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Covid Quarterly Commentaries for Q4 2024

By Gary F. Zeolla

      In this article, I will be quoting from and commenting upon various news articles about Covid from the fourth quarter of 2024 (October to December).


HealthDay. Mpox Vaccine’s Protection Wanes Within 1 Year (via Newsmax).

 

      Antibodies provided by mpox vaccination all but disappear within six to 12 months, new research finds, underscoring the need for boosters to maintain strong protection….

      The new study -- published Oct. 3 [2024] in the Journal of the American Medical Association -- suggests that individuals who were vaccinated during the 2022 outbreak need a booster for continued protection. …

      To contain the 2022 outbreak, public health officials gave priority for vaccination to groups with a particular risk for mpox, including people who had new or multiple sex partners, men who have sex with other men; health care workers and lab personnel; and people who traveled to a destination where the virus has been identified.

10/4/24

 

      The pertinence of this article to Covid is that Covid antivaxxers often claim that the Covid vaccines are the only ones for which immunity wanes; but for all other vaccines, it is a “one and done” situation. That is true for some viruses, like smallpox and why it was able to be eradicated. But it is not true for many viral vaccines. For them, immunity wanes, so booster shots are needed. That is even more true for viruses that mutate, like Covid and the flu, hence why yearly updated vaccines are needed.

      The last paragraph in the above quote has been included, as like with Mpox (formerly Monkey Pox), priority for Covid vaccines need to be given to high-risk individuals. For Mpox that risk is mainly behavior-related. Do not engage in immoral sexual activity, and you are at little risk.

      For Covid, however, the primary risk factor is advancing age, and there is nothing that can be done to stop that (except death of course). But the secondary risk factor of obesity is something that much can be done about.

      But sadly, we hear little from health professionals about changing behavior to reduce risk from these respective illnesses, be it stopping immoral sexual behavior or unhealthy habits that lead to obesity.


CNN. Covid-19 may increase the risk of heart attacks, strokes and deaths for three years after an infection, study suggests. 

      The study was published Wednesday [10/9/24] in the medical journal Atherosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology. It relied on medical records from roughly a quarter of a million people who were enrolled in a large database called the UK Biobank.

      Within this dataset, researchers identified more than 11,000 people who had a positive lab test for Covid-19 documented in their medical records in 2020; nearly 3,000 of them had been hospitalized for their infections. They compared these groups with more than 222,000 others in the same database who didn’t have a history of Covid-19 over the same time frame.

      People who caught Covid in 2020, before there were vaccines to blunt the infection, had twice the risk of a major cardiac event like a heart attack or stroke or death for almost three years after their illness, compared with the people who didn’t test positive, the study found.

      If a person had been hospitalized for their infection, pointing to a more severe case, the risk of a major heart event in was even greater – more than three times higher – than for people without Covid in their medical records.

10/9/24

 

      Do not miss this data is from 2020, before the vaccines were available, so in no way are these study results due to the vaccines. But Covid antivaxxers claim the Covid vaccines cause heart problems. However, it is in fact Covid itself that does so.

      Note also that the more severe one’s Covid illness was the greater the risk of heart issues afterwards. But the vaccines reduce the risk of severe illness and thus in turn of heart problems after a Covid infection.


Thomson/Reuters. FDA Pauses Combo COVID-Flu Shot Trial Due to Safety (via Newsmax). 

      The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has put Novavax’s trial of an experimental COVID-flu vaccine combination on hold after one person who received the shot reported nerve damage, the company said on Wednesday [10/16/24]….

      The company said other trials of COVID-19 and flu vaccines had not shown any safety signal for motor neuropathy. It did not believe that it was established that the vaccine had caused the safety event, but was working to provide more information to the FDA.

10/16/24 

Thomson/Reuters. FDA Lifts Hold on Novavax’s Combo COVID-Flu Shot (via Newsmax). 

      The vaccine maker said it had provided additional information to the FDA, which included a change in details of the participant’s symptoms to amytrophic lateral sclerosis, a condition that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord.

      Assessment showed the symptoms were not related to Novavax’s shot, it said.

11/12/24

 

      These quotes show the care the FDA takes in approving the Covid vaccines. Just one negative outcome put the trial on hold. Almost a month was taken to reassess what had happened, before the trial was allowed to continue.


HealthDay. Some People May Need Extra Dose of COVID Shot (via Newsmax). 

      Six months after their first shot, people 65 and older and those who are immunocompromised should receive a second dose of the vaccines that rolled out this fall, according to new guidance approved by a vaccine advisory panel and backed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday [10/23/24]….

      COVID has proved to be a wily virus, spreading all year long and spiking unpredictably. That makes it tough to protect people, especially those with compromised immune systems. The CDC;s new recommendations reflect that reality, Schaffner said.

10/27/24:

 

      This recommendation is unwise and unlikely to be followed by very many Americans. Distrust of the Covid vaccines is still quite high, as will be seen next. Getting people to get vaccinated each year has proven to be difficult enough. To ask for them to do so twice yearly will just increase vaccine hesitancy.


HealthDay. A Third of Americans Still Mistrust COVID Vaccines (via Newsmax). 

      More than a third of Americans continue to express mistrust in the science behind COVID vaccines, a new study finds.

      This level of mistrust has remained relatively consistent, expressed by 36% of people in 2021, 33% in 2022 and 36% in 2023.

      People who lost a family member or close friend to COVID were significantly more likely to trust vaccine science and accept vaccination, results showed….

      Overall, vaccine acceptance tended to be higher in men, people with college degrees and higher-income families.

11/7/24

 

      Misinformation by Covid antivaxxers drives much of this distrust. But it is also driven by the CDC and other authorities who push Covid vaccines for those at little need of them, namely the young and healthy, and now the suggestion that those at high risk need twice yearly shots. Stick to just recommending those at high risk get a yearly shot, and the authorities might get a higher percentage of them to get boosted each year.


AP. Mich. Jury Awards Millions to a Woman Fired for Refusing COVID-19 Vaccine (via Newsmax).

 

      A jury awarded more than $12 million Friday to a woman who lost her job at a Michigan insurance company after declining to get a COVID-19 vaccination.

11/7/24

 

      As much as I support the Covid vaccines, I that much more have always been against vaccine mandates. People should have a right to make their own health assessments (preferably in consultation with their doctors) to decide if the Covid vaccines are right for them. Thus, it is good to see there is backlash against those who mandated the vaccines.


Health Day. Flu, COVID Vaccinations Low as Winter Nears (via Newsmax).

       According to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data for immunizations as of Nov. 9, only about a third (34.7%) of U.S. adults say they’ve gotten the influenza vaccine, while just 17.9% say they’ve received the latest COVID-19 booster.

      The data could still be a bit early, however: According to the CDC report, up to 41% of adults say they were either still on the fence about getting the two shots, or would “definitely or probably” do so.

11/23/24

 

      Even if that 41% level is reached, that is still low. However, this article only indicates this percentage is for “adults.” It does not indicate what percentage of those over 65 have gotten the updated Covid shot. But that is the age group that most matters. 


New York Times. Covid Can Raise the Risk of Heart Problems for Years. 

      People who had severe infections are especially vulnerable….

      Since nearly the start of the pandemic, scientists have known that a Covid-19 infection increases the risk of heart problems. A growing body of research now suggests that this risk can last until well after the infection has cleared….

      The first thing you should do is to get your vaccine or booster, doctors said. Vaccines reduce the severity of an initial infection, making you less likely to end up in the hospital. Vaccines also boost the immune system’s ability to clear the virus, Dr. Al-Aly said, reducing the odds of a persistent infection that causes chronic inflammation.

11/23/24

 

      This article reinforces what was said previously. Covid increases the risk of heart problems, while the Covid vaccines reduce that risk. That is the exact opposite of the claim of antivaxxers that the vaccines cause heart problems. But they have it exactly wrong.


HealthDay. Nerve Stimulation Device Might Ease Long COVID Symptoms (via Newsmax). 

      A painless nerve-zapping device called Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS) has long been used to ease arthritis, back pain, and other ailments.

      Now, researchers say TENS might also work to ease the fatigue and pain that can come with long COVID….

      Long COVID is now thought to affect 1 in 13 U.S. adults, according to background information in the study. Fatigue, pain, and muscle weakness are among its myriad possible symptoms.

11/29/24

 

      I used a TENS device many years ago, as one of the many failed treatments I tried for my then low back pain. But if it helps with long Covid, good. But it is sad that so many in the USA now have to deal with long Covid. What makes that especially sad is that the Covid vaccines reduce the risk of long Covid after a Covid infection. But the low rate of updated vaccine usage means many people will suffer needlessly with long Covid. 


Breitbart. Former WaPo Journalist Taylor Lorenz Says People Not Wearing Masks ‘Raw-Dogging the Air’ in Expletive-Filled Rant. 

      “Planning a COVID safe book launch took months and THOUSANDS of my own dollars ensuring testing, outdoor space, far UV lights, and a litany of other precautions,” she continued. “Meanwhile u dumb [expletive] are out raw dogging the air and spewing ur disease laden breath all over ur elderly neighbors. We are not the same.” …

      “Oh boy the MAGA weirdos and Covid denialists found my post. I’m severely, severely immunocompromised. I am in and out of the hospital constantly bc I have the immune system of someone going through chemo. The pandemic is ongoing, wear a mask and stop harassing disabled ppl,” she concluded.

12/3/24

 

I feel for those who are immunocompromised. And yes, such people should wear a mask when in public. That is why I do not judge people when I see them still wearing masks in public, as I have no idea what their health situation is.

      However, it is absurd at this point to expect others who are not immunocompromised to still be wearing masks. Masks had only limited effectiveness during the pandemic (see Does a Mask Protect the Wearer from the Coronavirus?). Now that the pandemic is over, it is just silly to expect everyone to still wear masks. If you are that afraid of Covid, then stay home. Don’t expect everyone else to change their behavior to protect you.


Christian Post. 5 revelations from the House COVID-19 report. 

NIH funded gain-of-function research in Wuhan…

Health officials falsely characterized lab leak theory as a ‘conspiracy theory’…

China, US agencies, scientists ‘sought to cover up’ pandemic facts…

Pandemic-era school closures had long-term adverse impacts…

Lockdowns in US cities were ‘worse than the disease’

12/5/24

 

      I never wrote much about the origins of Covid, but I ranted and raved about the lockdowns. I knew they would prove to be medically useless and destructive, and I was correct in that prediction.


Christian Post. Trump says he pulled DEA nominee for ‘what he said to my pastors’. 

      Citing unnamed sources, The New York Post reported Thursday that Trump’s “forceful hand” led Chronister to remove his name. According to the report, Trump was particularly displeased by Chronister’s handling of a situation involving church services during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

      “Arresting pastors for trying to keep their churches open is a non-negotiable with the president, and that’s what the sheriff was accused of, and the president did not like that,” one source told the Post.

12/9/24

 

      Churches are essential, and their closures proved disastrous for the country. As such, I am glad Trump pulled this nomination.


AFP. Long COVID Impacts Lives 5 Years After Pandemic (via Newsmax). 

      “We know that long COVID is a big problem,” said Anita Jain, from the WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme.

      About six percent of people infected by coronavirus develop long COVID, according to the global health body, which has recorded some 777 million COVID cases to date.

      Whereas the rates of long COVID after an initial infection are declining, reinfection increases the risk, Jain added….

      About 15 percent of those who have long COVID have persistent symptoms for more than one year, according to the WHO, while women tend to have a higher risk than men of developing the condition.

12/16/24

 

      Long Covid is real. The vaccines reduce the risk of it. That is reason enough to get vaccinated. 


Covid Quarterly Commentaries for Q4 2024. Copyright © 2025 by Gary F. Zeolla (www.Zeolla.org).


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The above article was posted on this website January 9, 2025.

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