The World Health Organization (WHO) announced a “third wave” in the continuing COVID-19 pandemic.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus described the recent data in an address to the Emergency Committee on COVID-19, established under the International Health Regulations (IHR), a treaty that guides global response to public health risks.Recalling the sustained decline in COVID-19 cases and deaths that was being driven, in recent months, by increasing vaccination rates in Europe and North America, he sounded alarms over the fresh reversal of that positive trend.“Unfortunately…we are now in the early stages of a third wave”, he said.
And while the Biden administration and its media minions continue to press for vaccination, we have troubling news that the vaccines may not be as effective as initially hoped. For example, Israel has widely distributed the Pfizer vaccine, which scientists originally touted as over 90% effective.
Now Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett says that the vaccine’s protection against the Delta variant is not as robust as initially assessed.
The effectiveness of the Pfizer vaccine against the Delta variant is “weaker” than health officials hoped, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said Friday, as 858 people tested positive for coronavirus and more countries were added to the list of places having high infection rates.“We do not know exactly to what degree the vaccine helps, but it is significantly less,” Bennett said.The prime minister held a meeting of top health officials and ministers to discuss the next steps for managing the virus in light of the numbers in Israel and what Bennett described as “the Delta mutation leaping forward around the world, including in vaccinated countries such as Britain, Israel and the US.”…More than 5.7 million Israelis have received at least one shot of the Pfizer vaccine and the country continues to push for citizens – especially teenagers – to go out and get the jab.
And while the vaccines appear to prevent more severe disease outcomes, the trend is disappointing for experimental vaccines. Furthermore, the reduced effectiveness will have to become part of the risk assessment calculation, especially after reports of heart inflammation and other adverse reactions following vaccination.
If these findings of vaccine effectiveness stand, then it will be difficult to argue that we can vaccinate our way to herd immunity. Therefore, it may be time to have a serious conversation about achieving herd immunity the old-fashioned way: The naturally-obtained immunity through actual infection.
In its dreadful reporting about the pandemic, the press has failed to highlight that for most people, COVID-19 infection results in a mild to severe cold. The vast majority of younger people with no underlying conditions are not at risk for a significant infection. Paired with the potential side effects and the potentially diminishing effectiveness of the vaccines, the argument that they must be vaccinated no longer makes sense.
Politicians, public health officials, and the press must do a better job at stressing individual risk factors. For example, 40% of those who died from COVID-19 had diabetes, according to a recent study.
“The pandemic disproportionately impacted people living with diabetes,” the ADA’s chief scientific and medical officer, Dr. Robert Gabbay, told HealthDay Now last week.He called the statistic “really quite sobering,” given that so many of the US pandemic deaths came from a group making up just 10 percent of the population.As of Friday, the US had seen 608,495 deaths from COVID-19, according to Johns Hopkins University — which would make nearly 245,000 of them diabetics.“I can’t say this strongly enough — if you have diabetes, get vaccinated,” Gabbay said.“With the risk of hospitalization and death related to COVID being six to 12 times higher for people with diabetes, it’s time to get vaccinated,” he insisted.
As I noted early on in this pandemic, exercise and a good diet are critical in the battle against the coronavirus. Paired with more effective treatments and early diagnosis of the illness, this classic approach to handling the virus appears to now be the best option in the future.
Beyond these new reports, it is pretty clear that people worldwide are tired of ineffective mask mandates and public health rules. We have seen protests about COVID-19 restrictions worldwide because there is no definitive way to “flatten the curve” ever. In this country, parents are protesting over mask mandates in schools and delaying returning to regular schedules.
One last thought: Nobody is afraid of the common cold. Here is a medical analysis of its disease outcomes well worth pondering:
Respiratory viral infections, also known as the common cold, are the most common infections in humans. Despite their benign nature, they are a major cause of morbidity and mortality on a worldwide basis.Several viruses have been associated with such illness, of which rhinovirus is the most common. Symptom production is a combination of viral cytopathic effect and the activation of inflammatory pathways.Therefore, antiviral treatment alone may not be able to prevent these events. The optimal use of such agents also requires earlier initiation; therefore, it is important to develop accurate and rapid diagnostic techniques for respiratory viruses. Before any reliable and effective treatment is available, symptomatic therapies may remain the only possible choice of management.
In conclusion: I believe that the “third wave” shows COVID-19 is here to stay. Thank you, China!
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