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Data: Young Adults Dying in Record Numbers, but Not From COVID
Nurse educator Dr. John Campbell is sounding the alert on a wave of unexplained deaths.
According to the government data that Campbell has reviewed, many more people are dying than would be expected based on averages from the last five to seven years, and averages from years prior to COVID. Many of these excess deaths are occurring in young, otherwise healthy adults.
Campbell has 2.44 million subscribers on his YouTube channel. He recently shared more government data showing that young and healthy people keep unexpectedly dying, and not of COVID.
In the first week after Campbell posted one such video, “Excess deaths, the data,” on Aug. 28, it had garnered over 916,000 views and more than 20,000 comments.
‘They Are Being Ignored by the System’: Plaintiffs’ Attorneys Say Those Injured by COVID Vaccines Have Little Recourse
Plaintiffs’ attorneys have expressed concerns about the growing number of COVID-19 vaccine injury claimants who may be unable to receive compensation because of what the lawyers describe as an overloaded and underequipped government program.
As Politico reported in June, the Countermeasure Injury Compensation Program (CICP) received just 500 complaints between 2010 and 2020. But over the course of two years during the COVID-19 pandemic, the program received more than 8,000 complaints.
As of Aug. 1, the federal CICP had received 9,657 injury claims between 2020 and 2022 — 9,153 of which were related to COVID-19 vaccines. More than 6,000 allege injuries or deaths from the vaccine. The CICP has thus far not actually compensated a COVID claim and has determined just one of them to be eligible for compensation. That claim is pending review.
The CICP was established through the federal Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) with the goal of compensating claimants alleging injuries caused by vaccine products. But, according to Andrew Downing of Phoenix-based personal injury firm Downing, Allison & Jorgenson, the program was not designed to handle such a sudden influx of claims.
Two Antibodies Identified in Israel Can Fight All Known COVID Strains, Study Finds
Israeli scientists say they have identified antibodies that are so powerful in neutralizing the coronavirus that they could eliminate the need for more vaccine boosters.
A research team at Tel Aviv University experimented with numerous antibodies and found that two, in particular, neutralize all known strains of the coronavirus, including Delta and Omicron, in a lab setting.
Antibody infusions are already used to treat some coronavirus patients, and microbiologist Dr. Natalia Freund, who directed the new study, said the antibodies she identified could be used to concoct a particularly potent infusion.
Based on their performance in lab conditions, the antibodies could provide the extra protection that today comes from booster shots, she said, adding that this could potentially make extra shots unnecessary among vaccinated people.
U.S. COVID Vaccine Market Could Reach $13 Billion — Moderna Exec
The annual U.S. COVID-19 vaccine market going forward could be in the range of $5.2 billion to $12.9 billion, depending on the price of shots and who is eligible to receive them, Moderna Inc.’s (MRNA.O) chief commercial officer said on Thursday.
Arpa Garay, speaking at Moderna’s annual research and development event, said that range was based on price assumptions of $64 to $100 per shot.
The low end of the estimate also assumes only the high-risk population in the United States would be eligible for boosters — some 82 million people. The high end is based on all 258 million American adults being eligible for the shots and assumes half would get them.
GOP Gives Thumbs Down to Biden’s $47 Billion Emergency Request
President Joe Biden’s request for more than $47 billion in emergency funding to help Ukraine and tackle COVID-19, monkeypox and natural disasters is encountering deep skepticism from Senate Republicans, signaling a showdown ahead.
The early resistance on the size and scope of the spending request points to the fraught negotiations to come as Congress labors to pass a stopgap spending bill that would keep the federal government running past Oct. 1 or risk a federal shutdown.
Long COVID’s Link to Suicide: Scientists Warn of Hidden Crisis
Long COVID is a complex medical condition that can be hard to diagnose as it has a range of more than 200 symptoms — some of which can resemble other illnesses — from exhaustion and cognitive impairment to pain, fever and heart palpitations, according to the World Health Organization.
There is no authoritative data on the frequency of suicides among sufferers. Several scientists from organizations including the U.S. National Institutes of Health and Britain’s data-collection agency are beginning to study a potential link following evidence of increased cases of depression and suicidal thoughts among people with long COVID, as well as a growing number of known deaths.
Among key questions now being examined by researchers: does the risk of suicide potentially increase among patients because the virus is changing brain biology? Or does the loss of their ability to function as they once did push people to the brink, as can happen with other long-term health conditions?
Billionaire-Backed Group Steps up Hunt for Long COVID Treatment
A group of top researchers, clinicians and patients stepped up efforts to combat Long COVID on Thursday, launching a new billionaire-backed initiative to search for drivers of the poorly understood condition and ultimately find treatments to help the millions of people around the world living with the disease.
The Long COVID Research Initiative (LCRI) hopes to accelerate efforts to understand and treat Long COVID, a sometimes disabling condition that lingers for months or years after infection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
The group’s first goal — supported by $15 million dollars in funding from Balvi, a scientific investment fund led by crypto mogul and Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin — will be to investigate the causes of Long COVID, with a particular focus on whether the virus stubbornly persists in the body after initial infection.
Vitamin D Supplements Won’t Shield You From COVID, Studies Find
U.S. News & World Report reported:
While vitamin D got some attention early in the pandemic, it does not reduce the risk of either COVID-19 or other respiratory infections, two new clinical trials found.
Both studies, one done in the United Kingdom and the other in Norway, found that boosting levels of vitamin D in adults during the pandemic didn’t help protect against respiratory viruses, even though byproducts from the vitamin have long been noted for their support of immune responses to viruses and bacteria.
Limitations were that in the British trial, participants who were taking vitamin D knew it and about half of the control group took a vitamin D supplement on at least one occasion during the trial. In Norway, limitations were that participants were young and healthy and those tested started the trial with adequate vitamin D levels.
Both studies were published online on Sept. 7 in the BMJ.
