Tag: disease

New virus poses ‘an existential threat to life as we know it on this planet’

Art Moore – October 10, 2021

The Biden administration’s apparent unwillingness to conduct a serious official investigation of the origin of SARS-CoV-2 that holds China accountable for its actions and lack of cooperation could result in a pandemic much more lethal that the current one, warns a leading researcher.

Dr. Steven Quay, whose research became part of a State Department probe of the origin of COVID-19 under President Trump, told Fox News’ Martha MacCallum on Friday that “all of the evidence points toward the lab theory.”

“There’s no evidence that supports a natural origin at this point,” he said. “So I think we’re done, at this point, with the investigation.”

But it’s more vital than ever to stop the dangerous “gain-of-function” research – engineering viruses to make them more transmissible and lethal – going on at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, he said.

Raw data from patient specimens posted in the National Institutes of Health’s gene bank showed researchers at the Wuhan lab in December 2019 were manipulating genes from the highly lethal Nipah virus, Quay said.

The Nipah virus, which causes severe inflammation of the brain or encephalitis, has a death rate of about 80%, Quay warned.

“If you didn’t like the pandemic that was just 1% lethal, this thing they were working on in December 2019 has an 80% lethality,” he told MacCallum. “It needs to be stopped.”

Quay told “Fox Business Tonight” on Thursday that virus research at the Wuhan lab poses “an existential threat to life as we know it on this planet.”

https://www.wnd.com

Pfizer Asks FDA to Allow COVID Shots for Kids Ages 5 to 11

Newsmax – October 8, 2021

Pfizer asked the U.S. government Thursday to allow use of its COVID-19 vaccine in children ages 5 to 11 — and if regulators agree, shots could begin within a matter of weeks.

Many parents and pediatricians are clamoring for protection for children younger than 12, today’s age cutoff for the vaccine made by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech. Not only can youngsters sometimes get seriously ill, but keeping them in school can be a challenge with the coronavirus still raging in poorly vaccinated communities.

Pfizer announced in a tweet that it had formally filed its application with the Food and Drug Administration.

Now the FDA will have to decide if there’s enough evidence that the shots are safe and will work for younger children like they do for teens and adults. An independent expert panel will publicly debate the evidence on Oct. 26.

One big change: Pfizer says its research shows the younger kids should get a third of the dose now given to everyone else. After their second dose, the 5- to 11-year-olds developed virus-fighting antibody levels just as strong as teens and young adults get from regular-strength shots.

https://www.newsmax.com

Mice plague spreading across new Australian states as summer sparks surge in pest numbers

Anton Nilsson – September 23, 2021

Despite a lull over the winter, Australia’s mouse plague never ended – and now it’s threatening new areas of the country.

Large numbers of mice continue to plague rural Australian communities as farmers fear yet another crop will be ruined.

After dwindling in the winter cold, mouse populations have begun growing rapidly again, CSIRO mouse expert Steve Henry said.

“We’re quite concerned, given them the numbers that have been reported at the moment,” Mr Henry said.

NSW Farmers vice president Xavier Martin, who operates a farm in Gunnedah, said the new wave of mice would be a hard blow for farmers still reeling from the plague earlier in the year.

“A lot of farmers are on edge because they’re still trying to deal with contaminated hay and crops,” he said.

“Some contaminated produce had to be buried or burnt. So they’re very wary about this upcoming harvest and hay making.”

The mice are multiplying fast across a wide area that stretches from northern NSW to southern Queensland.

The worst-hit areas in recent weeks appear to be around Walgett and Moree in NSW, and in the Darling Downs in Queensland.

But there is also an area in Western Australia where mice are breeding fast, according to Mr Henry.

https://www.news.com.au

DEVELOPING: Salmonella outbreak from unidentified food source has sickened people across 25 states

Ricky Scaparo – September 23, 2021

At least 127 people have been infected — and 18 hospitalized — amid an outbreak of salmonella across dozens of states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Infections linked to the outbreak had been detected in 25 states as of Sept. 15, with Texas alone reporting 45 of the cases.

According to News Nation, Salmonella Oranienburg, the strain observed in this outbreak, began sickening people on Aug. 3, according to the CDC. By Sept. 2, a total of 20 infections had been linked to the outbreak, which grew “rapidly” in the following weeks, sickening at least 127. Of the 48 whose medical information was made available, 18 had been hospitalized.

The CDC estimates that the actual number of sick people is “likely much higher,” as many infected individuals often recover without seeking treatment or getting tested.

It can also take up to four weeks to determine if a sick person is indeed part of the outbreak, the agency says. The CDC has yet to identify a source linked to the outbreak, though public health officials are currently interviewing to try to determine a possible food item.

“Several groups of people (‘subclusters’) at restaurants in multiple states have been identified,” the CDC wrote of the outbreak. “These subclusters are groups of people who do not know one another who ate at the same restaurant and got sick. Investigating these subclusters can sometimes help identify a food item eaten by all of the sick people that could be the source of the outbreak.”

https://endtimeheadlines.org

Africa Swine Fever: Is China downplaying another disease outbreak?

DW – September 17, 2021

During a teleconference more than two years ago, Chinese Vice-Premier Hu Chunhua urged health authorities to step up efforts to rein in a growing outbreak despite initial “positive results,” and suggested that “enhancing quarantine and monitoring” measures would help prevent the spread of the virus.

Hu’s comments came before the discovery of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Instead, he was referring to a different, far deadlier disease: African Swine Fever (ASF) — an illness that affects pigs.

Chinese officials first identified ASF in 2018 in Liaoning, a coastal province in China’s northeast. Unlike SARS-CoV-2, ASF does not threaten human health. The disease, however, is highly virulent in pigs and mortality rates approach 100%.

ASF is of particular concern in China, the world’s top pork consumer and home to roughly half of the world’s pigs. Given the country’s enormous pig population, ASF could turn China into a significant reservoir of disease and pose a threat to China’s neighbors in the region if it becomes endemic.

This year, China reported 12 ASF cases to the OIE, the intergovernmental body that tracks animal diseases, down from a high of 105 in 2018. Except for a small bump in cases earlier this year, ASF numbers have consistently declined, according to official figures.

Some industry experts, however, believe that China may be obfuscating African Swine Fever’s actual toll on hog herds by under-reporting infection numbers, and painting an artificially rosy picture.

The cost of pork in China is an economic bellwether. Tapping into China’s strategic pork stockpile allowed Beijing to stabilize pork prices from a high last year, but ASF could still cause headaches of epic proportions.

https://www.dw.com

New “Pandemic Potential” Brain-Destroying-Virus With 75% Death Rate Spreading In India

Summit News – September 7, 2021

A different virus classified by the World Health Organisation as having ‘pandemic potential’ is spreading more than usual due to care shortages caused by COVID.

The London Telegraph reports that the Nipah virus, which attacks the brain and has an up to 75% fatality rate, has killed a twelve year old boy who was shunted around five different hospitals because of COVID.

It is believed that the boy came into contact with close to 200 people, with two health workers and the boys mother already in isolation after developing the symptoms, which are similar to those of COVID.

The Nipah virus has been known since 1998, but has been contained, with the worst outbreak occurring twenty years ago in West Bengal when 45 out of 66 people infected with the virus died.

The bat-borne virus was the inspiration for the movie Contagion, and while more deadly than COVID it spreads less efficiently.

Health authorities in Kerala where the boy died are urging people to get tested for Nipah, with lockdowns being implemented in the surrounding regions.

“People should continue to wear masks and practice social distancing to stop the Nipah virus from spreading. In hospitals, doctors and nurses can also wear PPE,” said Kerla doctor Arun N Madhavan.

The Telegraph notes that “There are currently no drugs available to treat Nipah, although the WHO has identified the virus as a priority disease for the development of a vaccine.”

In June, The Oxford University team of virologists who developed the COVID AstraZeneca vaccine announced that they had made a “big step forward” in testing the Nipah vaccine.

https://summit.news

‘Mystery Fever’ Infects Hundreds in India’s Uttar Pradesh, More Than 100 Deaths Estimated

– September 3, 2021

The “mystery fever” in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh continues to wreak havoc as hundreds of sick are admitted to hospitals. The federal government has rushed an expert team to investigate the root cause of the spread of infections.

According to reports, more than 400 people, including 40 children, have been hospitalised in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh and more than 100 have died. The Indian daily ‘Times of India’ quoted sources saying that at least 5,000 people in the state’s Firozabad district are bedridden with a fever at home or in private hospitals.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state government has not yet released any official numbers.

“The government is assessing the situation as of now. State chief Yogi Adityanath is holding meetings with the state’s health officials and respective districts. Various measures are being taken. The government will release concrete data after it gets to the root cause of the fever,” a state government official told Sputnik on Friday on condition of remaining anonymous.

If the media reports are to be believed, the death toll from the fever in Firozabad district has increased to 67 including 50 children, and 14 people in Mathura and eight in Mainpuri have succumbed to the fever. Apart from this, several deaths have been reported from other parts of western Uttar Pradesh.

The increasing number of cases has sparked fear among the state’s inhabitants. However, the doctors are trying to control the panic by stating that these are just seasonal cases of viral fever.

https://sputniknews.com

West Africa placed on high alert as first case of deadly Ebola-like Marburg virus with 88% fatality rate detected

End Time Headlines – August 10, 2021

(ETH) – A highly infectious hemorrhagic virus similar to Ebola has been detected for the first time in West Africa, triggering a rush to identify potential contacts and squash the outbreak before it spreads.

According to the Telegraph, the Marburg virus was detected in a male patient in Guinea who has since died, according to the World Health Organization. The pathogen is from the same family of viruses as Ebola, but it has no known vaccines or treatments and a fatality rate as high as 88 percent.

The individual sought treatment in the Gueckedou province, a region in southeast Guinea close to both Sierra Leone and Liberia, raising some concerns that it could jump across the borders. “The potential for the Marburg virus to spread far and wide means we need to stop it in its tracks,” said Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO’s regional director for Africa, adding that Guinea’s health workers had instigated “quick investigative action”.

According to Sky News, Symptoms include a high fever and muscle pain, but some patients later suffer bleeding from their eyes and ears. After the male patient sought treatment and died in Gueckedou, the case was confirmed by a laboratory in Guinea and again by the Institut Pasteur in nearby Senegal. Contact tracing is under way, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Gueckedou was the location of Guinea’s 2014 to 2016 Ebola outbreak, which went on to kill 11,325 people. According to the Guardian, There have been 12 major Marburg outbreaks since 1967, mostly in southern and eastern Africa. Guinea’s new case was first identified last week, just two months after the country was declared free of Ebola following a brief flare-up earlier this year that killed 12 people.

The patient, who has since succumbed to the illness, first sought treatment at a local clinic before his condition rapidly deteriorated, the WHO said on Monday. Analysts at Guinea’s national haemorrhagic fever laboratory and the Institute Pasteur in Senegal later confirmed the Marburg diagnosis.

https://endtimeheadlines.org

DHS Bulletin Says Opposition To COVID Mandates Is Potential “Domestic Terrorism Threat”

Tyler Durden – August 15, 2021

On Friday the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued an almost unbelievable new “terrorism” alert contained in a so-called ‘awareness bulletin’. While focused heavily on the threat posed by “false narratives and conspiracy theories about the 2020 election” – clearly making connections to Jan.6, the bulletin pivoted to unprecedented territory.

It’s nothing new for the Biden administration to warn and hype about “calls to violence” related to the “Capitol insurrection” – but what is new and unprecedented is its warning about potential “attacks” by “violent extremists” related to COVID-19 “conspiracy theories”.

The document was the result of a DHS meeting held with top officials and high ranking intelligence officers across multiple agencies from departments in New York, Washington, and Las Vegas, NBC News reported.

The threat bulletin describes that extremists “may seek to exploit the emergence of COVID-19 variants by viewing the potential re-establishment of public health restrictions across the United States as a rationale to conduct attacks.”

This is the first time to our knowledge that “terrorism” is linked to the movement among large groups of skeptical Americans to push back against local, state and federal efforts to impose drastic mask, vaccine, and so-called ‘COVID passport’ mandates.

Interestingly the DHS document is heavily focused on such “extremism” initially manifest online in social media and chat forum groups.

Presumably, given the demographic breakdown, this means DHS is accusing young black folk of being “domestic terrorists?

https://www.zerohedge.com

Depression, anxiety among youth has more than doubled during pandemic

Steven Ganot – August 12, 2021

The coronavirus pandemic has caused a global mental health crisis among children and adolescents, according to a University of Calgary study published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics this week.

The study is a meta-analysis pooling the results of 29 separate studies from around the world that looked at the prevalence of clinically elevated anxiety and depression symptoms among 80,879 youth during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Among the study’s findings: Depression and anxiety symptoms have doubled in children and adolescents. About 25.2% of the children and youth measured in the studies had clinically elevated depression symptoms, and 20.5% had clinically elevated anxiety symptoms.

Depression and anxiety symptoms were more prevalent in studies collected later in the pandemic and in girls. Depression symptoms were higher in older children.

One of the 29 studies examined in the meta-analysis measured the prevalence and predictors of depression and anxiety among 384 high school seniors (12th graders) who were home quarantined and studied online in Jordan. The Jordanian study found that levels of depression and anxiety were high for both sexes but particularly for female students. The prevalence of anxiety among the girls was 46.9% and among the boys, 27.6%.

Unsurprisingly, the Jordanian study showed that having difficulties with online education was a predictor for both depression and anxiety during the pandemic.

https://www.jpost.com