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Masking Research or is it Research Masking : Mask peer reviewed paper taken down 12/5/21

Covid
#1

Hi folks, just noticed this resumption of normal services on COVID MASKS:

  1. Original paper from Nov 2020 published in PMC Jan 2021

2.retraction notice 12/5/2021 containing this:

“A subsequent internal investigation by the Editor-in-Chief and the Publisher have determined that this article was externally peer reviewed but not with our customary standards of rigor prior to publication. The journal has re-designed its editorial and review workflow to ensure that this will not happen again in future. “

3.note the disclaimer:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/about/disclaimer/Disclaimer

“PMC is a repository of content primarily from two sources: peer reviewed journals that overall have met NLM’s standards for PMC; and peer reviewed author manuscripts deposited in compliance with the public access policy of NIH or other collaborating funders.”

  1. Note the “collaborating funders” of the peer review publishers:
    ( I have emboldened the interesting ones :wink: )
    PMC and Research Funder Policies

U.S. Federal Agency Partners
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Administration for Community Living (ACL)
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR)
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
Private and International Partners
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Europe PMC Funder Group (see Europe PMC for list)
Health Research Alliance (see HRA website for current list of member organizations)
Alzheimer’s Association
American Heart Association-American Stroke Association
Autism Science Foundation
Autism Speaks
Cancer Research Institute
Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation
Donahue Foundation
Doris Duke Charitable Foundation
Foundation Fighting Blindness
JDRF
LUNGevity Foundation
Lymphoma Research Foundation
Parkinson’s Disease Foundation
Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI)
Susan G. Komen
The V Foundation for Cancer Research
Tuberous Sclerosis Alliance
Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI)

cheers

ps I liked this:

image
image720×533 110 KB

just the ears to go!

3 Likes
#2

The “workflow” eh?

The article is not the most convincing piece of scholarship, I have to say, but I liked this bit:

Screenshot_2021-05-13-22-28-56-301~2
Screenshot_2021-05-13-22-28-56-301~21200×336 95.8 KB

I doubt the percentage is accurate but the author has a point re the misnomer

1 Like
#3

An increasingly-quoted estimate says of the covid-flu that 99.9something percent (figures vary on that last decimal place) of the infected survive it and recover. In other words, behind the huge bullshit storm, it’s about as little to worry about as a rather more nasty-than-usual flu season.

#4

Hi @KarenEliot , I particularly liked this-
“ A meta -analysis of 91 studies of about 400,000 people showed a 13% increased morality risk among people with low compare to high contact frequency” :grinning:

  • the strange thing is these SICs brook no dissenting voices no matter how small they seem, it’s like the AS campaign against JC!

cheers

1 Like
#5

I must have skimmed a little too superficially as I’m sure I’d remember enjoying that little slip! The comparison with AS witch-hunting is wholly apt, yes. Gotta really tackle ALL them onLiNe HaRmS, relentlessly, repeatedly, with no regard to factuality, drip drip drip drip drip.

#6

Just another small and obvious point from me again: since when were year on year totals aggregated? Another of those firsts that now appear to be normal, or at least unquestioned in the main.

1 Like
#7

@RhisiartGwilym the fact that many have not died is extremely pertinent but will include some with longer term damage to their health.

I’m not looking to board the Good Ship Long Covid, please don’t mistake my meaning, but can you cite this please:

The great majority of people don’t experience acute depressive episodes, for example, but that doesn’t make the acute distress suffered by those who do a triviality.

Note that I do not extend this argument by insisting that everyone should “act as though they’ve got it” (depressive illness that is) which is, of course, symptomatic of the huge bullshit storm you correctly skewer.

#8

You put me on the spot, K. I’ve been hearing/reading it in several places - and now I can’t think of a single one! It was people of the credibility of Peter McCullough or Andrew Kaufman, but I’ve blanked on it completely for the moment. I’ll grab the next reference that I see. Sorry!

#9

Should have added: I actually know of people who’ve copped the longer-term problems, and no indeed, it’s not to be belittled. Rotten! The only point that I’m hammering on here is that as a lethal, kill-billions, global pandemic, it’s an utter flop. Really worth about as much attention as a particularly bad flu strain would get, in pre-covid times. For some reason, either sinister or just ridiculous, people have gone quite to pieces and right overboard for this particular one. That in itself makes fertile ground, noticeably, for wild theorising to proliferate: Why this weird, shrieking response, full of so many and such obvious dishonesties? Why now?

1 Like
#10

Help! Can anybody point me to a specific item that I’m sure I saw here in 5F - - it was a link to a media workshop associated with one of the scum group’s (UN/Davos type meetings) workshops at some conference or other - it was aimed at the media (Van Tam was in attendance taking notes) - the mush leading the session said something along the lines; ‘just point to something ordinary - something that always happens - e.g., a particular symptom of a flu - and talk it up as though it was novel’.

I hope that makes sense.

1 Like
#11

I totally get that RG. What’s a bit of hyperbole amongst friends :grin:

#12

I remember that, some footage was shown on UK Column news, some Belgian or possibly Dutch guy, Flemish name and accent. If I can find it will post a link in an edit of this post…

EDIT: here it is

1 Like
#13

Perfect - that’s it - cheers K.

Bloody chatham hse!

Around 7:52 is the bit I was looking for - but the whole thing is another generous dollop of in yer face hidden in plain sightery.

Note the absolute love fest of the event - all the swooning beatific gushiness that simply oozes from the attendees…pass me the bucket!!

#14

I know it’s very difficult to claim, in the face of clear personal discomfort/illness, that it is “psychosomatic” - as they used to say once, but it is my strong feeling that the vast majority of cases of “long covid” are self generated, and resulting from the whole pandemic of fear, including the spreading of stories about Long Covid, from the very start, by the BBC Inc.
As I’ve said before, if I lived somewhere where it were possible to be infected (oh how wonderful that would be!), I’d be the first to imagine I had some symptoms related to the infection, like tiredness and body aches, and all the other things that the doctor can’t find a diagnosis for. People with ME struggled for years to find a doctor who would “confirm” there was something wrong with them, and still believe that there is after spending their whole life debilitated by this supposed illness.
And many alternative health practitioners, who seem to have disappeared or reemerged as Covidians, could confirm the serious effect that psychological factors have on ones immune system and health - including the frequent belief one can overcome cancers without pharmacological treatments.
THe question must also be on the actual mechanism whereby Long Covid is alleged to operate; has anyone actually done serious research on it? The research is inhibited by the prohibition on any research in which people are intentionally infected with CV - or simply exposed to infection, so results are not properly placebo trialled. Quite extraordinarily, this prevention mean that the original trial of the Pfizer vaccine’s efficacy remains based on the fact that 100 people who were vaccinated DIDN’T get infected, while 105 who weren’t DID.

2 Likes
#15

Totally. Like one of those charismatic church audiences, just before the speaking in tongues…

#16

Broadly speaking @Dimac I couldn’t agree more. Long Covid may well be a thing, but isn’t it useful for rebutting the “x% recover/survive” argument…as I kind of did with @RhisiartGwilym above.

I lived for five years in a first floor flat, 2015-20, and my downstairs neighbour, who happened to be the landlady, was an ME sufferer. She seldom left the house, though was a pretty active gardener. everything was delivered and lockdown - in her own words - made no difference to her. She was on the doorstep clapping the NHS mind you.

I don’t disparage her, perfectly pleasant woman, reasonable landlord (no rent increase the whole time, total respect for privacy, etc) and not a weak minded person, quite the opposite.

Many others, and I won’t claim exemption, will have been impaired somehow by the madness of 2020 onwards, lots of this still to emerge I think.

Anyway: it seemed to me an eminently liveable condition for someone with a decent pension (former teacher) and a tenant coughing up £600~ pcm to supplement it. A sample of one is no basis to extrapolate from but I would lay a modest bet that Long Covid is massively concentrated within the comfortable bourgeoisie who can afford to languish. Among your Morrisons checkout workers, DPD drivers and litter pickers… not so much.

1 Like
#17

Actually, K, amongst my working-class neighbours hereabouts, who have been doing their necessary work throughout the scamdemic, there’s no sign of covid either. They’re young enough to have had the infection without even noticing it, and all are able-bodied, of necessity, since it’s only that that gets them an actually-viable living.

I too am now permanently tired enough to qualify as a possible ME sufferer (actually, it’s just the vicissitudes of old age) but I still go out each day to the woods, and pick up my daily quota of firewood, ready for next Winter even when not needed at once right now; and I cycle a few miles each day. A shot of cannabis oil in the morning, by mouth, plus the mantra: “Just get going and do it, because if you don’t the only alternative is to seize up and die!” gets me out and active. When you must, you do. Call it a pleb-custom thing.

1 Like
#18

A sound approach I’d say.

Both my 20-something sons have got on with their lives, visited us (and vice versa) whenever they like. Ones an electrician, the other a labourer, both smoke cigs, and the rest, like a drink, and consider themselves immortal. Exactly like we all did, pretty much. All their mates, of both genders (yes, there’s only two) have done the same albeit that the pub/shop workers have had to play along with the masking etc.

This comment from OffG below the line resonated deeply:

WTF
WTF
May 15, 2021 8:51 AM
I work in a secondary school in the UK and this is OUR new normal. Covid test kits given out like confetti with every child trained to be able to use one. Each child expected to test three times a week from home. If a child becomes unwell in school they are immediately tested. Masks mandatory everywhere other than eating. Lavatories locked and no child permitted access other than permitted times, one break time and lunch. Designated lines mandatory and marked in the ground everywhere. Constant shouts of, “get your mask on, wash your hands, get back to class”. Staff bullied, harassed and shouted at to enforce measures. Woe betide any member of staff raising the issue of compassion in exceptional circumstance, as they are victimized and held up as poor examples to pupils.Children generally mute and accepting, staff pretty much the same. Any child refusing mask and testing is taught away from their peers and all staff made acutely aware that the child and their family “are a problem”. Day after day, week after week, the same regimented enforcement.
All families are now asked about what vaccinations their child has had. Forms relating to, earlier, childhood vaccinations are sent out every week. Families are offered, in house, vaccinations for everything from MMR to Polio. Families who ignore or renege such intrusion are identified as a problem. There has always been an element of vaccination programs administered within schools in the UK, but emphasis has changed to insistence. Families are identified and targeted if they fail to comply. Middle managers tasked with questioning parents as to their reasons not to comply and measures taken, against their child, explained.
Staff constantly “offered” vaccination. Not yet questioned as to who has received their shot but senior management considering the option of questionnaire. Staff who have had their jab constantly making the point they have and readily ask others the question. Distinct feeling of separation between staff who have openly complied and staff who quietly disengage with narrative.
All in all school is a repressive state. One might state they always were, to a lesser or greater degree. I feel the narrative and its fear is being used to entrench a future to be accepted. Children are pliable and easily manipulated to accept the care of adults and we are willingly failing. Our failure to protect and nurture has been superseded by a totalitarianism unimaginable until recently, and my fear is that there is no turning back.

… Which sounds to me very like the local (and only) comprehensive that both of our sons attended. We reside in Kent where the Eleven Plus lives on, under the guise of ‘The Kent Test’. Lots of school choices are reserved only for the well-coached Kumon Maths customers, friends of friends, those Sophies and Simons bred by the Cassandras and Tarquins, the Down From Londoners able to move to the ‘right’ neighbourhoods with a bit of help from mummy and daddy, and so on.

(Yeah, I know: the politics of envy…)

Neither flourished, left as soon as they could, frequently truanted, and I really struggled to work up much concern about this. Ditto when the fun and camaraderie of Beavers and Cubs suddenly became the Drill and Yes Sir No Sir of the Scouts.

My spouse left school at 13 and has managed okay, relatively speaking, so I’m the token bourgeoise in the family, but we both ‘gave up’ after a certain point, realising that the system was shitty thru and thru, and trying to force the boys to submit to it was not just futile but oppressive.

/Rant

4 Likes
#19

Not on the thread exactly…but the redoubtable ICAN (Del Bigtree’s legal outfit) have won a court case in Florida on the right not to wear facemasks - by appealing to Federal law.
Interesting - the facemask medical product was only authorized under an Emergency Use Authorization.

If I’ve read it right, ICAN pointed to this piece of statute:

21 U.S. Code § 360bbb–3 - Authorization for medical products for use in emergencies

(e) Conditions of authorization
(1) Unapproved product
(A) Required conditions
…
(III) “of the option to accept or refuse administration of the product, of the consequences, if any, of refusing administration of the product, and of the alternatives to the product that are available and of their benefits and risks.”

They also argued that “mask mandates violate fundamental individual freedoms that are protected by the federal and state constitutions, including an individual’s right to informed consent and due process”.

Now here’s the thing - says Vanessa Beeley. This must apply to the vaccines, which in the US are also issued under an EUA.

She explains:

What this means in practice

When the FDA grants emergency use authorization for a vaccine, many questions about the product cannot be answered. Given the open questions, when Congress granted the authority to issue EUAs, it chose to require that every individual should be allowed to decide for himself or herself whether or not to receive an EUA product. The FDA and CDC apparently consider this fundamental requirement of choice important enough that even during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic they reinforced that policy decision when issuing their guidance related to the Covid-19 vaccines.

This means that an organization will likely be at odds with federal law if it requires its employees, students or other members to get a Covid-19 vaccine that is being distributed under emergency use authorization.

And further

State law often prohibits retaliating against an employee for refusing to participate in a violation of federal law. Organizations that require Covid-19 vaccination in violation of federal law may face lawsuits under these state laws not only to block the policy but also for damages and attorneys’ fees. Such potentially costly lawsuits can be avoided by refraining from adopting policies that require vaccination or penalize members for choosing not to be vaccinated.

I’m not sure similar legal clauses exist in the UK regarding the experimental vaccines - I suspect not.

#20

We’d need an actual constitution, wouldn’t we, E?