Let's fact check the nonsense being pushed by Covid-denier, David Horowitz at The Blaze. No evidence that the low COVID-19 case rate in Sweden is due to herd immunity; vaccines don’t lead to new variants of SARS-CoV-2 https://healthfeedback.org/claimrev...nity-vaccines-dont-create-variants-the-blaze/ CLAIM “Sweden obliterates the lie of ‘vaccines’ as ticket to ending pandemic” mass vaccination create vaccine-mediated viral enhancement SOURCE: Daniel Horowitz, The Blaze, 16 Nov. 2021 DETAILS Factually inaccurate: Contrary to the article, Sweden did experience a spike in COVID-19 cases in July 2021 due to the Delta variant, which has since become the predominant variant in the country. Inadequate support: There’s no evidence that COVID-19 vaccines lead to the generation of variants. In fact, the Delta variant was first detected months before vaccines received authorization. The article also repeatedly claimed that Sweden achieved herd immunity, but offered no evidence for this claim. KEY TAKE AWAY Although Sweden started its COVID-19 vaccination campaign later than other countries, as of November 2021, its vaccine coverage is similar to that of the U.S. and the U.K. There is no evidence that the low number of COVID-19 cases in Sweden is due to herd immunity rather than vaccination, which scientific evidence has shown to reduce COVID-19 transmission. There is no evidence supporting the claim that COVID-19 vaccines lead to more dangerous variants. The evidence from clinical trials and the monitoring of vaccination campaigns show that COVID-19 vaccines are effective at reducing COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths. FULL CLAIM: “The fact that Sweden has never gotten a Delta wave demonstrates that natural immunity alone would have ended this pandemic”; “vaccinologists like Geert Vanden Bossche and Luc Montagnier were correct when they predicted that mass vaccination with a suboptimal, non-sterilizing vaccine in middle of a pandemic would create vaccine-mediated viral enhancement” REVIEW Various countries experienced a rise in COVID-19 cases in 2021 despite ongoing vaccination campaigns. Certain outlets took advantage of the Delta wave to question the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccines. An example of this is this article by Daniel Horowitz, published in The Blaze on 16 November 2021. Horowitz previously authored articles that contained inaccurate and misleading information about face masks and COVID-19 vaccines, which Health Feedback addressed here and here. The article became viral shortly after publication—as of 23 November 2021, it received more than 7,000 engagements on Facebook according to social media analytics tool CrowdTangle. However, as we will explain below, the claims made in the article are inaccurate and unsubstantiated. The article drew attention to the low number of COVID-19 cases in Sweden in November 2021 relative to case numbers in other countries and claimed that this occurrence “obliterates the lie of ‘vaccines’ as ticket to ending pandemic”. The article also linked vaccines to the increase in new COVID-19 cases, claiming that this was evidence that the vaccines cause “vaccine-mediated viral enhancement”, as scientists such as Geert Vanden Bossche and Luc Montagnier alleged. However, the decrease in COVID-19 cases, deaths and hospitalizations in Sweden after July 2021 coincides in time with the increase in the proportion of vaccinated people in the country, contradicting this claim (Figure 1). Figure 1. COVID-19 vaccine doses administered, new cases of COVID-19, patients in ICU and new deaths due to COVID-19 in Sweden, relative to population in the country. Data retrieved on 26 November 2021. Source: Our World in Data. Claim 1 (Inaccurate): “Sweden has never gotten a Delta wave” The article stated that “the Swedes never experienced a single Delta wave”, but Sweden did see a rise in COVID-19 cases in which Delta was the dominant variant in July 2021. Delta has since become the prevalent variant of SARS-CoV-2 in the country. Although the numbers of new cases since July 2021 were lower than those experienced during the previous two waves, they were similar to those experienced by Sweden during the first wave of COVID-19, between March to August 2020. Furthermore, the number of cases due to Delta in the country is on the rise at the time of this review’s writing (Figure 2). Overall, since Delta became the predominant variant in Sweden in July 2021, there have been more than 105,000 new cases and around 500 deaths due to COVID-19. This accounts for approximately 9% of COVID-19 cases in Sweden (out of a total of 1.2 million cases since the start of the pandemic, as of 26 November 2021), and about 3% of all COVID-19 deaths in the country (out of a total of 15,145 deaths). Figure 2. Daily new confirmed cases of COVID-19 per million people in Sweden, 7-day rolling average. Data retrieved on 26 November 2021. Source: Our World in Data. Claim 2 (Inaccurate): COVID-19 vaccines led to “vaccine-mediated viral enhancement” The article claimed that COVID-19 vaccination made SARS-CoV-2 more dangerous due to a phenomenon called “vaccine-mediated viral enhancement”. This may be a reference to an earlier claim that the COVID-19 vaccines cause antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE). This claim was debunked by Health Feedback here. Furthermore, there is ample evidence that COVID-19 vaccines provide protection against the disease, preventing hospitalizations and deaths. This is inconsistent with the claim that COVID-19 vaccines cause ADE. Another way to interpret the term “vaccine-mediated viral enhancement”, which isn’t a known scientific concept, is based on the article’s claim that vaccination “makes the virus learn to grow stronger and more durable”, in reference to the emergence of the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2. However, this variant of the virus was first isolated in India in October 2020, months before the vaccination campaign started, so it’s impossible for vaccination to have caused the Delta variant. The article also claimed that Geert Vanden Bossche and Luc Montagnier were right in their predictions about COVID-19 vaccines. Vanden Bossche published an open letter claiming that COVID-19 vaccination campaigns would accelerate the emergence of dangerous variants of the virus. But his hypotheses weren’t founded on evidence nor were they supported by past experience with other vaccination campaigns, like those for measles and mumps, as explained in this claim review by Health Feedback and this article by McGill University’s Office for Science and Society. As for Montagnier, he claimed in a video that “the new variants are a production and result from the vaccination” and “the curve of vaccination is followed by the curve of deaths”, referring to ADE. These claims have been addressed in several fact-checks, like this one from PolitiFact and this one by Reuters. Claim 3 (Unsupported): The low number of COVID-19 cases in Sweden is due to herd immunity from previous infections The article’s central argument rests on its claim that the lower number of COVID-19 cases in Sweden relative to other countries is explained by herd immunity of the population to COVID-19, stating that “the fact that Sweden has never gotten a Delta wave demonstrates that natural immunity alone would have ended this pandemic”. The article claimed that since Sweden already achieved herd immunity through infection before the vaccines, vaccination doesn’t explain the low number of COVID-19 cases in the country. The article went as far as to claim that the incidence rate of COVID-19 would be still the same even if Sweden’s population hadn’t been vaccinated. Apart from the inaccurate claim that “has never gotten a Delta wave”, as explained earlier Horowitz provided no evidence to support his assumption that Sweden already achieved infection-induced herd immunity, or “natural immunity” as the article termed it. The article by The Blaze indicated that Sweden started its COVID-19 vaccination campaign later than other countries such as the U.S. or the U.K. However, current vaccine coverage in the country is similar to those countries. According to data collected by Reuters, Sweden has administered more than 15,250,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines as of 23 November 2021. According to Our World in Data, 69% of Sweden’s population has already been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. This figure is similar to those in countries such as the U.K. (68%) or Germany (68%), and higher than that of the U.S. (58%) or the average for European countries (57%) (Figure 3). Figure 3. Proportion of fully vaccinated people in different countries. Data retrieved on 26 November 2021. Source: Our World in Data. Current data suggest that vaccines reduce COVID-19 transmission[1], even for the Delta variant[2]. Therefore, since vaccines reduce the transmission of COVID-19, we cannot dismiss their contribution to Sweden’s currently low number of cases, as Horowitz did. Claim 4 (Misleading): A study carried out in Sweden “found no effectiveness from the Pfizer shot after 6-7 months” The article cited a study carried out in Sweden examining the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines over nine months[3]. The article claimed that “[the study] found that after 6-7 months, ‘no effectiveness could be detected’ from the Pfizer shot” and that “for some older adults, the shots are as much as -77% effective” after seven months. However, this is an incomplete and misleading interpretation of the study’s results. While the study reported that “from day 211 and onwards no effectiveness could be detected”, this finding was with regards to vaccine effectiveness against symptomatic infection, as shown in the data from the study’s Supplemental Table 4). The study found that vaccine effectiveness against COVID-19 hospitalization and death remained high even nine months after vaccination, with over 50% of effectiveness against severe illness for all groups in the study (as shown in its Supplemental Table 5), and the authors concluded that their findings “[strengthen] the evidence-based rationale for administration of a third booster dose”. In conclusion, the article didn’t provide evidence that infection-induced immunity is the cause of the low number of cases in Sweden. Given that vaccine coverage in the country is nearly 70%, which is similar to other countries like the U.K. or Germany, vaccines can’t be ruled out as the cause of the reduction in Sweden’s COVID-19 cases. There’s also no evidence supporting the article’s claim that vaccines produce variants that are more dangerous. REFERENCES 1 – Shah et al. (2021) Effect of Vaccination on Transmission of SARS-CoV-2. The New England Journal of Medicine. 2 – Wilder-Smith (2021) What is the vaccine effect on reducing transmission in the context of the SARS-CoV-2 delta variant? The Lancet Infectious Diseases. 3 – Nordström et al. (2021) Effectiveness of Covid-19 vaccination against risk of symptomatic infection, hospitalization, and death up to 9 months: a Swedish total-population cohort study. Social Science Research Network. [Note: This is a preprint that has not yet been peer-reviewed at the time of this review’s publication.] Tags: COVIDFACTCHECK
Let's fact check the latest lies being pushed by Covid-deniers about Long Covid. At what point do we start prosecuting people deliberately spreading misinformation about Covid online which is killing tens of thousands of people. Fact Check-‘Long COVID’ is not fake, quoted French study did not say it does not exist https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-long-covid-idUSL1N2S728P
Let's take a look at how anti-vaxxers are editing media and then spreading the fabricated media on the Internet. Fact Check-Kamala Harris clip saying every person in hospital with COVID-19 is vaccinated has been edited https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-kamala-harris-vaccination-idUSL1N2RZ24E U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris did not say that virtually every individual in hospital with COVID-19 is vaccinated, despite a video circulating online. The clip was edited to make it appear that the vice president said the word ‘vaccinated’ instead of ‘unvaccinated’. One user who shared the edited clip via Twitter said: “You couldn’t make this up. Clown world. ‘Everyone I known [sic] in hospitals is vaccinated get the shot’.” (here). The tweet gathered over 52,000 views and 1,400 likes by the time of publication. Harris is heard in the altered video as saying: “This Delta variant – it spreads faster and it is in many cases reported to be much more serious in terms of its impact and the vaccine will protect you from it. And here’s how I know. Virtually every person who is in the hospital sick with COVID-19 right now is vaccinated. I’m going to repeat that. Virtually, it’s a fact. Virtually every person who is in the hospital right now sick with COVID-19 is vaccinated. And even more, regrettably, virtually every person who has recently died from COVID-19 was vaccinated. The loss, the tragedy of that loss. Literally, every person who has died from COVID-19 that we have recently been seeing was vaccinated. So, it is time, it is time, to roll up your sleeves to get the shot.” One user added in the comments: “Not even Orwell could have imagined this level of doublespeak” (here). Another individual who shared the video on Facebook said: “Kamala Harris ‘people who died or are in hospital with Covid are vaccinated.’ This woman is just totally insane” (here). Examples of the edited clip via social media can be seen (here), (here), (here). The clip is altered, however. The audio was edited to make it appear that Harris said most people in hospitals with COVID-19 were vaccinated. In the original, unaltered video, Harris said that most people in the hospital were unvaccinated. The original clip can be seen in a live stream published on July 12, 2021 (45 minutes and 50 seconds onwards) (here). The live stream is also viewable on the White House YouTube account (here). Harris was speaking at a vaccine mobilization event in Detroit, Michigan. The full transcript of Harris’ comments at the event is viewable on The American Presidency Project website, UC Santa Barbara (here). Reuters has previously addressed edited clips circulating on social media (here), (here). VERDICT False. The audio of the video has been edited to alter Kamala Harris’ statement on July 12, 2021. The original, unaltered audio, shows Harris saying that most sick of COVID-19 in hospitals were unvaccinated. This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work here .
Let's see the nonsense the unhinged anti-vaxxer Covid-deniers are pushing about Australia... Claim: “Australian military being trained to **force vaccinate** in door-to-door attacks.” No, the Australian military isn’t going door to door and forcibly vaccinating residents https://www.politifact.com/factchec...tralian-military-isnt-going-door-door-and-fo/ A recent blog post made an audacious claim about the Australian military vaccinating people at gunpoint is being shared on social media, but it’s untrue. "Australian military being trained to **force vaccinate** in door-to-door attacks," the Nov. 1 headline says. The post goes on to claim that "members of the armed forces are being trained to go door-to-door and forcibly vaccinate every person in the country at gunpoint" and "chase anyone trying to escape into nearby woods or other areas, to grab them too — at gunpoint." This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Neither the post nor a video embedded in the post cites a source. We reached out to the Australian Defence Force about the claim. "This claim is misinformation and completely untrue," the agency said in a statement. The Defence Force isn’t administering vaccines, but it is participating in something called Operation COVID-19 Assist, which it established in April 2020 "to provide customized support to state and territory authorities, to reinforce and expand their capacity to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic." Early in the pandemic, members of the Defence Force provided support for contact tracing, and helped police with mandatory quarantine arrangements for people arriving to the country from abroad. But we found no evidence to corroborate the claims made in the blog post. We did find an August fact-check by AAP, which looked into an allegation that Sky News had reported something similar. The news organization found that it had "no basis in fact." We agree. We rate this claim False.
I have a question, as always its kind of off-topic, but only a little. I've been meaning to ask this. Anytime you tune in to Fox and watch one of their shows, it could be any of them, but the guest speakers always say "It's all about control". Then they go on about Soros, vaccine mandates, blah blah blah. What "control" is it that Soros is actually seeking as his legacy? I mean the guy is not gonna live that much longer, maybe 10 years, but what is this "control" so many speak of? To keep the Democratic party in power? Ok, I can see a political party wanting to stay in power, but there is always this nefarious undertone to their commentary when they speak of this. What is the perceived end game so many supposed intelligent folks on the Right constantly warn us about, and if it exists, why do the powerful on the left supposedly want it?
Its much easier to punch out your neighbor the Mayor if he forces daily ivermectin shots on your kids than if Joe Biden does it. Plus, you can get involved in local government pretty easily. In short local govt is the most responsive to its voters. Or, can be. I don't even want to think about a world govt controlled by a few decided to charge us for mandatory daily ivermectin doses. The idea is Elites have been trying to strip away our rights ever since the Bill of Rights. Many believe Soros, bankers, tech elites and the politicians they own desire to strip away as many rights as they can so they can have worker drones who can not compete with them for the limited resources we will have in the future. Many are concerned we are running out of water and soon we will run out of food. If you believe the elites are concerned about those things than you can determine the end game for yourself. Soros...End Game Speculation Soros's end game could simply be to continue to position his son and heirs as elites. So therefore they / he are spending money to disrupt local govt by funding Antifa. Then, Antifa is not punished because Soros' money installed leftist District Attorneys. If you destroy our local cities, if you can destroy our currency, if you make us doubt our election process, you can eventually get the 50% of our drones to think our way of life failed and to vote in world government and one world currency as the solution.
Let's take a look at the latest nonsense from Sen. Ron Johnson and other anti-vaxxers that mouthwash can kill Covid... Mouthwash brands fight false Covid-19 claims after Republican senator claims it kills virus Ron Johnson is repeat peddler of Covid claims not supported by facts https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...n-johnson-mouthwash-covid-false-b1973319.html
Let's see the latest nonsense being pushed by anti-vaxxers on social media... Claim: Says Anthony Fauci “wants Americans to get 4 shots per year.” No, Fauci didn’t say he wants Americans to get four COVID-19 vaccine doses each year https://www.politifact.com/factchec...ci-didnt-say-he-wants-americans-get-four-cov/ Tags: COVIDFACTCHECK
Isn't it the Bilderbergs? A top secret cabal of elites from various countries, plotting how their are going to rule the entire planet? They still hold their annual meetings and yet, nobody really knows what they are talking about? There is a globalist cabal in charge and I would not be surprised if they engineered the removal of President Donald Trump thru the massive election fraud committed on November 3, 2020. RINOs and extreme liberal Democrats continue to stonewall any attempts to find out what happened to the elections of November 3, 2020. The Arizona audit revealed that there was massive election fraud although, Maricopa officials to this day, refuse to turn over electronic equipment used in the elections? What are they still trying to hide? President Donald Trump was an America first, patriot who loved the US, globalists cannot have that. Now, they are back to sending US jobs abroad.