In today’s political news - Part 5

Lettuceagain, sorry I wasn't more clear. I don't remember your posts regarding vaccinations specifically, I thought there might have been misinformation regarding the vaccine? I don't know when you posted or what you posted and I'm not sure how to search since you deleted your account?

I was just trying to point out that there are differences between the vaccinated and the unvaccinated. You can draw your own conclusion, I was just trying to explain why Biden made the statement pandemic of the unvaccinated.  One more article showing why in the US last summer and fall, President's Biden's statements were accurate.

www.healthsystemtracker.org/brief/unvaccinated-covid-patients-cost-the-u-s-health-system-billions-of-dollars/

We find there were a total of 690,000 vaccine-preventable COVID-19 hospitalizations from June through November 2021. These hospitalizations correspond with the Delta variant surge.

It's important to note that the study in the Lancet was based on UK patients who received Pfizer or Astra-Zeneca vaccines.  Astra-Zeneca vaccines are not available in the US and overall, are less effective at preventing symptomatic illness compared to Pfizer.

www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/two-doses-pfizer-astrazeneca-shots-effective-against-delta-variant-study-finds-2021-07-21/

The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, confirms headline findings given by Public Health England in May about the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca (AZN.L), based on real-world data.

Wednesday's study found that two doses of Pfizer's shot was 88% effective at preventing symptomatic disease from the Delta variant, compared to 93.7% against the Alpha variant, broadly the same as previously reported.

Two shots of AstraZeneca vaccine were 67% effective against the Delta variant, up from 60% originally reported, and 74.5% effective against the Alpha variant, compared to an original estimate of 66% effectiveness.


And nothing against British scientists or researchers, I know the Lancet is a highly esteemed, well respected publication.  Personally, I don't entirely trust the Lancet after the debacle when they published false information linking autism and vaccines. And it took them 12 years to retract it, after Wakefield was stripped of his medical license by Britain's General Medical Council. This happened more recently and the problem might be with the peer review process. US medical journals are not exempt from publishing false information.

www.nytimes.com/2020/06/14/health/virus-journals.html

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2831678/

www.nytimes.com/2022/05/25/magazine/anti-vaccine-movement.html

What seems to have been lost on the general public and the media was just how weak, scientifically speaking, The Lancet paper about the MMR vaccine really was.


Furthermore, there are studies that might dispute the findings of the study in the Lancet.  These articles were published in May and April, respectively.

jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2792598

Findings In this cohort study of 173 health care workers, inpatients, and guardians and 45 participants in a community facility, secondary transmission of SARS-CoV-2 was significantly less common, and viable virus was detected for a shorter duration in fully vaccinated individuals than in partially vaccinated or unvaccinated individuals.

Meaning Fully vaccinated individuals had a shorter duration of viable viral shedding and a lower rate of secondary transmission than partially vaccinated or unvaccinated individuals.


www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-01816-0

Our findings indicate that vaccines may lower transmission risk and, therefore, have a public health benefit beyond the individual protection from severe disease.

 aj2hall

I am going to bed soon .... just editing to say the Lancet has a poor reputation for not retracting the PACE trial on ME/CFS as well, so I take your point on board.

So for both of us I have added the following -

This is what the CDC has to say about Omicron transmission

“The Omicron variant spreads more easily than earlier variants of the virus that cause COVID-19, including the Delta variant. CDC expects that anyone with Omicron infection, regardless of vaccination status or whether or not they have symptoms, can spread the virus to others. “

The page was updated March 29 2022

www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/variants/omicron-variant.html

 

Lettuceagain,

I agree that with the omicron variant, asymptomatic or symptomatic vaccinated people can spread covid. I was just trying to explain President Biden's statement (the pandemic of the unvaccinated) and why last summer & fall, there was some frustration with the unvaccinated for extending the pandemic. This was pre-omicron when delta was still prevalent. Variants are more likely to pop up in the unvaccinated. For the previous variants, the risk of transmission is lower and the virus is detectable for a shorter length of time in the vaccinated vs unvaccinated. It's too soon to tell if this will hold true for omicron.  However, vaccinations are still a key part of reducing the spread of covid and reaching endemic phase.

Oh good. If we're focusing on the President's children, maybe the Justice Department could look into Jared Kushner's business dealings with Saudi Arabia and the $2 billion dollar investment into his new private equity firm?

I could be wrong and they obviously haven't disclosed their findings, but Hunter paid off his tax liability. I'm not sure there's anything else there, except in far right conspiracies? Yes, he received money but was any of it illegal? Or did he violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act?

Hunter Biden's history of drug use and a paternity case filed against him reads like a tabloid. I completely disagree, but I can see why Republicans won't let it go.

The US Attorney for Delaware worked under Bush and Obama before Trump appointed him to run the investigation.

www.nytimes.com/2022/06/02/us/politics/jared-kushner-house-investigation.html

www.nytimes.com/2022/03/16/us/politics/hunter-biden-tax-bill-investigation.html

On a happier note, this is surprising. I thought for sure it was doomed to fail in the senate.

www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/20/same-sex-marriage-vote/

Amid GOP support, Senate Democrats see hope for same-sex marriage vote
The move to enshrine protection for same-sex marriage offers an early window into how Democrats plan to solidify individual rights in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn abortion rights protections

Senate Democrats on Wednesday signaled an eagerness to swiftly vote on legislation that would protect same-sex marriage, offering an early window into the party’s plans to solidify individual rights in the aftermath of the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade.
The shifting terrain — with several Senate Republicans voicing support for the legislation a day after the House passed a similar bill with the support of 47 Republicans — came as a surprise to members of both parties and seemed to offer a rare pocket of bipartisan support in a political arena increasingly polarized on social issues.

It has been well established that vaccinated people and unvaccinated people can spread the virus. But overwhelmingly, vaccinated people with covid have a less severe case and the majority of vaccinated cases don't end up in the hospital.

We know Nancy Pelosi approved three GOP names for the Select Committee. She rejected Gym Jordan, Jim Banks ...

Jordan was in the Dec 18th meeting at the WH?!

I personally wouldn't fist bump him, but I have no diplomacy skills whatsoever. What I definitely wouldn't do though is:

- 'save his ass' from congress
- cash in through arms sales
- play golden orbs with the King
- let them use my golf courses (LIV backed by PIF of which the chairman is MBS)


www.businessinsider.com/trump-woodward-i-saved-his-ass-mbs-khashoggi-rage-2020-9

Woodward wrote that Trump called him on January 22 shortly after attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. During the conversation, Woodward pressed the president about Khashoggi's gruesome murder.

"I saved his ass," Trump had said amid the US outcry following Khashoggi's murder, the book says. "I was able to get Congress to leave him alone. I was able to get them to stop."

Trump repeatedly used executive power to block or bypass congressional efforts to cut ties with Riyadh after Khashoggi's murder.

The president also bypassed Congress to push through an arms sale worth roughly $8 billion to the Saudis and the United Arab Emirates, and he later vetoed several resolutions blocking the sale.



More recently, Trump has moved to circumvent a decades-old arms-control pact in order to sell weaponized drones to the Saudis and to other countries in the region, sparking backlash from Democrats and Republicans in Congress.

dizzycheermom

Thank you, the point you made just now was exactly the point I tried make in February about the spread through transmission regardless of vaccination status, which is why I wanted people who were not as up to date to realise why extra protection was necessary in addition to vaccination.


I think that people already knew for a long time that breakthrough cases occurred but perhaps were unaware of the increase risk of infection for vaccinated people with Omicron. Omicron cases were confirmed in the UK in November and the US in December. Hindsight has shown us what has happened since.