- breakthrough infections - triggered by Delta, and more recently the Omicron variants raise the risk that even the fully vaccinated are at risk As a result, booster shots are now a matter of urgency
the Omicron variant has more mutations, numbering some 50+, than any other variant to date, the clinical significance of this fact, is that vaccines, which were designed using the earlier Wuhan, or even the more recent Delta strain will, in all likelihood, not be as effective vis-à-vis the Omicron variant
viruses, a pandemic, spreads in a physical, as well as, a social environment, that is why, against the will of some, measures have been attempted to curtail the physical and social spread of the virus, because the more a virus spreads, in numbers of infections and distance, the more opportunities the virus has to mutate into a more dangerous or a more transmissible form, or both. And that, is our current predicament
... vaccine roulette
enshrined in conventional wisdom is the notion that it takes a community to raise a child. And, in that same vein of thought, it should be rather obvious, that it took a community; politicians, the press, and the pulpit, for Alberta to get its response to the pandemic, so horribly and deadly wrong
... a study of 236,379 Covid-19 survivors in the US, revealed a morbidity rate of 34%. the nature of the damage done to brain & lungs, is such that a full recovery is not likely _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
the clinical physiology of Covid-19 related
... loss of smell, memory and taste
Clinicians, medical scientists and researchers, in the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic, had already observed and verified the ability of the virus to affect brain structures, physically and in a pronounced way.
The damage to the brain caused by the virus can be observed through brain imaging techniques.
In fact, abnormal brain images have been observed in infected patients whose only symptom of infection was their loss of a sense of smell.
This conforms to our understanding of the coronavirus, which enters cells facilitated by ACE2 receptors. The highest concentration of ACE2 receptors, coincidentally, is in the brain structure involved with our sense of smell, the olfactory bulb (OB).
And, damage to this brain structure in the infected individual results in their loss of the sense of smell.
The olfactory bulb connects through other limbic structures to the hippocampus, which is the brain structure primarily-responsible for short-term memory, memory indexing and storage.
Damage to this brain structure causes a loss or blunting of short-term memory.
Understanding that the sense of taste lies in the brain and not the tongue, helps to explain the loss of taste reported by Covid-19 patients as well as survivors, when there is viral damage to the brain structures responsible for the sense of taste.
Thus, the loss of smell, memory and taste conform to our understanding of the mechanisms by which the coronavirus infiltrates and damages brain cells, tissues and structures.
Our brain cells, tissues and structures are normally protected from untoward, that is, harmful substances and objects gaining entry by what is known as the blood-brain barrier (BBB). The blood-brain barrier, located in brain capillaries, restricts some substances and objects from the bloodstream that supplies neural tissues, while allowing other substances to pass into the bloodstream that supplies neural tissues.
And is, by definition, semi-permeable.
A breakdown in the blood-brain barrier, triggers an inflammatory response, at the tissue as well as the cellular and molecular level, and if prolonged, may ultimately lead to a loss of tissue function, as a result of local inflammatory responses, elicited to counter an infection, damage, injury or toxin.
We understand the possibility that at times there can be inappropriate immune system triggered inflammatory responses, that is, instances where the body attacks its own healthy tissues, as if they were infected, as autoimmune diseases.
The cardinal signs of inflammation, that is, the major symptoms used to construct a diagnosis are: redness, warmth, swelling, pain and loss of tissue function, noting that not all five-major symptoms are present in every instance of inflammation.
In essence, increased blood flow to an infected or injured area causes redness and warmth, leaking of fluids into tissues results in swelling, stimulation of tissue nerves causes pain, and increased and prolonged migration of immune cells, cytokines, into tissues may cause a loss of tissue function.
Although all of the cardinal signs of inflammation may not be present in every inflammatory response, nevertheless all five symptoms emanate from the release of cytokines into the bloodstream, which increases vascular permeability and augments the migration of immune cells into injured or infected tissues.
The virus that triggers the Covid-19 disease process, has shown an ability to breakdown the blood-brain barrier, rapidly, and to cause legions, abnormal brain changes, which trigger a host of other neurological, psychological, as well as, behavioral affects.
Whereas acute, short-term, inflammatory responses are an integral and necessary part of the normal healing process, when the body is exposed to infection, injury or toxins, on the other hand, chronic, long-term inflammation presents possible serious and even destructive health problems.
For 34% of Covid-19 patient survivors the inflammatory response to the viral infection is not an acute one, but a chronic one, which carries with it serious long-lasting and utterly destructive health consequences.
ICU Covid survivors have a - 34% - morbidity rate - study reveals
... survival does not mean recovery, and for one-third of ICU survivors, Covid is likely to prove a life sentence
34% of those who contract moderate to severe Covid-19, will suffer to varying degrees, progressive brain cell deterioration in areas of the brain which protects us from schizophrenic thoughts and behaviors i.e., hallucinations, delusional behavior, disorganized speech, social isolation, intellectual deterioration, and emotional blunting. intellectual deterioration, and emotional blunting
And, after a period of such thoughts and behaviors of indeterminant length, brain cell deterioration will continue until the individual will require long-term care, where they will reside in an increasingly vegetative state unaware, in fact and in law, of what they have done to themselves or others, during their indeterminant period of schizophrenic thoughts and behaviors.
And there is no way back, brain cells cannot be repaired.
Putting this into perspective, in a population in excess of 30 million people, there are no more than 1,000 diagnosed cases of schizophrenia in Canada in a year.
Given the number of moderate to severe Covid-19 survivors in the Province of Alberta alone, the number of those with progressive brain cell damage, already exceeds the total number of cases of developing schizophrenia that would normally occur in all of Canada in an entire year.
Alberta lacks the capacity, both in terms of leadership and facilities, to manage the problem as it now exists, and the problem is growing steadily.
Some, including health care providers, erroneously take comfort in the fact that the 34% brain damage figure was derived from a study of only 230,000+ survivors, who were hospitalized with moderate to severe cases of Covid in the United States.
Their argument is that there have been millions of people who have recovered from Covid.
This is their first bit of illogic.
Whereas, it is true that millions of people with moderate to severe cases of Covid have survived, not all survivors have or will ever recover, fully. In fact, the evidence leads us to the understanding that 34% of survivors have not and will not recover to their pre-Covid-infection state of health.
34% of 230,000 survivors, means that there are 78,200 survivors, just from this sample of Covid survivors alone that have not recovered. Prominent among the disorders of the survivors who have not recovered are heart and lung problems, an alarming increase in diabetes and brain and mental disorders.
Let us step outside the rational and orderly world of professional healthcare administration and delivery, and based upon decades of previous experience, surmise what is going to happen as the mental health disorders associated with the brain damage caused by exposure to the Covid disease process begin to manifest in our communities. Especially, when the behaviors are of an increasingly disturbing and violent nature.
Overwhelmed and exposed to what is best described as an acute psychotic episode, and in need of perceived immediate assistance, the tendency, however reluctantly, will be to dial 911 and ask for the assistance of the local constable, the police.
What arrives is a response service whose training and experience is guided by the use of force continuum, and I need not dwell upon the outcome in too many instances that that call for mental health crises intervention assistance turned to tragedy, i.e., shootings, deaths while in custody, and even individuals in need of emergency mental health assistance falling from the balconies of multi-storied buildings.
When what is needed is the availability of a service, equally able to respond to an acute mental health crises situation, but whose training and experience is based upon a use of reasonableness continuum. And, just what service is available to do that, and what number does one call for their assistance?
That would be a useful bit of public service information.
... there's a tsunami of mental health disorders coming ... the un-masked and the un-vaccinated are playing a game of - vaccine roulette - and 1 out of three, is a loser
First, let us consider why, the Department of Psychiatry of the Faculty Board of Clinical Medicine at Oxford, one of the most prestigious and scholarly universities in the world, a faculty and university of which this author is an alumnus, would undertake the study as outlined in the previous section and as detailed below?
An analogy should suffice to answer that question.
The study outlined in the previous section, and detailed below was undertaken for the same reason that we maintain military colleges and academies, that is, so that when the bullets start flying towards us, at least there is someone trained, who can tell us where the bullets are coming from.
A tsunami of mental health disorders is incoming.
Professor Paul Harrison, lead author of the study conducted by the Department of Psychiatry at Oxford, analyzed data from the health records of 236,379 moderate to severe Covid-19 patient survivors in the United States.
The predictable incidence, based on the records of 236,379 ICU Covid survivors, documented that 80,368 of the survivors studied, that is 34%, were diagnosed with a neurological or mental health disorder within six months of their Covid infection.
The study, quoting its authors, suggests an urgent need for health systems to be equipped to deal with the now inevitable higher numbers of neurological disorders in survivors of the virus. The study was published in The Lancet Psychiatry Journal, 6 April 2021.
This is the kind of exacting information that will, if anything will, spur those who for whatever reason of ilk, continue to resist the singularly unique therapy available to ward off the most severe consequences of acquiring a Covid infection, for their own protection and the protection of all those with whom one comes into contact.
And that is, the sure and certain realization that if they survive an infection with the Covid virus, 1 out of 3 survivors, will never fully recover, because for one out of three Covid survivors, Covid is a life-long sentence.
But deterioration does not come quickly, what presents initially as pervasive, yet subtle, cognitive, behavioral and psychological problems, triggering a period of not infrequent psychotic episodes, will progress to a state of such problems of increased severity.
To an extent that as the mental deterioration progresses the survivor will be capable of doing harm to themselves and others without (sans) a conscious awareness, in fact and in law, of the harm that they are doing, or memory of the harm they have done.
This is a meaningful definition of psychotic episodes.
One in 3 Covid-19 survivors in the United States have already suffered a neurological or psychiatric disorder within the first six months of their initial infection with the pandemic virus.
We are just beginning to understand the impact this massive increase in mental disorders portends.
It is heart wrenching to learn of the young patients in Alabama hospitals, fighting for every breath, and begging the doctors to give them the vaccine, when in reality vaccine therapy is only available, pre-infection.
Vaccine roulette, anyone?
- in process
... a 30ish Texan leader of anti mask/vaccine freedom defenders group, contracts Covid, self-medicates with ivermectin, enters hospital on the 30th 0f July, and dies on the 30th of August, told friends that Fox News presenter Ingram said that ivermectin had been proven effective in treating Covid-19 and should be acknowledged as such
... groups of unvaccinated Albertans held what they called 'herd immunity' parties, in the highly mistaken belief that they would infect each other and thereby acquire protection from the deadly Covid-19 virus, at least 10 of the Covid party-goers were infected and in hospital
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