Tags
admissions as COVID patients, breakthrough cases, COVID-19 diagnoses, data limitations, health care workers, Israel, Jennifer Margulis, overcounting COVID, vaccinated vs. unvaccinaed, vaccine hesitancy
Hat tip: Concerned American Dad
Source: The Epoch Times
Who’s Really Being Hospitalized?
Breakthrough cases reach majority levels in some jurisdictions but numbers elude CDC
By Jennifer Margulis, PhD
August 30, 2021 Updated: September 1, 2021
“I’m not going to arm wrestle with the administration about where to put you,” Dr. C., a highly skilled gastroenterologist, said gently to my friend who was in bed in a triage room in the ER. “We just want to get you into a bed so we can figure out what’s wrong and get you treated.”
We were at our small town’s hospital. No one was sure why, but my friend had not been able to keep anything more than a handful of raspberries down since a complicated surgery for a chronic health condition three weeks before. Dehydrated and unable to eat, my friend had been violently vomiting after taking just a sip of water or sucking on an ice chip, and had lost nearly twenty-five pounds.
I was by my husband’s side when he had a gallbladder attack so severe that it left his hands shaking. I’ve had three unmedicated childbirths and attended many more, both as a journalist and a patient advocate. Still, I’ve never seen a human in so much pain.
Diagnosed with a Pancreas Disorder, Admitted as a COVID Patient
After a battery of testing, my friend was diagnosed with pancreatitis. But it was easier for the hospital bureaucracy to register the admission as a COVID case.
Let me explain. This patient had none of the classic symptoms of COVID: No shortness of breath, no fever, no chills, no congestion, no loss of sense of smell or taste, no neurological issues. The only COVID symptoms my friend had were nausea and fatigue, which could also be explained by the surgery. However, nearly three weeks earlier, a COVID test had come back positive.
The mainstream media is reporting that severe COVID cases are mainly among unvaccinated people. An Associated Press headline from June 29 reads: “Nearly all COVID deaths in US are now among unvaccinated.” Another, from the same date: “Vast majority of ICU patients with COVID-19 are unvaccinated, ABC News survey finds.”
Is that what’s really going on? It’s certainly not the case in Israel, the first country to fully vaccinate a majority of its citizens against the virus. Now it has one of the highest daily infection rates and the majority of people catching the virus (77 percent to 83 percent, depending on age) are already vaccinated, according to data collected by the Israeli government.
After carefully reviewing the available data, including the safety and efficacy profiles of the mRNA vaccines, my friend had taken a cautious approach. Though a medical doctor who gives vaccines in the office every day, my friend opted to wait and see. According to WebMD, a “huge number” of frontline hospital workers have also chosen not to get the vaccine. Indeed, various news reports, from California to New York, confirm that up to 40 percent of health care workers have decided the risks of the vaccines do not outweigh the benefits.
After admission, I spoke to the nurse on the COVID ward. She was suited up in a plastic yellow disposable gown, teal gloves, and two masks underneath a recirculating personal respiratory system that buzzed so loudly she could barely hear. The nurse told me that she had gotten both vaccines but she was feeling worried: “Two thirds of my patients are fully vaccinated,” she said.
Data Limitations
How can there be such a disconnect between what the COVID ward nurse told me and the mainstream media reports? For one thing, it is very hard to get any kind of accuracy when it comes to actual numbers. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have publicly acknowledged that they do not have accurate data.
As reported by the Associated Press, “The CDC itself has not estimated what percentage of hospitalizations and deaths are in fully vaccinated people, citing limitations in the data.”
At the same time, data collection is done on a state by state basis. In most states, a person is only considered fully vaccinated fourteen days after they have had the full series of the vaccine.
This means that anyone coming into an American hospital who has only had one dose, or who has had both vaccines but had the second one less than two weeks prior, will likely be counted as “unvaccinated.”
So when the South Carolina’s Department of Health and Environmental Control released a report about COVID severity on July 23, 2021, they reported higher morbidity and mortality rates in the “not fully vaccinated.” Are these people who have had one vaccine and gotten sick, two vaccines and gotten sick, or no vaccines at all? Without more details, it is impossible to know what is really going on.
“We don’t have accurate numbers,” insists Dr. James Neuenschwander, an expert on vaccine safety based in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
But what we do know, Neuenschwander says, is that the vaccines are not as effective as public health officials told us they would be. “This is a product that’s not doing what it’s supposed to do. It’s supposed to stop transmission of this virus and it’s not doing that.”
Overcounting COVID
Then there is the problem of attributing severe illness and deaths from other causes to COVID, like in my friend’s case. Health authorities around the world have been doing this since the beginning of the COVID crisis. For example, a young man in Orange County, Florida who died in a motorcycle crash last summer was originally considered a COVID death by state health officials (after Fox News investigation the classification was changed.) And a middle-aged construction worker fell off a ladder in Croatia and was also counted as a death from COVID (whether having COVID played a role in his death is still unclear.)
To muddy the waters further, even people who test negative for COVID are sometimes counted as COVID deaths.
Consider the case of 26-year-old Matthew Irvin, a father of three from Yamhill County, Oregon. As reported by KGW8 News, Irvin went to the ER with stomach pain, nausea, and diarrhea on July 5, 2020. But instead of admitting him to the hospital, the doctors sent him home.
Five days later, on July 10, 2020, Irvin died. Though his COVID test came back negative two days after his death and his family told reporters and public health officials that no one Irvin had been around had any COVID symptoms, the medical examiner allegedly told the family that an autopsy was not necessary, listing his death as a coronavirus case. It took the Oregon Health Authority two and a half months to correct the mistake.
In an even more striking example of overcounting COVID deaths, a nursing home in New Jersey that only has 90 beds was wrongly reported as having 753 deaths from COVID. According to a spokesman, they had fewer than twenty deaths. In other words, the number of deaths was over-reported by 3,700 percent.
Who’s Suffering from Severe COVID, Vaccinated or Unvaccinated?
In countries with the highest numbers of vaccinated individuals, we are also seeing high numbers of infections. Iceland has one of the most vaccinated populations in the world (over 82 percent) and is reporting that 77 percent of new COVID cases are in fully vaccinated Icelanders, according to Ásthildur Knútsdóttir, Director General of the Ministry of Health.
According to news reports, over 85 percent of the Israeli adult population has been vaccinated. But a July report from Israel’s Ministry of Health found that Pfizer’s vaccine is only 39 percent effective. Though Israeli health officials are telling the public that the cases are more mild in vaccinated individuals, this upsurge in COVID cases and deaths is leading Israel’s prime minister to issue new restrictions.
Dr. Peter McCullough, an academic internist and cardiologist in practice in Dallas, Texas, says that a large number of people in the hospitals right now have, indeed, been fully vaccinated. “Fully vaccinated people are being hospitalized, and … 19 percent of them have died,” McCullough says. “This is not a crisis of the unvaccinated. That’s just a talking point. The vaccinated are participating in this.”
Other physicians are seeing the same thing. “In my practice multiple patients who are fully vaccinated have been admitted to local hospitals,” says Dr. Jeffrey I. Barke, a board-certified primary care physician based in Newport Beach, California. Barke believes part of the problem is exaggeration of the efficacy: “If the vaccine works so well, why are we now pushing a booster?”
Jennifer Margulis
Jennifer Margulis, Ph.D., is an award-winning journalist and author of Your Baby, Your Way: Taking Charge of Your Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Parenting Decisions for a Happier, Healthier Family. A Fulbright awardee and mother of four, she has worked on a child survival campaign in West Africa, advocated for an end to child slavery in Pakistan on prime-time TV in France, and taught post-colonial literature to non-traditional students in inner-city Atlanta. Learn more about her at JenniferMargulis.net
Taking Sides 
This is happening because any symptom, from sneezing to stomachache, is considered a Covid-19 symptom. I think such a wide range of symptoms has never been seen in any disease in the history of the world. Perhaps more precisely, so many symptoms were not consciously associated with a disease.
Followings are that happened to an earthling friend of mine.
He goes to internal medicine with the difficulty of the defecation. However, due to health policies, Covid-19 PCR test is requested from patients who step into state hospitals and will undergo tests in departments related to internal diseases.
It is the PCR test before the tests to be done for the intestinal tests as a result of the doctor’s examination. By the way, let me point out, he said he was not able to make defecation for 3 days at that day.
Anyway, his PCR test comes back positive. And on the fourth day they say “we will under quarantine you, your test is positive, start using these drugs at home,” and sent him home. By the way, my friend’s stomach is swollen. Because he was in the 4th day his defecation problem. On the other hand, he does not show any symptoms of Covid-19.
He asks the doctor, “then how will my bowel problem be solved? What about the tests about this?” The doctor says, “Let’s deal with a Covid-19 first, after we will deal with it.”
Then my friend goes home, looks at the drugs in his hand, but naturally he has a terrible stomachache, and chose not to take these drugs. He goes to a private hospital on the next day, by the way, on the 5th day of course. He does not tell the doctor at the private hospital that the Covid-19 test is positive, and he tells about his complaint. The doctor immediately palpates him and says he has hemorrhoids. And he says “it is big and we have to operate on you.” They talk and agree with the doctor for the surgery. And the doctor wants a PCR test in that private hospital. This test is requested from every patient who will undergo surgery whether state of private hospital. Anyway, my friend’s test, which was positive two days ago, turns out to be negative this time in the private hospital, and they take him to surgery one day later.
In short, Norman, you see, even if you have hemorrhoids, and you can’t even go to the toilet for five days, the priority is more in PCR tests that are not accurate than your real health problems!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I forgot to say, after his surgery he went out hospital in 3rd day and went to another state hospital, and wanted to a PCR test and plus antibody test. And this time, his PCR test was negative and there was no any antibody against Covid-19 in his body. So he was never Covid-19.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Without testing asymptomatic patients, there would be no pandemic to speak of.
This is not to deny the reality of COVID-19 or the seriousness of it, but to underscore that for the majority of the population there simply is no threat. Furthermore, the story you tell highlights the unsuitability of PCR as a standalone diagnostic tool.
Anecdotally: since the beginning of this ‘pandemic,’ I personally know of only one person who was diagnosed with COVID-19 and who experienced the mildest of symptoms, but I know of several people who experienced what on the face of it appear to be adverse events associated with the vaccines: one person had extensive bruising on one arm, to the point where they consulted with a doctor, who said he’d never seen anything like it, but didn’t connect it to the vaccines; one came down with Bell’s palsy; one had a heart attack and died.
Did the vaccines cause these events? I can’t say for sure. But there you have three coincidences of note that I personally know of. As for anyone having died of COVID-19 among my circle of acquaintances, I know and have heard of not a single case.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Here, PCR tests have been made mandatory for unvaccinated workers at every factory, as of yesterday by the Department of Labor. Can you think of something like a joke? Yesterday, “PCR tests are not reliable,” said a Prof, a professor in the field of infectious diseases, who has been appeared on television almost every day, and even added that “the disease is transmitted to unvaccinated people from those who are vaccinated”. Until yesterday every pro covid mrna vaccine people respected his words, suddenly started to find him unreliable.(!) On the other hand, the ministry of health said that those who have two doses of Biontech/Pfizer vaccine should have the third “reminder”(?) dose after six months. This is another black humor. Didn’t these people get their second dose of this mRNA vaccine just to remind them? After third dose they would say “you need to get forth “reminder” dose for 3rd. After 4rt dose they will say you need to get 5th dose. And all will these happen in a year and half; and maybe more dose?
And more interestingly, “when 80% of the population is vaccinated, there is herd immunity.” All authorities said this, maybe you remmeber the arguments in UK about this. It was said same in here too. The vaccination rate of my city is 86%. And in this city, the incidence of the disease in 100 thousand people in the last week is 46 people. So this city didn’t get herd immunity? But they still say “get the vaccine, get the third dose, get the fourth dose.” Well, what happened to herd immunity?
“Did the vaccines cause these events? I can’t say for sure.” There was a news yesterday. Here in another city, it published in a local newspaper and we’ve read on net. According to the news, the health director of that province said in the public hospital of that city, “35 covid patients, 33 of whom were not vaccinated”. However, those who made the news reached the records of the hospital mentioned by the provincial health director, and published them. And according to the hospital records published by the newspaper, it was reported that 43 of 66 patients were vaccinated at the same hospital. Even again according to the charts on that newspaper in this 66 patients, 3 patients were vaccinated with 3 doses of Biontech/Pfizer. If you want to see the news I can add the link here, you can read by translate page. I have checked its translate can be understood, it is okay.
LikeLike
Yes, post that link when you get the time. That would be appreciated.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Unfortunately link is dead anymore. If it would be another news related with it, I will add here.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Actually, I was going to ask you something else here, Norman. I have digged another issues.:) You’ve done a lot more research on this since this crisis began, and you’re more knowledgeable than me.
Let us now consider the smallpox vaccine. People who get the smallpox vaccine don’t get smallpox, do they? Is not getting the disease the same as both not showing and not experiencing the symptoms of the disease? So someone who’s had the smallpox vaccine gets over it without showing and experiencing symptoms of the disease?
I think about it for two days. In other words, the vaccine is to prevent the symptoms, that is, to increase the body’s ability to resist the damage caused by these symptoms, and is not the logic of “I fought this war once, now I have super Jedi cells who will cope with this disease”?
At this point, the following situation arises. If the smallpox vaccine is completely preventive, why are these covid vaccines not preventive, or even dispersive?
So what does it mean that the patient is spreading the symptoms even though he’s not showing them? I am speaking due to that professor’s statement, which I mentioned above, that vaccinated people infect the unvaccinated with this disease. So that’s not a vaccine? This is something else, isn’t it?
When I asked a friend about this, he said that this virus has mutations. But weren’t mutations of viruses always less effective forms throughout history?
So I wanted to ask you these briefly. 🙂
LikeLike
Hey, Migo
Haven’t had time yet to properly reply to your comments. I’ll try to get to this, this evening. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Apologies for taking so long to get back to you.
I’m not even sure that the smallpox vaccine is completely preventative. I think there is a smallpox variant that affects about 15% of those vaccinated. So even good vaccines are not completely effective, and some like tetanus require subsequent boosters.
As for why the mRNA vaccines are not so good — they do wane in a very short time, somewhere in the neighbourhood of 6 months — nobody really knows as yet.
But two possibilities come to mind: a) the mRNA vaccines only expose the immune system to a very small selection of the proteins that comprise the entire virus. Immunity that develops from being exposed to the entire virus is thought to be more robust than that developed from exposure to only a small piece of the virus; b) the mechanics of the infection make the production of antibodies against the virus rather pointless because this isn’t typically an infection of the bloodstream, which is where antibodies circulate and act. As Professor Sucharit Bhakdi likes to put it, SARS-CoV-2 infects the airways and tends to remain in the airways and does not typically migrate, as does smallpox, for example, into the vascular system; consequently, stimulating the production of antibodies against it is rather pointless. The only immunity that works against such a respiratory virus, according to Bhakdi, is what he calls “cellular immunity.” This is the main reason, according to Bhakdi, that no effective vaccine against “respiratory viruses,” i.e., viruses that tend only to colonize the respiratory tracts, will ever be developed.
Asymptomatic transmission is something new if it even exists. In fact, it’s never been demonstrated to occur. It’s more an invention serving propaganda purposes than anything grounded in observation. Of course, there might be a very short period of time during which a person is becoming ill without knowing about it and in that period is infectious. Typically, however, you feel sick and then only after do you become infectious to others. Asymptomatic transmission is a hypothesis searching for evidence, of which none has yet materialized.
Viruses are always mutating, 24/7. (Fun fact: at last count, if my memory serves, Prof. D. Raoult’s team at the IHU had identified some 40 thousand strains. Obviously, not all became dominant. But variants are emerging all the time though they are not all very concerning.) And yes, the trajectory of viral evolution entails more infectious strains that are less lethal or virulent over time. That’s how respiratory viruses become endemic, that is to say, seasonal nuisances. If hosts die, so do the viruses. Consequently, only viruses that do not kill their hosts survive. This doesn’t mean that viruses ‘deliberately’ avoid killing their hosts, but rather that selection pressure is such that virulent strains tend to disappear with their disappearing hosts, and less virulent viruses tend to survive with their surviving hosts.
Aye! Hope that helps and that I haven’t committed too many scientific blunders.
LikeLiked by 1 person
“I’m not even sure that the smallpox vaccine is completely preventative. I think there is a smallpox variant that affects about 15% of those vaccinated.” I’ve never heard of it. New information for me. So I always believe that smallpox is completely eradicated by vaccination. Based on what you said so, “the vaccines never fully protect against disease, and so we can’t expect the same from all covid-19 and mRNA vaccines”? Also what Bhakdi says about issue seem reasonable.
Based on what you said about viruses, can we say that viruses are a kind of politician? 🙂 Approaching the voters, needing them for their existence, forcing the elector to pay the tax when elected (that is, when the virus settles in the human body), forcing him to do things that will not be the electorate when he wants, and at the same time needing their applauses, and if the voter forces and pushes him, then he softens himself a little bit, changes the appearance and looks for other ways, but basically the same on base. Cunning creatures.:)
Also, I don’t think so you committed too many scientific blunders.
Even to an alien like me who is not good with chemistry and biology, your explanations seemed logical and explanatory. As good as I am at physics and math, I’ve always been bad at chemistry and biology. I don’t know why, but my brain is having such a hard time understanding these things. Some times, that since the beginning of the epidemic, especially when reading the reports published in publications such as the Lancet, I have read the same article 3 times to understand. It’s been a difficult process for me, and I’ve stopped reading them anyway.:) So all in all, thanks Norman, my friend, for your time and clarification!
LikeLiked by 1 person