Check your fridge and freezer: A massive meat recall linked to possible listeria contamination has impacted hundreds of ready-to-eat meals sold at major grocery store chains across the U.S., including Walmart, Trader Joe’s and Target.
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The affected products were shipped to distributors across the country and later reached restaurants and other food service providers. They appeared in a variety of items, from frozen dinners to pre-made salads.
Massive meat recall includes hundreds of products sold at Walmart, Target, more
Tag: Immunodeficiency
Tim Robbins and the Lost Art of Finding Common Ground
Video via TK News
Transcript: Tim Robbins and the Lost Art of Finding Common Ground
Just saw The Shawshank Redemption, for the billionth time, yesterday.
Pfizer’s anti-COVID pill Paxlovid shows no benefit for younger adults
Pfizer’s anti-COVID pill Paxlovid shows no benefit for younger adults
The report’s authors found that Pfizer’s antiviral medication Paxlovid offered little to no benefit for younger adults. However, it did reduce the risk of hospitalization for high-risk seniors. Notably, supplementary material from the original study of Paxlovid in high-risk non-hospitalized adults with COVID-19 during the Delta wave had demonstrated benefits in those younger than 65, albeit the difference compared to the placebo was much less than in those 65 and older.
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Among those over 65, there was a 73 percent decrease in the hospitalization rate and a 79 percent reduction in the risk of death. However, patients between the ages of 40 and 65 saw no benefit in taking the antiviral medication in either category, regardless of previous immunity status.
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Another critical study from Hong Kong published in Lancet Infectious Diseases on the same day as the Israeli study but which went unmentioned in the press offered further evidence of Paxlovid’s limited therapeutic role. The authors reviewed their clinical experience with Paxlovid and Lagevrio, Merck’s antiviral pill, Molnupiravir, in hospitalized patients. They compared them to hospitalized patients who did not receive those medications during the horrific wave of infections that slammed into the semi-autonomous region in February and March.
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The mortality risk reduction for Lagevrio was 52 percent, and for Paxlovid it was 66 percent. Those receiving antivirals had a lower risk of their disease progressing, but the drugs did not significantly impact their need for mechanical ventilation or ICU admission. The patients in the study averaged in age from mid-70s to early 80s.
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Given the results of these studies, it bears mentioning that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has recently estimated that approximately 95 percent of Americans aged 16 and older have some level of immunity against COVID-19.
Biden administration weighs declaring monkeypox a health emergency + Break Out the Condoms to Fight Monkeypox
Biden administration weighs declaring monkeypox a health emergency
Related:
Doctors treating monkeypox complain of ‘daunting’ paperwork, obstacles
D.C. shifts monkeypox vaccine policy to focus on first dose
Break Out the Condoms to Fight Monkeypox (archived if you can read behind the advertisements)*
But we should also remember that we have never vaccinated our way out of any pandemic. In the West, measles, scarlet fever, and other childhood diseases stopped killing kids decades before vaccines—our preferred tool of mass salvation—arrived in the late 1950s. Smallpox was similarly largely controlled by the turn of the 20th century through public health measures.
We need to stop subordinating people to the virus. A single approach of surveillance, isolation, contact tracing, and vaccination worked very well for smallpox, which relied exclusively on a human host, could be diagnosed at 10 paces, and was prevented with a single vaccination. But even that approach relied not only on tests and vaccines but also, most of all, on trust—to be tested and vaccinated. Candor is a prerequisite for trust.
*Just a little deception behind the headline. Still touting vaccines (Jynneos), as a solution, though! Just use condoms, for prevention, and prescribe antivirals (TPOXX), for treatment, if needed!
Irony – The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation partly funded a study about COVID-19 booster shots for the BA.5 Omicron subvariant. Surprise: Boosters still work
The latest Omicron subvariant may be a master at evading the immune response our bodies produce from the vaccine or previous COVID-19 infection, but a new study suggests existing booster shots will still help.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation partly funded a study about COVID-19 booster shots for the BA.5 Omicron subvariant. Surprise: Boosters still work
The CDC is sending monkeypox vaccines to people at high risk in a race to prevent the spread
The CDC is sending monkeypox vaccines to people at high risk in a race to prevent the spread
The Biden administration has distributed 1,200 monkeypox vaccine doses for people who have had high-risk exposures to the virus, part of a nationwide public health response to stamp out the disease before it causes a major outbreak.
U.S. health officials, worried the virus is spreading faster than previously thought, have said the global outbreak of monkeypox is the largest ever. The World Health Organization said Wednesday that there are now more than 550 cases across 30 countries. In the U.S., at least 20 confirmed or suspected cases have been reported in 11 states, including California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Utah and Washington state, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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Last week, CDC official Dr. Jennifer McQuiston said the U.S. has 1,000 doses of Jynneos available. However, the Danish biotech company that makes the shots, Bavarian Nordic, said the U.S. actually has a supply of more than 1 million Jynneos frozen doses stored in the U.S. and Denmark under an order placed in April 2020. The shots have a shelf life of three years.
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The U.S. government also has a stockpile of more than 100 million doses of ACAM2000, made by Emergent BioSolutions, McQuiston told reporters last week. The U.S. had released 500 doses of Jynneos and 200 doses of ACAM2000 as of Tuesday, according to the CDC. The U.S. has also sent out 100 courses of the oral antiviral tecovirimat to the states, health officials said Friday.
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The CDC has said women who are pregnant or breast feeding, people with weak immune systems, those with skin conditions such as eczema or atopic dermatitis, and people with heart disease should not receive ACAM2000. In pregnant women, the virus can spread to the fetus and cause stillbirth. People with weak immune systems face a risk that the virus will grow uncontrollably and cause a dangerous infection, Slifka said. People with skin conditions such as eczema or atopic dermatitis are also at risk of the virus spreading on their skin which can turn into a life-threatening infection, he said.
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Lewis said the WHO is not recommending mass vaccination against monkeypox because the current outbreak can still be contained. Most of the cases so far have been reported among men who have sex with men, developed symptoms and sought care at sexual health clinics, according to the WHO. Lewis said it is important to provide gay and bisexual men with the information they need to protect themselves from the virus and prevent it from spreading.
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Monkeypox typically starts with symptoms similar to the flu including fever, headache, muscle aches, chills, exhaustion and swollen lymph nodes. Lesions then form on the body, and the virus spreads primarily through skin-to-skin contact with these lesions. Monkeypox can spread through respiratory droplets [not again!] if a person has lesions in their throat or mouth, but it does not transmit easily this way.
Related:
Read More »UPDATED: FDA is considering FOURTH dose of COVID-19 vaccine and making it an annual shot as cases across the US drop 43% over the past week and 87% since the peak of the Omicron variant
Related:
WSJ: FDA Eyes Second Covid-19 Booster Shot
A fourth booster shot of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine could start an annual booster shot campaign, one of the people familiar with the FDA’s planning said.
I’m not buying the media’s scaremongering about the second omicron variant!
Ms. Cat’s Chronicles 