown may not be Israel’s last.”

Should pregnant women be exposed to a controversial, experimental vaccine? 

The safety of the vaccine has not been adequately ascertained under Operation Warp Speed. It has never been tested in pregnant women.

On January 8^th the W.H.O. advised against vaccinating pregnant and breastfeeding women” “due to insufficient data, WHO does not recommend the vaccination of pregnant women at this time.”^[xi]

The C.D.C. issued conflicting advice:^[xii] The WHO came under pressure two days after the media reported the conflicting advice.^[xiii] Citing no new data, the WHO rescinded its cautionary guideline stating: “based on the data at hand, we don’t have any….reason to believe there are specific risks…”

However, the WHO continues to warn that data on Covid-19 vaccines and pregnancies is lacking, making safety assessments difficult.^[xiv]

Those who regard vaccines as a Holy Grail – throw caution to the wind. Have they forgotten the disastrous tragedies that followed when pregnant women were prescribed Thalidomide[xv] and Diethylistilbestrol (DES)?

Vaccine zealots disregard medicine’s precautionary “do no harm” principle before applying any invasive medical intervention. They blame the lack of data on the precaution against exposing expectant mothers to clinical trials.

Pfizer’s experiment in Israel will fill the gap. Dr. Ash has not only recommended the vaccine for pregnant women, he added pregnant Israeli women to the priority vaccination list.^[xvi]

“Biological Experiment”

• Pregnant Israeli women have not been informed that the vaccine is experimental. Neither are they aware that they are being consigned – like rabbits – in a massive medical experiment without their informed consent.

Pfizer, the company to whom the Prime Minister and officials of the Department of Health entrusted to test its experimental vaccine on the entire population of Israel, is an unscrupulous business corporation with an extensive Rap Sheet compiled by Corporate Research Project.^[xvii]

Pfizer’s track record is filled with cases in which it was accused of misleading regulators and the public about the safety of its products.

One of the most notorious cases of criminal human rights violations involved Pfizer’s unapproved clinical trial conducted in Nigeria.

Pfizer enrolled 200 children to test its new, experimental antibiotic drug Trovan, deceiving parents by falsely claiming that it was an approved therapy for meningitis.

In fact, Pfizer sought to obtain data so that their drug could get an FDA approval; a process that should have taken at least a whole year (or longer) was rushed through in six weeks — much like the testing process for its Covid-19 vaccine was rushed.

The Trovan trial resulted in the death of eleven children, and twelve others were left permanently disabled. Two years later the FDA warned that the drug could cause liver damage and death.

The mass vaccination experiment is being conducted in violation of Israel’s legal ethics requirements; namely, review and approval by the Institutional Review Board / Ethics (Helsinki) Committee.^[xviii]

The Helsinki Committee approval is required for any research study involving human subjects and is also required for any deal by the Israeli government that provides citizens’ data to other entities, especially if they are foreign.

A senior official of the Helsinki Committee confirmed the “clear, unequivocal and unambiguous evidence that the contract with Pfizer is a clinical study”:

“Reading the contract signed between the Israeli government and Pfizer, it is clear, unequivocal and unambiguous that this is a clinical study for all intents and purposes, and thus, it needed to be approved by the Helsinki Committee. And that’s what will be written in the Committee’s opinion:

‘There’s nothing wrong with clinical trials, on the contrary, but clinical trials (human trials) must get committee approval, and of course, from the people on whom the trial is being conducted, while giving the right to refuse to be part of the trial. These are very basic matters.‘”^[xix]

Senior Israel Democracy Institute attorney Dr. Tehila Schwartz-Altshuler described: the experiment in Calcalist: “This is the most extensive study of human beings in the 21st century.

• The experiment violates the Nuremberg Code;^[xx] the most important document in the history of medical research ethics standards. The foremost ethical principle of the Nuremberg Code is as relevant today as it was in 1947:  “The voluntary, informed consent of the human subject is absolutely essential.”
• Informed consent is “absolutely essential” because it affirms the human right of the individual to accept or reject. Informed consent stands as a moral/legal barrier to ensure that governments “Never Again” pervert medicine.
• “The right to refuse” a medical intervention is reaffirmed under the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights(2005) which states: “Any preventive, diagnostic and therapeutic medical intervention is only to be carried out with the prior, free and informed consent of the person concerned, based on adequate information.”^[xxi]
• Medicine is not like a commodity; medical decisions are personal, requiring the weighing of benefits against risks. Medicine often involves life and death decisions. Without informed consent of the individual, medicine can be, and has been, weaponized. Under Operation Warp Speed, the dangerously abbreviated clinical trials were far too short to document the scope or severity of vaccine adverse effects.

Risks of greatest concern from the experimental mRNA vaccines are described clearly in detail here.^[xxii]

Both vaccines are made from messenger RNA and lipid nanoparticles containing polyethylene glycol (PEG). Scientists believe PEG poses a risk of anaphylaxis^[xxiii].

The risks include: severe allergic reactions, such as, anaphylaxis; systemic inflammatory response syndrome;^[xxiv]autoimmune disease;^[xxv] and antibody-dependent enhancement.

The latter is the focus of a recent peer reviewed report in the International Journal of Clinical Practice, by scientists from New York University and Tulane who warn that:

THE RISK OF ADE IN COVID‐19 VACCINES IS NON‐THEORETICAL AND COMPELLING

COVID‐19 vaccines designed to elicit neutralising antibodies may sensitise vaccine recipients to more severe disease than if they were not vaccinated.

The prior evidence that vaccine‐elicited, antibody‐dependent enhancement (ADE) of disease is likely to occur to some degree with COVID‐19 vaccines is vertically consistent from controlled SARS studies in primates to clinical observations in SARS and COVID‐19.

Thus, a finite, non‐theoretical risk is evident in the medical literature that vaccine candidates composed of the SARS‐CoV‐2 viral spike and eliciting anti‐SARS‐CoV‐2 antibodies, be they neutralising or not, place vaccinees at higher risk for more severe COVID‐19 disease when they encounter circulating viruses.

• Israel’s Health Ministry claims that it had obtained all required approvals; clearly this is not true.

The other major issue of concern is the violation of the right to PRIVACY.

The transfer of extensive, sensitive medical data to a multi-national foreign corporation exposes every Israeli citizen to extraordinary risks of harm. The most important commodity today is data. The transfer of its citizens’ medical data exposes the State of Israel to security risks.

Pfizer is one of the most unscrupulous business corporations whose court-adjudicated corrupt and illegal business practices includes numerous product safety violations, bribery in eight countries, and other crimes too numerous to be reviewed here.

A 27-year record of pharmaceutical company criminal and civil violations that led to settlements with U.S. state and federal government, was compiled by Public Citizen.^[xxvi] Pfizer has the dubious distinction of setting two records; Pfizer’s corrupt business practices resulted in the highest criminal fine in US history for $2.3 billion, and the largest civil fraud settlement of $1 billion.

This is the company to whom Prime Minister Netanyahu and Israel’s Department of Health entrusted with the data of its citizens’ personal medical records. That data contains a treasure trove of information that Pfizer might even sell to the highest bidder.

Attorney Tehila Schwartz-Altshuler of Israel Democracy Instituteexpressed serious concerns about the secret contractual provisions; which she strongly suspects, provide Pfizer with anonymized personal data of citizens’ medical records from which names, addresses and ID numbers are removed. However, she noted that:

“One of the crucial problems with the agreement is that although it acknowledges the need to preserve anonymity and privacy of Israelis, it does not outline steps to protect this principle…and there are loopholes, such as secondary uses of data. ”

“The problem is that technology today is so advanced that research has shown that even data that has been rendered anonymous can be “de-anonymized. [It is a] huge risk.”[xxvii]

Jonathan Klinger, a cyberlaw attorney and legal adviser for the Israeli Digital Rights Movement, a nonprofit group, agrees:  “we don’t really know what’s being shared. Even if aggregated or anonymous data is transferred, it could be re-identified. This is still a concern.”

“Bibi feels that my health data belongs to him. If you give someone else or give away my medical records — which are the most sensitive kind of data that someone can know about me — you need my permission. Why didn’t you ask for my permission? Treating this personal data as if it belongs to the government is “not ethically, not legally and not morally right.”” [TSA]

The Helsinki Ethics Committee has yet to issue its ruling about the experiment and the transmission of personal health data to Pfizer without the specific agreement of every individual person who is a de facto subject.

Read the full article at AHRP.org.

SOURCE

• Beloved Miami obstetrician Gregory Michael, 56, died following a suspected catastrophic reaction to the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine, DailyMail.com can reveal
• Heidi Neckelmann says her husband was completely healthy until he had the jab on December 18 at Mount Sinai Medical Center 
• He succumbed this week to a stroke brought on by acute IDP - Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura - a blood disorder caused by a lack of platelets
• IDP can be acute or chronic, lasting six months or more, striking on its own or in conjunction with other autoimmune conditions or certain cancers 
• Heidi insists, however, that her husband did not have an immune disorder or any similar condition that could have caused ITP 
• The mother-of-one said: 'In my mind his death was 100 percent linked to the vaccine. There is no other explanation'  
• She said: 'My husband had conversations with the doctors who said it was highly probable that the vaccine was the cause'
•  If his death is linked directly to the vaccine, Michael would be the first known case in the world of a person dying after the injection
• A spokesman for Pfizer told DailyMail.com the firm was looking into Gregory's death but they did not believe it had any link to the vaccine 

The grieving wife of a leading Florida doctor has told DailyMail.com how her ‘perfect’ husband died from a mystery blood disorder - just days after getting the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine.

Heidi Neckelmann says obstetrician Gregory Michael, 56 - her ‘best friend’ and partner of 28 years – was active, healthy and had no pre-existing conditions before getting the jab on December 18.

However he died from a stroke Sunday morning after suddenly developing a rare autoimmune illness that causes the body to destroy its own platelets, the tiny fragments that help blood to clot.

Distraught Heidi, 58, thinks the groundbreaking Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine may have somehow been the trigger.

‘In my mind his death was 100 percent linked to the vaccine. There is no other explanation,’ she told DailyMail.com, fighting back tears.

‘He was in very good health. He didn’t smoke, he drank alcohol once in a while but only socially. He worked out, we had kayaks, he was a deep sea fisherman.

‘They tested him for everything you can imagine afterwards, even cancer, and there was absolutely nothing else wrong with him.’

Pfizer told DailyMail.com Wednesday that it was aware of Dr. Michael's ‘highly unusual’ death and was investigating further.

However a spokesman cautioned: ‘We don’t believe at this time that there is any direct connection to the vaccine.’

Heidi Neckelmann says obstetrician Gregory Michael, 58, was completely healthy until he had the jab on December 18 at Mount Sinai Medical Center, where he works in Miami Beach

The mother-of-one said: 'In my mind his death was 100 percent linked to the vaccine. There is no other explanation.'  Pictured: Dr. Michael with his wife Heidi and daughter 

If his death is linked directly to the vaccine, Dr. Michael would be the first known case in the world of a person dying after having it. A spokesman for Pfizer told DailyMail.com the firm was looking into his death but they did not believe it had any link to the vaccine 

Dad-of-one Gregory suffered no immediate reaction to the injection but three days later he was taking a shower and noticed petechiae - spots of red that indicate bleeding beneath the skin - on his feet and hands.

When he checked himself into Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach, the hospital where he works and had the groundbreaking vaccine, medics discovered he was suffering from an acute lack of platelets.

‘All the blood results came back normal except for the platelets which came back as zero,’ Heidi said.

‘At first they thought it must be a mistake. So they did the test again and this time did a manual count which is supposed to be more accurate. This time it showed just one platelet.

‘He felt 100 percent, he was normal, energetic, happy. But they said you cannot go home, this is incredibly dangerous, you could suffer a brain bleed and die.’

Normally doctors would expect a range of between 150,000 to 450,000 platelets per microliter of blood.

Their primary function is to help the blood clot and prevent bleeding.

Heidi says doctors tried frantically to reverse what they diagnosed as an acute immune disorder known as ITP - idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura.

In people with ITP, also known as severe thrombocytopenia, the immune system mistakes platelets for foreign objects and instructs the spleen to destroy them.

It can be acute or chronic, lasting six months or more, striking on its own or in conjunction with other autoimmune conditions, certain cancers or during pregnancy.

Kids can get ITP after a viral infection such as the flu or mumps, while in adults, triggers can include HIV, hepatitis or H. pylori, a type of bacteria that causes stomach ulcers.

Gregory’s wife insists, however, that had he none of these illnesses.

One solution to ITP is to remove the spleen but Heidi says he wasn’t a candidate because his blood wasn’t able to clot, making the operation too dangerous.

According to a harrowing account posted on his wife's Facebook, blood tests revealed the popular medic has a platelet count of zero

Neckelmann did not disclose any allergies or pre-existing conditions which may have contributed to her husband's death

After two weeks of infusions and experimental treatments that failed to raise Gregory’s platelet count, doctors decided they had no choice.

However he died from a hemorrhagic stroke - when blood from an artery bleeds into the brain - before he could undergo the surgery.

‘They gave him medicine. They gave him an incredible amount of platelet infusions, I’m told all the platelets in Miami Dade County,’ Heidi said.

‘But no matter what they did, nothing helped. The blood tests came back with zero platelets every time.

‘My husband had conversations with the doctors who said it was highly probable that the vaccine was the cause.

‘It seems possible to me that somehow it instructed his body to attack the wrong thing, the platelets.’

If Gregory’s fatal condition is traced directly back to the groundbreaking Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine, it would be the first known death linked to it.

The jab was heralded as an extraordinary breakthrough in the fight against Covid-19 after it was analyzed by global health bodies in record time and cleared for use in the US one week before Gregory had it.

Instead of a live virus, it uses mRNA, or messenger RNA, which is essentially a set of instructions which tells cells how to produce a spike protein, the same protein which is found on the surface of the coronavirus.

This triggers the immune system to make antibodies against the spike protein so that if the real coronavirus enters the body it can be recognized and destroyed.

‘My husband had a few questions but he’s certainly not anti-vaccine,’ Heidi said. ‘He wanted to protect his patients and his family from Covid. He believed it would be safe.’

She met her husband 28 years ago when they were neighbors and he was in pre-med, about to embark on a successful career as an obstetrician.

Heidi was so smitten she immediately told friends ‘this is the man I’m going to marry.’

‘That’s exactly what happened, we fell in love, we were married for 21 years,’ she recalled, fighting back tears.

‘It was exactly as you see it in the movies, only that doesn’t normally happen in real life. I’m not just saying this because he is dead, but it was the perfect marriage. I cannot think of a time that we fought.

‘He was adored and loved by his patients. He delivered hundreds of healthy, beautiful babies. You have no idea how many texts I have received and the number of people calling me crying. He was just a special soul.’

Heidi said the couple’s 15-year-old daughter is struggling to comprehend that her doting father is gone.

‘They were both musicians. They would play the guitar together. They had the greatest connection ever,’ she added.

‘There is no way I am letting my daughter or anyone else in my family have the vaccine now, not until we know they have ironed out all the bugs and ensured that it’s safe.

‘I don’t want people to get sick from Covid and I’m not against vaccines but we need to slow things down.

‘They are giving this vaccine to some of the most important people, the doctors and nurses that take care of us, as well as the elderly, the most vulnerable.

‘As a doctor my husband would not have wanted anyone to take something that was not safe.’

Pfizer’s jab was licensed on December 11 for anyone aged 16 or older.

The FDA website warns of possible side effects lasting several days, including pain at the injection site, tiredness, headache, muscle pain, chills, joint pain, and fever.

Pfizer’s jab and another from Moderna are the only vaccines cleared for use in US and so far roughly 4.8 million doses have been administered.

Heidi said the couple's 15-year-old daughter is struggling to comprehend that her doting father is gone. 'They were both musicians. They would play the guitar together. They had the greatest connection ever,' she added. 'There is no way I am letting my daughter or anyone else in my family have the vaccine now, not until we know they have ironed out all the bugs and ensured that it's safe

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that, to date, only 21 people have suffered severe allergic reactions.

All of those patients are said to have recovered, thanks largely to emergency injections of epinephrine, often given via an EpiPen.

‘Right now, the known and potential benefits of the current Covid-19 vaccines outweigh the known and potential risks of getting Covid-19,’ Dr. Nancy Messonnier, head of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, told reporters Wednesday.

A spokesman for Pfizer said the company’s immediate thoughts were with the bereaved family.

‘Pfizer and BioNTech are aware of the death of a healthcare professional sixteen days after receiving a first dose of BNT162b2,’ the spokesman said.

‘It is a highly unusual clinical case of severe thrombocytopenia, a condition that decreases the body’s ability to clot blood and stop internal bleeding.

When Dr. Michael checked himself into Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach, the hospital where he works and had the groundbreaking vaccine, medics discovered he was suffering from an acute lack of platelets

‘We are actively investigating this case, but we don’t believe at this time that there is any direct connection to the vaccine.

‘There have been no related safety signals identified in our clinical trials, the post-marketing experience thus far or with the mRNA vaccine platform.

‘To date, millions of people have been vaccinated and we are closely monitoring all adverse events in individuals receiving our vaccine.

‘It is important to note that serious adverse events, including deaths that are unrelated to the vaccine are unfortunately likely to occur at a similar rate as they would in the general population.’

A spokeswoman for Mount Sinai Medical Center said it was not possible to discuss individual patients.

‘Mount Sinai follows all protocols, guidelines and regulations from all governing agencies and strictly adheres to patient privacy laws and HIPAA guidelines. We cannot confirm or deny information about any patient,’ she said in a statement.

‘To the extent that we are aware of an incident involving any patient, the appropriate agencies are contacted immediately and have our full cooperation. 

SOURCE ARTICLE

Aktualisiert: vor 13 Stunden

By YANNI GU | November 22, 2020  

COURTESY OF GENEVIEVE BRIAND

After retrieving data on the CDC website, Briand compiled a graph representing percentages of total deaths per age category from early February to early September.

According to new data, the U.S. currently ranks first in total COVID-19 cases, new cases per day and deaths. Genevieve Briand, assistant program director of the Applied Economics master’s degree program at Hopkins, critically analyzed the effect of COVID-19 on U.S. deaths using data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in her webinar titled “COVID-19 Deaths: A Look at U.S. Data.”

From mid-March to mid-September, U.S. total deaths have reached 1.7 million, of which 200,000, or 12% of total deaths, are COVID-19-related. Instead of looking directly at COVID-19 deaths, Briand focused on total deaths per age group and per cause of death in the U.S. and used this information to shed light on the effects of COVID-19.

She explained that the significance of COVID-19 on U.S. deaths can be fully understood only through comparison to the number of total deaths in the United States. 

After retrieving data on the CDC website, Briand compiled a graph representing percentages of total deaths per age category from early February to early September, which includes the period from before COVID-19 was detected in the U.S. to after infection rates soared. 

Surprisingly, the deaths of older people stayed the same before and after COVID-19. Since COVID-19 mainly affects the elderly, experts expected an increase in the percentage of deaths in older age groups. However, this increase is not seen from the CDC data. In fact, the percentages of deaths among all age groups remain relatively the same. 

“The reason we have a higher number of reported COVID-19 deaths among older individuals than younger individuals is simply because every day in the U.S. older individuals die in higher numbers than younger individuals,” Briand said.

Briand also noted that 50,000 to 70,000 deaths are seen both before and after COVID-19, indicating that this number of deaths was normal long before COVID-19 emerged. Therefore, according to Briand, not only has COVID-19 had no effect on the percentage of deaths of older people, but it has also not increased the total number of deaths. 

These data analyses suggest that in contrast to most people’s assumptions, the number of deaths by COVID-19 is not alarming. In fact, it has relatively no effect on deaths in the United States.

This comes as a shock to many people. How is it that the data lie so far from our perception? 

To answer that question, Briand shifted her focus to the deaths per causes ranging from 2014 to 2020. There is a sudden increase in deaths in 2020 due to COVID-19. This is no surprise because COVID-19 emerged in the U.S. in early 2020, and thus COVID-19-related deaths increased drastically afterward.

Analysis of deaths per cause in 2018 revealed that the pattern of seasonal increase in the total number of deaths is a result of the rise in deaths by all causes, with the top three being heart disease, respiratory diseases, influenza and pneumonia.

“This is true every year. Every year in the U.S. when we observe the seasonal ups and downs, we have an increase of deaths due to all causes,” Briand pointed out.

When Briand looked at the 2020 data during that seasonal period, COVID-19-related deaths exceeded deaths from heart diseases. This was highly unusual since heart disease has always prevailed as the leading cause of deaths. However, when taking a closer look at the death numbers, she noted something strange. As Briand compared the number of deaths per cause during that period in 2020 to 2018, she noticed that instead of the expected drastic increase across all causes, there was a significant decrease in deaths due to heart disease. Even more surprising, as seen in the graph below, this sudden decline in deaths is observed for all other causes. 

COURTESY OF GENEVIEVE BRIAND 

Graph depicts the number of deaths per cause during that period in 2020 to 2018.

This trend is completely contrary to the pattern observed in all previous years. Interestingly, as depicted in the table below, the total decrease in deaths by other causes almost exactly equals the increase in deaths by COVID-19. This suggests, according to Briand, that the COVID-19 death toll is misleading. Briand believes that deaths due to heart diseases, respiratory diseases, influenza and pneumonia may instead be recategorized as being due to COVID-19. 

COURTESY OF GENEVIEVE BRIAND  

Graph depicts the total decrease in deaths by various causes, including COVID-19.  

The CDC classified all deaths that are related to COVID-19 simply as COVID-19 deaths. Even patients dying from other underlying diseases but are infected with COVID-19 count as COVID-19 deaths. This is likely the main explanation as to why COVID-19 deaths drastically increased while deaths by all other diseases experienced a significant decrease.

“All of this points to no evidence that COVID-19 created any excess deaths. Total death numbers are not above normal death numbers. We found no evidence to the contrary,” Briand concluded.

In an interview with The News-Letter, Briand addressed the question of whether COVID-19 deaths can be called misleading since the infection might have exacerbated and even led to deaths by other underlying diseases.

“If [the COVID-19 death toll] was not misleading at all, what we should have observed is an increased number of heart attacks and increased COVID-19 numbers. But a decreased number of heart attacks and all the other death causes doesn’t give us a choice but to point to some misclassification,” Briand replied.

In other words, the effect of COVID-19 on deaths in the U.S. is considered problematic only when it increases the total number of deaths or the true death burden by a significant amount in addition to the expected deaths by other causes. Since the crude number of total deaths by all causes before and after COVID-19 has stayed the same, one can hardly say, in Briand’s view, that COVID-19 deaths are concerning.

Briand also mentioned that more research and data are needed to truly decipher the effect of COVID-19 on deaths in the United States.

Throughout the talk, Briand constantly emphasized that although COVID-19 is a serious national and global problem, she also stressed that society should never lose focus of the bigger picture — death in general. 

The death of a loved one, from COVID-19 or from other causes, is always tragic, Briand explained. Each life is equally important and we should be reminded that even during a global pandemic we should not forget about the tragic loss of lives from other causes.

According to Briand, the over-exaggeration of the COVID-19 death number may be due to the constant emphasis on COVID-19-related deaths and the habitual overlooking of deaths by other natural causes in society. 

During an interview with The News-Letter after the event, Poorna Dharmasena, a master’s candidate in Applied Economics, expressed his opinion about Briand’s concluding remarks.

“At the end of the day, it’s still a deadly virus. And over-exaggeration or not, to a certain degree, is irrelevant,” Dharmasena said.

When asked whether the public should be informed about this exaggeration in death numbers, Dharmasena stated that people have a right to know the truth. However, COVID-19 should still continuously be treated as a deadly disease to safeguard the vulnerable population.

Tags: science-technology

All Rights Reserved© Copyright 2019 The Johns Hopkins News-Letter

NOTE: The same statistics are also true in Canada. No increase in normal deaths per year. Facts don't lie but sometimes the so called Experts DO. Covid 19 is the greatest Fraud and Hoax ever committed in the history of this world. You should ask yourself then. WHAT IS THE REAL MOTIVE??? And find an honest answer before they kill off a major percentage of the human population by destroying businesses, industries, food supplies and supply chains.

NOTE THAT 2018 DEATHS ARE HIGHER THAN 2020

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT WHATS REALLY HAPPENING

Please consider making a donation to WayBackMachine that has preserved this important study from deletion and censorship by those actually committing these crimes against humanity. These records will be necessary to bring them into our courtrooms and charge them for this massive attempt at world domination via Political Tyranny, Economic Slavery and a Totalitarian Police State.

PAGE 3 OF 3

13. Masks collect and colonize viruses, bacteria, and mold.

​   

In Germany, where schools are open and masks are mostly optional, the association of "Kinder f.Weltfrieden eV" commissioned a laboratory analysis to investigate the level of microbial contamination that results after a fresh mask is worn by a child for 6-8 hours in school. What they found was alarming to all those recommending we mask our children for several hours every day. The masks were found to be contaminated with 82 bacterial colonies and 4 mold colonies. Where do you think the bacteria, molds, and viruses progressively colonizing and growing on the warm moist mask-mouth interface end up?

Many of the microbes get transferred to surfaces the child (or adult) touches after they touch, fiddle, and mishandle their mask. This is one of the many reasons that masks are almost certainly INCREASING the transmission of infectious disease. More dangerously, these microbes are being inhaled and delivered deep into the lungs where respiratory disease far worse than CoVID-19 can result.

The oxygen lowering effects of masks forces the body to compensate by increasing heart rate and deepening inspirations (increasing tidal volumes). Increased tidal volumes drives the mask pathogens deep into the lungs where they can cause serious pneumonia, inflammation, and tissue damage.

Furthermore, these risks are compounded by the immune suppression (CD4+ T-cell suppression) that results from diminished arterial oxygenation. Thus, the mask-wearing child is at imminent risk for harm caused by lung infections that are far more dangerous than a CoVID-19 infection.

In fact, based on reports from my colleagues in emergency medicine, pulmonology, and infectious disease, an alarming explosion in bacterial pneumonias is being reported at ERs and urgent care centers across the country.

Evidence that supports the points above:

• Zhiqing, Liu, Chang Yongyun, Chu Wenxiang, Yan Mengning, Mao Yuanqing, Zhu Zhenan, Wu Haishan, et al. 2018. “Surgical Masks as Source of Bacterial Contamination during Operative Procedures.” Journal of Orthopaedic Translation 14 (July): 57–62.

  • This study investigated whether surgical masks (SMs) could be a potential source of bacterial shedding leading to an increased risk of surgical site infection.
  • Results: The longer the operating time the more bacterial colonization occurred. A significant increase [in bacterial counts] was noted in the 2-hour group.

• Colleen Huber, NMD, “Masks Are Neither Effective nor Safe,” PrimaryDoctor.Org, July 6, 2020. https://www.primarydoctor.org/masks-not-effect

  • “The foregoing data show that masks serve more as instruments of obstruction of normal breathing, rather than as effective barriers to pathogens. Therefore, masks should not be used by the general public, either by adults or children, and their limitations as prophylaxis against pathogens should also be considered in medical settings.”
  • Dr. Huber’s article cites 42 supporting scientific studies.

• “Dr. Jenny Harries, England's deputy chief medical officer, has warned that it was not a good idea for the public to wear face masks as the virus can get trapped in the material and causes infection when the wearer breathes in.”

  • Angela Betsaida B. Laguipo, BSN, “Reusing Masks May Increase Your Risk of Coronavirus Infection, Expert Says,” News, Medical, Life Sciences, March 15, 2020. https://www.news-medical.net/news/20200315/Reusing-masks-may-increase-your-risk-of-coronavirus-infection-expert-says.aspx
• See also, Melkorka Licea, “Mask Mouth” Is a Seriously Stinky Side Effect of Wearing Masks. New York Post, August 5, 2020. https://nypost.com/2020/08/05/mask-mouth-is-a-seriously-stinky-side-effect-of-wearing-masks/
• Consider this: Health department investigating after high number of strep throat cases reported at Shepherd schools.
  
  The Central Michigan District Health Department is investigating after more than a dozen cases of strep throat were reported within Shepherd Public Schools despite COVID-19 protocols.

14. Wearing a face mask makes the exhaled air (respiratory plumes) go into the eyes.

• Masks may capture respiratory jets and large respiratory droplets, but they cannot prevent the respiratory plumes composed of aerosolizable respiratory droplet nuclei to escape the top, bottom, and sides of the masks.
• The respiratory plume wafts into the eyes and generates an uncomfortable feeling and compulsion to touch and rub the eyes. If your hands are contaminated and you touch or rub your eyes, you are transmitting and infecting yourself through the ocular mucosa.[R]

15. Contact tracing studies show that asymptomatic carrier transmission is very rare.

• Asymptomatic carriers are not a major driver of the disease.[R]
• Therefore, one of the key reasons the public was told to wear masks, asymptomatic spreaders, should not be used as a reason for community wearing of masks.

16. Face masks and stay at home orders prevent the development of herd immunity.

• Only herd immunity can prevent pandemics; it is the only thing that ever has.
• Only herd immunity will protect the vulnerable members of society.
• Sweden’s example continues to prove this point.

17. Face masks are dangerous and contraindicated for a large number of people with pre-existing medical conditions and disabilities.

• Large percentages of the population have medical conditions that make wearing a mask dangerous. Individuals should be examined by a medical professional to ensure that mask wear will not further compromise their medical condition.

  • Children with asthma (7.5% of American children) and other respiratory disabilities are being harmed by mask mandates, they are being discriminated against by businesses, schools, and public spaces that require masks.
  • Children with autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders are extremely prone to agitation and severe anxiety that results from the adverse effects, e.g., oxygen lowering effects, of masks.
  • An ever increasing number of children and young adults with autism are sensitive to touch and texture.[R] Covering the nose and mouth with fabric can cause sensory overload, feelings of panic, and extreme anxiety.
• If a person with a disability is not able to wear a face mask, state and local government agencies and private businesses must consider reasonable modifications to a face mask policy so that the person with the disability can participate in, or benefit from, the programs offered or goods and services that are provided. A reasonable modification means changing policies, practices, and procedures, if needed, to provide goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, or accommodations to an individual with a disability.
• Examples of a person with a disability who might not be able to wear a face mask include individuals with asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), or other respiratory disabilities may not be able to wear a face mask because of difficulty in or impaired breathing. People with respiratory disabilities should consult their own medical professional for advice about using face masks.
• The CDC also states that anyone who has trouble breathing should not wear a face mask.[R]
• People with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), severe anxiety, or claustrophobia (an abnormal fear of being in enclosed or narrow places), may feel afraid or terrified when wearing a face mask. These individuals may not be able to stay calm or function when wearing a face mask.
• A person who has cerebral palsy may have difficulty moving the small muscles in the hands, wrists, or fingers. Due to their limited mobility, they may not be able to tie the strings or put the elastic loops of a face mask over the ears. This means that the individual may not be able to put on or remove a face mask without assistance.
• A person who uses mouth control devices such as a sip and puff to operate a wheelchair or assistive technology, or uses their mouth or tongue to use assistive ventilators will be unable to wear a mask.

Masking School Children is Ineffective, Unnecessary, and Harmful

Face masks are not only ineffective, they are more dangerous than parents are being told. Scientific study after scientific study over the course of many years have concluded that wearing face masks for extended periods of time puts the wearer, especially children, in imminent risk of physical and psychological harms.

If the previous section (“Masks are Harmful”) did not serve to make you question much of what you have heard about the risks of medical masks, let us now examine what the science and experts say about masking children.

Mandatory masks in school are a ‘major threat’ to children’s development, doctors warn

Wednesday, 09 September 2020

The face mask requirement at school is bad for children’s general well-being and should be abolished, 70 doctors wrote in an open letter to Flemish Education Minister Ben Weyts.

The doctors want [Flemish Education Minister] Weyts to immediately reverse his approach: no face mask requirement at school, only protect the at-risk group and only advise people with a possible risk profile to consult their doctor.

“In recent months, the general well-being of children and young people has come under severe pressure,” the letter’s authors said. “We see in our practices an increasing number of children and young people with complaints due to the rules of conduct that have been imposed on them.”

The doctors mentioned anxiety and sleep problems as well as behavioural disorders and germaphobia, which is a pathological fear of germs. They are also seeing an increase in domestic violence, isolation and deprivation.

“Mandatory face masks in schools are a major threat to their development. It ignores the essential needs of the growing child. The well-being of children and young people is highly dependent on emotional attachment to others,” they wrote.

According to them, “the face mask requirement makes school a threatening and unsafe environment, where emotional closeness becomes difficult.”

Moreover, “there is no large-scale evidence that wearing face masks in a non-professional environment has any positive effect on the spread of viruses, let alone on general health. Nor is there any legal basis for implementing this requirement.”

“Meanwhile, it is clear that healthy children living through Covid-19 heal without complications as standard and that they subsequently contribute to the protection of their fellow human beings by increasing group immunity”.

“The only sensible measure to prevent serious illness and mortality caused by Covid-19 is to isolate individual teachers and individual children at increased risk,” they said.

“This risk assessment is not the task of the Ministry of Education,” the doctors underlined, “but the task of the treating physicians in consultation with their patients.”

- From The Brussels Times

The Great Barrington Declaration

A letter authored by 3 top epidemiologists and professors on October 4 th, 2020, has, as of 6:00 pm, October 9th, 2020, been signed by 4,051 Medical & Public Health Scientists and 7,247 Medical Practitioners. This is a portion of their consensus declaration:

"As infectious disease epidemiologists and public health scientists we have grave concerns about the damaging physical and mental health impacts of the prevailing COVID-19 policies, and recommend an approach we call Focused Protection.”

Thus, "The most compassionate approach that balances the risks and benefits of reaching herd immunity, is to allow those who are at minimal risk of death to live their lives normally to build up immunity to the virus through natural infection, while better protecting those who are at highest risk. We call this Focused Protection."

Read the letter in full: https://gbdeclaration.org/

Forcing Children to Wear Face Masks is Unnecessary

Forcing children to wear face masks in school is ineffective, harmful, and unnecessary. The risk of CoVID-19 in children is so low (see, “Masks are Unnecessary” above) that any imagined benefits cannot possibly outweigh the risks. Based on CDC data, the risk of children between the ages of zero and 19 years of age dying from CoVID-19 is an incredibly low risk of 0.00195%. This rate is much lower than the risk of children dying from influenza.

In fact, there is a large and growing body of physicians, pediatricians, scientists, epidemiologists, and researchers around the world that are speaking out against the anti-scientific public health recommendations that have been forced upon the public and our children.[R] Those of us that have read the science have concluded that it is senseless and dangerous to force children to wear face masks in school:

• See e.g., Michelle Science MD, MSc, FRCPC, et. al., COVID-19: Guidance for School Reopening, Division of Infectious Diseases, The Hospital for Sick Children (“Sick Kids”), University of Toronto, Canada. https://www.sickkids.ca/PDFs/About-SickKids/81407-COVID19-Recommendations-for-School Reopening-SickKids.pdf

  • The use of [Non-Medical Masks (“NMMs”)] in the school setting should be driven by local epidemiology with age-specific considerations.
  • When transmission in the community is low, the use of NMMs throughout the entire school day should not be mandatory for elementary, middle or high school students returning to school.
  • Safe masking practices (e.g. proper wearing/storage/removal) should be reinforced with educational materials provided to parents, students and teachers.
  • Given the current epidemiology, the use of NMMs is not recommended for elementary school students.

• A Covid-19 cross-country study by the University of East Anglia in England found that a mask requirement was of no benefit and could even increase the risk of infection.

  • Hunter, et al., Impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions against COVID- 9 in Europe: a quasi-experimental study, May 6, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.05.01.20088260
  • “We found that closure of education facilities, prohibiting mass gatherings and closure of some non-essential businesses were associated with reduced incidence whereas stay at home orders, closure of all non-businesses and requiring the wearing of face masks or coverings in public was not associated with any independent additional impact.”

Forcing Children to Wear Face Masks for Long Periods Risks Causing Them Physical Injuries.

The topic of the physical harms caused by masks was covered previously, but it is worth repeating a few of the key points:

Wearing a mask for more than a few minutes causes a significant reduction in a person’s blood oxygen level.

• See A. Beder, et al., Preliminary report on surgical mask induced deoxygenation during major surgery, Neurocirugía (2008). http://scielo.isciii.es/pdf/neuro/v19n2/3.pdf
• Transcranial Ultrasound Doppler (TCUD) studies on masked and unmasked individuals demonstrate the changes in blood flow in the brain the result from the arterial CO2 elevation that occurs within seconds of donning a mask.
  
  This video demonstrates the use of TCUD and heart rate variability to measure the adverse effects of masking a healthy nine year old child: https://bit.ly/2GGQWiZ

Wearing masks for extended periods increased incidences of headaches and negatively affected work performance.

• See Jonathan J.Y. Ong, et al., Headaches Associated With Personal Protective Equipment – A Cross‐Sectional Study Among Frontline Healthcare Workers During COVID‐19, Headache, the Journal of Head and Face Pain (May 2020). https://headachejournal.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/head.13811

Most children wear cloth masks.

• See Brittany Dionne, How hard is it to find a medical grade face mask?, WBRC News, April 18, 2020. https://www.wbrc.com/2020/04/18/how-hard-is-it-find-medical-grade-face-mask/

But wearing a cloth mask may increase the risk of contracting Covid-19 and other respiratory infections.

• See MacIntyre CR, Seale H, Dung TC, et al., A cluster randomised trial of cloth masks compared with medical masks in healthcare workers, BMJ Open 2015; 5: e006577, US National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2014-006577, April 22, 2015. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4420971/pdf/bmjopen-2014-006577.pdf

  • “This study is the first [Randomly Controlled Trial] of cloth masks, and the results caution against the use of cloth masks.
  • This is an important finding to inform occupational health and safety. Moisture retention, reuse of cloth masks and poor filtration may result in increased risk of infection.”

Forcing Children to Wear Face Masks for Long Periods Risks Causing Them Mental and Psychological Injuries

Children are at risk for psychological trauma in multiple ways by being forced to wear face masks all day long at school. Doctors from around the country warn of the dangers to children of wearing face masks all day.

• See e.g., Jeffrey I. Barke, M.D., Open the schools without politics, American Thinker, June 10, 2020. https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/06/open_the_schools_without_politics.html

Mandatory face coverings on children is very harmful to the child: learning is inhibited; critical interactions among students and between student and teacher are fractured; and the face covering is counterproductive, as kids will naturally touch their faces, thereby contaminating their covering. This new normal that many are advocating may well lead to a spike in childhood behavior problems such as learning disabilities, anxiety disorders, and depression, to name a few.

• See also Kathleen M. Pike, PhD, Why a Mask is Not Just a Mask, Global Mental Health Programs, Columbia University, April 17, 2020. https://www.cugmhp.org/five-on-friday/why-a-mask-is-not-just-a-mask

Many young children burst into tears or recoil when someone wearing a mask approaches. It’s so common that some elementary schools prohibit masks at the school Halloween parade. One reason for this is that the development of facial recognition is relatively weak in young children. According to University of Toronto psychologist, Dr. Kang Lee, it is not until kids are about 14 years old that they reach adult skill levels in recognizing faces. Before then, kids tend to see individual facial features, rather than recognizing the person as a whole. By putting on masks, we take away information that makes it especially difficult for children to recognize others and read emotional signals, which is unsettling and disconcerting. These issues may be especially true for children with autism spectrum disorder, including Asperger’s syndrome, who tend to have particular difficulties reading non-verbal cues.

Dr. Alice Kuo, President of the Southern California chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a statement criticizing Los Angeles County school reopening guidelines that require children wear masks as “not realistic or even developmentally appropriate for children.” She explained that, “wearing masks throughout the day can hinder language and socio-emotional development, particularly for younger children.”

• Local Pediatricians Urge Collaborative Decision-Making About Reopening Schools, Southern California chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, June 2, 2020. http://aapca2.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/AAP-CA2-press-release-on-schools-re-opening 6-2-20-Rev.pdf

Some of the serious psychological harms to children caused by extended mask wearing are tied to lack of facial and emotional recognition.

• See Christiane Bormann-Kischkel, Face Recognition in Children, Eur Arch Psychiatr Neurol Sci (1986) 236: 17-20. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00641052

The use of salient visual speech cues is hidden by masks making learning difficult for young children.

• Kaylah Lalondea and Rachael Frush Holta, Preschoolers Benefit From Visually Salient Speech Cues, Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, Vol. 58, 135–150, February 2015. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4712850/pdf/JSLHR-58-135.pdf
• see also Martin Wegrzyn , et al., Mapping the emotional face. How individual face parts contribute to successful emotion recognition, PLoS ONE 12(5): e0177239, May 11, 2017. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0177239
• Lawrence Brancazio et al., Use of visual information in speech perception: Evidence for a visual rate effect both with and without a McGurk effect, Perception & Psychophysics 2005, 67 (5), 759-769. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16334050/
• Mustapha Skhiri, Visual Cues in Speech Perception, Department of Computer and Information Science, Linköping University, GSLT, LiTH 20001/3/02. http://www.speech.kth.se/~rolf/gslt_papers/MustaphaSkiri.pdf

Voices of teachers and other students muffled through face masks makes learning more difficult, especially for any child with a diagnosed or undiagnosed hearing impairment.

• See Amanda B. Silberer, PhD, et al., Importance of High Frequency Audibility on Speech Recognition With and Without Visual Cues in Listeners with Normal Hearing, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders The University of Iowa, March 2014. https://haar.lab.uiowa.edu/sites/haar.lab.uiowa.edu/files/wysiwyg_uploads/silberer_bentler_wu_aas _2014.pdf

The Center for Disease Control (“CDC”) has made clear that “Schools are an important part of the infrastructure of communities and play a critical role in supporting the whole child, not just their academic achievement.”

• See Preparing K-12 School Administrators for a Safe Return to School in Fall 2020. Guidance from the CDC to school Districts. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/schools-childcare/prepare-safe return.html
• Nowhere in the guidance provided to local schools by the CDC is any information about compelling students to wear face masks. In fact, the CDC acknowledges that “[m]ore research and evaluation is needed on the implementation of mitigation strategies (e.g., social distancing, masks, hand hygiene, and use of cohorting) used in schools to determine which strategies are the most effective.” Id. at 5.

The lack of any such recommendation is understandable given that the great weight of scientific evidence shows unmistakably that wearing face masks for extended periods is harmful to people’s health, safety and emotional well-being, especially to young children.

◄SOURCE ARTICLE►

PAGE 2 OF 3

The Evidence FOR Masks

The best evidence for masks was commissioned by the WHO and published in the Lancet in June 2020. The title, “Physical Distancing, Face Masks, and Eye Protection to Prevent Person-to-Person Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis,” sounds like high-level scientific evidence. After all, systemic reviews and meta-analyses are typically considered the epitome of evidence based medicine. However, don’t be deceived by the authors’ deceptive attempts to elevate the relevancy of this study. This systemic review/meta-analysis was entirely comprised of low-level observational studies. No high-level randomized controlled trials were included.

No matter how much the authors attempt to deceive or embellish the study’s relevance with its “dressed up” title, the fact remains, this study still amounts to nothing more than a steaming pile of weak evidence. No matter how much the authors and the WHO want this study to represent high-level evidence for masking world populations, it simply cannot be considered to be more than the sum of its low level parts.

Furthermore, the study is seriously flawed with serious misrepresentations and misinterpretations of the data. The flaws, errors, and mistakes in this analysis of 29 observational studies should lead to its retraction from the Lancet. The flaws are buried in the data tables, therefore, it is missed by those that do little more than read titles and conclusions. Which is exactly why studies like this should be subjected to thorough and independent peer-review before publication.

Scientists all over the world are raising concerns and speaking against the study and demanding its retraction. For example, University of Toronto epidemiology professor Peter Jueni called the WHO study “methodologically flawed” and “essentially useless”.

Garbage-in-garbage out: the June 2020 WHO commissioned study of masks published in The Lancet.

• Source: Chu, Derek K., Elie A. Akl, Stephanie Duda, Karla Solo, Sally Yaacoub, Holger J. Schünemann, and COVID-19 Systematic Urgent Review Group Effort (SURGE) study authors. 2020. “Physical Distancing, Face Masks, and Eye Protection to Prevent Person-to-Person Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.” The Lancet 395 (10242): 1973–87.

Summary: the WHO-commissioned meta-study on the effectiveness of facemasks and social distancing, published in The Lancet, is seriously flawed and should be retracted.

This study is nothing more than a seriously flawed meta-analysis of 29 weak observational studies. None of the trials were randomized controlled trials. No matter how thoroughly you sift through the weak, low-level of evidence, observational studies, in the end, all you end up with is weak, easily biased, and essentially unusable evidence.

For a more comprehensive analysis of the flaws and a thorough debunking of the relevance of this study, read this: WHO Mask Study Seriously Flawed, Swiss Policy Research (Sept. 9, 2020), copied here:

Update: A US analyst has reviewed all 29 studies and found numerous additional mistakes.

A. General flaws

1. Of the 29 studies analyzed by the Lancet meta-study, seven studies are unpublished and non-peer-reviewed observational studies. Non-peer reviewed studies should not be used to guide clinical practice according to the medRxiv disclaimer. [3] [4] [31] [36] [37] [40] [70]
2. Of the 29 studies considered by the meta-study, only four are about the SARS-CoV-2 virus; the other 25 studies are about the SARS-1 virus or the MERS virus, both of which have very different transmission characteristics: they were transmitted almost exclusively by severely ill hospitalized patients and not by community transmission.
3. Of the four studies relating to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, two were misinterpreted by the Lancet meta-study authors[44] [70], one is inconclusive [37], and one is about N95 (FFP2) respirators and not about medical masks or cloth masks (see detailed analysis below).
4. Despite the weakness, misinterpretations, and inapplicability, the Lancet meta-study is used to guide global facemask policy for the general population. However, of the 29 studies considered by the meta-study, only three are classified as relating to a non-health-care (i.e. community) setting. Of these three studies, one is misclassified [50] (relating to masks in a hospital environment), one showed no benefit of facemasks [69], and one is a poorly designed retrospective study about SARS-1 in Beijing based on telephone interviews [74]. None of these studies pertained to SARS-CoV-2.
5. The authors of the Lancet meta-study acknowledge that the certainty of the evidence regarding facemasks is “low” as all of the studies are observational and none is a randomized controlled trial (RCT).
6. The WHO itself admitted that its updated facemask policy guidelines were based not on new evidence but on “political lobbying”.

B. Study misinterpretations

As mentioned above, several studies have been misinterpreted by the authors of the meta-study. All of the misinterpretations resulted in falsely claiming or exaggerating a benefit of facemasks. In the following, only the four studies relating to SARS-CoV-2 are reviewed. (HCW: health care worker)

1. Heinzerling et al. [44]: The meta-study claims that 0 of 31 HCW wearing a facemask and 3 of 6 HCW not wearing a facemask got infected. This is not correct.
   
   The study showed that 0 of 3 HCW wearing a facemask and 3 of 34 HCW not wearing a facemask got infected. This result was not statistically significant (p=0.73). Moreover, of the 3 HCW who got infected, one reported wearing a facemask “most of the time”, but the meta-study classified this HCW as “not wearing a facemask”.
2. Wang et al. [41]: This study, which did show a benefit of facemasks, was about N95 (FFP2) respirators in a health-care setting, not about medical masks or cloth masks.
3. Wang et al. [70]: The meta-study claims that 1 of 1286 HCW wearing a facemask and 119 of 4036 wearing “no facemask” got infected. This is not correct.
   
   According to the study, 78.3% (94/120) of infected HCWs were in fact wearing a surgical mask, and only 20.8% (25/120) did not wear any mask when exposed to the source of infection. The “1 of 1286 HCW” mentioned in the meta-study refers to HCW wearing an N95 (FFP2) respirator, not a medical or cloth mask.
4. Burke et al. [37]: This study had no results relating to the use of facemasks.

Non-Covid studies were also misinterpreted or misrepresented by the Lancet meta-study authors. For instance, in the case of the non-Covid study with the allegedly biggest impact of masks (Kim et al. [49] about N95 respirators in a hospital with MERS patients), the meta-study authors incorrectly mixed serological and PCR results, again exaggerating the benefit of (N95) masks. The actual results of the Kim et al. study were not statistically significant (p=0.159).

C. Studies relating to “social distancing”

In an additional section, the WHO meta-study evaluated studies on the benefit of “social distancing” measures. However, several independent experts have shown that this section is seriously flawed. The authors again misinterpreted several studies and made several statistical errors.

As with the studies on facemasks, all of these mistakes resulted in falsely claiming or exaggerating a benefit of “social distancing” measures.

For more information on this section, see PubPeer (and links therein) and the CEBM review.

Conclusion

As shown in this analysis, the WHO-commissioned meta-study on the effectiveness of facemasks and social distancing, published in The Lancet, is seriously flawed and should be retracted. Health authorities may want to reconsider their Covid-19 policy guidelines.

Community Use Of Face Masks And COVID-19: Evidence From A Natural Experiment Of State Mandates In The US

https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/10.1377/hlthaff.2020.00818

• Wei Lyu and George L. Wehby

Limitations of the Studies Typically Used to Support Masks

• They are all low-level evidence, retrospective observational studies. At the time of my analysis and writing of this paper, none of the studies purporting to support community wearing of masks used high-level randomized clinical trial methodology.
• Cannot distinguish correlation from causation.

• Does not measure face cover use in the community or any measure of compliance.

  • Estimates represent the intent-to-treat effects of these mandates, not the individual-level effect of wearing a face mask in public on one’s own COVID-19 risk.
• Did not measure types of masks worn.
• Did not assess adverse effects of masks.

• Did not control for other community-wide and hospital-specific interventions that may have contributed to or confounded their observations, including:

  • Declarations of emergency (March 10),
  • New hospital policies to restrict visitors (March 12) and elective procedures (March 14),
  • School closures
  • Hospital restrictions on business travel and on-site working (March 16),
  • Local public transportation reductions (March 17),
  • Issuance of statewide stay-at-home orders (March 24), and
  • Automation of screening and testing (March 30).

Masks are Unnecessary

Fear and Politics are Subverting Science and Reason

Public health officials and the media have been warning us that coronavirus kills not just old or immunocompromised people but young people too. While this is true, it remains extremely rare.

A Pandemic of Fraud and Fear is More Dangerous than the COVID-19 Pandemic

Death rate data from the CDC: COVID-19 Pandemic Planning Scenarios

Table 1. Parameter Values that vary among the five COVID-19 Pandemic Planning Scenarios.

Parameters:

• Scenario 5: Current Best Estimate, R0 = 2.5, 40% asymptomatic
• For a definition of R0, see HealthKnowlege-UK (2020): R0 is “the average number of secondary infections produced by a typical case of an infection in a population where everyone is susceptible.” The average R0 for influenza is said to be 1.28 (1.19–1.37); see the comprehensive review by Biggerstaff et al. (2014).
• According to the CDC's latest best estimate, 40% of COVID-19 infections are asymptomatic.
• Parameter values are based on data received by CDC through August 8, 2020.
• These estimates are based on age-specific estimates of infection fatality ratios from Hauser, A., Counotte, M.J., Margossian, C.C., Konstantinoudis, G., Low, N., Althaus, C.L. and Riou, J., 2020

Masking Children in Schools is Unnecessary - So Says The Science

School and daycare transmission studies show that transmission of Covid-19 among unmasked children is remarkably low.

German study finds low Covid-19 infection rate in schools. Tests of pupils and teachers in Saxony suggest children may act as brake on infection.

The study by the University hospital in Dresden analysed blood samples from almost 1,500 children and 500 teachers from 13 schools in Saxony, Germany suggests schools may not play as big a role in spreading the virus as some had feared.

“Of the almost 2,000 samples, only 12 had antibodies,” said Reinhard Berner, a professor of paediatrics at the hospital. In other words, in Saxony’s open and unmasked schools 0.6% of school children demonstrated SARS-CoV-2 antibodies.

All cases were asymptomatic. There were no fatalities.

“Children may even act as a brake on infection,” Berner told a news conference, saying “infections in schools had not led to an outbreak, while the spread of the virus within households was also less dynamic than previously thought.”

“For other states with low infection rates, the study suggests schools could be reopened without fear of causing widespread outbreaks of the virus,” Berner said.

Sweden and Finland: 0.05% of children infected by Covid-19

Sweden kept schools open and unmasked during the pandemic, yet their decision to adhere to the science and do what has always been done before, did not lead to a higher rate of infection among their children compared to neighboring Finland, where schools were closed temporarily.

Based on Covid-19 case data collected from each country during the time period, Feb. 24 to June 14, the percentage of children between the ages of 1-19 infected by Covid-19 was the same:

• Sweden: 1,124 cases 0.05%
• Finland: 584 cases 0.05%

Separate studies by Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet (KI), an independent medical research institute, and the European Network of Ombudspersons for Children and Unicef, showed that Swedish children fared better than children in other countries during the pandemic, both in terms of education and mental health.

COVID-19 transmission rate 0.3% among children in schools and nurseries in New South Wales, Australia

The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health: Effective testing and contact tracing is essential for schools to safely open during COVID-19 pandemic, two studies show. The Lancet; August 3, 2020. https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-08/tl-pss080320.php

Real world data from schools where masks were not required or worn demonstrates a remarkably low rate of transmission of SARS-CoV-2. Analysis of COVID-19 case data from 3103 schools and approximately 4600 nurseries in New South Wales demonstrate that schools and nurseries do not pose a high risk for COVID-19 transmission.

Subset analysis found that only 27 children or teachers went to school while they were infectious, with an additional 18 people later becoming infected. Out of 1448 contacts in total, the rate of secondary transmission was found to be 1.2%.

A subset analysis of 7 schools and nurseries that underwent additional investigations including antibody testing, symptom surveys, and extra RT-PCR testing for the virus showed that the transmission rates among children and staff were extremely low:

• child-to-child rate was 0.3%,
• child-to-staff rate was 1.0%
• staff-to-child rate was 1.5%
• staff-to-staff rate was 4.4%.

The researchers noted that this finding suggests that children are less likely to transmit the virus than adults.

While coronavirus is obviously concerning and a very real threat to some people (namely, the elderly and immunocompromised), these data also show that the risk for the rest of the population is extraordinarily low.

Masks are Harmful: 17 Ways That Masks Can Cause Harm

As a physician and former medical journal editor, I've carefully read the scientific literature regarding the use of face masks to mitigate viral transmission. I believe the public health experts have community wearing of masks all wrong. Here are a few of the mechanisms by which medical masks can be harmful to their wearers and community wearing of face masks is a very bad idea:

Wearing masks for extended periods increased incidences of headaches and negatively affected work performance.

See Jonathan J.Y. Ong, et al., Headaches Associated With Personal Protective Equipment – A Cross‐Sectional Study Among Frontline Healthcare Workers During COVID‐19, Headache, the Journal of Head and Face Pain (May 2020). https://headachejournal.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/head.13811

1. Medical masks adversely affect respiratory physiology and function.

• Masks inhibit air flow into and out of the lungs.

  • For people with asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and many other chronic lung diseases, face masks are intolerable to wear as they worsen breathlessness.[R]

• Medical masks lower blood oxygen and raise carbon dioxide such that respiratory rate and depth of breaths are increased.[R]

  • Decreasing oxygen and increasing carbon dioxide in the bloodstream stimulates a compensatory response in the respiratory centers of the brain. These changes in blood gases result in increases in both frequency and depth of breaths.
  • As masks Increase both the frequency and depth of respirations (breaths), they increase the likelihood that each respiration will contain a larger amount of infectious viral particles. This may worsen the community transmission of CoVID-19 as infected people wearing masks exhale respiratory plumes loaded with greater levels of infectious viral particles. These infectious plumes readily move around the sides, bottom, and top of masks.
  • This may also increase the severity of CoVID-19 as the increased tidal volume delivers the viral particles deeper into the lungs.
  • These effects are amplified if face masks are contaminated with the viruses, bacteria, or fungi that find their way or opportunistically grow in the warm, moist environment that medical masks quickly become.

2. Medical masks lower oxygen levels in the blood.[R]

Wearing a mask for more than a few minutes causes a significant reduction in a person’s blood oxygen level.

• Beder, A., U. Büyükkoçak, H. Sabuncuoğlu, Z. A. Keskil, and S. Keskil. 2008. “Preliminary Report on Surgical Mask Induced Deoxygenation during Major Surgery.” Neurocirugia 19 (2): 121–26. DOI: 10.1016/s1130-1473(08)70235-5

  • This study of 53 surgeons evaluated the effect of surgical masks on oxygen saturation of hemoglobin in surgeons performing surgery.
  • The study revealed the surgeons experienced a significant decrease in the oxygen saturation of arterial pulsations (SpO2) and a slight increase in pulse rates after one hour. The decrease was more prominent in the surgeons over the age of 35.
  • Given that a small decrease in SpO2 reflects a large decrease in partial pressure of oxygen in the arterial blood (PaO2)[R], the findings of this study suggests that surgical masks worn more than one hour may lower arterial oxygen enough to induce physiologically detrimental effects.

• Here are two cases of the tragic consequences of forcing children to wear masks: Two Chinese boys drop dead while wearing face masks during physical exercise classes.[R][R]

  Two boys from two Chinese cities died of sudden cardiac arrest within a week. The first boy, 15, collapsed after jogging in PE class while wearing a face mask on April 24. The other boy, 14, reportedly died during a running exam while wearing a mask.

  Why would healthy boys drop dead while wearing masks and running in gym class?! To answer this question, we must consider how mask induced deoxygenation and increased oxygen demands of heart muscle during exercise could have precipitated heart attacks in otherwise healthy teenagers:

  • Point #1: Heart muscle needs oxygen to survive. And the harder the heart works, the more oxygen it requires. The American Heart Association says this about heart attacks:
  • "Your heart muscle needs oxygen to survive. A heart attack occurs when the blood flow that brings oxygen to the heart muscle is severely reduced or cut off completely."[R]
  • Point #2: Masks block air intake and decrease arterial oxygen.

  Studies of masked individuals have shown that mask wear decreases arterial oxygen. For example, the effects of surgical masks worn by surgeons in the operating room (an environment in which the oxygen blocking effects of masks are minimized by the high air flow, increased oxygen levels, and cool temperature of the operating suite) during major surgery showed a significant decrease in arterial oxygen.[R]

  The lesson here is that medical masks should not be worn during intense exercise. As described above and shown in the study of surgeons wearing surgical masks, medical masks block oxygen intake. Depriving the heart of oxygen while exercising, especially intense exercise, could precipitate an acute heart attack.

Any questions? Wait...there’s more...

• Jogger's lung collapses after he ran for 2.5 miles while wearing a face mask [R]

  Mr Zhang's left lung was punctured due to high pressure caused by running. The 26-year-old became breathless whiling jogging with a mask on in China. Doctors said his punctured lung was caused by jogging with a face covering. He is now in stable condition after undergoing an operation, the hospital said.

• Hypoxia increases the risk of blood clot formation.[R]
• Lowering arterial oxygen suppresses the immune system, thus increasing the susceptibility of mask wearers to infectious disease.

3. Medical masks raise carbon dioxide levels in the blood.

Although the body has robust mechanisms for mitigating transient and minor elevations of CO2 in the air we breathe, these mechanisms can easily be overwhelmed by chronic exposure to significant elevations in CO2, such as occurs with prolonged wearing of a medical mask.

• The science clearly demonstrates that face masks cause carbon dioxide rebreathing and hypercapnia [R]

  • Fletcher, S. J., M. Clark, and P. J. Stanley. 2006. “Carbon Dioxide Re-Breathing with Close Fitting Face Respirator Masks.” Anaesthesia 61 (9): 910. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1365-2044.2006.04767.x
• Exhaled air is rich in carbon dioxide, a waste product of cellular respiration.
• A portion of carbon dioxide previously exhaled is inspired (breathed) at each respiratory cycle.
• Masks trap CO2 rich respiratory exhalations at the mask-mouth interface, force re-breathing of CO2 rich exhalations, raise carbon dioxide blood (CO2) levels. [R]

• Objective evidence demonstrating how masks increase blood carbon dioxide levels and negatively impact health and function.

  • Transcranial Ultrasound Doppler (TCUD) is a noninvasive means of assessing blood flow in the cerebral vasculature. The increase in carbon dioxide partial pressures (PCO2) caused by medical masks can be assessed by TCUD.[R]
  • Elevation of PCO2 causes vasodilation of the arteriolar channels leading to a decrease in peripheral vascular resistance. The decrease in peripheral vascular resistance is responsible for the changes in cerebrovascular circulation time, CBF, and the velocity of flow (V) in cerebral arteries.

  • Medical masks force the wearer to inspire (re-breathe) air that is a mix of air from the local environment and the respiratory waste products from the mask wearer’s previous exhalations.

    • Respiratory exhalations contain significantly higher levels of carbon dioxide (CO2), one of the waste products of respiration.
    • The pulmonary system is designed to collect oxygen and remove CO2 from the body. Masks trap CO2 rich exhalations at the mask-mouth interface.
    • Changes in arterial PCO2 considerably influence cranial blood flow (CBF).[R]
  • Transcranial Ultrasound Doppler (TCUD) studies on masked and unmasked individuals demonstrate the changes in blood flow in the brain the result from the arterial CO2 elevation that occurs within seconds of donning a mask.
    
    This video demonstrates the use of TCUD and heart rate variability to measure the adverse effects of masking a healthy nine year old child: https://bit.ly/2GGQWiZ

4. SARS CoV-2 is armed with a "furin cleavage site" that makes it more pathogenic.

• The furin cleavage site makes the virus more capable of invading human cells.
• The furin cleavage site makes the virus even more capable of invading cells when arterial oxygen levels decline.[R]
• Therefore, wearing a medical mask may increase the severity of CoVID-19.

5. Medical masks trap exhaled viral (and other) pathogens in the mouth/mask interspace, increase viral/infectious load, and increase the severity of disease.

• Face masks trap exhaled viral particles in the mouth/mask interspace. The trapped viral particles are prevented from removal from the airways. The mask wearer is then forced to re-breathe the viral particles, thus increasing infectious viral particles in the airways and lungs.
• In this way, surgical masks cause self-inoculation, increase viral load, and increase the severity of disease.

• Neurosurgeon, Russell Blaylock, MD, raises additional concerns:

  “By wearing a mask, the exhaled viruses will not be able to escape and will concentrate in the nasal passages, enter the lungs, olfactory nerves, and travel into the brain.”[R]

• Face masks trap exhaled viral particles in the mouth/mask interspace.[R] The trapped viral particles are prevented from removal from the airways. The mask wearer is thus forced to re-breathe the viral particles, increasing infectious viral particles in the airways and lungs. In this way, Medical masks cause self-inoculation, increase viral load, and increase the severity of disease.

• Asymptomatic or mild cases of CoVID-19 become more severe when the infected is masked, oxygen lowers, viral load increases from particle re-breathing, and the disease overwhelms the innate immune system.

  • The main purpose of the innate immune response is to immediately prevent the spread and movement of foreign pathogens throughout the body.[R]
  • The innate immune system plays a crucial role in destroying the virus, preventing infection, or decreasing the viral load to decrease the severity of infection.
  • The innate immunity’s effectiveness is highly dependent on the viral load. If face masks increase viral particle re-breathing at the same time they create a humid habitat where SARS-CoV-2 remains actively infectious, the mask increases the viral load and can overwhelm the innate immune system.
• This trapping, re-breathing, and increasing pathogen load delivered to the lungs becomes dramatically more dangerous when the medical mask becomes contaminated with the opportunistic viruses, bacteria, and fungi that can grow in the warm, moist environment of the mask.
• “By wearing a mask, the exhaled viruses will not be able to escape and will concentrate in the nasal passages, enter the olfactory nerves and travel into the brain.” - Russell Blaylock, MD

6. SARS CoV-2 Becomes More Dangerous When Blood Oxygen Levels Decline

• Arterial oxygen desaturation is a critical issue in CoVID-19. The virus' ability to infect cells is markedly enhanced by oxygen desaturation, which has been shown to occur even in the ideal operating room environment in which surgeons operate: high air flow/exchange systems, cool temperature, and higher room oxygen levels. when wearing a surgical mask.[R]
• One of the features that make SARS CoV-2 uniquely infectious is the "furin" sequence in the virus that activates increased ACE2 receptor attack and cellular invasion in low oxygen environments.[R]

7. The furin cleavage site of SARS CoV-2 increases cellular invasion, especially during hypoxia (low blood oxygen levels)[R]

• The furin cleavage site found in SARS CoV-2 is the likely result of the bioengineering “gain of function” (which means increasing the virulence of a pathogen) research conducted at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. This unethical, dangerous, and illegal-in-most-countries research is alleged to have been funded by Dr. Anthony Fauci (with $7.4 million taxpayer dollars) and Bill Gates.
• Furin cleavage sites are found in some of the most pathogenic forms of influenza, which can be acted upon by furin and other cellular proteases. The ubiquitous expression of cellular proteases across cell types increases the potential for the virus to successfully infiltrate the host.
• Furin is a membrane-bound protease that is expressed in multiple tissues throughout the human body. Furin is expressed in significant concentrations in the lungs. Thus, viruses in the respiratory tract can make use of this enzyme to convert and activate their own surface glycoproteins. This makes their role in viral protein processing noteworthy.[R]
• Some of the most pathogenic forms of influenza and HIV have similar furin cleavage sites. It is not present in other bat beta coronaviruses. (By the way, Fauci built his career researching and failing to create a vaccine for HIV). The furin cleavage site is NOT present in SARS CoV-1 or MERS, or any of the other known "bat coronaviruses."
• Let me say it again, the SARS-CoV (aka, SARS-CoV-1), which is closely related to the newest SARS-CoV-2 strain, does not bear the furin cleavage site.

So, the question we should all be asking is how did the genetic sequence that codes for this serious gain of function that increases the potential for the virus to successfully infiltrate the host find its way into SARS-CoV-2?

That’s the trillion dollar question; it demands a real and honest answer.

8. Cloth masks may increase the risk of contracting Covid-19 and other respiratory infections.

See MacIntyre CR, Seale H, Dung TC, et al., A cluster randomised trial of cloth masks compared with medical masks in healthcare workers, BMJ Open 2015; 5: e006577, US National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2014-006577, April 22, 2015. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4420971/pdf/bmjopen-2014-006577.pdf

• “This study is the first [Randomly Controlled Trial] of cloth masks, and the results caution against the use of cloth masks.
• This is an important finding to inform occupational health and safety. Moisture retention, reuse of cloth masks and poor filtration may result in increased risk of infection.”

9. Wearing a face mask may give a false sense of security

• People adopt a reduction in compliance with other infection control measures, including social distancing and hands washing.[R]

10. Masks compromise communications and reduce social distancing

• The quality and volume of speech between two people wearing masks is considerably compromised and they may unconsciously move closer to improve communications
• This increases the likelihood of becoming exposed to the infectious viral particles in the respiratory plumes of aerosolized droplet nuclei that escape the top, bottom, and sides of the masks.

11, Untrained and inappropriate management of face masks:

• The public is untrained and inadequately educated in the proper selection of masks (most are wrongly wearing cloth masks), proper wear, sterility management, and importance of not reusing single use masks.
• People must not touch their masks, must change their single-use masks frequently or wash them regularly, dispose of them correctly and adopt other management measures, otherwise their risks and those of others may increase.[R][R]
• We can all observe the countless ways in which people in communities are mis-wearing, mishandling, and increasing their own and the communities risk of contracting infectious disease, including CoVID-19.

12. Masks Worn Imperfectly Are Dangerous

To fully appreciate the danger of improper wear and handling of face masks, all you have to do is observe how the public is managing them. Take a trip to Walmart or your local school and observe how mask wearers pull masks from their pocket or purse, drop the masks on the floor, cough and sneeze in them, move them below the nose, on their heads, or under their chin. I see it every day. I also see their soiled and stained surgical face masks and know that these people are dangerously reusing a mask that should never be reused.

You don’t need a clinical trial to determine that even when mask-wearers manage to don a fresh, sterile mask properly, keep them on for more than a few minutes at a time, they very quickly contaminate the mask, their environment, and increase their risk of infection as the mask induces them to compulsively touch their faces and their masks.

• The World Health Organization, which has repeatedly changed its position on universal masking, is adamant that if face masks are not worn carefully, correctly, and kept sanitary, they are worse than ineffective.

• In other words, masks worn imperfectly are dangerous.

  • See Linda Lacina, WHO updates guidance on masks for health workers and the public - here's what you need to know, World Economic Forum (June 5, 2020). https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/06/who-updates-guidance-on-masks-heres-what-to-know-now/

  People can infect themselves if they use contaminated hands to adjust a mask or repeatedly take it on or off,” explained WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. "I cannot say this clearly enough. Masks alone will not protect you from COVID-19."

Failing to follow strict medical standards for wearing protective equipment and specification of sterilizing and cleaning often leads to “skin and mucous membrane injury, which may cause acute and chronic dermatitis, secondary infection and aggravation of underlying skin diseases.”

• Yan, et al., Consensus of Chinese Experts on Protection of Skin and Mucous Membrane Barrier for Health-Care Workers Fighting against Coronavirus Disease 2019. Dermatologic Therapy, March 2020, e13310. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7228211/pdf/DTH-9999-e13310.pd

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Former UN staff member
Claire Edwards: "'The
CV-19 Genocide of 2020' 

Former UN staff member Claire Edwards speaks so eloquently on the paper entitled 'The CV-19 Genocide of 2020'
TRUETUBE@NewTube  newtube.app/user/TrueTube/2ocfxrR

"This is a very informative 21 minute video and I would urge everyone, whatever your beliefs, to please take the time and watch.
Please share with your friends and family.
Thank you." Paul Langley

New Nuremburg Trials Needed

SEE ALSO COVID plan for 2021? 

OPEN LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

DONALD J. TRUMP

Sunday, October 25, 2020

Solemnity of Christ the King

Mr. President,

Allow me to address you at this hour in which the fate of the whole world is being threatened by a global conspiracy against God and humanity. I write to you as an Archbishop, as a Successor of the Apostles, as the former Apostolic Nuncio to the United States of America. I am writing to you in the midst of the silence of both civil and religious authorities. May you accept these words of mine as the “voice of one crying out in the desert” (Jn 1:23).

As I said when I wrote my letter to you in June, this historical moment sees the forces of Evil aligned in a battle without quarter against the forces of Good; forces of Evil that appear powerful and organized as they oppose the children of Light, who are disoriented and disorganized, abandoned by their temporal and spiritual leaders.

Daily we sense the attacks multiplying of those who want to destroy the very basis of society: the natural family, respect for human life, love of country, freedom of education and business. We see heads of nations and religious leaders pandering to this suicide of Western culture and its Christian soul, while the fundamental rights of citizens and believers are denied in the name of a health emergency that is revealing itself more and more fully as instrumental to the establishment of an inhuman faceless tyranny

A global plan called the Great Reset is underway. Its architect is a global élite that wants to subdue all of humanity, imposing coercive measures with which to drastically limit individual freedoms and those of entire populations. In several nations this plan has already been approved and financed; in others it is still in an early stage. Behind the world leaders who are the accomplices and executors of this infernal project, there are unscrupulous characters who finance the World Economic Forum and Event 201, promoting their agenda.

The purpose of the Great Reset is the imposition of a health dictatorship aiming at the imposition of liberticidal measures, hidden behind tempting promises of ensuring a universal income and cancelling individual debt. The price of these concessions from the International Monetary Fund will be the renunciation of private property and adherence to a program of vaccination against Covid-19 and Covid-21 promoted by Bill Gates with the collaboration of the main pharmaceutical groups. Beyond the enormous economic interests that motivate the promoters of the Great Reset, the imposition of the vaccination will be accompanied by the requirement of a health passport and a digital ID, with the consequent contact tracing of the population of the entire world. Those who do not accept these measures will be confined in detention camps or placed under house arrest, and all their assets will be confiscated.  

Mr. President, I imagine that you are already aware that in some countries the Great Reset will be activated between the end of this year and the first trimester of 2021. For this purpose, further lockdowns are planned, which will be officially justified by a supposed second and third wave of the pandemic. You are well aware of the means that have been deployed to sow panic and legitimize draconian limitations on individual liberties, artfully provoking a world-wide economic crisis. In the intentions of its architects, this crisis will serve to make the recourse of nations to the Great Reset irreversible, thereby giving the final blow to a world whose existence and very memory they want to completely cancel. But this world, Mr. President, includes people, affections, institutions, faith, culture, traditions, and ideals: people and values that do not act like automatons, who do not obey like machines, because they are endowed with a soul and a heart, because they are tied together by a spiritual bond that draws its strength from above, from that God that our adversaries want to challenge, just as Lucifer did at the beginning of time with his “non serviam.”

Many people – as we well know – are annoyed by this reference to the clash between Good and Evil and the use of “apocalyptic” overtones, which according to them exasperates spirits and sharpens divisions. It is not surprising that the enemy is angered at being discovered just when he believes he has reached the citadel he seeks to conquer undisturbed. What is surprising, however, is that there is no one to sound the alarm. The reaction of the deep state to those who denounce its plan is broken and incoherent, but understandable. Just when the complicity of the mainstream media had succeeded in making the transition to the New World Order almost painless and unnoticed, all sorts of deceptions, scandals and crimes are coming to light.

Until a few months ago, it was easy to smear as “conspiracy theorists” those who denounced these terrible plans, which we now see being carried out down to the smallest detail. No one, up until last February, would ever have thought that, in all of our cities, citizens would be arrested simply for wanting to walk down the street, to breathe, to want to keep their business open, to want to go to church on Sunday. Yet now it is happening all over the world, even in picture-postcard Italy that many Americans consider to be a small enchanted country, with its ancient monuments, its churches, its charming cities, its characteristic villages. And while the politicians are barricaded inside their palaces promulgating decrees like Persian satraps, businesses are failing, shops are closing, and people are prevented from living, traveling, working, and praying. The disastrous psychological consequences of this operation are already being seen, beginning with the suicides of desperate entrepreneurs and of our children, segregated from friends and classmates, told to follow their classes while sitting at home alone in front of a computer.

In Sacred Scripture, Saint Paul speaks to us of “the one who opposes” the manifestation of the mystery of iniquity, the kathèkon (2 Thess 2:6-7). In the religious sphere, this obstacle to evil is the Church, and in particular the papacy; in the political sphere, it is those who impede the establishment of the New World Order. 

As is now clear, the one who occupies the Chair of Peter has betrayed his role from the very beginning in order to defend and promote the globalist ideology, supporting the agenda of the deep church, who chose him from its ranks.

Mr. President, you have clearly stated that you want to defend the nation – One Nation under God, fundamental liberties, and non-negotiable values that are denied and fought against today. It is you, dear President, who are “the one who opposes” the deep state, the final assault of the children of darkness.

For this reason, it is necessary that all people of good will be persuaded of the epochal importance of the imminent election: not so much for the sake of this or that political program, but because of the general inspiration of your action that best embodies – in this particular historical context – that world, our world, which they want to cancel by means of the lockdown. Your adversary is also our adversary: it is the Enemy of the human race, He who is “a murderer from the beginning” (Jn 8:44).

Around you are gathered with faith and courage those who consider you the final garrison against the world dictatorship. The alternative is to vote for a person who is manipulated by the deep state, gravely compromised by scandals and corruption, who will do to the United States what Jorge Mario Bergoglio is doing to the Church, Prime Minister Conte to Italy, President Macron to France, Prime Minster Sanchez to Spain, and so on. The blackmailable nature of Joe Biden – just like that of the prelates of the Vatican’s “magic circle” – will expose him to be used unscrupulously, allowing illegitimate powers to interfere in both domestic politics as well as international balances. It is obvious that those who manipulate him already have someone worse than him ready, with whom they will replace him as soon as the opportunity arises.

And yet, in the midst of this bleak picture, this apparently unstoppable advance of the “Invisible Enemy,” an element of hope emerges. The adversary does not know how to love, and it does not understand that it is not enough to assure a universal income or to cancel mortgages in order to subjugate the masses and convince them to be branded like cattle. This people, which for too long has endured the abuses of a hateful and tyrannical power, is rediscovering that it has a soul; it is understanding that it is not willing to exchange its freedom for the homogenization and cancellation of its identity; it is beginning to understand the value of familial and social ties, of the bonds of faith and culture that unite honest people. This Great Reset is destined to fail because those who planned it do not understand that there are still people ready to take to the streets to defend their rights, to protect their loved ones, to give a future to their children and grandchildren. The leveling inhumanity of the globalist project will shatter miserably in the face of the firm and courageous opposition of the children of Light. The enemy has Satan on its side, He who only knows how to hate. But on our side, we have the Lord Almighty, the God of armies arrayed for battle, and the Most Holy Virgin, who will crush the head of the ancient Serpent. “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Rom 8:31).

Mr. President, you are well aware that, in this crucial hour, the United States of America is considered the defending wall against which the war declared by the advocates of globalism has been unleashed. Place your trust in the Lord, strengthened by the words of the Apostle Paul: “I can do all things in Him who strengthens me” (Phil 4:13). To be an instrument of Divine Providence is a great responsibility, for which you will certainly receive all the graces of state that you need, since they are being fervently implored for you by the many people who support you with their prayers.

With this heavenly hope and the assurance of my prayer for you, for the First Lady, and for your collaborators, with all my heart I send you my blessing. 

God bless the United States of America!

+ Carlo Maria Viganò

Tit. Archbishop of Ulpiana

Former Apostolic Nuncio to the United States of America