I'm not sure...I did watch a crazy conspiracy theory woman on TV at a meeting with House Health Committee congressional members...trying to show how vaccines magnetized her body. Crazy theories that were initiated out of India by their conspiracy theorists. By the way, my brothers and I were doing the same body tricks with metal spoons and plastic spoons when we were little kids. wrbtrader
Sick anti-vaxxers conceal razor blades behind propaganda at Covid jab sites Health workers across England have been given an urgent safety alert after staff began getting "cut and injured" when removing anti-jab and anti-mask misinformation. https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/sick-anti-vaxxers-conceal-razor-24762352
Long overdue to take away the medical licenses of these clowns... the reality is that most of them are not actually currently practicing and many have already lost their medical licenses. A warning to doctors--spreading COVID misinformation could cost them their licenses https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2021-08-16/doctors-coronavirus-misinformation-license On the list of things that doctors shouldn’t need to be told, one would expect that promoting bogus COVID-19 remedies would rank pretty high. The top of the list, in fact. But no. The problem has become so acute that the Federation of State Medical Boards recently felt compelled to issue a stark warning to medical professionals: “Physicians who generate and spread COVID-19 vaccine misinformation or disinformation are risking disciplinary action by state medical boards, including the suspension or revocation of their medical license.” The federation, which has been around since 1912 and represents 70 medical and osteopathic boards in every state and U.S. territory, also felt it had to spell out its rationale. “Due to their specialized knowledge and training, licensed physicians possess a high degree of public trust and therefore have a powerful platform in society, whether they recognize it or not.” The federation mentioned doctors’ responsibility to share information that is “factual, scientifically grounded and consensus-driven,” and added: “Spreading inaccurate COVID-19 vaccine information contradicts that responsibility, threatens to further erode public trust in the medical profession and puts all patients at risk.” That America’s medical regulators had to put this warning in black and white tells you that things are getting bad. That was already becoming clear, however. Misinformation and flat-out lies about the pandemic have been washing over us like a tsunami, thanks to the work of cynical politicians, uninformed celebrities and ignorant and irresponsible social-media “influencers.” What’s most distressing is how some of the purveyors of anti-vaccine claptrap and hokum about supposed COVID treatments and cures have the initials M.D. after their names. “It’s one thing when a celebrity or an elected public official says something, but when a licensed physician says it, that amplifies the message and gives it some credibility,” Humayun J. Chaudhry, the federation’s CEO, told me. “Across the country, at a time when we don’t need this, we’re seeing a handful of physicians engaging in that sort of activity.” Even if it’s only a “handful” of America’s approximately 1 million doctors, Chaudhry says the spread of misinformation by doctors has become so alarming that the federation board asked its ethics and professionalism committee to draft a statement to be presented at the board’s annual meeting in Denver at the end of July. The full board approved the statement unanimously. “Science does change, we recognize that,” Chaudhry says. “But it’s incumbent upon physicians to keep up with what’s permissible, what’s approved, what’s authorized and what’s not.” When it comes to vaccines, he says, “We’ve seen the gamut of everything from whether the vaccines contain a microchip or whether they’re connected to 5G communications networks or even whether they work or not. Our statement points out to physicians that if you’re going to make statements that are not grounded in science or consensus-based, you are taking a risk with your license to practice medicine.” Doctors using their authority to give misinformation a veneer of respectability isn’t a new phenomenon. The hydroxychloroquine craze last year, in which an antimalarial drug was touted as a “cure” for COVID-19, was touched off by claims made by a French physician with an elite following. Before the drug was proved to be useless for the purpose, the theme was picked up by President Trump and Mehmet Oz, a doctor with a huge broadcast following. Some doctors have purveyed misinformation on Fox News and other right-wing broadcast outlets. Pierre Kory, a Wisconsin doctor assiduously promoting the anti-parasitic medicine Ivermectin as a COVID treatment despite the absence of valid scientific evidence for the claim, was even invited to testify to a Senate subcommittee. Some have allegedly inflated or misrepresented professional credentials or achievements, which enhances their authoritativeness. Take Texas doctor Peter McCullough, who has questioned the safety of COVID-19 vaccines and advised pregnant women and recovered COVID patients against taking them — advice that runs counter to that of the medical establishment. Since Feb. 24, according to a legal filing, McCullough has conducted “dozens, if not hundreds, of interviews in print and video,” during some of which he is identified as a staff official at Baylor Medical Center or its affiliated institutions, such as “vice chief of internal medicine” at Baylor. That’s a key date, according to a lawsuit filed against McCullough by Baylor affiliates, because it’s the date on which McCullough reached an agreement with Baylor not to use his previous Baylor titles or “hold himself out as affiliated” with Baylor or its related institutions. The July 28 lawsuit seeks to force McCullough to stop using his former relationship. A McCullough lawyer told the Dallas Morning News that every misidentification cited in the lawsuit is “something said/printed by a third party with no encouragement from Dr. McCullough.” The lawyer told MedPage Today that the lawsuit was “a politically motivated attempt to silence Dr. McCullough as he saves countless patient lives from COVID-19.” A few state medical boards have taken action against doctors spreading COVID or vaccine misinformation, but enforcement appears to have been spotty. In part that’s because in virtually every state and territory, investigations of doctors remain confidential at least until a formal accusation or stipulated resolution is filed. That moment can come years after the alleged wrongdoing, during which the doctor can continue practicing without informing patients of an ongoing inquiry. Medical boards are typically underfinanced and understaffed, and often underambitious. They often sit on their hands until they receive a complaint, whether from a patient or a medical colleague, instead of opening investigations on their own initiative. It also can be hard to expose doctors communicating misinformation, because that can happen privately in clinical encounters between doctors and patients, rather than through public statements. State medical boards are typically most aggressive in disciplining doctors for offenses that fall into certain clear-cut categories, such as practicing while under the influence of drugs or alcohol, sexual improprieties with patients, or felony convictions. They’re shyer about making judgments about medical practice. “When it comes to making judgment calls about doctors practicing outside of the standard of care, they’re a lot more reluctant to do so, ”observes the veteran pseudoscience debunker David Gorski, a Detroit-area surgical oncologist. Thus far, there appear to have been only two disciplinary actions taken against doctors strictly for misinformation or disinformation related to the pandemic. Last December, the Oregon Medical Board issued an emergency suspension of the license of Steven LaTulippe after finding that he was seeing patients without wearing a mask, allowing his staff to interact with patients unmasked, and encouraging patients to doff their masks. Oregon law requires masks to be worn by healthcare workers in clinical settings. LaTulippe’s “continued practice constitutes an immediate danger to the public,” the board ruled. LaTulippe stated in a letter to the medical board that “not only is the mask completely worthless, but it also is very dangerous” — a position that contradicts the medical consensus. He also spread anti-mask claims in public, including at a pro-Trump rally in November. “Take off the mask of shame,”he urged attendees. According to the medical board, LaTulippe claims that “the body’s natural immune system is a more effective defense against COVID-19 than a mask.” He told the board at a hearing that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Oregon Health Authority favor masking because they have “an alternative agenda” that is “comprised primarily of money and power and politics and control of the population.” The board’s order means that LaTulippe will be barred from practicing medicine in Oregon at least until its governor ends the ongoing state of emergency. In January, a San Francisco doctor who had garnered notoriety for claiming that the pandemic was caused by the spread of 5G telecommunications technology voluntarily surrendered his license to the California Medical Board. Thomas Cowan, whose assertion was widely and conclusively debunked, already had said on his website that he would “re-emerge as an unlicensed ‘health coach’ or consultant.” Cowan had been placed on five-year probation in 2017 for prescribing an unapproved drug for a breast cancer patient, and without conducting a physical examination of the patient or examining records of her prior treatment. When I asked the Medical Board of California if it was keeping its eye on whether California doctors were spreading misinformation, its spokesman, Carlos Villatoro, told me by email that “the Board will review complaints it receives about its licensees on this topic, as it does with all complaints. To date, no accusation has been filed against a licensee regarding this issue.” He did say, however, that “publicly spreading false COVID-19 information may be considered unprofessional conduct and could be grounds for disciplinary action.” In its most notable pre-pandemic action against a doctor for anti-vaccine practices, the California board in April 2020 sanctioned “Dr. Bob” Sears, an Orange County pediatrician who has spread anti-vaccine advice at his practice and through books, for “repeated negligent acts” — issuing medical exemptions from vaccines for four children “without an appropriate medical basis.” But the board merely extended an earlier 35-month probation imposed on Sears for an earlier issuance of an unwarranted vaccine exemption. During this period he isn’t prevented from continuing to counsel patients. Some medical boards apparently prefer to take a hands-off approach even to flagrant misrepresentations about the pandemic. After Stella Immanuel, a Houston physician, appeared at a Washington rally in July 2020 touting hydroxychloroquine as a “cure” for COVID-19, despite the lack of any scientific evidence for its efficacy, the Texas Medical Board issued a statement warning against the claim but not mentioning Immanuel by name. “In the past week there was a widely published claim of a ‘cure’ for COVID-19,” the board said in its July 28 advisory. “While there are drugs and therapies being used to treat COVID-19, there is no definitive cure at this time.” Immanuel also claims that gynecological problems such as endometriosis and infertility are caused by “evil deposits from the spirit husband.” The video featuring Immanuel’s Washington appearance was retweeted by Trump, who called her “very impressive.” As of this writing, Immanuel remains a licensee in good standing with the Texas Medical Board. Despite this unprepossessing record of vigilance, the federation’s statement drew fire from anti-vaccination groups. “The Federation of State Medical Boards Channels the Soviet NKVD,” wrote Tamzin Rosenwasser, an officer of the Assn. of American Physicians and Surgeons,a hive of anti-vaccination activism. Rosenwasser was equating the federation to the Stalin-era precursor to the KGB. “Is there now a consensus among all 50 States that physicians are to be muzzled, silenced, and have their lives destroyed in case they do not agree with the new NKVD?” Rosenwasser wrote. Unfortunately, given the torrent of deceit about the pandemic and the surfeit of information sources willing to funnel it into the public sphere, there’s reason to doubt that medical boards will be up to the task of regulating rogue physicians who bank on people’s inability to distinguish bunk from science-based medical consensus. That’s especially true if medical boards don’t take the most aggressive tack possible to shut charlatans down. That means putting teeth on the threat of license revocation. Medical misbehavior is often life-threatening, but seldom has the threat been as dire as it is now. “What we’re saying is almost a truism,” Chaudhry says. “Every physician should know that what they say matters.”
'Tainted blood': Covid skeptics are refusing transfusions from vaccinated donors https://www.rawstory.com/blood-transfusion/ The nation's roiling tensions over vaccination against covid-19 have spilled into an unexpected arena: lifesaving blood transfusions. With nearly 60% of the eligible U.S. population fully vaccinated, most of the nation's blood supply is now coming from donors who have been inoculated, experts said. That's led some patients who are skeptical of the shots to demand transfusions only from the unvaccinated, an option blood centers insist is neither medically sound nor operationally feasible. “We are definitely aware of patients who have refused blood products from vaccinated donors," said Dr. Julie Katz Karp, who directs the blood bank and transfusion medicine program at Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals in Philadelphia. Emily Osment, an American Red Cross spokesperson, said her organization has fielded questions from clients worried that vaccinated blood would be “tainted," capable of transmitting components from the covid vaccines. Red Cross officials said they've had to reassure clients that a covid vaccine, which is injected into muscle or the layer of skin below, doesn't circulate in the blood. “While the antibodies that are produced by the stimulated immune system in response to vaccination are found throughout the bloodstream, the actual vaccine components are not," Jessa Merrill, the Red Cross director of biomedical communications, said in an email. So far, such demands have been rare, industry officials said. Dr. Louis Katz, chief medical officer for ImpactLife, an Iowa-based blood center, said he's heard from “a small handful" of patients asking for blood from unvaccinated donors. And the resounding answer from centers and hospitals, he added, has been “no." “I know of no one who has acceded to such a request, which would be an operational can of worms for a medically unjustifiable request," Katz wrote in an email. In practical terms, blood centers have only limited access to donated blood that has not in some way been affected by covid. Based on samples, Katz estimated that as much as 60% to 70% of the blood currently being donated is coming from vaccinated donors. Overall, more than 90% of current donors have either been infected with covid or vaccinated against it, said Dr. Michael Busch, director of the Vitalant Research Institute, who is monitoring antibody levels in samples from the U.S. blood supply. “Less than 10% of the blood we collect does not have antibodies," Busch noted. In addition, outside of research studies, blood centers in the U.S. don't retain data noting whether donors have been infected with or vaccinated against covid, and there's no federal requirement that collected blood products be identified in that manner. “The Food and Drug Administration has determined there's no safety risk, so there's no reason to label the units," said Dr. Claudia Cohn, chief medical officer for AABB, a nonprofit focused on transfusion medicine and cellular therapies. Indeed, the FDA does not recommend routine screening of blood donors for covid. Respiratory viruses, in general, aren't known to spread by blood transfusion and, worldwide, there have been no reported cases of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the disease, being transmitted via blood. One study identified the risk as “negligible." All donors are supposed to be healthy when they give blood and answer basic questions about potential risks. Collected units of blood are tested for transmissible infectious diseases before they're distributed to hospitals. But that hasn't quelled concerns for some people skeptical of covid vaccines. In Bedford, Texas, the father of a boy scheduled for surgery recently asked that his son get blood exclusively from unvaccinated donors, said Dr. Geeta Paranjape, medical director at Carter BloodCare. Separately, a young mother fretted about transfusions from vaccinated donors to her newborn. Many patients expressing concerns have been influenced by rampant misinformation about vaccines and the blood supply, said Paranjape. “A lot of people think there's some kind of microchip or they're going to be cloned," she said. Other patients have balked at getting blood from people previously infected with covid, even though federal guidance greenlights donations two weeks after a positive test or the last symptom fades. Last month, a woman facing a cesarean section for a high-risk pregnancy said she didn't want blood from a donor who had had covid, recalled Cohn with AABB. “I said, 'Listen, the alternative is you don't get the blood and that's what will affect you,'" Cohn said. Some industry experts were hesitant to discuss the vaccine-free blood requests, for fear it would fuel more such demands. But Cohn and others said correcting widely spread misinformation outweighed the risk. Patients are free to refuse transfusions for any reason, industry officials said. But in dire situations — trauma, emergency surgery — saving lives often requires using the available blood. For patients with chronic conditions requiring transfusion, alternative treatments such as medication or certain equipment may not be as efficient or effective. People who require transfusions also may donate their own blood in advance or request donations from designated friends and family members. But there's no evidence that the blood is safer when patients select donors than that provided by the volunteer blood system, according to the Red Cross. Earlier in the pandemic, many blood donations were tested to see whether they contained antibodies to the covid virus. The hope was that blood from previously infected people who had recovered from covid could be used to treat those who were very sick with the disease. Tens of thousands of patients were treated with so-called convalescent plasma under a Mayo Clinic-led program and through authorization from the FDA. But the much-hyped use of convalescent plasma largely fell flat after studies showed no clear-cut benefits for the broad swath of covid patients. (Research continues into the potential benefits of treating narrowly targeted patient groups with high-potency plasma.) Most hospitals stopped testing blood and labeling units with high levels of antibodies this spring, said Busch. “It's really no longer a germane issue because we're not testing anymore," he said. “There's no way we can inform recipients." Busch stressed that the studies also have shown no harm associated with infusing antibody-containing blood plasma into covid patients. Past health crises have raised similar concerns about sources of donor blood. In the mid-1980s, recipients scared by the AIDS epidemic didn't want blood donated from cities such as San Francisco with large gay populations, Busch recalled. Even now, some recipients demand not to receive blood from people of certain races or ethnicities. Such requests, like those for vaccine-free blood, have no medical or scientific basis and are soundly refused, blood center officials said. The most pressing issue for blood centers remains the ongoing shortage of willing donors. As of the second week of August, the national blood supply was down to two days' worth or less at a third of sites affiliated with America's Blood Centers. That can limit the blood available for trauma victims, surgery patients and others who rely on transfusions to survive. “If for some reason we didn't want vaccinated people to donate blood, we'd be in a real problem, wouldn't we?" Karp said. “Please believe us when we tell you it's fine."
'Crimes against humanity!' Bible-wielding anti-vaxxer goes on unhinged rant during San Diego Supervisors meeting https://www.rawstory.com/anti-vaxxer-viral-video/
Anti-Vaxxers Go Off the Rails at San Diego County Meeting: ‘Heil Fauci’ https://www.thedailybeast.com/anti-...oard-of-supervisors-meeting-scream-heil-fauci
Man threatens Springfield Walmart workers, tells them they will be executed for administering vaccines https://www.news-leader.com/story/n...uted-vaccinations-christopher-key/8160309002/