I do remember a while back that the CDC and even some states seem to me to be mentioning "Data from Israel" or "We looked at Israel" too many times while not mentioning anything about their own data from the states. I begin thinking that our public health policies should not have any input from another country, especially a country that has completely different social/cultural behaviors. wrbtrader
Bill Gates: Omicron did ‘a better job’ building immunity than COVID-19 vaccines Billionaire Bill Gates said the omicron variant moved faster than COVID-19 vaccines, creating a high level of natural immunity.
That's not what Bill Gates was really saying. He was saying that thanks to vaccine resistance and the lack of Covid vaccines in poor countries --- the only hope is that Omicron -- which is highly infectious -- has provided some level of immunity against future variants. Because if we are depending on Covid vaccination we are basically f@cked at this point. Bill Gates was outlining the importance of trying to get everyone vaccinated as soon as possible to prevent future variants from generating.
You do realize that most Canadian provinces announced their plans to reduce restrictions in February & March way back in early January. Well before the "freedum convoy". Why is this a surprise to anti-vax Covid-denier Jay Bhattacharya who seemly only discovered this in mid-February.
Low Omicron efficacy behind delay of Pfizer COVID vaccine for kids under 5 - WSJ https://www.reuters.com/business/he...er-covid-vaccine-kids-under-5-wsj-2022-02-18/ Feb 18 (Reuters) - U.S. health regulators delayed the review of Pfizer Inc's(PFE.N)COVID-19 vaccine for children under 5 years of age because its two-dose regimen did not work well against the Omicron variant, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. Last week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said it needed more data on the vaccine, delaying its decision for using the vaccine in children 6 months through 4 years of age for at least two months. read more An early look at data showed the vaccine to be effective against the Delta variant during testing while that was the dominant strain, but some vaccinated children developed COVID-19 after Omicron emerged, the report said, citing people familiar with the FDA's decision. However, since the overall COVID-19 cases were low, the small number of Omicron cases made the vaccine appear less effective in an early statistical analysis, the report added. The FDA did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. Pfizer and BioNTech had submitted data on the first two doses of a planned three-dose regimen earlier this month at the request of the FDA. Pfizer did not disclose efficacy data. The submission was surprising because in December, the companies said early trial results of the two low doses of the vaccine fell short of expectations, and the clinical trial was amended to test a three-dose version.
That's not why they are not publishing all of their data -- but it is the take of the conservative media. You can actually go read the CDC official's direct statement on this -- it has nothing to do with showing that "vaccines are ineffective". We have already seen how anti-vaxxers deliberately misinterpret and pushing misinformation from the data-rich U.K. Covid information. Leading the U.K. recently to stop reporting some raw information daily and provide information in context over longer periods of time. Same issues in the U.S. -- which is why the CDC has been withholding some raw data it has collected. CDC withholding COVID data over fears of misinterpretation https://nypost.com/2022/02/22/cdc-withholding-covid-data-over-fears-of-misinterpretation/ The CDC has admitted it is withholding large portions of COVID-19 data — including on vaccine boosters — from the public because it fears the information could be misinterpreted. The leading public health agency has only published a small sample of the data it has been collecting — despite being two years into the pandemic, sources told the New York Times. Kristen Nordlund, a CDC spokeswoman, said the reason for the slow release of data is “because basically, at the end of the day, it’s not yet ready for prime time.” She added that the CDC’s “priority when gathering any data is to ensure that it’s accurate and actionable.” But another reason is that the data could be misinterpreted by the public, Nordlund admitted. Among the data that has been collected but not made public is hospitalizations broken down by age, race and vaccination status over the last year and information on the effectiveness of booster shots. When the CDC released data on the effectiveness of boosters for adults younger than 65 two weeks ago, it did not include full numbers on those between 18 and 49. That data showed the booster shots were least likely to benefit younger adults because two shots of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines, or one dose of Johnson & Johnson, already left them well protected. The CDC has also only just started releasing data on whether COVID is present in wastewater — even though some states have been providing figures since the beginning of the pandemic. Wastewater data can help public health officials predict whether there will be an influx of COVID-19 cases. According to one CDC official, Dr. Daniel Jernigan, the COVID pandemic has revealed how outdated the agency and other state-level health systems had become.