The Coronavirus Thread

[JimC]

Yep, quite a few cases in Oz...

[Brian Peacock]

Feeling a bit crook myself today.

[L'Emmerdeur]

Since the persistent fellow from the Northwest Territories isn't here to regale us with the up to date anti-vaccination lies (and of course everybody is interested in them) here's a retired fitness instructor from Georgia to fill us in:

'Marjorie Taylor Greene Pushes COVID Vaccine Myth About Embalmers Finding Clots'

Writing on X, formerly Twitter, Greene tagged the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic while reposting a video from the right-wing TV channel Real America’s Voice.

“.@COVIDSelect we need to investigate this by talking to embalmers,” Greene wrote.

The video claims that embalmers are finding “white fibrous clots” in “up to 50 percent or more of their corpses.” The clip claims that the clots only started appearing after the 2021 vaccine rollout.

This particular COVID vaccine myth is, like many, based in a very small grain of truth. Blood clotting is a side effect of the AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines, according to a April 2021 PBS report, but they were very rare.

For example, out of 6.8 million people who had received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine at the time, only 6 people developed cerebral venous sinus thrombosis—or, in layman’s terms, a blood clot in the brain. The clot stops blood from draining, and can cause a hemorrhage leading to a stroke, according to Johns Hopkins. Patients who took the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines were not affected.

It appears this vaccine myth of embalmers finding clots in many bodies originated with Richard Hirschman, an embalmer in Alabama, according to European news organization AFP. In a viral clip, Hirschman said he found clots in “50-to-70% of bodies,” and he shows a number of jars he says contains removed blood clots. His claims made up a good portion of the anti-vaccine documentary Died Suddenly, which is riddled with inaccuracies, according to McGill University’s Office for Science and Society.

“I am not a doctor or scientist not even a phlebotomy expert,” Hirschman told AFP. “But I am very familiar with embalming and I work with blood all the time.”

However, when AFP asked an actual doctor, they said it was impossible to tell what caused the clots from just looking.

“It is usually impossible to tell what caused the blood to clot in the first place by looking at the clot,” Pathologist David Dorward told the news service. “For example, a blood clot from a patient who had clots caused by Covid infection when compared to blood clots formed following prolonged bed rest after a major operation would look pretty much identical.”

Mortuary expert Monica Torres provided a more obvious explanation for the high number of clots.

“The blood clots are from refrigeration. It happens to many bodies,” Torres told AFP. “It’s just that there were so many bodies to process, many of them sat in refrigeration for long durations so they got blood clots. It’s not a big deal and these people are trying to make it a thing.”

Nikolaus Klupp, an associate professor of forensic medicine at the Medical University of Vienna, agreed with Torres’ explanation.

“The images look to me more like postmortem clots, mainly due to the color, the shape, and particularly because of the amount. Vital clots (clots that formed in a living person), for example in the context of disseminated intravascular coagulation are strongly attached to the vessel wall and are difficult to detach, in our experience,” he told HealthFeedback.org.

What’s more—according to esteemed medical journal The Lancet, a patient is much more likely to get blood clots from COVID-19 itself than any of the vaccines.

Looks like Agence France-Presse did some fact-checking, and therefore are untrustworthy.

[JimC]

I suspect it is often a case of "how dare those experts think they know more than me, just because of their many years of intense academic study and professional experience! "

[Sean Hayden]

Ask the experts about its origin.

[JimC]

Ask the experts about its origin.

I presume you mean the origins of covid. To me, this is an interesting perspective on the nature of professional, scientific expertise. There are some situations where virtually all experts in the field can quickly and robustly state a clear, evidence-based answer, such as in the rather stupid allegations about covid vaccine dangers, such as the clots mentioned above.

But then there are complex situations such as the scientific examination of the origins of covid. This rides on subtle, complicated analyses of viral genetics. Those with an axe to grind will quickly jump to the conclusion which satisfies their political stance, whereas in this case, experts will be more tentative, understanding that the genetic differences between a zoonotic origin and a gene-manipulation origin may be subject to a variety of interpretations. True experts are those who discuss why their particular answer may be a matter of probabilities...

[Tero]

All of the sequences of our first Covid variant in humans are found in bat viruses. They are just not the same version but in a small number of the strai s. Bats are immune to the virus more or less. This prevented any one strain from killi g all, bats, for example.

[JimC]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03-06/ ... /103551990

A 62-year-old man from Germany, who reportedly got more than 200 COVID shots, has become the focus of new research into the effects of excessive immunisation on the human body.

Researchers from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (FAU) said the man chose to receive 217 COVID vaccinations for "private reasons" within the space of 29 months.

The study reports that the man showed no "abnormalities" or vaccine-related side effects.

He also showed no sign that he had ever been infected with COVID.

"The observation that no noticeable side effects were triggered in spite of this extraordinary hypervaccination indicates that the drugs have a good degree of tolerability," Dr Schober said.

[L'Emmerdeur]

Being cooked up in globalist bioweapons labs as we speak. Stock up on ivermectin!

Confirmed by fact-checkers. That is, those rotten, disgusting people say there's nothing to this, so clearly there is something to it.

'Conspiracy Theorists Are Profiting Off a Disease That Doesn't Exist Yet'

Coined by the World Health Organization to denote a hypothetical future pandemic, "Disease X" is at the center of a blizzard of misinformation that American conspiracy theorists are amplifying – and profiting from.

The falsehoods, including that the unknown pathogen indicates an elitist plot to depopulate the Earth, appeared to originate in the United States but spilled to Asia in multiple regional languages, AFP fact-checkers found.

The fast-spreading misinformation, which experts say illustrates the perils of reduced content moderation on social media sites, threatens to fuel vaccine hesitancy and jeopardize preparation for public health emergencies four years after the outbreak of Covid-19.

Stoking fears about Disease X, right-wing influencers in the United States are also cashing in on the falsehoods by hawking medical kits which contain what health experts call an unproven Covid-19 treatment.

"Misinformation mongers are trying to exploit this conspiracy theory to sell products," Timothy Caulfield, from the University of Alberta in Canada, told AFP.

"This is often their primary mode of income. The conflict is profound. Without the evidence-free fearmongering about vaccines and government conspiracies, they'd have little or no income."

The conspiracy theories particularly took off after the World Economic Forum – a magnet for misinformation – convened a "Preparing for Disease X" panel in January focused on a possible future pandemic.

Alex Jones, the founder of the website InfoWars who has made millions spreading conspiracy theories about mass shootings and Covid-19, falsely claimed on social media that there was a globalist plan to deploy Disease X as a "genocidal kill weapon."

As the conspiracy spread to China, posts shared on TikTok and X (formerly Twitter) claimed the Chinese government was rolling out mobile cremation ovens to cope with "mass deaths."

But using reverse image searches, AFP fact-checkers found the videos in the posts actually showed pet cremation services.

Last October, AFP fact-checkers debunked online posts in Malaysia that claimed nurses were being forced to take a nonexistent vaccine for Disease X.

US cardiologist Peter McCullough, known for spreading Covid-19 misinformation, claimed without evidence that Disease X was "expected to be engineered in a biolab."

He made the claim on the website of The Wellness Company, a US-based supplements supplier where he serves as the chief scientific officer.

Urging people to "be ready" for Disease X, the website offers a "medical emergency kit" for around $300, which contains drugs including ivermectin, an unproven Covid-19 treatment.

The Gateway Pundit, a right-wing website notorious for conspiracy theories, also promoted the kits in a sponsored message titled "'DISEASE X' – Are The Globalists Planning Another Pandemic?"

"Don't be caught unprepared," the message said, leading readers to a link to order the kits.

[macdoc]

Not much changed in 200 years

[Brian Peacock]

I've got the COVIDs.

[pErvinalia]

Worse than man flu?

[Sean Hayden]

Oh man, it just won’t leave us alone. I hope it’s mild and quick.

[macdoc]

and not the long version but you won't know for a while....

[L'Emmerdeur]

Damn. Here's to a swift and complete recovery.