Skip to main content

COVID Bright Spots: Kids, Comorbidities and Getting on with Life

Lately I've seen concerning videos about the hazards of COVID vaccines: that the spike proteins the vaccines create once injected don't stay at the injection site; that the spike proteins are prevalent in ovaries and bone marrow at 48 hours (though it's not clear how long they remain); and the spike proteins themselves are damaging. I haven't been able to track down the accuracy of these claims--generic fact checkers all state "no evidence," and more technical refutations from scientists are beyond my pay grade. The original report on spike proteins in ovaries and bone marrow is in Japanese. But none of the fact checks I've read explain why the VAERS system is blowing up with reports of death and permanent disability following COVID vaccinations--why there are more deaths reported after COVID shots than after all other vaccines combined over the past 30 years or more. The VAERS list includes 17 deaths from smallpox vaccine, which hasn't been given for 50 years--so the data must go back even further than 1990. 

Deaths reported following vaccines (top 38 vaccines). Some repeated names are different kinds of vaccines for the same illness.  Data Source: United States Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), Public Health Service (PHS), Centers for Disease Control (CDC) / Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) 1990 - 06/04/2021, CDC WONDER On-line Database. Accessed at http://wonder.cdc.gov/vaers.html on Jun 13, 2021 8:49:09 PM

Could it be false reports? That's a possibility, but 1) it's a crime to make false reports to VAERS, 2) the VAERS system isn't well-known to the general public, and 3) almost every time I go to YouTube I see a news story about someone who had a heart attack or died or both right after their shot. One of my coworkers died of a heart attack a few days after her shot, and even some young people are rarely getting myocarditis (inflammation of the heart). The latter reaction is rare and as far as I know, no young person has died of it, but all of this suggests something is wrong with these vaccines. This is exactly the reason many of us took a wait-and-see approach. 

Of course, all risks are in comparison to available alternatives--or to comparable situations for some perspective. Remember the H1N1 outbreak of 2009-2010? (No? Neither did I.) That season saw 288 pediatric deaths from the flu in the US. COVID has claimed 380 kids in the US as of June 16, 2021, which averages out to 304 for one year. For every million kids under 18, 4.1 kids per year have died of COVID. But as many as 7.7 per million died in some states during the H1N1 outbreak

I've looked at various videos, studies and news reports on kids and COVID, and so far, I haven't seen any cases of kids dying of COVID without comorbidities, though it's possible that has occurred. So if you have a healthy child of normal weight, it looks like they're at less risk of dying of COVID than they would have been from the flu in 2009/2010--or most other years.

In fact, most of us without comorbidities are at far lower risk of dying than the media suggests. The CDC says, "For over 5% of [COVID] deaths, COVID-19 was the only cause mentioned on the death certificate. For deaths with conditions or causes in addition to COVID-19, on average, there were 4.0 additional conditions or causes per death." The "fact checkers" were quick to jump on sites that said that 95% of the people didn't really die of COVID. That claim is a little inaccurate, but so is the media giving the impression that we're living through a black plague. 

Lately, though, I've also seen headlines that over 99% of hospitalized COVID patients are unvaccinated. The stories carry the whiff of schadenfreude and superiority, but as I see it, it means the finger waggers can shuck their masks, drop the pretense that they're being put upon by anti-vaxxers, and find some business of their own to mind. Whatever the risks, the vaccines look like they do a good job of preventing COVID.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Fermented bread and butter pickle recipe ft. L. Plantarum

After Dr. Davis said the other night that  L. plantarum  may reduce some of the effects of the herbicide glyphosate (which is everywhere), I'm re-running my recipe for fermented bread and butter pickles. Pickling cucumbers naturally have  L. plantarum  bacteria on them, and fermenting them with some brown sugar multiplies these bacteria. (Just don't use chlorinated water to wash them.) And if you're growing your own cucumbers, avoid spraying the fruits with  Bacillus thuringiensis , or Bt (leaves and vines are OK). It's unclear what effect a big dose of Bt would have on humans. Another benefit of DIY pickles: no emulsifiers like polysorbate 80, which is a common ingredient in pickles. If you have GI problems, it could be from emulsifiers. These sweet-and-sour pickles are the tastiest I've ever made. There's just a little added sugar (some of which the bacteria will consume) and turmeric that gives the pickles their bright color.  Special equipment Quar...

Collagen-filled Low Carb Burritos

Low-carb, grain-free Mexican food is hard to find, but it's easy to make your own at home. This recipe has an authentic ingredient: carne de lengua, or beef tongue. Don't be put off: beef tongue is tender, delicious, and full of collagen. Look for it directly from farmers in your area. To cook it, cut it in 1" to 1-1/2" slices and pressure cook for one hour. Enjoy the delicious broth as a bonus. Ingredients 1 slice cooked beef tongue, peeled and cut into small cubes 1 egg wrap (I use these  from Egglife) 1/4 cup cooked black or pinto beans Chili pepper Oregano Garlic (powdered or minced) Cumin Guacamole (with no emulsifiers) Salsa Shredded cheddar cheese Sour cream or homemade cream cheese  with no emulsifiers  Put the egg wrap on a plate and put the beef and beans down the middle of it. Sprinkle with the herbs and spices. Wrap, turn over and microwave for 1-2 minutes. Spoon salsa over the burrito and sprinkle with cheese. Add guacamole and sour cream or homemade crea...

15% Off Starter Culture

Starter culture for the wonderful cream cheese I made is 15% off for the next two weeks (through June 18, 2025). The shop (BacillusBulgaricus.com) also offers rennet and starter for other cheeses, yogurt, kefir, kombucha, sour cream, fermented vegetables, and more. They ship to 118 countries across six continents. The coupon code is LORI_sekd3tkb at bacillusbulgaricus.com .  Photo from Pexels .

Getting Over Palpitations

Note to new readers: please note I'm not a health care provider and have no medical training. If you have heart palpitations, I have no idea whether the following will work for you. Over the past several days, I've had a rough time with heart palpitations and feeling physically jittery. I was wondering if I was going to turn into one of those people who can't sit still. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it would be a major lifestyle change. Kidding aside, something wasn't right and I really needed to get back to normal. I tried popping potassium pills like candy. I ate more. I doubled up on my iron dose. I went to yoga and even got on the treadmill at 6 AM yesterday. I tried the nuclear option of eating more carbs to stop peeing away minerals. Most of these things helped, but the problem kept coming back. A comment from Galina made me look up epinephrine, one of the drugs my surgeon used to anesthetize me Friday. First, the assistant at the surge...

Carrageenan: A Sickening Thickener. Is it a Migraine Menace?

Let me tell you about my ride in an ambulance last night. I woke up at six o'clock from a nap with a mild headache. I ate dinner and took my vitamins, along with a couple of extra magnesium pills. Since magnesium helps my TMJ flare-ups, I thought it might help my headache. Then I went to see my mother. A few hours later, I had a severe headache, sinus pain and nausea. During a brief respite from the pain, I left for home, but less than a mile later, I got out of my car and threw up. A cop, Officer Fisher, pulled up behind me and asked if I was okay. He believed me when he said I hadn't been drinking, but he said I seemed lethargic and he wanted the paramedics to see me. (Later he mentioned that a man he'd recently stopped was having a stroke.) Thinking I had a migraine headache, the paramedics wanted to take me to the hospital. But since I knew that doctors don't know what causes migraine headaches, and I didn't know what effect their medicine would have on m...