Just out of curiosity, does anybody here know the definition of the word "pandemic?"
Does anybody know who declares a pandemic?
Does anybody know who declares a pandemic?
COVID-19 'Pandemic'
- Thread starter Ocean Breeze
- Start date
Wrong, but nice try.
You don't know what a pandemic is. Hint: it's not a big, scary, cough-cough fall-over-dead disease.
well if you need an invitation to elucidate the masses - kinda like a vampire needs one to enter a home - consider this it.
Well, if you need instruction on how to use a dictionary. . .
Or if you're unaware that the post-shit-on-CanCon machine in front of you is the most powerful information-search tool in history. . .
Then a pandemic is declared by the World Health Organisation.
And the definition is "a widespread occurrence of an infectious disease over a whole country or the world at a particular time."
People who think Covid isn't an issue anymore...
Our hospital had it's ER closed because our ER doc has Covid.
Five or so staff also have it now.
Overheard talk between two parents at the barber shop that they might go back to no school in person due to increasing cases; or at least, schools are planning for it.
Our hospital had it's ER closed because our ER doc has Covid.
Five or so staff also have it now.
Overheard talk between two parents at the barber shop that they might go back to no school in person due to increasing cases; or at least, schools are planning for it.
I don't see it either, and yet people in some circumstances apparently feel the need to prepare for it just in case.
People are always free to do what they feel is right for them. I still see people in masks.
Send them to school on transit. Thats a germ party of epic proportions
Nobel Prize in medicine goes to scientists whose work enabled creation of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19
Their findings 'have fundamentally changed our understanding of how mRNA interacts with our immune system'
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
David Keyton And Mike Corder
Published Oct 02, 2023 • Last updated 2 days ago • 4 minute read
STOCKHOLM (AP) — Two scientists won the Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday for discoveries that enabled the creation of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 and that could be used to develop other shots in the future.
Hungarian-American Katalin Kariko and American Drew Weissman were cited for contributing “to the unprecedented rate of vaccine development during one of the greatest threats to human health in modern times,” according to the panel that awarded the prize in Stockholm.
WHAT IS THE NOBEL FOR?
The panel said the pair’s “groundbreaking findings … fundamentally changed our understanding of how mRNA interacts with our immune system.”
Traditionally, making vaccines required growing viruses or pieces of viruses and then purifying them before next steps in brewing shots. The the messenger RNA approach starts with a snippet of genetic code that carries instructions for making proteins. Pick the right virus protein to target, and the body turns into a mini vaccine factory.
But simply injecting lab-grown mRNA into the body triggered a reaction that usually destroyed it. Kariko, a professor at Szeged University in Hungary and an adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and Weissman, of the University of Pennsylvania, figured out a tiny modification to the building blocks of RNA that made it stealthy enough to slip past those immune defenses.
Kariko, 68, is the 13th woman to win the Nobel Prize in medicine. She was a senior vice president at BioNTech, which partnered with Pfizer to make one of the COVID-19 vaccines. She and Weissman, 64, who is a professor and director of the Penn Institute for RNA Innovations, met by chance in the 1990s while photocopying research papers, according to Penn Today, the university’s news website.
WHY DO MRNA VACCINES MATTER?
Dr. Paul Hunter, a professor of medicine at Britain’s University of East Anglia, described the mRNA vaccines as a “game changer” in helping to shut down the coronavirus pandemic, crediting the shots with saving millions of lives.
“If it hadn’t been for the mRNA technology, COVID would have been much worse,” he said. “Vaccines generally were the turning point in slowing down COVID and the mRNA vaccines were just so much better than all the others,” he said, noting that the main vaccine used in the U.K., made by AstraZeneca, is barely in use anymore.
“We would likely only now be coming out of the depths of COVID without the mRNA vaccines,” Hunter said.
Dr. Bharat Pankhania, an infectious diseases expert at Exeter University, said that a major advantage of mRNA technology was that vaccines could be made in extremely large quantities since their main components are made in laboratories.
Pankhania predicted that the technology used in the vaccines could be used to refine vaccines for other diseases like Ebola, malaria and dengue, and might also be used to create shots that immunize people against certain types of cancer or auto-immune diseases like lupus.
“It’s possible that we could vaccinate people against abnormal cancer proteins and have the immune system attack it after being given a targeted mRNA shot,” he explained. “It’s a much more targeted technology than has been previously available and could revolutionize how we handle not only outbreaks, but non-communicable diseases.”
Nobel Committee member Gunilla Karlsson Hedestam said the prize could go some way to addressing concerns among skeptics about the speed with which COVID-19 vaccines were developed.
She said the award highlights “the decades of basic research that’s behind this kind of work.”
Peter Maybarduk, director of the Access to Medicines program at the Washington advocacy group Public Citizen, welcomed the recognition of mRNA vaccines, but said the award should also be deeply embarrassing for Western countries.
“This is a technology that should have been available to all of humanity but it was almost exclusively available only in the richest countries in the world,” he said, adding that much of the funding that led to the development of mRNA technology came from public funds in the U.S.
While mRNA vaccines were widely used in North America and across Europe to shut down COVID-19, only a small number of the shots were made available to poorer countries months after vaccination started in rich countries.
HOW DID KARIKÓ AND WEISSMAN REACT?
“The future is just so incredible,” Weissman said. “We’ve been thinking for years about everything that we could do with RNA, and now it’s here.”
Kariko said her husband was the first to pick up the early morning call, handing it to her to hear the news. “I couldn’t believe it,” she said. “I was very much surprised. But I am very happy.”
Before COVID-19, mRNA vaccines were already being tested for other diseases like Zika, influenza and rabies — but the pandemic brought more attention to this approach, Kariko said.
“There was already clinical trials before COVID, but people were not aware,” she said.
Kariko’s family are no strangers to high honors. Her daughter, Susan Francia, is a double Olympic gold medalist in rowing, competing for the United States.
The prize carries a cash award of 11 million Swedish kronor ($1 million) — from a bequest left by the prize’s creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel. The laureates are invited to receive their awards at ceremonies on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Nobel’s death.
Nobel announcements continue with the physics prize on Tuesday, chemistry on Wednesday and literature on Thursday. The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced Friday and the economics award on Oct. 9.
torontosun.com
Their findings 'have fundamentally changed our understanding of how mRNA interacts with our immune system'
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
David Keyton And Mike Corder
Published Oct 02, 2023 • Last updated 2 days ago • 4 minute read
STOCKHOLM (AP) — Two scientists won the Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday for discoveries that enabled the creation of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 and that could be used to develop other shots in the future.
Hungarian-American Katalin Kariko and American Drew Weissman were cited for contributing “to the unprecedented rate of vaccine development during one of the greatest threats to human health in modern times,” according to the panel that awarded the prize in Stockholm.
WHAT IS THE NOBEL FOR?
The panel said the pair’s “groundbreaking findings … fundamentally changed our understanding of how mRNA interacts with our immune system.”
Traditionally, making vaccines required growing viruses or pieces of viruses and then purifying them before next steps in brewing shots. The the messenger RNA approach starts with a snippet of genetic code that carries instructions for making proteins. Pick the right virus protein to target, and the body turns into a mini vaccine factory.
But simply injecting lab-grown mRNA into the body triggered a reaction that usually destroyed it. Kariko, a professor at Szeged University in Hungary and an adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and Weissman, of the University of Pennsylvania, figured out a tiny modification to the building blocks of RNA that made it stealthy enough to slip past those immune defenses.
Kariko, 68, is the 13th woman to win the Nobel Prize in medicine. She was a senior vice president at BioNTech, which partnered with Pfizer to make one of the COVID-19 vaccines. She and Weissman, 64, who is a professor and director of the Penn Institute for RNA Innovations, met by chance in the 1990s while photocopying research papers, according to Penn Today, the university’s news website.
WHY DO MRNA VACCINES MATTER?
Dr. Paul Hunter, a professor of medicine at Britain’s University of East Anglia, described the mRNA vaccines as a “game changer” in helping to shut down the coronavirus pandemic, crediting the shots with saving millions of lives.
“If it hadn’t been for the mRNA technology, COVID would have been much worse,” he said. “Vaccines generally were the turning point in slowing down COVID and the mRNA vaccines were just so much better than all the others,” he said, noting that the main vaccine used in the U.K., made by AstraZeneca, is barely in use anymore.
“We would likely only now be coming out of the depths of COVID without the mRNA vaccines,” Hunter said.
Dr. Bharat Pankhania, an infectious diseases expert at Exeter University, said that a major advantage of mRNA technology was that vaccines could be made in extremely large quantities since their main components are made in laboratories.
Pankhania predicted that the technology used in the vaccines could be used to refine vaccines for other diseases like Ebola, malaria and dengue, and might also be used to create shots that immunize people against certain types of cancer or auto-immune diseases like lupus.
“It’s possible that we could vaccinate people against abnormal cancer proteins and have the immune system attack it after being given a targeted mRNA shot,” he explained. “It’s a much more targeted technology than has been previously available and could revolutionize how we handle not only outbreaks, but non-communicable diseases.”
Nobel Committee member Gunilla Karlsson Hedestam said the prize could go some way to addressing concerns among skeptics about the speed with which COVID-19 vaccines were developed.
She said the award highlights “the decades of basic research that’s behind this kind of work.”
Peter Maybarduk, director of the Access to Medicines program at the Washington advocacy group Public Citizen, welcomed the recognition of mRNA vaccines, but said the award should also be deeply embarrassing for Western countries.
“This is a technology that should have been available to all of humanity but it was almost exclusively available only in the richest countries in the world,” he said, adding that much of the funding that led to the development of mRNA technology came from public funds in the U.S.
While mRNA vaccines were widely used in North America and across Europe to shut down COVID-19, only a small number of the shots were made available to poorer countries months after vaccination started in rich countries.
HOW DID KARIKÓ AND WEISSMAN REACT?
“The future is just so incredible,” Weissman said. “We’ve been thinking for years about everything that we could do with RNA, and now it’s here.”
Kariko said her husband was the first to pick up the early morning call, handing it to her to hear the news. “I couldn’t believe it,” she said. “I was very much surprised. But I am very happy.”
Before COVID-19, mRNA vaccines were already being tested for other diseases like Zika, influenza and rabies — but the pandemic brought more attention to this approach, Kariko said.
“There was already clinical trials before COVID, but people were not aware,” she said.
Kariko’s family are no strangers to high honors. Her daughter, Susan Francia, is a double Olympic gold medalist in rowing, competing for the United States.
The prize carries a cash award of 11 million Swedish kronor ($1 million) — from a bequest left by the prize’s creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel. The laureates are invited to receive their awards at ceremonies on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Nobel’s death.
Nobel announcements continue with the physics prize on Tuesday, chemistry on Wednesday and literature on Thursday. The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced Friday and the economics award on Oct. 9.
Nobel Prize in medicine goes to scientists whose work enabled creation of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19
Their findings 'have fundamentally changed our understanding of how mRNA interacts with our immune system'
Novavax touts non-mRNA COVID vaccine, future of domestic production remains uncertain
Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Published Oct 04, 2023 • 1 minute read
Novavax
OTTAWA — The last remaining manufacturer to offer an alternative to mRNA COVID-19 vaccines in Canada is boasting about the importance of having several available vaccine options — though the company is providing little certainty about its ability to manufacture the shot domestically.
Maryland-based Novavax held a press conference to tout the safety and efficacy of its updated vaccine, which targets more recent strains of COVID-19, and the importance of having an option for people who can’t or won’t accept an mRNA shot.
The new formulation is awaiting Health Canada approval.
The federal government has promised to make the Novavax vaccine in Canada at the purpose-built National Research Council’s biologics manufacturing centre in Montreal, but it has not yet been approved to start bulk production.
This summer, Ottawa amended its purchasing agreement with Novavax, and now has the ability to end the deal if bulk production doesn’t start by the end of 2024.
The company’s Canadian director Andrew Boston says it is currently producing test lots at the facility and hopes to begin bulk production next year, but he hasn’t said more about production plans at the facility.
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Published Oct 04, 2023 • 1 minute read
Novavax
OTTAWA — The last remaining manufacturer to offer an alternative to mRNA COVID-19 vaccines in Canada is boasting about the importance of having several available vaccine options — though the company is providing little certainty about its ability to manufacture the shot domestically.
Maryland-based Novavax held a press conference to tout the safety and efficacy of its updated vaccine, which targets more recent strains of COVID-19, and the importance of having an option for people who can’t or won’t accept an mRNA shot.
The new formulation is awaiting Health Canada approval.
The federal government has promised to make the Novavax vaccine in Canada at the purpose-built National Research Council’s biologics manufacturing centre in Montreal, but it has not yet been approved to start bulk production.
This summer, Ottawa amended its purchasing agreement with Novavax, and now has the ability to end the deal if bulk production doesn’t start by the end of 2024.
The company’s Canadian director Andrew Boston says it is currently producing test lots at the facility and hopes to begin bulk production next year, but he hasn’t said more about production plans at the facility.
Novavax touts non-mRNA COVID vaccine, future of domestic production remains uncertain
Future of domestic production remains uncertain.
Members of Florida family sentenced for selling fake COVID-19 cure
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Published Oct 06, 2023 • 1 minute read
MIAMI — A Florida man and his three adult sons were sentenced Friday for selling a toxic industrial bleach as a fake COVID-19 cure through their online church.
A federal judge in Miami sentenced Jonathan Grenon, 37, and Jordan Grenon, 29, to 12 years and seven months in prison, while Mark Grenon, 66, and Joseph Grenon, 36, each received five years, according to court records.
A jury found all four guilty in July of conspiring to defraud the United States and deliver misbranded drugs. The Grenons represented themselves but declined to speak during the two-day trial.
Prosecutors called the Grenons “con men” and “snake-oil salesmen” and said the Bradenton family’s Genesis II Church of Health and Healing sold $1 million worth of their so-called Miracle Mineral Solution. In videos, it was pitched as a cure for 95% of known diseases, including COVID-19, Alzheimer’s, autism, brain cancer, HIV/AIDS and multiple sclerosis, prosecutors said.
What the Grenons were selling was actually chlorine dioxide, officials said. When ingested, the solution becomes a bleach that is typically used for such things as treating textiles, industrial water, pulp and paper, according to the Food and Drug Administration. Authorities said it is the same as drinking bleach and can be fatal.
A Miami federal judge ordered the church to stop selling the substance in 2020, but that was ignored.
Jonathan and Jordan Grenon were arrested in Bradenton, just south of the Tampa Bay area. Mark and Joseph Grenon fled to Colombia, where they were arrested and extradited back to the U.S.
Besides the fraud convictions, Jonathan and Jordan Grenon were also convicted of violating federal court orders requiring them to stop selling Miracle Mineral Solution in 2020. U.S. authorities agreed to drop those same contempt charges against Mark and Joseph Grenon as a condition of their extradition from Colombia.
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Published Oct 06, 2023 • 1 minute read
MIAMI — A Florida man and his three adult sons were sentenced Friday for selling a toxic industrial bleach as a fake COVID-19 cure through their online church.
A federal judge in Miami sentenced Jonathan Grenon, 37, and Jordan Grenon, 29, to 12 years and seven months in prison, while Mark Grenon, 66, and Joseph Grenon, 36, each received five years, according to court records.
A jury found all four guilty in July of conspiring to defraud the United States and deliver misbranded drugs. The Grenons represented themselves but declined to speak during the two-day trial.
Prosecutors called the Grenons “con men” and “snake-oil salesmen” and said the Bradenton family’s Genesis II Church of Health and Healing sold $1 million worth of their so-called Miracle Mineral Solution. In videos, it was pitched as a cure for 95% of known diseases, including COVID-19, Alzheimer’s, autism, brain cancer, HIV/AIDS and multiple sclerosis, prosecutors said.
What the Grenons were selling was actually chlorine dioxide, officials said. When ingested, the solution becomes a bleach that is typically used for such things as treating textiles, industrial water, pulp and paper, according to the Food and Drug Administration. Authorities said it is the same as drinking bleach and can be fatal.
A Miami federal judge ordered the church to stop selling the substance in 2020, but that was ignored.
Jonathan and Jordan Grenon were arrested in Bradenton, just south of the Tampa Bay area. Mark and Joseph Grenon fled to Colombia, where they were arrested and extradited back to the U.S.
Besides the fraud convictions, Jonathan and Jordan Grenon were also convicted of violating federal court orders requiring them to stop selling Miracle Mineral Solution in 2020. U.S. authorities agreed to drop those same contempt charges against Mark and Joseph Grenon as a condition of their extradition from Colombia.
Members of Florida family sentenced for selling fake COVID-19 cure
A Florida man and his adult sons were sentenced for selling a toxic industrial bleach as a fake COVID-19 cure through their online church
When are they going to arrest Pfizer for selling fake vaccines?Members of Florida family sentenced for selling fake COVID-19 cure
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Published Oct 06, 2023 • 1 minute read
MIAMI — A Florida man and his three adult sons were sentenced Friday for selling a toxic industrial bleach as a fake COVID-19 cure through their online church.
A federal judge in Miami sentenced Jonathan Grenon, 37, and Jordan Grenon, 29, to 12 years and seven months in prison, while Mark Grenon, 66, and Joseph Grenon, 36, each received five years, according to court records.
A jury found all four guilty in July of conspiring to defraud the United States and deliver misbranded drugs. The Grenons represented themselves but declined to speak during the two-day trial.
Prosecutors called the Grenons “con men” and “snake-oil salesmen” and said the Bradenton family’s Genesis II Church of Health and Healing sold $1 million worth of their so-called Miracle Mineral Solution. In videos, it was pitched as a cure for 95% of known diseases, including COVID-19, Alzheimer’s, autism, brain cancer, HIV/AIDS and multiple sclerosis, prosecutors said.
What the Grenons were selling was actually chlorine dioxide, officials said. When ingested, the solution becomes a bleach that is typically used for such things as treating textiles, industrial water, pulp and paper, according to the Food and Drug Administration. Authorities said it is the same as drinking bleach and can be fatal.
A Miami federal judge ordered the church to stop selling the substance in 2020, but that was ignored.
Jonathan and Jordan Grenon were arrested in Bradenton, just south of the Tampa Bay area. Mark and Joseph Grenon fled to Colombia, where they were arrested and extradited back to the U.S.
Besides the fraud convictions, Jonathan and Jordan Grenon were also convicted of violating federal court orders requiring them to stop selling Miracle Mineral Solution in 2020. U.S. authorities agreed to drop those same contempt charges against Mark and Joseph Grenon as a condition of their extradition from Colombia.
Members of Florida family sentenced for selling fake COVID-19 cure
A Florida man and his adult sons were sentenced for selling a toxic industrial bleach as a fake COVID-19 cure through their online church