AP: The super spreaders behind top COVID-19 conspiracy theories
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hanimmal
Well-Known Member
https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-health-government-and-politics-sports-middle-east-3990ee7b4345b5bb4aeb375330d95565
A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked them out. Here are the facts:
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Pfizer vaccine does not contain graphene oxide
CLAIM: The Pfizer coronavirus vaccine is made up of 99.9% graphene oxide, a toxic compound.
THE FACTS: Graphene oxide is not among the ingredients found in Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, despite alarmist claims to the contrary on social media.
Videos spreading widely on Instagram and Twitter on Thursday touted a report from Spain that allegedly claimed to find graphene oxide — a material made by oxidizing graphite — in a vial of the Pfizer shot. “There’s no other reason for this to be in here except to murder people,” said a woman in one of the videos. The woman also baselessly claimed the compound would cause an inflammatory immune reaction called a cytokine storm in people who got the vaccine.
In reality, there’s no graphene oxide in the Pfizer vaccine, according to the ingredient list and Kit Longley, senior manager of science media relations at Pfizer. There’s also no evidence to suggest the Pfizer vaccine would cause a cytokine storm, Longley said. The coronavirus itself, however, has caused this type of immune response in some patients. Chemical and medical experts who are not associated with Pfizer confirmed to The Associated Press that there is no way graphene oxide would be found in the vaccine.
“It is not in the ingredient list and there is no way it could be present,” said Allen Myerson, a professor of chemical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
“Utter nonsense,” said Dr. Paul Offit, a vaccine expert at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
There has been research on potentially using graphene oxide in other vaccines, but the amounts would not be toxic to human cells, according to Johns Hopkins infectious disease specialist Dr. Amesh Adalja. The report cited in some of the viral posts lists Spain’s University of Almeria on its title page, and appears to be written by a professor at the university.
The university has said it was not involved in research indicating the presence of graphene in the vaccine. The university added in a statement that it supports vaccines and disavows the conclusions of the professor’s unofficial report. The report has not been peer reviewed and is not published in a scientific journal. It includes a disclaimer that its findings do not represent any institutional position of the university.
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Meme misleads about delta variant of the coronavirus
CLAIM: The delta variant of the coronavirus is fake.
THE FACTS: A widely circulating Facebook post denying the existence of the coronavirus delta variant ignores science and the reality that the highly contagious variant has spread rapidly across the globe.
The post is a meme featuring former President Donald Trump holding up an executive order he signed in 2017. In place of the executive order text are the words, “The Delta Variant Is Fake News.”
Commenters on the post accused Democrats of making up the delta variant to “keep the pot stirred up” and “keep everyone living in fear.”
In fact, nonpartisan scientists and health officials worldwide have acknowledged the existence of the delta variant, a version of the virus that experts say spreads more easily than other variants because of mutations that make it better at latching onto cells in our bodies.
The variant, which is named after the fourth letter in the Greek alphabet, has been identified in more than 90 countries since it was first detected in India. Studies have shown that full doses of the available vaccines protect against variants, including the delta variant. The delta variant poses the most danger in places where vaccinations are sparse. In Africa, for example, coronavirus cases are rising faster than ever before, partially driven by the mutation, according to the World Health Organization.
A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked them out. Here are the facts:
___
Pfizer vaccine does not contain graphene oxide
CLAIM: The Pfizer coronavirus vaccine is made up of 99.9% graphene oxide, a toxic compound.
THE FACTS: Graphene oxide is not among the ingredients found in Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, despite alarmist claims to the contrary on social media.
Videos spreading widely on Instagram and Twitter on Thursday touted a report from Spain that allegedly claimed to find graphene oxide — a material made by oxidizing graphite — in a vial of the Pfizer shot. “There’s no other reason for this to be in here except to murder people,” said a woman in one of the videos. The woman also baselessly claimed the compound would cause an inflammatory immune reaction called a cytokine storm in people who got the vaccine.
In reality, there’s no graphene oxide in the Pfizer vaccine, according to the ingredient list and Kit Longley, senior manager of science media relations at Pfizer. There’s also no evidence to suggest the Pfizer vaccine would cause a cytokine storm, Longley said. The coronavirus itself, however, has caused this type of immune response in some patients. Chemical and medical experts who are not associated with Pfizer confirmed to The Associated Press that there is no way graphene oxide would be found in the vaccine.
“It is not in the ingredient list and there is no way it could be present,” said Allen Myerson, a professor of chemical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
“Utter nonsense,” said Dr. Paul Offit, a vaccine expert at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
There has been research on potentially using graphene oxide in other vaccines, but the amounts would not be toxic to human cells, according to Johns Hopkins infectious disease specialist Dr. Amesh Adalja. The report cited in some of the viral posts lists Spain’s University of Almeria on its title page, and appears to be written by a professor at the university.
The university has said it was not involved in research indicating the presence of graphene in the vaccine. The university added in a statement that it supports vaccines and disavows the conclusions of the professor’s unofficial report. The report has not been peer reviewed and is not published in a scientific journal. It includes a disclaimer that its findings do not represent any institutional position of the university.
___
Meme misleads about delta variant of the coronavirus
CLAIM: The delta variant of the coronavirus is fake.
THE FACTS: A widely circulating Facebook post denying the existence of the coronavirus delta variant ignores science and the reality that the highly contagious variant has spread rapidly across the globe.
The post is a meme featuring former President Donald Trump holding up an executive order he signed in 2017. In place of the executive order text are the words, “The Delta Variant Is Fake News.”
Commenters on the post accused Democrats of making up the delta variant to “keep the pot stirred up” and “keep everyone living in fear.”
In fact, nonpartisan scientists and health officials worldwide have acknowledged the existence of the delta variant, a version of the virus that experts say spreads more easily than other variants because of mutations that make it better at latching onto cells in our bodies.
The variant, which is named after the fourth letter in the Greek alphabet, has been identified in more than 90 countries since it was first detected in India. Studies have shown that full doses of the available vaccines protect against variants, including the delta variant. The delta variant poses the most danger in places where vaccinations are sparse. In Africa, for example, coronavirus cases are rising faster than ever before, partially driven by the mutation, according to the World Health Organization.
hanimmal
Well-Known Member
hanimmal
Well-Known Member
Washington Post is providing free coverage of the pandemic so people don't have to have paywalls stop them from accurate information, which is nice since the death cult trolls infesting this and every other forum online are obviously not going anywhere.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/07/07/delta-variant-covid/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/07/07/delta-variant-covid/
hanimmal
Well-Known Member
After thinking about it, maybe the Republicans are trying to keep their cult members unvaccinated so that their 'liberal' family members that have gotten vaccinated don't feel safe visiting. Because nobody wants to be the cause of their family getting sick and possibly dying. Thus helping to keep their information bubbles from being popped.
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hanimmal
Well-Known Member
So I got bored and decided to check out the Toke and Talk section and stumbled into the Covid thread there.
Notice how certain the death cult troll is when the title of the actually legit link that they used has the word 'may' as being 'common knowledge' of something that 'only' blah blah blah.
Notice how certain the death cult troll is when the title of the actually legit link that they used has the word 'may' as being 'common knowledge' of something that 'only' blah blah blah.
@curious2garden has the perfect response to death cult troll.
hanimmal
Well-Known Member
Before the Death cult trolls start their Henny Penny'ing about this, 100 people out of 13 million doses developed this reaction.
https://apnews.com/article/business-science-health-coronavirus-pandemic-coronavirus-vaccine-8c7e69806af9b0fe3b158382b2f57c4f
https://apnews.com/article/business-science-health-coronavirus-pandemic-coronavirus-vaccine-8c7e69806af9b0fe3b158382b2f57c4f
Rob Roy
Well-Known Member
Obesity related illness kills more people than even the most laughably inflated covid death numbers.
Would it be a good idea to tax people to pay for an army of fat police to go door to door to measure body mass and search for secret stashes of twinkies?
DIY-HP-LED
Well-Known Member
Getting old increases healthcare costs too. Sending everybody a few masks in the mail and a public health visit from community volunteers is a good idea too, it helps get vaccination rates up.
When the mRNA vaccines come out of EUS soon, healthcare insurance companies and employers will require vaccination, as will schools and colleges. Most employers who require vaccinations have 99% compliance, as we've seen in the news. Because of the way the US healthcare system is setup, private means of persuasion will be used and I expect America to have a very high vaccination rate by fall. Here in Canada we should hit 90% vaccinated by fall voluntarily, and I expect with arm twisting, the rate will be the same in the states.
When the mRNA vaccines come out of EUS, it will change things in America the most and let the "free market" loose on yer asses. Stupidity will become a preexisting condition and healthcare insurance companies won't pay for stupidity for long. Any employer who pays for employee healthcare will require vaccination for that reason alone, but there will be plenty of other reasons to require it too. It will be the same for schools and universities and they currently require vaccinations for other things.
Rob Roy
Well-Known Member
I'm trying to comprehend your gibberish. Please help me out.
You favor a controlled market where other people force their choices on you rather than being allowed to make your own decisions ?
I'm not sure you know what an actual free market is.
They should start growing. Best hobby in the world.
DIY-HP-LED
Well-Known Member
The government ain't the only one limiting your choices, the free market does it too, health insurance companies are not going to pay for stupidity and neither are most companies who pay for employee healthcare. Schools and colleges require vaccination now and when the covid EUS ends, it will be just like all the other ones they require.
The real word data has been coming in for the mRNA vaccines and EUS, Emergency Use Statues will end this summer or fall, at least for the mRNA vaccines, then the free market will be free to act, the 80% of people who believe in vaccines can have more of a say in the matter, more freedom.
Pfizer Seeks Full FDA Approval For COVID-19 Vaccine : Coronavirus Updates : NPR
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printer
Well-Known Member
I won't go through the trouble of going through this article as it is basically the same as the Vanity Fair article I replied to.
Origin of Covid — Following the Clues
The Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted lives the world over for more than a year. Its death toll will soon reach three million people. Yet the origin of pandemic remains uncertain: the political agendas…nicholaswade.medium.com
The Lab-Leak Theory: Inside the Fight to Uncover COVID-19’s Origins
The Lab-Leak Theory: Inside the Fight to Uncover COVID-19’s Origins
Throughout 2020, the notion that the novel coronavirus leaked from a lab was off-limits. Those who dared to push for transparency say toxic politics and hidden agendas kept us in the dark.
"An institute “funded by American dollars is trying to teach a bat virus to infect human cells, then there is a virus” in the same city as that lab."
"not to say anything that would point to the U.S. government’s own role in gain-of-function research"
The North Carolina research is easy for Google to pull up. I found it almost a year ago and it was in Nature magazine among others. The paper said they 'conducting gain-of-function experiments' and that the question of whether they should was in the paper.The gain of function research has to do to putting the spike protein into the virus.
"The paper offered an answer: “We screened the area around the seafood market and identified two laboratories conducting research on bat coronavirus.” The first was the Wuhan Center for Disease Control and Prevention, which sat just 280 meters from the Huanan market and had been known to collect hundreds of bat samples. The second, the researchers wrote, was the Wuhan Institute of Virology."
There are eight Centers for Disease Control within the Huanan Market area, the Level 4 lab is 17 miles away. Not to say that a person at the close lab could not have done research at the L4 lab and infected themselves and then another day went to the market. But the three people that worked at the lab and went to hospital preceding the outbreak worked at the L4 lab. Still, not to say they could not have infected someone at the closer lab or that one of the three visited the market.
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" As they combed open sources as well as classified information, the team’s members soon stumbled on a 2015 research paper by Shi Zhengli and the University of North Carolina epidemiologist Ralph Baric proving that the spike protein of a novel coronavirus could infect human cells. Using mice as subjects, they inserted the protein from a Chinese rufous horseshoe bat into the molecular structure of the SARS virus from 2002, creating a new, infectious pathogen."
Shi Zhengli the 'Bat Lady' only supplied the bat virus samples. All research was done in the US, she had no further input from what I have read in the published paper.
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" In 2018, a delegation of American diplomats visited the WIV for the opening of its BSL-4 laboratory, a major event. In an unclassified cable, as a Washington Post columnist reported, they wrote that a shortage of highly trained technicians and clear protocols threatened the facility’s safe operations."
I would be surprised if the Chinese gave them a list of all the technicians.
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"Using the gene-editing technology known as CRISPR, the researchers had engineered mice with humanized lungs, then studied their susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2".
Well it would make sense the Chinese engineer the mice. SARS was contracted through the lungs. Also the reason they were studying bat viruses is because the world realized they are a danger.
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"Alina Chan, a young molecular biologist and postdoctoral fellow at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard University, found that early sequences of the virus showed very little evidence of mutation. Had the virus jumped from animals to humans, one would expect to see numerous adaptations, as was true in the 2002 SARS outbreak. To Chan, it appeared that SARS-CoV-2 was already “pre-adapted to human transmission,” she wrote in a preprint paper in May 2020."
I have a paper later on that says the virus was not 'pre-adapted' to humans. Similar virus has been found in other animals. Also the virus has jumped from humans, to minks and back to humans in the Netherlands.
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"On February 3, 2020, with the COVID-19 outbreak already spreading beyond China, Shi Zhengli and several colleagues published a paper noting that the SARS-CoV-2 virus’s genetic code was almost 80% identical to that of SARS-CoV, which caused the 2002 outbreak. But they also reported that it was 96.2% identical to a coronavirus sequence in their possession called RaTG13, which was previously detected in “Yunnan province.” They concluded that RaTG13 was the closest known relative to SARS-CoV-2."
"RaTG13 appeared identical to RaBtCoV/4991—the virus from the cave where the miners fell ill in 2012 with what looked like COVID-19."
Hard for them to explain this one, "Oh, we renamed it."
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Ran into a 1000 word limit, continued below.
printer
Well-Known Member
Gain of function.
"Those in favor claimed it could help prevent pandemics, by highlighting potential risks and accelerating vaccine development. Critics argued that creating pathogens that didn’t exist in nature ran the risk of unleashing them."
“If you ban gain-of-function research, you ban all of virology.” He added, “Ever since the moratorium, everyone’s gone wink-wink and just done gain-of-function research anyway.”
"But conspiracy-minded conservatives weren’t the only ones looking askance at Daszak. Ebright likened Daszak’s model of research—bringing samples from a remote area to an urban one, then sequencing and growing viruses and attempting to genetically modify them to make them more virulent—to “looking for a gas leak with a lighted match.” Moreover, Ebright believed that Daszak’s research had failed in its stated purpose of predicting and preventing pandemics through its global collaborations."
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"But a former national security official who reviewed U.S. classified materials told Vanity Fair that inside the WIV, military and civilian researchers are “doing animal research in the same fricking space.”
Without any proof the official could have said whatever they wanted to advance a certain narrative.
-------------------------------
"The inflammatory idea of SARS-CoV-2-as-bioweapon has gained traction as an alt-right conspiracy theory, but civilian research under Shi’s supervision that has yet to be made public raises more realistic concerns. Shi’s own comments to a science journal, and grant information available on a Chinese government database, suggest that in the past three years her team has tested two novel but undisclosed bat coronaviruses on humanized mice, to gauge their infectiousness."
But that is the purpose of the covid/sars research. To see if there are threats to humans.
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"The ground began to shift on May 2, when Nicholas Wade, a former New York Times science writer known in part for writing a controversial book about how genes shape the social behavior of different races, published a lengthy essay on Medium. In it, he analyzed the scientific clues both for and against a lab leak, and excoriated the media for its failure to report on the dueling hypotheses. Wade devoted a full section to the “furin cleavage site,” a distinctive segment of SARS-CoV-2’s genetic code that makes the virus more infectious by allowing it to efficiently enter human cells.
Within the scientific community, one thing leapt off the page. Wade quoted one of the world’s most famous microbiologists, Dr. David Baltimore, saying that he believed the furin cleavage site “was the smoking gun for the origin of the virus.” Baltimore, a Nobel Laureate and pioneer in molecular biology, was about as far from Steve Bannon and the conspiracy theorists as it was possible to get. His judgment, that the furin cleavage site raised the prospect of gene manipulation, had to be taken seriously."
----------------------------------------------
The miners contracting a disease like it and the renaming the virus looks bad. I could see it accidentally infecting someone and it getting out. But the thing most have been making a big deal of is the gain of function experiments, that the virus is man-made. This paper blows that away, that the spike protein is natural and found in nature.
Spike protein sequences of Cambodian, Thai and Japanese bat sarbecoviruses provide insights into the natural evolution of the Receptor Binding Domain and S1/S2 cleavage site
https://virological.org/t/spike-protein-sequences-of-cambodian-thai-and-japanese-bat-sarbecoviruses-provide-insights-into-the-natural-evolution-of-the-receptor-binding-domain-and-s1-s2-cleavage-site/622
While close relatives of SARS-CoV have been identified in bats, civets and other animals (Li, 200
, the immediate progenitor of SARS-CoV-2 is unknown. The bat coronavirus RaTG13 genome was sequenced from a sample from a Rhinolophus affinis captured at Mojiang cave in Yunnan province, China in 2013 . RaTG13 remains the virus with the highest overall sequence similarity to SARS-CoV-2, although because of frequent recombination patterns of sequence similarity vary across the genome. Recently, new sarbecoviruses have been sequenced from bats sampled in Cambodia, Thailand and Japan. Here, we reveal more of the natural evolution of sarbecoviruses by analyzing the spike protein sequences of these viruses. We also discuss some implications of these new sequences for understanding the proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2. (I took out the references)
Still more than 1000 characters!
"Those in favor claimed it could help prevent pandemics, by highlighting potential risks and accelerating vaccine development. Critics argued that creating pathogens that didn’t exist in nature ran the risk of unleashing them."
“If you ban gain-of-function research, you ban all of virology.” He added, “Ever since the moratorium, everyone’s gone wink-wink and just done gain-of-function research anyway.”
"But conspiracy-minded conservatives weren’t the only ones looking askance at Daszak. Ebright likened Daszak’s model of research—bringing samples from a remote area to an urban one, then sequencing and growing viruses and attempting to genetically modify them to make them more virulent—to “looking for a gas leak with a lighted match.” Moreover, Ebright believed that Daszak’s research had failed in its stated purpose of predicting and preventing pandemics through its global collaborations."
----------------------------
"But a former national security official who reviewed U.S. classified materials told Vanity Fair that inside the WIV, military and civilian researchers are “doing animal research in the same fricking space.”
Without any proof the official could have said whatever they wanted to advance a certain narrative.
-------------------------------
"The inflammatory idea of SARS-CoV-2-as-bioweapon has gained traction as an alt-right conspiracy theory, but civilian research under Shi’s supervision that has yet to be made public raises more realistic concerns. Shi’s own comments to a science journal, and grant information available on a Chinese government database, suggest that in the past three years her team has tested two novel but undisclosed bat coronaviruses on humanized mice, to gauge their infectiousness."
But that is the purpose of the covid/sars research. To see if there are threats to humans.
-------------------------
"The ground began to shift on May 2, when Nicholas Wade, a former New York Times science writer known in part for writing a controversial book about how genes shape the social behavior of different races, published a lengthy essay on Medium. In it, he analyzed the scientific clues both for and against a lab leak, and excoriated the media for its failure to report on the dueling hypotheses. Wade devoted a full section to the “furin cleavage site,” a distinctive segment of SARS-CoV-2’s genetic code that makes the virus more infectious by allowing it to efficiently enter human cells.
Within the scientific community, one thing leapt off the page. Wade quoted one of the world’s most famous microbiologists, Dr. David Baltimore, saying that he believed the furin cleavage site “was the smoking gun for the origin of the virus.” Baltimore, a Nobel Laureate and pioneer in molecular biology, was about as far from Steve Bannon and the conspiracy theorists as it was possible to get. His judgment, that the furin cleavage site raised the prospect of gene manipulation, had to be taken seriously."
----------------------------------------------
The miners contracting a disease like it and the renaming the virus looks bad. I could see it accidentally infecting someone and it getting out. But the thing most have been making a big deal of is the gain of function experiments, that the virus is man-made. This paper blows that away, that the spike protein is natural and found in nature.
Spike protein sequences of Cambodian, Thai and Japanese bat sarbecoviruses provide insights into the natural evolution of the Receptor Binding Domain and S1/S2 cleavage site
https://virological.org/t/spike-protein-sequences-of-cambodian-thai-and-japanese-bat-sarbecoviruses-provide-insights-into-the-natural-evolution-of-the-receptor-binding-domain-and-s1-s2-cleavage-site/622
While close relatives of SARS-CoV have been identified in bats, civets and other animals (Li, 200
, the immediate progenitor of SARS-CoV-2 is unknown. The bat coronavirus RaTG13 genome was sequenced from a sample from a Rhinolophus affinis captured at Mojiang cave in Yunnan province, China in 2013 . RaTG13 remains the virus with the highest overall sequence similarity to SARS-CoV-2, although because of frequent recombination patterns of sequence similarity vary across the genome. Recently, new sarbecoviruses have been sequenced from bats sampled in Cambodia, Thailand and Japan. Here, we reveal more of the natural evolution of sarbecoviruses by analyzing the spike protein sequences of these viruses. We also discuss some implications of these new sequences for understanding the proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2. (I took out the references)Still more than 1000 characters!