Lockdown protests, ‘breakthrough’ cases, vaccine and clinical disease, and the spike protein
People are protesting lockdowns and vaccine passports/green passes around the world in India, England, France, Australia, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, Canada, Italy, Greece, Israel, Austria and Ireland in some locations shouting, “We stand together,” “No vaccine pass” and “We want freedom.”
Governments have said for months the COVID-19 shot was safe and effective. Breakthrough cases are being reported all over the world. A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study out of Massachusetts reported 74% of those who contracted COVID-19 had received the full dose of the COVID-19 shot, which led to CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky revising masking guidelines.
NBC Boston reported July 21 with an update July 25, “As of July 17, a total of 5,166 breakthrough cases had been reported to the state DPH. Of those, 272 people were hospitalized and survived. Of the 80 people who died, 23 died without being hospitalized; 57 died following a hospital stay.”
The CDC defines vaccine as “A product that stimulates a person’s immune system to produce immunity to a specific disease, protecting the person from that disease. Vaccines are usually administered through needle injections, but can also be administered by mouth or sprayed into the nose.”
The state of California announced it is requiring public employees to get the shot or submit to weekly testing. President Joe Biden announced federal employees, regardless of location, will be required to get the COVID-19 shot or submit to weekly or twice-weekly testing. Contractors are also impacted.
“Informed consent disclosure to vaccine trial subjects of risk of COVID-19 vaccines worsening clinical disease” that can be found at https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33113270/ and published March 2021 writes in Results of the study: “COVID-19 vaccines designed to elicit neutralising antibodies may sensitise vaccine recipients to more severe disease than if they were not vaccinated. Vaccines for SARS, MERS and RSV have never been approved, and the data generated in the development and testing of these vaccines suggest a serious mechanistic concern: that vaccines designed empirically using the traditional approach (consisting of the unmodified or minimally modified coronavirus viral spike to elicit neutralising antibodies), be they composed of protein, viral vector, DNA or RNA and irrespective of delivery method, may worsen COVID-19 disease via antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE). This risk is sufficiently obscured in clinical trial protocols and consent forms for ongoing COVID-19 vaccine trials that adequate patient comprehension of this risk is unlikely to occur, obviating truly informed consent by subjects in these trials.”
The Salk Institute published April 30, 2021 “The novel coronavirus’ spike protein plays additional key role in illness” and can be found at https://www.salk.edu/news-release/the-novel-coronavirus-spike-protein-plays-additional-key-role-in-illness/.
“Scientists have known for a while that SARS-CoV-2’s distinctive ‘spike’ proteins help the virus infect its host by latching on to healthy cells. Now, a major new study shows that the virus spike proteins (which behave very differently than those safely encoded by vaccines) also play a key role in the disease itself.
“The paper, published on April 30, 2021, in Circulation Research, also shows conclusively that COVID-19 is a vascular disease, demonstrating exactly how the SARS-CoV-2 virus damages and attacks the vascular system on a cellular level. The findings help explain COVID-19’s wide variety of seemingly unconnected complications, and could open the door for new research into more effective therapies.
‘“A lot of people think of it as a respiratory disease, but it’s really a vascular disease,’ says Assistant Research Professor Uri Manor, who is co-senior author of the study. ‘That could explain why some people have strokes, and why some people have issues in other parts of the body. The commonality between them is that they all have vascular underpinnings.’
“Salk researchers collaborated with scientists at the University of California San Diego on the paper, including co-first author Jiao Zhang and co-senior author John Shyy, among others.
“While the findings themselves aren’t entirely a surprise, the paper provides clear confirmation and a detailed explanation of the mechanism through which the protein damages vascular cells for the first time. There’s been a growing consensus that SARS-CoV-2 affects the vascular system, but exactly how it did so was not understood. Similarly, scientists studying other coronaviruses have long suspected that the spike protein contributed to damaging vascular endothelial cells, but this is the first time the process has been documented.
“In the new study, the researchers created a ‘pseudovirus’ that was surrounded by SARS-CoV-2 classic crown of spike proteins, but did not contain any actual virus. Exposure to this pseudovirus resulted in damage to the lungs and arteries of an animal model — proving that the spike protein alone was enough to cause disease. Tissue samples showed inflammation in endothelial cells lining the pulmonary artery walls.
“The team then replicated this process in the lab, exposing healthy endothelial cells (which line arteries) to the spike protein. They showed that the spike protein damaged the cells by binding ACE2. This binding disrupted ACE2’s molecular signaling to mitochondria (organelles that generate energy for cells), causing the mitochondria to become damaged and fragmented.
“Previous studies have shown a similar effect when cells were exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, but this is the first study to show that the damage occurs when cells are exposed to the spike protein on its own.
‘“If you remove the replicating capabilities of the virus, it still has a major damaging effect on the vascular cells, simply by virtue of its ability to bind to this ACE2 receptor, the S protein receptor, now famous thanks to COVID,’ Manor explains. ‘Further studies with mutant spike proteins will also provide new insight towards the infectivity and severity of mutant SARS CoV-2 viruses.’
“The researchers next hope to take a closer look at the mechanism by which the disrupted ACE2 protein damages mitochondria and causes them to change shape.
“Other authors on the study are Yuyang Lei and Zu-Yi Yuan of Jiaotong University in Xi’an, China; Cara R. Schiavon, Leonardo Andrade, and Gerald S. Shadel of Salk; Ming He, Hui Shen, Yichi Zhang, Yoshitake Cho, Mark Hepokoski, Jason X.-J. Yuan, Atul Malhotra, Jin Zhang of the University of California San Diego; Lili Chen, Qian Yin, Ting Lei, Hongliang Wang and Shengpeng Wang of Xi’an Jiatong University Health Science Center in Xi’an, China.
“The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Shaanxi Natural Science Fund, the National Key Research and Development Program, the First Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University; and Xi’an Jiaotong University.”
Riverside County data
The area of Idyllwild-Pine Cove has a total of 123 reported COVID-19 cases since the outbreak and two deaths reported, according to the Riverside University Health System – Public Health website. One hundred and seventeen of the 123 people have recovered.
As of Aug. 9, Riverside County had 314,862 confirmed COVID-19 cases, 4,667 deaths related to COVID-19 and 303,889 people had recovered. Four hundred and eleven individuals were being hospitalized, and of those, 85 were in the ICU. The current case rate per 100,000 is 25.2 and 11.5% positivity. As of Aug. 9, 50.6% of the county population received the full dose of the COVID-19 shot. County Public Health outlines variants and the number in Riverside County on its website: Alpha (163), Beta (0), Gamma (12) and Delta (65). The newspaper still has not received a response to its inquiry regarding how the tests differentiate from each other.
As of Aug. 3, Riverside County had 309,217 confirmed COVID-19 cases, 4,667 deaths related to COVID-19 and 300,387 people had recovered. Two hundred and eighty-eight individuals were being hospitalized, and of those, 73 were in the ICU. The current case rate per 100,000 is 16.9 and 8.9% positivity. As of Aug. 2, 49.9% of the county population received the full dose of the COVID-19 shot. County Public Health outlines variants and the number in Riverside County on its website: Alpha (149), Beta (0), Gamma (11) and Delta (26). The newspaper still has not received a response to its inquiry regarding how the tests differentiate from each other.
As of July 27, Riverside County had 305,589 confirmed COVID-19 cases, 4,658 deaths related to COVID-19 and 298,029 people had recovered. One hundred and ninety individuals were being hospitalized, and of those, 47 were in the ICU. As of July 26, 49.1% of the county population received the full dose of the COVID-19 shot.
For more information on the COVID-19 shot, visit www.rivcoph.org/COVID-19-Vaccine or call 2-1-1. Seniors can call the Riverside County Office on Aging at 800-510-2020.
