Cont: The One Covid-19 Science and Medicine Thread Part 5

[dann]

iI shouldn't come as a surprise to anybody that RFK Jr. promotes the 'toe tag' narrative that has popped up so often on this forum:

Thomas [redacted], DO on bsky, May 8, 2026
RFK Jr. showing his eugenicist beliefs. Here he is today at The City Club in Cleveland:
"The average American who died from COVID had 3.8 chronic diseases. So what was really killing them? It was almost impossible for COVID to kill a healthy person. It was killing people who were already sick."

With a short video clip, 13 sec.

Google AI:

Key Findings on Chronic Disease Prevalence
Multiple Conditions: Nearly 1 in 3 Americans are living with multiple chronic conditions.
High Impact: About 12% of adults have at least 5 chronic diseases.
Aging Population: Over half of older adults live with three or more chronic conditions.

That takes an awful lot of toe tags for all of them to be wearing one!

Siob Harms on X, May 7, 2026
Protesters hold up sign reading “RFK is a biohazard.” @SpectrumNews1OH

 

[Helen]

I hate the whole "they had other conditions" - so what? Does that necessarily mean that their deaths could not have been avoided? And are not regrettable? It's very revealing of the utter lack of empathy in the person who think that. One of my healthiest friends had mild covid, and shortly afterwards died of anti-GBM (Goodpasture's) disease, triggered by the virus, and probably caused by genetics. So I suppose we should think that was fine then, since he had another condition? It's a disgusting argument.

 

[Resume]

https://twitter.com/x/status/2052860665165992134

Jackass.

 

[dann]

Experimental???
Hegseth seems to forget about this:

President Trump’s Executive Order on Ensuring Access to United States Government COVID-19 Vaccines (DoS, Dec 8, 2020)
Through Operation Warp Speed, the Administration has led a historic collaboration between the U.S. private sector and U.S. health and regulatory agencies to accelerate the development, testing, approval, and manufacturing of COVID-19 vaccines while maintaining the highest quality, efficacy, and safety standards. Bolstering global public confidence in these life-saving vaccines will be critical as their supply and distribution increases to meet global needs.

 

[icerat]

Operation Warp Speed is what I feel unfortunately compelled to mention whenever anyone says to name one good thing Trump 45 did.

 

[dann]

I hate the whole "they had other conditions" - so what? Does that necessarily mean that their deaths could not have been avoided? And are not regrettable? It's very revealing of the utter lack of empathy in the person who think that. One of my healthiest friends had mild covid, and shortly afterwards died of anti-GBM (Goodpasture's) disease, triggered by the virus, and probably caused by genetics. So I suppose we should think that was fine then, since he had another condition? It's a disgusting argument.

it is indeed!
Some ageist ISF posters (not exactly spring chickens themselves) welcomed the 'boomer remover' and questioned octogenarians' right to live.

 

[icerat]

In the US more than half of the non-elderly popuation, and more than 75% of those older than 40-45yrs old are considered to have some kind of pre-existing condition. 1 in 4 kids!

 

[dann]

Operation Warp Speed is what I feel unfortunately compelled to mention whenever anyone says to name one good thing Trump 45 did.

I doubt that he had more to do with it than possibly naming it. It would be interesting to know who suggested it in the first place.
Besides, the stupid name comes in handy when the anti-vaxxers claim that the development of the mRNA vaccines was rash and thus unsafe – and when they still claim that it's unsafe now, more than five years and several studies later.

 

[Andy_Ross]

This man used to be an MP

Andrew Bridgen
@ABridgen
Hospitals were ORDERED to pump patients full of toxic Remdesivir (UK used Midazolam) instead of safe, cheap IVERMECTIN because using it would’ve ended the “emergency,” killed the vaccine money machine, and exposed the entire scam.

They knowingly murdered countless for profit.

video in link

 

[Planigale]

This man used to be an MP

Andrew Bridgen
@ABridgen
Hospitals were ORDERED to pump patients full of toxic Remdesivir (UK used Midazolam) instead of safe, cheap IVERMECTIN because using it would’ve ended the “emergency,” killed the vaccine money machine, and exposed the entire scam.

They knowingly murdered countless for profit.

video in link

Having been there, management were never on top of things enough to order anyone to do anything. Remdesivir use was highly restricted; there were limited and restricted criteria when remdesivir could be given. Remdesivir is an antiviral, midazolam is an anti-anxiolytic that was used to allow patients to tolerate ventilatory support.

Ivermectin has been repeatedly shown to be ineffective for Covid, and is made by big pharmaceutical companies in any case, why wouldn't they want to profit if their drug was any good?

 

[dann]

COVID cut life expectancy by 4 to 5 years​

iI shouldn't come as a surprise to anybody that RFK Jr. promotes the 'toe tag' narrative that has popped up so often on this forum:
With a short video clip, 13 sec.
Google AI:
That takes an awful lot of toe tags for all of them to be wearing one!

Another nail in the coffin of the toe-tag narrative:

Many older adults who died of COVID weren’t close to death before infection, study suggests (CIDRAP, May 11, 2026)
About 28% of older people in England who died of COVID-19 in the first 2.5 years of the pandemic would likely, if uninfected, have lived at least another five years, a new model-based analysis estimates.
(...)
“We estimate that 23.5% of deaths aged 65 and over would not have been expected to survive more than one year,” the researchers wrote. “However, 28% would have been expected to have survived for 5 years or more had they not had the disease.”

 

[dann]

Jonathan Howard on bsky, May 12, 2026
I have no idea who this writer is, but he sees the same problem.
MAHA is cracking apart without covid disinformation to hold it together.


Marty Makary Gets Not-So-Subtle Hint He’s Out at FDA
President Trump has signed off on a plan to fire FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, according to multiple reports. This marks the latest high-level shakeup under HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., follo...
www.americanexperiment.org

Marty Makary gets not-so-subtle hint he’s out at FDA (American Experiment, May 11, 2026)
Pro-life groups initially supported Makary for his steadfast opposition to pandemic lockdowns and his support for dissenting voices in the medical community who were blacklisted by leaders in the Biden health offices.

 

[dann]

Jonathan Howard:

How Journalists Enable the COVID Amnesia Project (Science-Based Medicine, May 14, 2026)
People need to know the past credibility of our medical leaders to accurately gauge their current credibility.
It’s pretty hackneyed to whine about “the media” these days. Obviously, there are plenty of excellent journalists, and my own writing would not be possible without their efforts. Nonetheless many of them have been complicit in the COVID Amnesia Project, whitewashing and sanitizing the atrocious track record of MAHA doctors, thus numbing the public to their current threat.

His examples: Jay Bhattacharya, Marty Makary, Martin Kulldorff &Vinay Prasad.

 

[marting]

Nancy Klimas, MD, hosted a detailed, long covid status review and Q and A last month.

 

[dann]

Madhu Pai on bsky, May 15, 2026
For all the pandemic deniers out there:
"COVID-19 pandemic inflicted a setback of historic proportions. An estimated 22.1 million excess deaths occurred between 2020 and 2023, with nearly a decade of gains in life expectancy & healthy life expectancy wiped out by 2021"
iris.who.int/server/api/c...

 

[dann]

Ultraviolet Ultrasound as a cure for COVID-19?
This sounds (pun not intended) too good to be true, but I don't know if it actually is:

Ultrasound waves rupture COVID-19 and flu viruses without damaging cells (phys.org, May 7, 2026)
"It's kind of like fighting the virus with a shout. In this study, we proved that the energy of sound waves causes morphological changes in viral particles until they explode, a phenomenon comparable to what happens with popcorn. By degrading the structure of the pathogen, the protective membrane of the virus called the envelope bursts and deforms, preventing the virus from invading human cells," explains Odemir Martinez Bruno, a professor at the São Carlos Institute of Physics (IFSC) at USP who coordinated the study.

Ultrasound effectively destabilizes and disrupts the structural integrity of enveloped respiratory viruses (Nature, Feb 13, 2026)
This study demonstrates that high-frequency ultrasound (3–20 MHz) can effectively disrupt the structural integrity of both Influenza A virus (H1N1) and SARS-CoV-2 through a resonance-driven mechanism distinct from classical cavitation (kHz range). Under these conditions, viral particles undergo pronounced alterations (fragmentation, envelope rupture, and loss of morphological uniformity) consistent with direct mechanical destabilization rather than thermal or bubble-mediated effects. Detailed structural analyses revealed significant disruption of the viral envelope, accompanied by measurable shifts in particle size distribution and reduced diameters, indicative of resonance-induced fragmentation. These structural modifications were paralleled by biological consequences: SARS-CoV-2 infectivity was markedly reduced in vitro, with infected cells exhibiting substantially lower viral loads.

On bsky.

NB: It hasn't been tested on animals yet:

Future investigations should expand toward in vivo validation, exploring the biodistribution, safety, and efficacy of ultrasound-mediated antiviral therapy in animal or organoid models.

 

[Planigale]

Ultraviolet Ultrasound as a cure for COVID-19?
This sounds (pun not intended) too good to be true, but I don't know if it actually is:




On bsky.

NB: It hasn't been tested on animals yet:

This is like the ivermectin antiviral studies, demonstrating an effect in vitro is completely different from having an effective treatment. The ultrasound was inserted in viral cultures in a petri dish, essentially distance = 0. ultrasound energy follows an inverse square law. The exposures were very prolonged. Influenza and Covid infections are predominantly in airways and lungs, ultrasound doesn't propagate through air. The reality is this will never be an effective treatment.

If you carried out liquid ventilation flooding the lungs with perfluorocarbons and carrying out aggressive whole body ultrasound at the onset of infection this might work, but it certainly won't be cost effective and maybe not viable on a risk benefit assessment.

 

[dann]

There is obviously no reason to get one's hopes up, but I don't think this is true: "ultrasound doesn't propagate through air."

Ultrasound in air (PhysicsToday.aip.org, Dec 1, 2020)
Airborne ultrasound is becoming more prevalent in public places. Some individuals are complaining of adverse effects, including nausea, dizziness, tinnitus, fatigue, migraines and persistent headaches, and an uncomfortable feeling of “pressure in the ears.”

I don't think it's a coincidence that it causes almost the exact same symptoms as found in 'Havana syndrome' ... and MPI.

 

[dann]

43% is better than I would have thought:

COVID vaccination may protect household members (CIDRAP, May 15, 2026)
Many studies show that COVID-19 vaccination reduces the risk of severe disease, hospitalization, and death. There is less evidence about whether COVID-19 shots make people less contagious.
New research, however, has found that COVID-19 patients who were vaccinated against the virus were much less likely to infect household members than unvaccinated patients, according to a study published today in JAMA Network Open.
(...)
Overall, 62% of household contacts of patients with the virus soon tested positive for COVID-19.
But the household contacts of patients vaccinated in the past six months were 43% less likely to test positive than household contacts of unvaccinated sick people, the study shows.

Virus in the vents: Study traces COVID spread in high-rise apartment (CIDRAP, May 15, 2026)
A COVID-19 outbreak in a residential building in Spain during the early months of the pandemic likely spread through shared bathroom ventilation ducts, according to a study published this week in PLOS One.

Something like this was suspected early on when the virus spread in apartment buildings in China under quarantine.

 

[Planigale]

There is obviously no reason to get one's hopes up, but I don't think this is true: "ultrasound doesn't propagate through air."

I don't think it's a coincidence that it causes almost the exact same symptoms as found in 'Havana syndrome' ... and MPI.

Note that the ultrasound used here as teen or pest deterrents is 20 - 40 KHz, whilst the (medical) ultrasound used to disrupt viruses is 3 - 20 MHz.

Visible light is about 500 THz, 500 GHz would be microwave, 500 PHz are x-rays. All with very different transmissibility.