Sara Middleton –  January 9, 2021

(NaturalHealth365) It’s been over a year since the COVID-19 pandemic began.  Now, even as lockdowns and curfews persist and the vaccine rollout continues across America, we continue to find ourselves surprised by the troubling, if not creative ways, that government officials attempt to squeeze more control out of the situation.

The latest harrowing example is a New York State-sponsored proposal that demands detention camp for anyone identified as a “case, contact or carrier” of a contagious disease.  It’s a harrowing revelation – and would be so even if there weren’t already serious questions about the COVID-19 testing accuracy and false-positive rates.

The New York State Assembly bill in question is called Bill A416 and is sponsored by a Democratic member of the New York State Assembly, N. Nick Perry.  As of January 4, 2021, the bill has been introduced to the 2021-2022 Legislative Session and is currently in front of the Assembly Health Committee.

Bill A416, in summary, “[r]elates to the removal of cases, contacts, and carriers of communicable diseases that are potentially dangerous to the public health.”  The bill doesn’t mention COVID-19 specifically, and a similar bill was also introduced (and fell flat) during the Legislative Session of 2015-2016.

In attempts to blur the lines with pages of legalese, the bill continues:

“Upon determining by clear and convincing evidence that the health of others is or may be endangered by a case, contact or carrier, or suspected case, contact or carrier of a contagious disease that, in the opinion of the governor … may pose an imminent and significant threat to the public health resulting in severe morbidity or high mortality, the governor or his or her delegee … may order the removal and/or detention of such a person or a group of such persons by issuing a single order, identifying such persons either by name or by a reasonably specific description of the individuals or group being detained.”

The bill would allow officials to:

• Approve detentions unilaterally (but require a court order within 60 days of confinement)
• Require detainees to submit to medical examinations and/or complete an “appropriate, prescribed course of treatment, preventative medication or vaccination,” which would be legally enforcible so long as officials procure a court order

NOT present in the bill are any specific timeframes, criteria, or locations for these detentions – details that, if the bill were to pass, would ultimately be left up to the discretion of the NY governor (at the moment, Governor Andrew Cuomo).

https://www.naturalhealth365.com

MikeWehner – December 23rd, 2020

2020 hasn’t been kind to anyone, but it’s almost over. Unfortunately, if you find yourself with a case of “Super Gonnorhea” you might feel the effects of this terrible year for an extended period of time. Doctors are now warning of the increasing spread of the antibiotic-resistant strain of STI, and they’re blaming the coronavirus pandemic for helping it gain momentum.

According to a report from The Sun, the problem has gotten so bad that the World Health Organization has taken notice. The issue is that as the coronavirus pandemic was ongoing, many clinics and hospitals used antibiotics in the treatment of patients and to prevent the cross-infection of hospitalized individuals. That overuse of antibiotics has given a boost to antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea, according to WHO.

Antibiotics are great. They have saved countless lives and provided mankind with the incredible power to rid ourselves of problematic microbes. Unfortunately, as the decades began to pile up, the very microorganisms we fought using antibiotics began to find ways around them. Now, several types of antibiotic-resistant bacteria are known to exist, and these “superbugs” require more complex treatment that sometimes includes multiple antibiotics or newer versions of drugs that are not yet compromised.

In the case of gonorrhea, the bacterium that causes the infection has, over time, adapted to common first-line treatments. In particular, the new “super” strain of the infection doesn’t respond to treatment with azithromycin, which has long been the go-to medication option.

“Overuse of antibiotics in the community can fuel the emergence of antimicrobial resistance in gonorrhoea,” a WHO spokesperson told The Sun. “Azithromycin – a common antibiotic for treating respiratory infections – was used for Covid-19 treatment earlier in the epidemic.”

“During the pandemic, STI services have also been disrupted. This means more STI cases are not diagnosed properly with more people self-medicating as a result. Such a situation can fuel emergence of resistance in gonorrhea including gonorrhea superbug (super gonorrhoea) or gonorrhoea with high level resistance to current antibiotics recommended to treat it.”

The worst part is that the number of people reporting a new gonorrhea infection is growing year-over-year, to the tune of about 17%. That means more and more people are getting the infection, and the antibiotic-resistant strain of the bacteria has an even larger population of people to further its adaptation to medications and other treatments.

https://bgr.com

Steve Gorman and Rebecca Spalding – January 1, 2021

Dec 31 (Reuters) – A Wisconsin hospital pharmacist was arrested on Thursday on suspicion of sabotaging more than 500 doses of coronavirus vaccine by deliberately removing them from refrigeration to spoil, police and medical authorities said.

The pharmacist, an employee of Aurora Medical Center in Grafton, Wisconsin, at the time that 57 vials of vaccine were found left out of cold storage earlier this week, has since been fired but has not been publicly identified, officials said.

Each vial contains 10 doses. Nearly 60 of the doses in question were administered before hospital officials determined the medication had been left unrefrigerated long enough to render the vaccine ineffective. The remaining 500-plus doses were then discarded.

Moderna Inc, maker of the vaccine, has assured the hospital that receiving an injection of any of the doses removed from refrigeration poses no safety issue, other than leaving the recipient unprotected from COVID infection, said Dr. Jeff Bahr, Aurora Health Care Medical Group president.

Neither Aurora Health nor law enforcement offered any possible motive for the sabotage.

https://news.trust.org

Rishikesh Kumar – December 18, 2020

As India inches towards a grim milestone of ten million COVID-19 cases, a new rare disease known as mucormycosis is spreading across the country. According to doctors, the COVID-triggered disease has a 50 percent mortality rate.

Authorities in northern and western Indian states have alerted people as hospitals have reported the rapid spread of a deadly fungal infection, mucormycosis, across the region. At least nine people have already reportedly died due to this rare disease, while over a hundred more have been hospitalised in different hospitals in Delhi and Ahmedabad.

“Since early reports of this rare disease spread through various mediums including that of media, more people have contacted hospitals. As of now, over a hundred people are being treated for this black fungal infection in different hospitals in Delhi alone”, Dr Manish Munjal, Senior Consultant at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital told Sputnik.

Doctors say that ignoring the early signs of the rare disease may be fatal.

“Nose obstruction, swelling in the eyes or cheeks, and black dry crusts in the nose are the early symptoms of the infection. These signs should immediately prompt the conduct of a biopsy in the OPD and start of antifungal therapy as early as possible”, Munjal added.

The doctor admitted that he found some cases in non-COVID patients as well, however, most of the infections are found in recovering COVID-19 patients.

Doctors say the frequency of cases as well as high morbidity and mortality has never been seen before and is alarming.

State chief of Rajasthan Ashok Gehlot has also alerted people of the state about mucoramycosis. “In this disease, there is a risk of damage to many organs of the body including the brain. An alert for the disease has been issued in Mumbai and Ahmedabad”, Gehlot said.

https://sputniknews.com

ANIRUDDHA GHOSAL – December 8, 2020

NEW DELHI (AP) — Health officials and experts are still baffled by a mysterious illness that has left over 500 people hospitalized and one person dead in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.

The illness was first detected Saturday evening in Eluru, an ancient city famous for its hand-woven products. People started convulsing without any warning, said Geeta Prasadini, the director of public health.

Since then, symptoms ranging from nausea and anxiety to loss of consciousness have been reported in 546 patients admitted to hospitals. Many have recovered and returned home, while 148 are still being treated, said Dasari Nagarjuna, a government spokesperson.

Teams of experts have arrived at the city from India’s top scientific institutes. Different theories have been suggested and are being tested. The most recent hypothesis is contamination of food by pesticides.

“But nobody knows,” Prasadini admitted.

What is confounding experts is that there doesn’t seem to be any common link among the hundreds of people who have fallen sick. All of the patients have tested negative for COVID-19 and other viral diseases such as dengue, chikungunya or herpes. They aren’t related to each other. They don’t all live in the same area. They’re from different age groups, including about 70 children, but very few are elderly.

https://apnews.com

Baz Ratner – November 30, 2020

The World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Monday that gaps in access to life-saving tools are undermining efforts to curb malaria, as deaths from the disease will far exceed those killed by Covid-19 in sub-Saharan Africa.

In its latest World Malaria Report’, the WHO says progress against malaria continues to plateau. In some African states, the fight against the mosquito-borne disease has been set back due to gaps in access to life-saving tools, with disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic only aggravating the situation.

Last year, more than 409,000 people were killed by malaria globally, and most of them were children in the impoverished parts of Africa.

The toll may be higher this year. “Our estimates are that depending on the level of service disruption … there could be an excess of malaria deaths of somewhere between 20,000 and 100,000 in sub-Saharan Africa, most of them in young children,” said Pedro Alonso, director of the WHO’s malaria program.

Even moderate disruptions in access to treatment could lead to a considerable loss of life, the WHO said. A 10 percent disruption in access to effective antimalarial treatment in sub-Saharan Africa could lead to 19 000 additional deaths, while disruptions of 25 and 50 percent could result in an additional 46,000 and 100,000 deaths respectively.Despite recent achievements, progress in fighting the disease in the region has stalled, Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO’s regional director for Africa, warned.

https://www.rt.com

Terra Daily – November 26, 2020

The EU’s disease control agency and the WHO on Thursday called for better HIV testing to spot cases early following rising undiagnosed cases especially in Eastern Europe, Russia and Central Asia.

Early detection of the virus that causes AIDS mitigates the impact on the patient and prevents further spread.

A report by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the World Health Organization’s (WHO) regional office for Europe showed that in 2019, more than 136,000 cases of HIV were diagnosed across the WHO European region, with 80 percent of cases in its eastern parts.

The WHO’s European Region comprises 53 countries and includes Russia and several countries in Central Asia.

The report did however not include data from member states Andorra, Belgium, Monaco, North Macedonia, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

Roughly half of the European HIV cases were diagnosed at a late stage of infection, “when the immune system has already started to fail,” the agencies said, calling it “a sign that testing strategies in the region are not working properly to diagnose HIV early.”

The authors of the report added that late diagnosis increased the risk of “ill health, death and onward HIV transmission,” and called for new strategies to improve testing.

“Despite the focus on Covid-19 right now, we must not lose sight of other public health issues like HIV. Earlier diagnosis of HIV is an urgent priority,” ECDC director Andrea Ammon said in a statement.

https://www.terradaily.com

RT – November 16, 2020

Scientists have sounded the alarm over an Ebola-like virus from Bolivia which has been found to spread from person to person, killing three out of every five confirmed patients.

The rodent-borne Chapare virus first emerged in 2004 in the Bolivian province from which it gets its name, about 370 miles east of the country’s capital city, La Paz.

New research has shed light on the deadliness of the disease and how it spread from patient zero.

Following a 2019 outbreak in the country, researchers have found that, though it comes from a different viral family than Ebola, it also causes hemorrhagic fever, which can, in turn, cause life-threatening organ failure and bleeding.

At present, there is no treatment for Chapare outside of intravenous hydration and supportive care. The virus causes fever, headache, abdominal pain, rash and bleeding of the gums, and is believed to result from contact with rat urine or droppings.

Dr. Caitlin Cossaboom, an epidemiologist with the US Centers for Disease Control, presented findings from her research into a 2019 outbreak to the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene’s annual meeting on Monday.

A 65-year-old rice farmer was patient zero in the outbreak who then spread the disease to a 25-year-old doctor who treated him.

“The night before he died, she suctioned saliva from his mouth, and then she fell ill nine days later,” Cossaboom explained.

The 48-year-old paramedic who transported the doctor to hospital was the next to be infected after performing CPR on her.

A gastroenterologist conducted an endoscopy on the doctor and developed symptoms 14 days later. All of the cases resulted in exposure to bodily fluids from an infected person.

Patient zero, the doctor and the gastroenterologist all died from the Chapare virus, while the ambulance worker and another infected person survived.

https://www.rt.com

Strange Sounds – October 28, 2020

There are likely hundreds of men in the United States, if not more, who suffer from a just-discovered genetic disease that causes symptoms including blood clots in veins, recurrent fevers, lung system abnormalities, and — in 40% of patients — death. 

Researchers from the National Institutes of Health discovered the disease, named VEXAS, by working backwards: Rather than grouping people with similar symptoms and searching for biological explanations, they searched the genetic makeup of 2,500 people for variations that could be linked to the wide-ranging symptoms of their undiagnosed inflammatory conditions.

“We had many patients with undiagnosed inflammatory conditions who were coming to the NIH Clinical Center, and we were just unable to diagnose them,” said Dr. David B. Beck, clinical fellow at NHGRI and lead author of the paper.

“That’s when we had the idea of doing it the opposite way. Instead of starting with symptoms, start with a list of genes. Then, study the genomes of undiagnosed individuals and see where it takes us.“

Using that method, the scientists eventually identified three middle-aged men who all had the same mutations in a gene called UBA1. They later discovered 22 other men with the same mutations and similar symptoms, like blood clots and fevers.

The research team named the disease VEXAS after its key characteristics: vacuoles (unusual cavity-like structures in certain cells), E1 enzyme (which is related to UBA1), X-linked (per the chromosome it’s connected to), autoinflammatory (meaning the immune system accidentally attacks the body) and somatic (since the condition seems ot pop up sometime during the patient’s life, rather than at birth).

The researchers suspect VEXAS has only been found in men because it’s linked to the X chromosome, of which men only have one. Women’s additional X chromosome, they hypothesize, could be protective in this case.

https://strangesounds.org

RT – November 1, 2020

The new condition, which is caused by genetic mutations, has shown a particularly high death rate, as patients were not responding to any currently available treatments, the researchers said.

The disease – ‘vacuoles, E1 enzyme, X-linked, autoinflammatory and somatic syndrome’ – has been dubbed VEXAS. It causes symptoms that include blood clots in veins, recurrent fevers, abnormalities in the lungs, and vacuoles – unusual cavity-like structures – in the myeloid cells, which play a crucial part in the human immune system.

Researchers at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) came across the disease after analyzing the genome sequences of more than 2,500 people with undiagnosed inflammatory diseases. In comparing the data, they found that 25 adult males had particular mutations in the UBA1 gene, which is believed to be the source of VEXAS.

“Instead of looking at clinical similarities, we were instead taking advantage of shared genomic similarities that could help us discover a completely new disease,” said Daniel Kastner, the scientific director of the Intramural Research Program at the National Human Genome Research Institute.

The NIH reported that the new disease “can be life-threatening,” as 40 percent of the VEXAS patients the researchers studied have died. The high death toll revealed “the devastating consequences of the severe condition,” the team stated.

Kastner told NBC News that patients with VEXAS become “really sick,” and “don’t respond to any treatments, from high doses of steroids to various chemotherapies.”

https://www.rt.com