The Farmer’s in Canada
In 1872, Captain Robinson-Owen began trying to sell the island … for the following seven years the island was administered by his widow with the assistance of his bailiff, John Farmer, who had come to Campobello with the Admiral as a boy of fifteen. 1
Given that John Farmer was born in 1813, this would imply the date of his arrival on Campbollo island was 1828.
John Farmer married twice and it is from his second marriage to Julia Palmer that we can now trace 6 generations of descendants spanning two centuries. The story is fascinating and will be told in many chapters, one for each of the key players, beginning of course, with John himself.
Whitechapel to Welchpool
Whitechapel is in London’s east end and close to the London Dockyards and was always a place for immigrants and the working class. It was made famous by Jack the Ripper, and saw the formation of the Salvation Army, and was home to the infamous “Elephant Man” but all of these occurred 75 years later.
During John’s time in Whitechapel2, the region was rapidly devolving into a “Dickensian” London with its squalor, poverty and suffering and containing the worst streets of London. From graveyard records we know his mom died within two weeks of his birth so his early life must have been harsh. He had every reason to leave. Perhaps the fact his father was a Cooper somehow that made it possible for him to get passage on a ship to the new world.
William Fitzwilliam Owen
William Fitzwilliam Owen
Rear Admiral Edward Campbell Rich Owen & Admiral William Fitzwilliam Owen
His strong friendship with Admiral Owen 3 and later with the Admiral’s son-in-law Capt. John James Robinson-Owen, appears throughout his life and one wonders how much time they spent together before arriving in Canada to develop such a strong friendship. Prior to this, Admiral Owen distinguished himself by mapping the great lakes (Owen Sound was named after him) and the entire east coast of Africa from the Cape to the Horn of Africa, southern Arabian, and Madagascar in the sloop Leven, losing half the crew to tropical diseases.4
In 1827, likely with John Farmer, he returned to Africa and settled a colony at Fernando Po / Port Clarence, an island off the West Coast of Africa, now called Bioko. 5 During the first year, he was joined by Lieutenant James Holman who was famous in his time as “the Blind Traveller”. 6 Owen was a zealous anti-slaver. During his three-year command, his forces detained 20 ships and liberated 2,500 slaves. The Court of Mixed Commission was moved from Freetown, Sierra Leone to Port Clarence to hasten the legal process of emancipating slaves liberated from slave ships. Perhaps these values were instilled in John, it certainly gave him experience with the courts which would reappear throughout his life.
((John & Admiral Owen mentioned in Historical Society book))
-- The Farmer story begins with the arrival of the family patriarch, John Farmer at Campobello Island in 1828 at the age of 15.1
According to a reference in a book about the history of Campobello island, John Farmer arrived at Campobello at the age of 15, having traveled with Admiral Owen.
In 1872, Captain Robinson-Owen began trying to sell the island … for the following seven years the island was administered by his widow with the assistance of his bailiff, John Farmer, who had come to Campobello with the Admiral as a boy of fifteen.
And we have another reference about John’s arrival, this time from …
Some of the Admiral's retinue married and settled on the Island.... John Farmer, the Admiral's right hand man and secretary, married Esther Gregg, a daughter of John Gregg who bought up a large section of Tyn-y-coed farm. ...page (He actually married Anne, not Esther as stated here.)
The Tyn-y-coed (house in the woods) house had been built by David Owen years earlier and is close to the Roosevelt cottage.
John Farmer bought land in Friar’s Bay.
Others buying in Friar's Bay were William Lank, another son of the first William; John Taylor, John Batson, Owen Parker and John Farmer. Peter Dewade and Alfred Todd were also living there.
Placing John on the island has been difficult since that would be around the year 1828 and Owen was in Africa at that time. There is a reference in the Gallagher Journal that the island was deeded to Captain Owen in 1929 and I think I saw a reference to Captain Owen’s work in Africa started in 1827 and lasted two years. Perhaps he came to the island in 1829, before settling on the island in 1835 for good.7
In 1829, he (David Owen) made a deed to Rear Admiral Edward Campbell Rich Owen and his brother, Capt. William Fitz-William Owen, sons of his uncle Capt. William Owen, deceased. In December 1830, Squire Owen died and left the family property to Edward William Owen and William Fitzwilliam Owen, sons of Captain Owen. In 1835, now Admiral William Fitzwilliam Owen arrived on Campobello. He brought his family and two ships full of new settlers, cattle and supplies to the already 400 settled.
John Farmer’s Career
One of John’s many activities and duties was Treasurer and we see a reference to the fishery operations in 1867.
The island has always relied on fishing as means of survival and money. The first weirs were erected in 1840. By 1850, twenty-one fishing weirs had been placed which employed 78% of the population. In 1861, the islanders had sold $66,000 worth of cod, haddock pollock, herring, hake and mackerel. This would convert to approximately to $1.5 million today.
As we have seen in an earlier passage, John acting as Bailiff, assisted Lady Owen in managing the affairs of the island for the next 15 years.
In 1855, Admiral Owen built St. Anne’s Anglican Church which still holds services today. In the graveyard next to the church lies the Admiral, who was buried there in 1857. Admiral Edward Owen’s daughter Cornelia married John Robinson in 1839. He assumed the surname of Robinson-Owen to comply with the requests and conditions of the Admiral. Lady Owen’s passing in 1852 left Captain Robinson-Owen manager of the families portion of the island.
The Owen era ended in 1881, when Mrs. Cornelia Robinson-Owen sold her portion of the island to the Campobello Company. This was a group of Americans who intended to turn the island into a summer resort. A great get-a-way from the heat and disease still prevalent in busy cities along the American Eastern Seaboard. Between 1881 - 1883, 3 hotels were built to accommodate these wealthy visitors: The Owen, Tyn-Y-Maes and Tyn-Y-Coed. These hotels flourished until around 1910.
A historical conversation with John Farmer
Outing (excerpt from Google book) which contains an interesting passage about having met John Farmer.
No hills were too steep to climb no grades too sharp for a coast. The fog disappeared the woods grew a lighter green the sky overhead was a deep dark blue the sunshine warm and inspiriting the breeze fresh and dry. Back across the island we flew past the two splendid hotels through Welsh Pool Landing and out along the bluff that overlooks the Passama quoddy. On one side the rough rocky tree sprinkled land on the other spread out the broad bay with its many islands bright in the sunshine. The glimmering water in which were mirrored the white sails of ships the little green islands the tree covered hills of the larger Deer Island beyond the bay penetrating far up into the land between the hills these are but hints for a picture which it would be difficult to draw with words. Three fine hotels have been built by the company who own the island The Owen named from Admiral Owen to whom the island formerly belonged The Tyn y coed a Welsh name signifying the house in the woods. The Tyn y maes or house in the field. All three are beautiful in architecture and site. Families from the Provinces and from many parts of the United States spend the summer upon the island. Near the Owen stands the house of the old admiral from whom the hotel receives its name. Many interesting relics of the old gentleman and of the former life of the people are preserved. The admiral's portrait hangs upon the wall of his former office which also contains some old chairs and tables. On a shelf lies a case of duelling pistols a necessary piece of furniture for the gentleman of half a century ago.
Old John Farmer the collector of customs met the party as we dismounted at the wharf to wait for the boat “Boys” he said “I’ve been watching for you I’m proud of you!” The Yankees are showing their stock when they take to such out of door sports as riding those wheels. They are getting back to the spirit of old mother England. I’m an Englishman and I’m proud of you. Now every mother's son of you has got to come and drink with me. The president assured him of the unbending temperance principles of the company. Well take lemonade or soda but come on and the old gentleman who had evidently been drinking our health before we arrived led the way to “the store” which served in the triple capacity of grocery, restaurant, and saloon. We drank the health of the kind hearted old man who waxed communicative and began to give his conversation an autobiographical tendency. He had been the agent of Governor Owen years ago and managed his affairs while he was away from the island. But the whistle of the ferry boat broke in upon the discourse. As the boat steamed away the old gentleman braced himself against the piles of the wharf spasmodically waved his hat and as far as his circumstances would allow gave a parting cheer which we answered in full chorus from the deck.
John as director of a major railway in NB (1850)
The St Andrew and Quebec Railway is now rapidly progressing from the harbor of St Andrew's toward Woodstock on the St John river a distance of about 80 miles This company in addition to a liberal charter obtained from the Provincial government a grant of the unappropriated lands for the distance of 5 miles on each side of the line. This grant embraced about 260,000 acres between St and Woodstock. Much of this land is valuable its timber in addition to its agricultural capabilities. The authorised stock of the company is 200,000 sterling. Of this amount 100,000 is taken in England and the stockholders are allowed one acre of land for every 1 sterling paid up. This given the company the command of l00 000 cash funds on hand. Julius Thompson Esq has been appointed agent of the company and came out under the direction of the English stockholders in October last. Under his auspices the work of construction is going with vigor. One section of the road was placed under contract in 1850. John G Mvrzas Est the contractor is driving the work with great vigor. Five miles of the road from St Andrews to Chamcook is entirely graded and a portion of the superstructure laid. A vessel with iron and machinery despatched from England some time since and is expected that the cars will run from St Andrews to Chamcook this present winter. The next division of the road from Chameook to Bartlett s Pond is to be opened in the spring. A further of sixteen miles carrying the road to the branch of the Digedeguash river is to be put contract immediately and prosecuted with vigor and it is expected that the line to Woodstock 80 miles will be in operation in 18 months from close of the present year 1850. The officers of the company are ninsc roas John Wilson Esq of Chamcoolr President Admiral Owen of CampoBello, Capt J Robinson, Charles Moses Esq, John Farmer Esq, Hon H Hatch of St Andrews, Harris H Hatch Esq, Geo D Street Esq, E Wilson Earp Hon, Geo S Hill of St Stephens, Geo J Thompson Esq, Chas Cornell Esq of Woodstock, J R Tupper Esq, John Rogers Esq of St Andrews, Treasurer JH Whitlock Esq, Secretary AP Robinson Esq of Portland Maine.
[Book: Campobello, An Historical Sketch, Kate Gannett Wells]
Church Corporation. Soon after Admiral Owen had become resident magistrate and commissioner for solemnizing marriages, to which the witnesses as well as the bridal couple signed their names, he signalized his authority by giving for three years certain wild lands as commons for cattle to those who should belong to the "Church Episcopal Congregation," when formed. The lease was duly signed by himself and by John Farmer, in trust for the people. Such privilege, even if actuated by worldly motives, proved of sacred benefit, for measures were immediately taken to form a Church Association and corporation, with the proviso that such persons as had decided objections to profess themselves members of the church could by no means become a part of such corporation. The Admiral's cattle ranged free in the commons, but on all other licensed and [Pg 27] marked cattle were paid the fees which accrued to the benefit of religion, and large must have been the income thereof.
The regularly ordained preacher was sent from St. Andrews but four or five times a year. On all other appointed days the Admiral read his beloved service, even till 1842, when a resident missionary came to live on the Island. Thirteen years after, in 1855, the church and burial ground were consecrated by the bishop of the diocese. Most solemn and tender must have been those first rites, when confirmation was administered to three persons, and holy communion to forty others, in that little building surrounded by the dark balsamic firs, looking with its cross over the waters toward the New England steeples.
English friends sent money to the church, and the Owen family gave memorial offerings. The reredos, with its silver cross, was a memorial to Captain John Robinson, the grandson of the Admiral. The block of stone from which the font was carved was taken from the Church of the Knights Templar at Malta, and carried to Florence by the Admiral's son-in-law to be wrought into graceful form, and then was borne across the ocean to this tiny, much loved church. The chancel carpet, worked on canvas in cross-stitch; the altar vestments; the stoles; the chalice veils, green, white, crimson, purple, each bearing the symbol of the cross in varied stitch and design,—were all wrought by the delicate fair hands of the Admiral's daughter, and her children, and their friends, as an offering of self-consecration and of devotion to the building up of a higher life among the Islanders. These, too, brought their gifts, and replaced with chandeliers the wax candles which had been set in holes in the book-rests; and, when the sea called away the men, an old lady, rich in humility and good works, rang the bell for the weekly services.
John Farmer was a Lt in the local militia and successfully fought the Finian's in a raid in 1866.
In 1864 the militia on the Island: Lt. Col. - James Brown. Capts - B. Fitzgerald; John McIntosh; C.E.O. Hatheway; Joseph Patch; John Leeman. Lts - John Chaffey; Warren Worster; John Farmer; Adjutant Henry Conley; Owen Parker; James Leonard; Charles Savage. Ensigns - William Cheney; Porter Dexter; William Harvey; John Leonard; Henry Leeman; Luke Byron; W. D. Hart; Simon Leonard. Quartermaster - John Kay. Surgeon - Charles Gun
By 1866 the militia was disorganized. However the Fenian "invasion" occurred that year. The Fenian Brotherhood was a secret revolutionary society founded in America in 1858 to establish a republican government in Ireland. A force of several hundred armed men were sent to Eastport in April 1866 for the purpose of taking Campobello. The expedition failed and was later called by the Fenians "The Campobello Fiasco." They did seize the British flag at Indian Island from the Customs officer and burned four warehouses there. The NB government sent a large force to the border and the Fenians dispersed. This incident helped the cause of Canadian confederation.
The Civil War in America played no significant role in the Island. A few "skeedaddlers" arrived at Campobello, so-called neutrals living on the American side but they were not looked on with favor by the islanders and soon left.
Capt. Robinson-Owen began to require that the people pay their rents in English gold - no paper money - because of the American Civil War. This created hardships for them and leases were cancelled overnight - many had to let their farms go. The tenants on the Island were unhappy with the Captain and would not cooperate with him at all.
By 1872 Capt. Owen's health was poor. His oldest son, Sir Owen C had served in China and was ill; his 2nd son, John Hemery died at sea in 1870; his daughter Portia became a nun in the Community of St. John the Baptist in New York; his daughter Cornelia was engaged to Lt. Basil Edward Cochran, RN. He was a Commander serving on the 'Britomart' which had been stationed at Halifax, NS but cruised the Passamaquoddy since the Fenian invasion. Cornelia would be leaving the Island after her marriage. Capt. Owen put the Island on the market in 1872.
The contract to sell the Island fell through and in April 1874 the Captain died while at Frederickton. Mrs. Owen managed the Island affairs.
Chester Townsend settled on Harbor de Loutre having been sent for by John Farmer to run the mill.
Several lots of land were sold, mostly to the sons of the "old families" Hannah Shannon, Owen Parker, George Batson, Daniel Hilyard, Louisa Moses, Isaiah Newman, John Farmer, Cadwallader Flagg, Hibbard Batson, Michael Chapman, William Best, John Porter, William Beatty.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitechapel
http://www.archive.org/stream/narrativeavoyag00botegoog#page/n8/mode/2up
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioko
Spencer Palmer Farmer was born on 13 Oct 1866 in Welchpool, Campobello Island to parents John Farmer and Julia Hepzibeth Palmer and Christened 20 July 1868 at the St Annes Church. He spent his life on Campobello island and from the census records we know that his occupation was a bookkeeper. He was married twice. He married Dinah Butler in 1893 and together they had 5 children. He married Elizabeth Anne MacGillvrey in 1870 and they had one son together. He died in 1942 at St Andrews, NB and is buried in the St Andrews Rural Cemetery.
Parents
John Farmer
was born on the 8th of March, 1813 at Whitechapel St Mary, England to parents James Farmer and Margaret Sanderson. He emigrated to Canada in 1828 at the age of 15. He was married twice and had a total of 16 children. He married Ann Gregg in 1843 and they had six children together before she died in 1864. He married his second wife, Julia Palmer in 1870 and they had 10 children together. He died on the 8th of February, 1901 and is buried at the St Anne Cemetery at Campobello, New Brunswick, Canada.
Julia Hepzibeth Palmer
was born 23 Dec 1829 in Regent Square Scotch Church, St Pancras, London, England and died 31 July 1914 at Campobello and is buried at St Annes Church.
Marriage to Dinah Butler
Spencer married Dinah Butler in 1893 in St. Andrews.
Dinah Butler was born in 1866 in England. She died on the 6th of Aug 1900 and is buried in St. Andrews NB.
Spencer and Dinah had several children.
John Owen Farmer 1888
John Owen Farmer was born on the 17th of July 1888 in Winnipeg, Manitoba to parents Spencer Palmer Farmer and Dinah Butler. He married Ruth Hope White and they had four children together. He died in Perth Andover in 1983.
Frances Rowena Farmer 1890-
George Brandon Farmer 1892-1905
Steele Farmer 1893-
Irving Spencer Farmer 1895-1987
Marriage to Elizabeth Ann MacGillvray
Spencer remarried to Elizabeth Macgillivray on 30 Sept 1912.
Elizabeth Ann MacGillvray 1881
was born on the 6th of Mar 1881 in Lerchkin Inverness Scotland. She emigrated to Canada in 1912. She died in 1965 in St Andrews and is buried in the St Andrews rural cemetery.
Elizabeth emigrated from Scotland, and worked as Spencer Palmer Farmer’s cook. I guess after Dinah passed, Spencer got lonely and had my dad when he was 47!
Spencer and Elizabeth had one child together, Ronald Allerton Farmer.
Shown: Ronald Allerton Farmer (son), David Farmer (grandson), Elizabeth Ann Macgillivray
Ronald Allerton Farmer 1913
was born 11 February 1913 in St. Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada. He married Iva Patricia Brockington 11 July 1942 at St Paul's Anglican Church, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He died 28 February 1999 in Lachine, Quebec, Canada and is buried at Lakeview Cem, Field of Honour, Pointe Claire, Quebec, Canada
Spencer's Life
Spencer was put on a train to Winnipeg at the age of 15 by John, given $50, and told to go forth. I understand Spencer helped put down the Northwest rebellion. Eventually, Spencer became a bookkeeper at the (then) CP Algonquin Hotel in St Andrews and eventually a relief Hotel Manager (when the other guys went on vacation or something). So Spencer managed the CP Hotels in Banff, and also spent a few years managing the CP Hotel in Bermuda when my dad was a young boy.
All of Dad’s (Ronald Allerton Farmer) half brothers were much older. The youngest, Lancelot was 14 years old when Dad was born – so he kind of grew up without siblings. By the time Dad grew up, all the siblings were scattered to the 4 winds. Dad left home in St Andrews to Boston when he was 17 and then Montreal when he was 20 ish and never went back ( so he really never had much contact with any of them. I have a photo of Steele b 1895, but that’s about it...David Farmer
https://familysearch.org/search/tree/results#count=20&query=+subcollection_id:MM9R-989
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/2:1:MB1T-4YF#submitHeader
Descendents of John Gregg (also Grieg) ca. 1792 – 20 Feb 1868) and wife Mary (ca. 1791 – 20 Feb 1868) Prepared by: Jocelean Hall, Harvey, York Co., NB. Revised by: Prof. Bruce Elliott, Carleton University, Ottawa Last updated: 15-07-2005 First Immigrant Generation
John and Mary Gregg
The family of John and Mary Gregg lived in the town and parish of Wooler, Northumberland, England, and the baptisms of the children are recorded in the register of Cheviot Street Church, under the spelling GRIEG. The family used the spelling GREGG in New Brunswick.
In the list of emigrants asking for land on the New St Andrew’s Road (PANB RS 637/26d, August 1837) appear John Gregg, 45, labourer, his wife Mary, 45, and children Jane, 21; James, 20, labourer; Andrew, 18, painter (?); Esther, 17; and Agnes, 16. John Gregg drew lot number 9L, and his name is on the list of the "English Emigrants" who settled in Harvey Settlement.
From NB Land Grants, v. 28, no. 3122 (NBFA RS686): John Gregg received Lot no. 9 Acton Sett. [sic] 27 December 1843. [The drawing is definitely that of Lot no. 9 in Harvey and not Acton.]
NB York County, Land Registry v. 47, p. 332, no. 18097 (film #5635 RS98): 18 October 1852 Lot no. 9 from John Gregg, farmer, to his son, James Gregg, both of Campo Bello, Charlotte County, signed by John Gregg and Ellen M. Gregg, his wife. Witnessed at Campobello, 17 January 1867 and registered in York County 26 January 1867 .
NB York County, Land Registry v. 50, p. 338, no. 20259 (film 5636 RS98) 4 February 1868 Lot no. 9 from James Gregg, farmer, Campobello to Andrew Wood Cockburn for the sum of $475. Registered in York County 3 April 1869. Signed by James Gregg.
As the land transactions reveal, the Gregg family soon left for Campobello Island, Charlotte County, New Brunswick, where both John and his son James are listed in an 1841 taxation roll (www.rootsweb.com/~nbcampob/camp2c2.htm).
The 1851 Census for Campobello, Charlotte County, NB, includes: Gregg, John 54 English Father Farmer Immigr. 1837 James 38 English Son Farmer Esther 30 English Daughter Corvis, Hannah 17 U.S. Servant 1850 Ketchum, Richard 25 N.B. Clergyman
John’s wife Mary had died 28 August 1846 aged 55 and was buried at St Anne’s Anglican cemetery, Campobello. John remarried Mary CALCEO of Eastport, Maine, 8 May 1848. She was born c.1808 and died 20 July 1849 aged 41. Finally, John married a third time on 9 July 1852 to Ellen FANNING of Campobello. (www.rootsweb.com/~nbcampob)
In 1853 and 1856 John was a member of the Campobello Fishery Society (www.rootsweb.com/~nbcampob).
1861 Campobello census: GREGG, John Husband 68 England Farmer James Son 40 England General Laborer Easther Daughter 31 England Edward Son 12 Native Farmer, John Grandson 6 Native
According to his gravestone, he died 20 February 1868 aged 75 and was buried at St Anne’s Campobello 23 February (the register gives his residence as Welshpool and his age as 72). His gravestone states that he was “A native of Wooler, Northumberland, England. Immigrated to Campobello in 1837”. (http://archives.gnb.ca/APPS/NBCemeteries/Default.aspx?L=EN&PageLoad=Form)
John and Mary had the following children: 1 i. Jane 2 ii. James 3 iii. Andrew 4 iv. Esther 5 v. Ann 6 vi. John
Second Immigrant Generation
- Jane b. 17 March 1816, bap. 31 March 1816 Cheviot Street Presbyterian Church, Wooler, Northumberland. Jane witnessed her brother Andrew’s marriage in York County, New Brunswick in 1842. She married Price FLAGG of Campobello, who died 30 May 1871. Jane d. 9 September 1903 aged 86 years, 9 months (Saint Croix Courier, 24 September 1903), and was buried at St Anne’s Campobello. A photograph of Jane Gregg Flagg is on the Campobello genealogy website (www.rootsweb.com/~nbcampob/gregg.htm)
The 1851 census of Campobello includes: Flagg, Price 40 NB Husband Fisherman Jane 36 English Wife 1837 Mary Ann 2 NB Daughter James Andrew 1 NB Son
1861 Campobello census: FLAGG, Price O. Husband 50 Native Farmer and Fisherman Jane Wife 41 England Mary A. Daughter 12 Native James A. Son 10 Native Easther J. Daughter 8 Native Georganna Daughter 3 Native
1871 Campobello census: FLAGG, Price 60 NB Fisherman M Jane 50 England M Mary 21 NB James 20 NB Blacksmith Esther 18 NB Georganne 18 NB
The 1881 census of Campobello, Dist. 26, Subdist. Q, p[. 2, reel C-13180: Jane Flagg 60 England Scottish Cof E Mary Ann 25 NB Georganna 23 NB
The 1901 census records her birthdate as given in the Cheviot Street baptismal register: Jane Flagg Head W Mar. 17, 1817 83 N C of E Retired Mary A. dau. s Apr. 5, 1849 52 NB
They had the following children: i. Hannah E. b. 1841 d. 13 Jan. 1856 age 14y10m (stone at St Anne’s) ii. Mary Ann b. 5 Apr. 1849 iii. James Andrew c1850 iv. Esther J. c1853 (St Anne’s bur reg has bur 1880 of Esther Flagg of Portland Me) v. Sarah E. b. 1853, d. 5 Mar. 1854 age 9m (stone at St Anne’s) vi. Lucy b. 1854 d. 10 May 1854 age 2m (stone at St Anne’s) vii. Georganna c1858
- James b. 8 May 1817, bap. 28 May 1817 Cheviot Street Presbyterian Church, Wooler. James was living with his father in 1851. He appears in Hutchinson’s Directory of 1865-66 as a fisherman, and in 1867-68 as a farmer. The Lovell directory of 1871 also records him as a farmer on Campobello. He died 14 May 1876 aged 50, according to his stone at St Anne’s church, but the age is incorrect. He appears not to have married.
1871 Campobello census: GREG, James 47 England Farmer Esther 43 England
- Andrew b. 21 November 1818, bap. 20 December 1818 Cheviot Street Presbyterian Church, Wooler. Andrew may not have gone to Campobello with his family, as he was living in Fredericton when he was married 7 August 1842 to Mary P. PICK of that city, by George Coster, the Anglican minister there. The witnesses were his sister Jane Gregg and John Lawson (York County , NB, Marriage Register B. 1837-1850). This was the only Gregg marriage in York County in that time period.
The 1851 Census for Fredericton has: Andrew Gregg 31 Scotch Painter Immig. 1839 Mary wife 28 English 1835 John 7 Harriett 5
Andrew died 11 August 1856 aged 35 and was buried in Fredericton Rural Cemetery. Mary died 18 December 1899 aged 77.
1881 census, Queens Ward, Saint John, 24 D 1, p. 22: MASTERS, Charles H. NS 29 English Lawyer Baptist M Mary P. NB 28 Scottish C of E M Gregg, Mary Ire 56 English C of E Wid Harriett D. NB 31 Scottish Teacher C of E Christianna M. NB 25 Scottish C of E Arthur M. NB 23 Scottish Book Binder C of E Henderson, Sarah NB 29 English Servant C of E M Edith M. NB 2 English CofE
Andrew and Mary Gregg had the following children: i. John b. c1844 [perhaps the John E., 37, b. NB in Boston census 1881] ii. Harriett D. b. c1846 iii. probably Mary P. b. c1853 iv. Christiana M. b. c1856 v. Arthur M. b. c1858
There may have been other children.
- Esther b. 26 April 1820, bap. 14 May 1820, Cheviot Street Presbyterian Church, Wooler. She died unmarried 12 September 1894 aged 72 and buried at St Anne’s Campobello.
5 Ann Gregg
- Ann b. 9 March 1822, bap. 17 March 1822, Cheviot Street Presbyterian Church, Wooler. Ann was recorded as Agnes in the list of the Wooler settlers, but was baptized Ann and was known by that name in New Brunswick. She married 3 August 1843 John FARMER of Campobello, the collector of customs there.
The 1851 census of Campobello includes:
FARMER John 38 English Husband JP/Farmer 1836 Ann 30 English Wife 1837 Frances Owen 6 NB Daughter Richard 5 NB Son William 3 NB Son Thomas 1 NB Son Edward 3m NB Son Gaff Mary 46 NB Mother Nurse Ellen 9 NB Daughter Follis Ann 12 Irish Dau. to G. Follis Servant
1861 Campobello Census:
FARMER John Esq. Husband 39 England Farmer Ann Wife 40 England Frances O. Daughter 16 Native Richard J.R. Son 14 Native William O. Son 13 Native George Son 11 Native Edward Son 10 Native
Ann (Gregg) Farmer died 8 July 1864 aged 44 and was buried at St Anne’s. John remarried 30 June 1870 to Julia PALMER of Campobello and had a second family.
1871 Campobello census:
FARMER, John 59 England Collector of Customs M Julia 33 NB M Edwin 20 NB Painter John 16 NB Spencer 4 NB Neil 3 NB Gray 1 NB
1891 Campobello Census:
FARMER John 80 England CE J.A. 55 W NB CE Steele 22 S NB England Book-Keeper S 20 S Lanslet 19 S Rowenia 17 D Mary 14 D
John Farmer died 3 February 1901 aged 88 and was buried with his first wife.
John and his first wife Ann had the following children: i. Frances Owen b. c1845 ii. Richard J.R. b. c1847 iii. William O. b. c1848 iv. Thomas OR George b. c1850 v. Edward OR Edwin b. c1851 vi. John b. c1855
- John b. 1 September 1823, bap. 5 October 1823, Cheviot Street Presbyterian Church, Wooler. He is not in the list of the Wooler settlers and likely died in England.
The Project Gutenberg EBook of Campobello, by Kate Gannett Wells
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: Campobello An Historical Sketch
Author: Kate Gannett Wells
Release Date: November 29, 2010 [EBook #34480]
Language: English
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CAMPOBELLO AN HISTORICAL SKETCH BY KATE GANNETT WELLS
For those who are desirous of exact knowledge concerning the "Story of the Boundary Line," and the political history of Eastport and its vicinity, there is no more comprehensive work than that by William Henry Kilby, Esq., entitled, "Eastport and Passamaquoddy." To him, and also to two friends who kindly gave me the names of a few of the Island flowers, do I express my gratitude.
Campobello
THE mysterious charms of ancestry and yellow parchment, of petitions to the admiralty and royal grants of land, of wild scenery and feudal loyalty, of rough living and knightly etiquette, have long clustered round a little island off the coast of Maine, called on the charts Passamaquoddy Outer Island, but better known under the more pleasing name of Campobello.
Its Discovery
It belongs to the region first discovered by the French, who, under Sieur De Monts, in the spring of 1604, sailed along the shores of Nova Scotia, and gave the name of Isle of Margos (magpies) to the four perilous islands now called The Wolves; beheld Manthane (now Grand Manan); sailed up the St. Croix; and established themselves on one of its islands, which they called the Isle of St. Croix. The severity of the winter drove them in the following summer to Annapolis, and for more than a hundred and fifty years little was known of this part of the country, though the River St. Croix first formed the boundary between Acadia and New England, and later the boundary between the Provinces of Nova Scotia and Massachusetts Bay.
Campobello itself could scarcely be said to have a history till towards the end of the eighteenth century. Moose roamed over the swamps and looked down from the bold headlands; Indians crossed from the mainland and shot them; straggling Frenchmen, dressing in skins, built huts along the northern and southern shores, till civilization dawned through the squatter sovereignty of two men, Hunt and Flagg. They planted the apple trees whose gnarled branches still remain to tell of the winter storms that howled across the plains, and converted the moose-yards into a field of oats, for the wary, frightened animals vacated their hereditary land in favor of these usurpers. Their mercantile skill taught them how to use, for purposes of trade rather than for private consumption, the shoals of fish which it was firmly believed Providence sent into the bay.
Post Office
There were not enough inhabitants to justify the maintenance of a post office till 1795; then the mails came once in two weeks. Lewis Frederic Delesdernier was the resonant, high sounding name of the first postmaster who lived at Flagg's Point (the Narrows). But when a post office was opened in Eastport, in 1805, this little Island one was abandoned, or rather it dwindled out of existence before the larger one established by Admiral Owen at Welsh Pool.
Welsh Pool
The Narrows, because of its close proximity to the mainland, was a favorite place of abode in those early days. Yet Friar's Bay, two miles to the north, was a safe place for boats in easterly storms; and thus, before the advent of the Owens, a hamlet had clustered around what is now called Welsh Pool. A Mr. Curry was the pioneer. The house opposite the upper entrance to the Owen domain was called Curry House until it became "the parsonage," a name abandoned when the present rectory was built. Curry traded with the West Indies, and owned, it is said, two brigs and a bark.
People also gathered at the upper end of the Island, Wilson's Beach, and on the road between Sarawac and Conroy's Bridge, where there were several log houses.
Garrison's Grandparents
That some kind of a magistrate or minister even then was on the Island is attested by the fact that William Lloyd Garrison's grandparents, Andrew Lloyd and Mary Lawless, chanced to come to Nova Scotia on the same ship from Ireland, and were married to each other "the day after they had landed at Campobello, March 30, 1771." Lloyd became a commissioned pilot at Quoddy, and died in 1813. His wife was the first person buried in Deer Island. Their daughter Fanny was Garrison's mother.
Many of the early inhabitants were Tories from New York. Some were of Scotch origin, especially those who lived on the North Road.
Captain Storrow
Among these settlers was a young British officer, Captain Thomas Storrow, who, while he was prisoner of war, fell in love with Ann Appleton, a young girl of Portsmouth, N.H. In vain did her family object, "British officers being less popular then than now; but young love prevailed," and the marriage, which took place in 1777, "was a happy one." Captain Storrow took his bride to England; but after a while sailed for Halifax, where they remained "nearly two years." In 1785 they went to St. Andrews. Through the courtesy of their grandson, Colonel Thomas Wentworth Higginson, the following extract is given from a manuscript sketch of the life of Mrs. Storrow, prepared by her niece, Mrs. Norman Williams:--
False Sale
"Soon after this (1785) they removed to Campobello, which had been purchased by Mr. Butler and Captain Storrow. There were two houses on the Island, one for each family, and here they lived very happily and pleasantly. There was always a garrison at St. Andrews, and a ship of war stationed near Campobello; so Captain Storrow had congenial society, and they had many pleasant lady friends, and, as their hospitality was unbounded, they were seldom without company at one or the other of the houses.... All was bright and prosperous. But a change came. In 1790 or 1791 the Butlers and Captain Storrow had gone to Halifax on business, and Mrs. Storrow was left alone with her children on the Island, when a notice was served to her that she must quit the Island immediately, as it had been sold to them under a false title, and the real owner had come to take possession. The Island had been granted by William Pitt to his former tutor, David Owen, a hard man who would not move from the position he had taken. Mrs. Storrow sent to my father, who was her husband's lawyer, and he, with some other gentlemen, chartered a sloop and brought the family to St. Andrews, where a house was already prepared for them. Here they remained a year or more. But Capt. Storrow's finances were so crippled by the loss of Campobello that he and his family sailed for Jamaica, where he had a small estate."
William Owen
David Owen, to whom this manuscript referred, was a cousin of William Owen, through whom the Island became connected by royal gift and by romance with the fortunes of his immediate descendants. As naval officer William Owen had been "in all the service and enterprise where ships, boats, and seamen were employed," had labored at Bengal for the re-establishment of the affairs of the East India Company, and had fought under Clive. At the blockade of Pondicherry he lost his right arm, and the Sunderland, to which he belonged, having foundered, he was ordered to England. Broken in spirit and weak in body, the copy of what was presumably his memorial to the Admiralty in 1761 has a piteous sound. It begins:--
His Petition
"My Lord, permit me, with the most profound respect, to lay by your Lordship a true State of my past service, with the accidents that happened to me during the same, praying your Lordship not to judge hard of me, in being reduced to the disagreeable necessity of doing that myself which would appear in a much more favorable light were any of my Friends in Town who could take the Liberty of Introducing me to your Lordship." After recounting the services he rendered, and the injuries he received, he ends with these words: "I beg you will be pleased to represent to the Right Honorable the Lords of the Admiralty that I am the person mentioned in Admiral Steuen's [the spelling is illegible] Letter to have lost my Right Arm, when I had the Honor of Commanding one of the Divisions of Boats ordered by him to cut out the Two French Ships, La Baline and Hermione, from under the Guns of Pondicherry, on the 7th of October last, and that I had been wounded before in that country with a Musket Ball, which lodged in my Body above three years and a half. My long service in the East Indies, together with the Wounds I received, having greatly impaired my health, lays me under a necessity to be the more urgent with you on this occasion, that I may the sooner go into the Country to endeavor to re-establish the same, as well as to see my Friends, from whom I have been above nine years absent. Let me, therefore, Sir, entreat you to move their Lordships in my behalf, humbly praying that they will be pleased to direct something to be done for me, either by Gratuity, Pension, or Preferment, such as their Lordships may deem me to deserve."
Sir William Campbell
In November of the same year he writes to Lord William Campbell: "I arrived in London above four months ago. After long attendance and great solicitations, I am at length put off with a pitiful Pension, with which I am going to retire into the Country among my Relations for the remainder of my days, unless somewhat unexpected happens to enable me to obtain the promotion I think I have a right to.... I have spent a great deal of money in Town, have no Fortune, and want a sum soon on a very urgent Occasion.... I hope, notwithstanding the disparity between us in point of Rank and Fortune, that your Lordship will honor me with a Continuance of the Friendship and Regard which I had reason to imagine subsisted between us during the five years we Messed together."
This beseeching letter must have been effectual; for in course of time he did receive, not only thanks and promise of promotion, but through the intercession of his friend, Sir William Campbell, who was Governor General of Nova Scotia, he obtained possession of the Island which Hunt and Flagg had ruled.
Royal Grant
As it embraced more land than could then be granted to one person, Owen induced others to join him in asking for the grant, that the whole Island might eventually be under control of the Owen family.
Origin of Name
Consequently, in 1767, the Island was deeded to William Owen and his cousins, Arthur Davies, David and William Owen, Jr., who, in grateful compliment to Campbell, changed its name from Passamaquoddy Outer Island to Campobello, thus "punning on the donor's name, and also expressing the beauty of the natural scenery." It was like the Admiral to invent a name which should include both a joke and a subtle allusion to his classical learning.
First Colony
William Owen immediately brought over from the mother country a colony of seventy persons; stationed his ship at Havre De Lute, a Franco-Indian corruption of Harbor of the Otter; and, having settled his people according to his liking, returned to England; but soon left it again on public service, and died with the rank of Admiral.
David Owen
David Owen acted as agent for the grantees, and was a veritable lord of the Island, always interested in protecting the fisheries. His house, near the site of the cottage now owned by James Roosevelt, Esq., had even more roof than the usual sloping, barn-like home of former days. He built a rude church, read the service, and preached. What matter if the sermon was oft repeated, or now and then was original! Could not he, though a layman, best tell the needs of his congregation? He played the fiddle for dances, married the people, scolded them as a self-constituted judge, and kept a journal of Island events in microscopic chirography. He was an occasional correspondent of the "Eastport Sentinel" on matters of British history and theological controversy. "He had a fine library of old books, and was well versed in scholastic subjects," said Dr. Andrew Bigelow, the first Unitarian minister of Eastport, who often visited him.
To "Hue and Cry."
Once David Owen committed to the gaol in St. Andrews a Frenchman, for "feloniously taking and carrying away some fish from flakes at Campobello." As the offender went on his way to gaol in his own vessel, he threw overboard the deputy sheriff who accompanied him, drew his dirk on the other man and compelled him to follow, and then escaped himself with his own vessel. Therefore, Owen advertised in the "Sentinel" of September 25, 1819, "To all officers and others to whom the execution hereof may belong ... to search for the said Appleby [the Frenchman], and therefore to 'hue and cry' after him as the law directs." Signed "D. Owen, J.P."
When David died he left his share of the land to William Owen, Jr. This younger Owen sold Campobello, which had now come into his sole possession, to William Fitz-William, who, as the natural son of the Owen of Pondicherry fame, could obtain possession only through purchase of his father's grant.
Primitive Life
Island life was still very primitive. The people raised stock, and the creatures fed on the wild grass and young hemlock. But, as David had freely deeded the land to the settlers, the underbrush was soon killed off and stock raising ceased. The Campobellians also proved no exception to the rule that agriculture is seldom a favorite occupation with those who can support themselves by the precarious life of fishermen, even if that has its perils.
Illness
Here, too, as everywhere in pioneer life, the women suffered as much as, if not more than, the men. When sickness came upon them they endured it patiently, with that kind of meek despair which looks upon illness either as fate or as the will of the Lord. Fortunately for them, a young girl, who had been born on the Island, became at sixteen a skilful nurse. She was sought from far and near, and taken out at night when she had to be blindfolded on account of the storms. The description of one of her visits must be given in her own words, as she told it when she was eighty-four:--
The Indian's Squaw
"Once I and my husband were abed a howling night, and I heard a knock. Says I, 'Jim, I bet that's for me; get up and see.' And I sorter guessed it was a foreigner. And he came back and says, 'P. (that's what he called me, short for Parker), it's an Indian from down on the Narrows; and he's been for the doctor, and he's down at Robinson, and won't be fetched 'cause he's having a good time.' So I got up and dressed and went down with him; for the squaw's skin was as dear to her husband as a white woman's is to her, and her heart may be just as good to God. And when I got there I saw two squaws, and one was all in a heap; and they made eyes at me, and I didn't know whether it meant murder or not, only I guessed not. And I says, 'Sister, what is it?' And she says, her husband tell her 'white doctor no come. You white woman come and make his squaw live.' So I went to work. And when all was right, they wanted me to take a blanket and lie down; but I could no way make believe Indian, so I sits up till morning. Then the Indian asked me what he should give me; and I told him my gineral price was three dollars, but when folks was no better off than I, I turned in and asked nothin'. And he says, 'We give five dollars if it's a girl, and three dollars if it's a boy.' 'Well,' I says, 'sure enough it's a boy'; and I come home. And next day he travels down here [to the Pool], and says me better than man doctor, and wished he could give me twenty dollars."
Some sixty years after this incident had occurred, when Mrs. Parker was driven up to the Narrows where the squaw had lived, and past the Tyn-Y-Coed and cottages, that she might see the changes which time had wrought, she exclaimed, "As the Bible says, now I can die in peace, for mine eyes have seen the salvation, I will not say of the Lord, but of Campobello."
The Admiral
The salvation, such as it was, came slowly; at first through Admiral William Fitz-William Owen. His life was curious and pathetic, from the time when a boy five years old, an inmate of the artillery barracks, he replied, on being asked his last name, "I don't know, mother can tell you," to his old age, when, dressed in admiral's uniform, he paced back and forth on a plank walk, built out into the bay, over the high cliffs of the shore, in memory of the quarter deck of his beloved ship. Conceited and religious, authoritative and generous, humorous and ceremonious, disputatious and frank, a lover of women more than of wine, his fame still lingers in many a name and tradition.
His Growth
When very young, a friend of his father's took him away from the barracks and from his mother, of whom he never again heard. He was boarded and punished in various homes in North Wales, but as recompense wore a cocked hat and a suit of scarlet made from an old coat of his father,--"the first sensible mark of the earthly pre-existence of some one who claimed to be my father" he had ever received, wrote the Admiral, in his later days. He learned the catechism and collects, repeated the Lord's prayer on his knees, and thought of raising the devil by saying it backwards; but he never completed the charm, and for four or five years after was self-punished by his fear that the devil was waiting for him at the church door.
By degrees he learned something of his father, the William Owen of Pondicherry fame, who had died while he was a baby. When about fourteen he went to a mathematical academy, where his "progress was as remarkable as it had before been in classics." Here religious instruction consisted in going to church "to talk with our fingers to the girls of a school who used the adjoining pew." As a boy, he "had no other distinct idea of our Lord Jesus Christ than that he was a good man."
His Dreams
His belief in the direct interposition of the Creator on his behalf frequently solaced him in these youthful days of loneliness and misdemeanor. The literal and instant fulfillment of two dreams on special and unthought-of subjects were convincing proof, to quote his own words, that "they were sent by God Almighty himself, as a simple way of assuring me that as I was under his eye he would himself take care of me."
Man-of-War Garden\
So he grew up to be presumptuous, adventurous, resolute, and strong. In 1788 he became a midshipman in a line-of-battle ship, in due course of time cruising in the Bay of Fundy. For three years his man-of-war was stationed at Campobello. The crew often went ashore in summer, tending a little garden at Havre de Lutre (Harbor of the Otter), called Man-of-War Garden, which in turn gave its name to the headland. The garden was brilliant with dahlias and marigolds, which were presented in overweighted bouquets to the few Island belles, who, in return for such unexpected courtesies, consented in winter to dance on the ship's deck, regardless of their frozen ear-tips. Two of the midshipmen were as dauntless in pedestrianism as in love, and for a wager started on a perilous walk around icy cliffs which threw them headlong. Their comrades buried them under the gay flowers, and sailed away from the henceforth ill-omened garden. And the little store near by, kept by one Butler, lost its customers and passed into tradition.
The Boy as Midshipman
With Owen's entrance into the naval service as boy officer "commenced," he wrote in later years, "a public life which may be said to have had no sensible intermission until the close of 1831, or forty-three years, during which I have served under every naval man of renown, and was honored by the friendship of Nelson. From the year 1797 I have held commands and been entrusted with some important service, for the most part in remote parts of the world. My character, if I may be allowed to draw it myself, contained much of good and bad. The latter, perhaps, I contrived to veil sufficiently not to mar my reputation; but, by the grace of God, he has not left me without his spirit of self-conviction.... At forty-four I married [a Miss Evans, of Welsh extraction]. I thought myself a tolerably religious man, but knew myself to be as Reuben, unstable as water. At fifty-seven my worldly ambition was barred by corruption in high places. At sixty-one I became the 'Hermit.'"
His Settlement at Campobello
"The Quoddy Hermit,"--this was the name he chose when, with the rank of admiral, he came back to Campobello to live. He brought with him building material and the frame of a house taken from Rice's Island, and erected his habitation where is now the Owen. In the grove at the northern end of the present hotel he planted two or three English oaks. He placed the sun dial of his vessel in the garden fronting his house, and put a section of his beloved quarter deck close to the shore, not far from the seedling oaks. There, pacing up and down in uniform, he lived over again the days of his attack upon the Spanish pirate. Proud as he was of the two cannon he then captured, there is no one living to tell who bled or who swore, or whether the Spanish galleon sank or paid ransom. He placed the cannon on the Point, where they bid defiance to American fishing boats. In later years one was taken to Flagstaff Hill whenever a salute was to be given in honor of the Queen's birthday, or a fish fair, for such fairs were famous.
Weddings
The population of the Island increased, and the old man married the boys and girls at church or at home, slowly or hastily, as his humor bade him, always claiming the first kiss of the bride. A certain sailor who had wooed a Campobello maiden was determined that this privilege should not be allowed by her, and therefore tried to salute his bride before the service was ended. "You are not married yet. Back!" shouted the Admiral. Frightened, the sailor-groom turned his face and his feet toward the minister-magistrate, who more and more slowly repeated the words of the service, as he approached nearer to the lady, till, with the last word, he snatched the first kiss. His most princely gift as a wedding present is said to have been the Island of Pope's Folly, a present conditioned on his performance of the marriage service, which was gladly granted by the bride.
He widened the narrow roads along the bay, which David had broken out, and in his heavy, lumbering coach of state went through snow and mud from one tenant to another. The coach is still to be seen, and the tenants' grandchildren bear the Owen surname as the universal Christian cognomen. The Admiral would often stroll down to Whale-Boat Cove,--so called from a large kind of row-boat used in the herring fisheries,--which he persuaded the men to call Welsh Pool. Many a little maiden counted her pennies by the Admiral's kisses, and many a poor fisherman blessed him for allowing the house rent to run on from year to year, though the Admiral invariably insisted on the rental from the weirs; he well knew which was the more profitable.
Family Life
On other days he stayed at home and amused himself with his books. At four o'clock the husband and wife dined with the family and the frequent guests. The dinner of four courses was served in silver and gold lined dishes, with wines from Jersey and game from the Provinces. Silver candelabras shone upon the table; damask and India muslin curtains shaded the many paned windows; heavy mahogany and rosewood chairs, sofas, and tables furnished the apartments; great logs on tall andirons burned in monster fireplaces; sacred maps hung around the evening parlor; and the dining-room carpet was said to have been a gift from the King of Prussia. The long curved mahogany sofa, the carved chairs, and other pieces of furniture are now owned by the Islanders. The library table and arm chair, with sockets in its arms for candles, the Admiral's hat, pistols, and picture are carefully treasured by "The Company" as relics.
After the dinner of an hour came tea at seven and a family rubber till nine; then Scripture reading and worship, when the ladies and servants retired, leaving the Admiral and his gentlemen friends, fortified with cigars, whiskey, and water, to relate naval stories and discuss religious themes till two or three o'clock in the morning.
Theology
Owen's three chosen intimates were designated Academicus, Rusticus, and Theophilus. His library, which they frequently consulted, was a sad medley of dictionaries and the theology of Oxford divines. Methodism and Romanism were alike hateful to the hermit Admiral, who, in quoting from Holy Writ, always rendered "the wiles" as "the methodisms" of the devil. Every week he read to his neighbors two lectures "from unexceptionable sources, yet so modified as to contain all that was expedient to explain of his peculiar opinions." Often he held church service in what was almost a shanty, omitting from the liturgy whatsoever he might chance to dislike on any special Sunday.
Family Prayers
The day began and ended with prayers, which all the household servants attended, the "maids," as the Admiral called them,--"for we are all servants of God,"--bringing their work and sewing throughout the service, except when the prayer itself was said. If some one occasionally was disinclined to such steady improvement of the devotional hour, the Admiral, with a benevolent smile, inquired, "My dear, do you feel lazy to-night?"
Breakfast was served at nine. After that, the Lady Owen, clad in an enormous apron, entered the kitchen and taught the mysteries of salads and jellies.
Lady Owen
Lady Owen was queen as he was king; and never did a lady rule more gently over store-room and parlor, over Sunday-School and sewing-school, fitting the dresses of her domestics or of the Island children. She was a handsome woman, with silver hair and pink and white complexion, who, like her daughters, wore long trains and low corsages. Sometimes the mother wrapped herself in a certain gold and black scarf with such a courtly grace that its remembrance has never faded. Great was the jubilee among the domestics when a box arrived from England, with fabulous dresses ready made.
Once a year the maids and men of the great house had a ball, the ladies playing for them even all night. Twice in the twelve months occurred house-cleaning, when a dress was given each busy worker. The servants were often reminded to take no more than was necessary on their plates; for economy, though not parsimony, was the rule of the house. Guests came from the mainland and from every vessel of war. Admiral Owen and his house were the fashion for many long years.
Nowhere on the coast of Maine has there been a more curious mingling of rank, with its investiture of ceremony, and of simple folk-life, of loyalty to the Queen and her representatives and of the American spirit of personal independence.
Theatricals
All the people were familiar with the great family, while the better part of them were bidden to theatrical performances, for which the Admiral composed songs. It is doubtful whether he chose as early hours for his amateur shows as did the theatre manager of New Brunswick; for on the first occasion of a dramatic performance in that Province, March 28, 1789, the doors were opened at half-past five and the play began at half-past six o'clock.
Other merry-makings occurred on the Island, justified, perhaps, by the occasional homage of gifts sent to the mother country; for the Admiral's diary bears record that "three large, eleven middle, and fourteen small, masts were hoisted on board a vessel, and sent as a tribute to England." Then, whenever a roof-raising occurred, he knew how to send the children home to look after the chores, that their elders might join in the merriment.
Smugglers' Cave
The inhabitants themselves were rather enterprising in business; for rum and lumber were exchangeable quantities with the venturesome Campobello captains, who traded with the southern ports and West Indies, and carried Nova Scotia grindstones to the States. Bolder, but the quieter in action, were the smugglers, who, deep amid the woods, near the only fresh-water pond of the Island, alternately came and vanished. Much of their spare time was spent in digging for an iron chest of Spanish doubloons, buried by ancient buccaneers. The Admiral and his family often rode through the woods to watch the men in their hopeless work, and to obtain their share of treasure-trove if ever it were found. One bright morning every digger had fled, leaving a deep excavation in the ground; but far down on its side, marked out by the iron rust which had clung to the earth, the outlines of a chest were visible. A cart track and the ruins of four or five huts are all that now remain of the site of this mysterious activity. With the departure of these smugglers disappeared the steady excitement of years, the perpetual topic of conversation. Thereafter the people could only question each other about the strange wreck whose rotting timbers were old a century before. Its last remnants have now been carved into love tokens.
Saddest were the days when the Admiral strode up and down his imaginary quarter-deck, his empire a fishing settlement, where boys' wages had once been three cents a day. Eastport still owned the islands around it. The people brought in their fish, and sold it for groceries and other articles at stores where it was credited to them. The little vessels crossing the bay made it gay for the Admiral's eyes. But his spirit sank, as he fancied that some boat might be drifting around an inlet, with its owner frozen to the mast amid the supplies he was bringing to his family, who were waiting in vain for the father to return; or as he thought of the burden of this ever-increasing debit and credit system, or of the perils of the smugglers.
Later, when the duties were taken off by the United States, smuggling disappeared, and Campobello business went down. Could it ever have been said to exist? A few persons possessed enough ready money to build the picturesque weirs which fringe the Island with their stakes, driven three or four feet apart, and ribboned together with small round poles. The dried foliage and the dripping seaweed clinging to them give a ghastly beauty to this living mausoleum of the herring.
The Bank
Remittances did not always come promptly from England, and money was needed in the Island; so the Admiral set up his own bank, and issued one-dollar certificates, surmounted by the crest and his motto, "Flecti non Frangi." But somehow the time never came when he was called upon "to pay one dollar on demand to the bearer at Welsh Pool," and the certificates remain, to be utilized, perhaps, under a new epoch of good will and foolish trust.
Titles
The Island must have had some law and order before the advent of the Admiral, for the town records for the parish of Campobello date from April 15, 1824, James M. Parker, town clerk. At the general session of the peace, holden at St. Andrews, the shire town of Charlotte County, New Brunswick, thirty-two officers were chosen for the small population of Campobello. As in the old German principalities, every Welsh Pooler must have craved a title. There were commissioners and surveyors of highways, overseers of poor and of fisheries, assessors, trustees of schools, inspectors of fish for home consumption and for exports, for smoked herring and boxes. There were cullers of staves, fence-viewers and hog-reeves, and surveyors of lumber and cordwood, lest that which should properly be used for purposes of building or export be consumed on andirons or in kitchen stoves.
Paupers
In those days there was no poorhouse; though town paupers existed, for one, Peter Lion by name, was boarded about for one hundred dollars, and furnished with suitable food, raiment, lodging, and medical aid. No one kept him long at a time, whether it was because others wanted the price paid for his support, or because he was an unwelcome inmate, is unknown. Prices depend on supply; therefore, it happened that the next pauper was boarded for fifty dollars. Again, a lower price for board brought about a lower tax rate for the householders; and, in course of time, another pauper was set up at public auction, and the lowest bidder was entrusted with his care and maintenance.
By 1829 the exports from the Island justified the creation of harbor masters and port wardens,--more titles to be coveted.
Ferryman
A ferry was established from Campobello to Indian Island and Eastport. The ferryman was "recognized in the sum of two pounds, and was conditioned to keep a good and sufficient boat, with sails and oars, to carry all persons who required between the appointed places, to ask, demand, and receive for each person so ferried one shilling and three pence, and no more." If any other than the appointee should have the hardihood to make a little money by transporting a weary traveller, such persons should be fined ten shillings, half of it to go to the informer and half to the ferryman, unless he had previously arranged with the licensee that he would afford him due and righteous satisfaction for each person so carried.
As the population grew, the swine began to abound, and soon it was decreed that "neither swine nor boar-pig should go at large, unless sufficiently ringed and yoked, sucking pigs excepted, on pain of five shillings for each beast."
Sheep
Then the sheep began to jump fences four feet high,--and their descendants have increased in agility. They ate the young cabbages, and standing at ease, defiantly and lazily nipped off the dahlia buds. The town bestirred itself. Angry housewives, roused from their sleep by waking dreams of depredations committed, drove the sheep away with stock and stone. The following night the fisher-husbands, back from their business, sallied forth in vain; they could not run as fast as the women. And week after week the sheep took all they wanted. It became necessary finally to establish the sublime order of hog-reeves, who were privileged to seize any swine or sheep going at large which were not marked with the proper and duly entered mark of the owner, and to prosecute as the law directs; all cattle being ordered to be at home by eight o'clock in the evening. But how could sheep be marked when their fleece forbade their being branded? As notable housekeepers vie with each other in receipts, so did each Islander try to invent striking deformities for his sheep; only the sucking lambs retained their birthrights till their later days. Because Mulholland made two slits in the right ear and took off its top, Parker cut off a piece from the left ear of his sheep, and Bowers made a crop under the left ear of his animal, close to its head. Yet the sheep ran loose until the people were directed to raise twelve pounds for building two cattle pounds, and William Fitz-William Owen, the Admiral, was appointed to erect the same.
The poor rates had again lessened,--woe to the pauper boarder,--for the Admiral wanted money for many another improvement on which his mind was bent. The General Sessions of the peace dared not neglect any suggestion which was made by a man who entertained all the distinguished guests who came to Passamaquoddy Bay; for his fame had spread far and wide as host, theologian, and magnate.
Geese
If it were difficult to restrain sheep and swine, still more difficult was it to prevent the trespasses of geese; though many a bird was clipped in its infancy, and in winter killed and put down amid layers of snow, and sent to the Admiral as a peace offering or as tribute.
Still the public troubles increased; until it was ordered that horses and cattle should be impounded. Then peace by midnight and safety by day rested over the Island. For it was even resolved "that all dogs of six months old and upward should be considered of sufficient age to pay the tax"; but in what manner they were compelled to offer their own excuse for being remains unsolved. Perhaps no legal quibble was ever raised concerning the wording of the statute.
Bridges
Admiral Owen was not only the magistrate for animals, but a builder of bridges, letting out the work "at the rate of $1.12-1/2 per man per day, the day being ten hours of good and conscientious work for man or yoke of oxen."
=Nomination Day.= Very graphic is an account of "Nomination Day," given by Mr. William H. Kirby, in the "Eastport Sentinel" of June 10, 1885. On the results of this day depended honors and duties. "Four members are to be chosen. Among those put in nomination is the Honorable Captain William Fitz-William Owen, of Campobello, representative of the Island and champion of the fisheries.
A poll being demanded, the real contest is postponed to a late day; starting at St. Andrews, and proceeding from parish to parish, gathering the votes of each neighborhood, until at the end of a fortnight Indian Island is reached, and the voters of West Isles and Campobello have their turn. This affords a good opportunity for curious Eastporters to look in upon the time-honored election processes of the British Empire.
The surroundings of the hustings are rude and characteristic. On a platform made by spreading a plank on the top of fish hogsheads the sheriff of the county has established himself, with his clerks, the candidates and their representatives ranged along. As this is Captain Owen's own precinct, special efforts have been made to bring up his vote, which has somewhat lagged in other parishes; some of the free and independent electors, arriving by the numerous boats which line the beach, wear badges with the motto, "Owen Roads and Bridges," and there are signs that open houses are kept somewhere in the neighborhood. With staunch friends, the Captain has bitter opponents. For the purpose of increasing the income from his Island, he had not long before established a system of pasturage which included a small annual sum for geese, and it is said that at St. Andrews the other day a goose was borne aloft in derision of his candidacy.
Each candidate having urged his claims in an address, the polls are opened and the voting begins. As the elector comes forward, he is asked for whom he votes. The reply is, "Captain Owen,"--"Thank you, sir," from Captain Owen; and the same from Mr. Hill, Mr. Brown, Mr. Boyd, Mr. Clinch, or some other candidate, in response to a vote for either. And the clerk enters the several votes upon his record. Each elector can vote for four candidates. Sometimes he names but one; this is a plumper, and elicits cheers. Sometimes a man is asked on what he votes, and replies "Freehold by heir," or something else. I believe that under certain conditions a man could vote in half a dozen counties if he had property.
Closing here, the sheriff, candidates, and special friends adjourn to St. Andrews for the final proceedings. Numbers of votes have been withheld for effective use in the final struggle. Some of the candidates are already so far ahead that their success is assured, and others are hopelessly behind, while for one or more places two or three candidates are separated by only narrow margins, and this affords opportunity for trades and combinations which add zest to the last spasmodic efforts. Captain Owen was not successful this time, though he was chosen at a later campaign, and was afterwards promoted to a seat in Her Majesty's Council for the Province."
Wilson's Claim
The Admiral's life was embittered by the obstinacy with which some of the people refused to pay him allegiance. They were the descendants of one Wilson, who, in David's time, had squatted at Head Harbor, and had built across the end of the Island a bush fence, which was considered to give the sanctity of a written deed to Wilson's claim. David Owen contested the validity of custom, and a lawsuit followed, which was decided in favor of the squatter. This decision was very embarrassing to David, who feared that through its effect he might lose possession of another neck of land. So he hastened home from the court, outstripping his rival, and told a squatter who lived on a second point of the Island that, as the verdict in the Head Harbor case had been rendered in the Owen favor, he had better sell out at once, or else the law would make him do so. This reasoning, though illogical, was convincing; and the terrified fisherman is reported to have made a lawful deed of his possessions to David for a round of pork, an old gun, and two or three other articles. When Wilson arrived, belated by the wind and tide, the fraud or joke was discovered; but, as no remedy was found for it, the Owens ruled all the Island, except the peninsula which David and his coheirs and successors always called "Wilson's Encroachment." There Wilson and his followers established a thriving settlement, whose prosperity was a constant grievance to the Admiral when he came to live at Campobello. Neither flattery or bribery could induce them to become his vassals. Years after, in the American Civil War, when Captain Robinson, the Admiral's son-in-law, demanded that rents should be paid in English money, Campobello was impoverished, while the people at Wilson's Beach had no rent to pay.
The Cannon
The cannon still remained as sentinels, till some one on board the brig Sam French, which was going to California for gold, stole them and carried them round Cape Horn. When the brig reached San Francisco it fired a salute; but as the Admiral had forewarned the Southern authorities of the capture of his guns, the timely or untimely salute betrayed their presence, and the guns were seized and returned to Campobello. After the removal of the Owen family to England, one of the guns, which had been bought from them by Mr. Best, an Island resident at that time, was given by him to General Cleaves, who placed it on one of the islands in Portland harbor, where two or three years ago it exploded and was shattered to pieces. The other gun was bought by George Batson, Esq., and was placed in his store on the Island, where it became an object of wonder to all newcomers.
Schools
The official dignities of the Admiral increased with his longer residence on Campobello. He was overseer of the poor, postmaster, and school trustee. For a long period there were only private schools; but about fifty years ago the first public or parish school was built near the Taylor House, now Hotel Byron. Four other schools were established at various points; one at Curry's Cove, or Sarawac,--so named by Admiral Owen after a fishing hamlet in Wales,--where Lady Owen and her daughters maintained a vigorous Sunday School.
The Mail
The mails, which were brought by vessel from St. Andrews, came twice a week in summer, and once a week in winter; though it was no uncommon event to wait three weeks for a letter, if the weather were stormy. The people from Indian and Deer Islands came to the Admiral's to get their letters; but woe to any one who chanced to arrive too early in the morning, before the noble postmaster had finished his breakfast.
Survey Book
A curious manuscript book with parchment covers is still extant, labelled on one side, "Register Book, Deeds, Leases, etc., for the estate of Campobello. The property of Captain W. F. W. Owen, R. N. June, 1835." On the other side is written, "Survey Book." It contains several early survey maps of the National Boundary, of the Narrows at Campobello, and of Casco Bay. There are also leases of smoke-houses and weirs. The latter then rented for fifty or sixty dollars a year, and a system of ground-rent prevailed. The Admiral could not have anticipated much income from his possessions; for he speaks of the people as "fishermen, about four hundred in number, very few of whom are, I fear, able to please turn over to pay rent otherwise than in produce,--that is, dried fish and potatoes."
Tyn-Y-Coed
In this same record book he writes that the farm called Tyn-Y-Coed, or The House in the Woods, is so named from "the estate in Montgomery shire, late of Owen Owen, Esq., and Sir Arthur Davies Owen, his son, and William Owen, the youngest son, let to John Gregg, for ten years on his life, at the rate of (6-1/2 s.) six shillings and sixpence." On the oldest map owned by the present Company, drawn by one John Wilkinson, in 1830, the Tyn-Y-Coed and also Lake Glen Severn are designated. The land opposite the Tyn-Y-Coed, where now is the Wells Cottage, used to be called Mount Pleasant.
The Admiral's domains extended beyond Campobello to Head Harbor, Pope's Folly, Sandy, Spruce, and Casco Islands. Since his reign some of these islands have been sold, while Casco Island was given to Chief Justice Allen, of New Brunswick, by Lady Owen. When the little fishing vessels and ferry boats, which ply between these islands, and the big schooners and large steamers, are now counted on any one summer day, it is difficult to realize how comparatively uncrossed were these waters in the Admiral's early years of Island life.
First Steamboat
The first steamboat in New Brunswick was not launched till April, 1816, and then it went only as far as Portland; and a second steamer was not added till 1825. The first New Brunswick newspaper fortunately was issued in 1783, so that it must have been able to announce this new maritime project with due sensational headlines.
First Telegram
Not until April 30, 1851, was the first telegram sent from St. John to John Wilson. Curiously reads his answer from St. Andrews: "Being the first subscriber to the Electric Telegraph Company, I am honored by the first communication from your city announcing the great and wonderful work God has made known to man by giving us the control of the lightnings."
The Church
Neither steamboat, newspaper, nor telegram could make Campobello aught but a narrow confine for the social and political ambition of the Admiral. An exile because of poverty that compelled him to accept the royal gift, he felt that he must devote himself to controversial discussion and the erection of a new Episcopal church. Before this day the people had been Baptists; personal loyalty anglicized the religion of all those around Welch Pool.
Wilson's Baptists
The people at Wilson's, however, never abandoned their Baptist tenets, which they brought with them from the neighboring islands as they settled around Head Harbor. Those along the North Road rowed over to the larger settlement for baptisms and Sunday services, which were first held in the schoolhouse, for the church itself was not built until some thirty-eight years ago.
North Road Baptists
At last the North Road residents had their own church, to which they were devotedly attached. The land for it cost forty dollars in gold paid down to Captain Robinson, as the proceeds of the efforts of sewing-circles and ladies' teas. The great Saxby gale of some twenty-five years ago blew it down. Two years after it was rebuilt for $447, and finally finished ten years ago. The devoted Episcopalians at Welch Pool have made no greater sacrifices for their church than did the little band of zealous North Road Baptists. Though their regular ministers have been few, their irregular preaching and their prayer meetings have been constant.
Still it was but natural that, as the boys of the Baptist islands married the girls of St. George and other New Brunswick towns where the Church of England was the prescribed form of faith, Episcopalianism spread itself, not only among the islands in Passamaquoddy Bay, but at Campobello.
Church Corporation
Soon after Admiral Owen had become resident magistrate and commissioner for solemnizing marriages, to which the witnesses as well as the bridal couple signed their names, he signalized his authority by giving for three years certain wild lands as commons for cattle to those who should belong to the "Church Episcopal Congregation," when formed. The lease was duly signed by himself and by John Farmer, in trust for the people. Such privilege, even if actuated by worldly motives, proved of sacred benefit, for measures were immediately taken to form a Church Association and corporation, with the proviso that such persons as had decided objections to profess themselves members of the church could by no means become a part of such corporation. The Admiral's cattle ranged free in the commons, but on all other licensed and marked cattle were paid the fees which accrued to the benefit of religion, and large must have been the income thereof.
The regularly ordained preacher was sent from St. Andrews but four or five times a year. On all other appointed days the Admiral read his beloved service, even till 1842, when a resident missionary came to live on the Island. Thirteen years after, in 1855, the church and burial ground were consecrated by the bishop of the diocese. Most solemn and tender must have been those first rites, when confirmation was administered to three persons, and holy communion to forty others, in that little building surrounded by the dark balsamic firs, looking with its cross over the waters toward the New England steeples.
English friends sent money to the church, and the Owen family gave memorial offerings. The reredos, with its silver cross, was a memorial to Captain John Robinson, the grandson of the Admiral. The block of stone from which the font was carved was taken from the Church of the Knights Templar at Malta, and carried to Florence by the Admiral's son-in-law to be wrought into graceful form, and then was borne across the ocean to this tiny, much loved church. The chancel carpet, worked on canvas in cross-stitch; the altar vestments; the stoles; the chalice veils, green, white, crimson, purple, each bearing the symbol of the cross in varied stitch and design,--were all wrought by the delicate fair hands of the Admiral's daughter, and her children, and their friends, as an offering of self-consecration and of devotion to the building up of a higher life among the Islanders. These, too, brought their gifts, and replaced with chandeliers the wax candles which had been set in holes in the book-rests; and, when the sea called away the men, an old lady, rich in humility and good works, rang the bell for the weekly services.
Bishop Medley
Interwoven with the personal life of this church was the affection with which it was regarded by "The Most Eminent John Medley, D. D., Anglican Bishop of Fredericton, N. B., and Metropolitan of Canada, who died in 1892, at the advanced age of eighty-eight years. It was in this church that he married his second wife, who was a friend of Lady Owen's. He seldom failed to visit the Island every year or two, and was the trusted confidant of each man, woman, or child, who knew him, for his simplicity of life accorded with Island habits, and the people comprehended his singleness of purpose, even if they did not always go to church. The names of Mr. and Mrs. Medley often occur in the parish records as visitors of the Parish School, with which they seem to have been regularly pleased.
The Deanery
The Parish of Campobello was and is under the jurisdiction of the Deanery of St. Andrews. At its meetings, which were for purposes of social visitation as well as for church discipline, the Admiral talked to the Deans if not with them. He knew the law better than many of them, and had an eye to business. Earnest and simple are the records of these gatherings, as of the one at St. Andrews in 1852, when some wished that "all articles necessary to ornament and fitting of places of worship should be admitted free of duty"; yet the movement failed of approval lest action on behalf of it might "appear like a move of the church for exclusive privilege."
Church Lands
A later resolve of the Deanery reads as follows: "Resolved, that whereas Romanists, Presbyterians, Methodists, and other Sectarists, are busy in successfully seeking from the Government tracts of land, to be surveyed for their respective denominations, to be settled by their co-religionists, that the Rural Dean communicate with the Lord Bishop, and ask his advice whether it may not be wise to seek like tracts of land for the settlement of church families as soon as possible, lest there be left no lands for the settlement of churchmen."
Special Prayer
When the Deanery met at Campobello it was resolved that, "Owing to the special calling of the Inhabitants of the County, that the Bishop draw up a form of Prayer for public service for those so exposed, to be used at the discretion of the clergy."
In 1863, the Deans approved of employing a "Book hawker in the dissemination of Church books and tracts in the Province." "The prevailing sins of our time, especially those by which we are more immediately surrounded," was as favorite a topic of discussion in those days of Deanery meetings as it is now.
The Admiral's Stock Company
Among other documents belonging to the period of the Admiral's active life on the Island is a pamphlet printed in London in 1839, entitled "The Campobello Mill and Manufacturing Company in New Brunswick, British North America."
This Company was incorporated June 1, 1839, with a capital of $400,000 in two thousand shares at $200 each; interest at 6 per cent. was guaranteed on all sums actually paid on the shares, secured on the fixed property on the Islands and responsibility of the Company. The President was William Fitz-William Owen. There were also six Directors, who were all in official life, with the exception of "John Burnett, Esq., of Campobello, Merchant." The property, says the pamphlet, "is valued at $100,000, and offers available means of employing five times the capital." The returns in four or five years would probably be twenty-five per cent, on the capital. The situation of the Island "is extremely commodious for commerce with Great Britain, the West Indies, and the United States." An early prospectus of the Company's extols the situation, because, by order of His Majesty in Council, Campobello was constituted a free Warehousing Port. Jacob Allan, Deputy Surveyor and Commissioner of Crown Lands, "certifies that there is now standing a sufficient quantity of spruce and pine of the finest growth for saw logs to keep four double saw-mills going for the space of forty years; that is, perpetually.... The fisheries on the coasts of the Island were let this year by the Company for near £400, and fish were taken on the coasts to the amount of £3,000." It is also "stated that there is a large quantity of ore about Liberty Point." The Company was incorporated "for the purposes of erecting, using, and employing all descriptions of mills, mill-dams, fulling and carding machinery, and will have a decided advantage over any other spot in British America." "The population would thus grow rapidly, and the Company, having the property of the whole coast, must become the medium of all exchanges with all the population, which now amounts to six hundred only."
Alas, the Admiral's dreams have never been realized. The saw-mills which were built long ago fell into decay. The ores, if there are any, are still unexplored; agriculture does not flourish; the fisheries have decreased, herring are scarce; and the various changes in the imposition of duties have perplexed and thwarted the business activity of the Islanders.
Admiral's Second Marriage
Year after year the Admiral saw his hopes deferred. Lady Owen had died. His daughter, Mrs. Robinson Owen, and her children, still lived in the Island home, helping, teaching, guiding all around them with kindliness and wisdom. But the Admiral spent most of the last five years of his life at St. John, for he married a Mrs. Nicholson of that city, whose maiden name was Vennell.
His Burial
His strange, pioneer, semi-royal, administrative career ended in 1857. The boat that bore him back from St. John for the last time to his hermitage ran aground; for the great falling tides bade him wait, even in the pomp of death, until it was their hour to bear him aloft on his oft-trod pier. Men, women, and children, seized lantern, candle, or torch, and carried their hermit lord over the rough stones and the narrow ways to the cemetery, where they buried him at eventide, amid the waving trees and with the sound of falling tears.
His memory nestles in the hearts of the children who play around the weirs, and who have learned from their grandsires the tales of his jokes, his oddities, and his kindnesses. His children and his grandchildren stayed in the primitive ancestral home till 1881, when the Island was sold to an American syndicate. As long as any of the Owen family lived there they were beneficent rulers of the people, and maintained a courtly standard of manners and morals, the grace of which lingers among the Islanders.
=The Cannons again.= Tradition and fact still invest the Owen name with tenderness and homage, as was shown on July 10, 1890, when the great-grandson of the Admiral revisited Campobello. Never has the old cannon belched forth its volume of sound more loudly than it did for Archibald Cochrane, who, as a boy, had often sat astride of it. A "middy" on board Her Majesty's flagship Bellerophon, he came back to his ancestral estates, accompanied by Bishop Medley. The boys' sunny blue eyes and gentle smile recalled his mother's beauty to the old Islanders. The Dominion Hag and the English flag waved from every ship in port and from the neighboring houses, to welcome him back. As the steamer came in sight, the aged cannon, mounted on four huge logs of wood, gave forth its welcome. Each time the cotton had to be rammed down, and the cannon had to be propped up. Each time the match and the lighted paper were protected by a board held across the breech at arm's length; but the brass piece did its duty, and the people called "well done" to it, as if it had been a resuscitated grandsire. The steamer answered whistle for cannon blast, and the children's laugh was echoed back across the water.
It was dead low tide--and the tide falls twenty feet--when the venerable bishop came up the long flight of steps, slippery and damp with seaweed. Guarded on each side and before and behind, with umbrella in his hand for his walking-stick, the metropolitan of eighty-four years accepted the unneeded protection which Church of England reverence dictated.
=The Great-Grandson.= But as the boy ran quickly up the same steps, there was not a man who did not rush forward to greet him. The band played, while the women crept out from among the piles of lumber and waited for recognition. It came as the boy was led from one to another, bowing low in his shy, frank manner, cap in hand, to the women and girls, who had known him as a child, and shaking hands heartily with all the men, young and old. Away off stood two old ladies, who blessed the morn which had brought back their young master. Up to them he went with pretty timidity, and then, boy-like, hurried off to look at the cannon. He put his finger on it with a loving touch and a lingering smile, which to the older ones who saw it told of hidden emotion, which, perhaps, he himself scarcely recognized.
Silence fell as the Metropolitan rose from the chair where he had been resting and thanked the people for their greeting to the boy, because of his grandparents. The midshipman's eyes shone as they fell on the faces, lighted up as they had not been for years, to see that the fair, five-year old boy who had left them had grown into the straight-limbed, graceful, manly, modest youth, whose greeting was as unaffectedly frank as their own. After a while midshipman and bishop stole silently away up to the graves of the old Admiral and his wife, of the captain grandfather, and the cousin, all of whom had been naval heroes.
=The Old Home.= On to the Owen house went the boy and found his old haunts,--first, the nursery, then his mother's room, and next his grandmother's; out among the pines to the places where he had played, on to the sun-dial and the quarter-deck. All were revisited, with none of the sadness which comes in middle life, but with the sure joy of a child who has found again his own. He clicked the uncocked pistols of the Admiral, and took up the battered, three-cornered hat.
In the afternoon a game of baseball was played in his honor; and never did his great-grandfather watch more eagerly for victory over the pirates than did this descendant watch that the game might be won by the Campobello boys. At evening, in the little English Church, where the bishop blessed the people and told of Lady Owen's deeds of mercy, the boy bent his head over the narrow bookrest, and after the service was over he again shook hands with those who had so easily and quickly become his friends.
The next day the people gathered again at the wharf. The midshipman was a new old friend by this time. Once more the brass-piece sounded farewell as he crossed the bay. It had been the playmate of his boyhood, his imaginary navy, his cavalry horse, his personal friend. By its side he had never wanted to rest on chairs or sofas. Once more he turned to look at it as he went down the steps to the water's edge, and waved adieu to those who loved him for his mother's sake, with a fondness and pride and sense of personal ownership unknown in "the States," where ancestry counts for but little.
The old cannon still stands upright in Mr. Batson's store. No one would ever steal it again. No one can ever buy it away. From father to child it will descend, to tell of the English-American feudalism of a hundred years ago, and of the happy, bright boy, who found his father's house turned into a modern hotel.
The wonderful loveliness of Campobello can never be taken from it by any possessor. It is a beauty partly its own, and partly borrowed from the soft rounded headlands, the toy-like islands, the vanishing rivers, and the far reaches up the bay, which make the opposite shore. Busy shining Eastport, with its New England steeples, spreads itself gently in a long line down to the water's edge.
=The Sunsets.= At evening the sunset sends its glory over the waters and the land, blending all into the wondrous charm of changing, glowing color. The sunsets of the Island have been likened to those of Italian skies and Swiss lakes. They need no comparison. They make their hours those of exceeding beauty and reverent silence.
=Treat Island.= Treat Island is one of the places which enhance the enjoyment of Campobello. It lies between Lubec and Eastport. Its first owner was Colonel John Allan, who gave it the name of Dudley Island, in recognition of his friend, Paul Dudley Sargent, a descendant of the Earl of Leicester. As Colonel Allan's revolutionary sentiments compelled him to leave Nova Scotia, his American patriotism eventually led to his appointment of Superintendent of the Indians. He thus became involved in perplexities and hairbreadth escapes. At the end of the war he went into business on Dudley Island, and counted among his guests Albert Gallatin. Allan was buried on the island in 1805. In 1860 two hundred of his descendants gathered there, and dedicated to his memory the marble column which the antiquarian and the picnic lover alike visit. After a while the island began to be known as "Treat's," for a gentleman of that name had bought it, and carried on there a large fish-curing business. He was also the successful pioneer of the canning industry. But with the scarcity of herring and multiplicity of duties, the weirs became disjointed and the houses dilapidated. Alas! now the land is hired for pasturage, and excellent thereof is the milk.
Benedict Arnold
Among Allan's customers when he lived on the island was Benedick Arnold; for Allan spelt the name with a k, as his account book shows. Arnold at that time, though in business at St. John, N.B., was living for a short time in Campobello, at Snug Cove. In the Centennial year this account book was exhibited at Dennysville, as one of its curiosities. In 1786 Arnold bought a new vessel, which he called the "Lord Sheffield," and made trading voyages in her along the coast and to the West Indies. Once, while cruising in Passamaquoddy Bay, he invited Colonel Crane to dine with him on board his vessel. But the Colonel, who was a revolutionary veteran, stamping his foot, wounded at the siege of New York, furiously replied, "Before I would dine with that traitor I would run my sword through his body." Arnold went to England in 1787, where he insured his St. John store and stock for £6,000. The next year he came back; a fire consumed all, and Arnold collected the insurance. Two years later Arnold's partner accused him of setting fire to the store. Arnold sued for slander, and claimed £5,000 damages. The jury awarded twenty shillings! When he left St. John his house was sold at public auction. "A quantity of household furniture," reads the advertisement: "excellent feather beds: mahogany four-post bedsteads, with furniture; a set of elegant Cabriole chairs covered with blue damask; sofas and curtains to match; an elegant set of Wedgewood Gilt Ware; two Tea-Table sets of Nankeen china; Terrestrial Globe; a double Wheel Jack; a lady's elegant Saddle and Bridle, etc." Yet whoever now owns them must be glad that they are not family heirlooms. Auction sales are more honorable for some china.
=Smuggling.= Whether Arnold was attracted to the Passamaquoddy region by its opportunities for smuggling can never be known. But certain is it that the embargo law of 1807 had put a stop to foreign trade, and in 1808 destroyed the coasting trade. Before then it had been easy to carry breadstuffs and provisions across the line. Thousands of barrels thus reached Eastport; and many thousands were brought to Campobello and Indian Island, at one dollar a barrel. Smuggling began, or, if it did not then begin, it increased. Sudden wealth and bad habits kept pace with each other. At first the price for smuggling was twelve and one-half cents a barrel, which quickly rose to three dollars a barrel. One man is said to have earned forty-seven dollars in twenty-four hours. Fogs helped,--"that's why they were made".
In the war of 1812, Indian Island and Campobello were very busy in shipping English goods and wares from the large colonial ports. Neutral voyages were constantly made. American vessels had a Swedish registrar, and went from Sweden to Eastport in three or four hours. Silk, wool, cotton, metals, were thus carried up the bays and streams, and shipped in wagons to the Penobscot, then to Portland, Boston, etc.
Provincial trade was peculiar. British vessels, laden with gypsum and grindstones, because they came from ports not open to American vessels, sailed to the frontier out on the lines, and transferred their cargo to American vessels waiting there. Slaves from Norfolk, Virginia, were sent to some neutral island, from there transported to an English ship again out on the lines, and then carried to the West Indies.
=Rice Island.= One of the islands which was cognizant of some of the smuggling was Tuttle's, now called Rice Island, after Solomon Rice, who kept store there. It is a little round spot of beauty in the chain of islands bridged by fallen weirs, between Lubec and Eastport.
=Lubec.= Lubec itself owes its existence to the attempt of five citizens of Eastport to avoid the payment of duty bonds to the British. Lubec Point was then only a forest. Though by 1818 it had become a rival of Eastport, it is now but a small town. Yet it is more picturesquely situated than almost any other town in New England. Its single steeple and its flagstaff dominate the steep hill down which run two grassy streets to the water's edge, where stretch out into the Narrows the piers, which change their aspect with each rising and falling tide. When the fog sets in over the bay, the last point it hides is Lubec steeple. When it lifts, it leaves its gay flower gardens damp with a moisture that brightens each tiny petal. From the top of Mulholland's Hill, on Campobello, Lubec looks like some quaint foreign spot, with streaks of American activity across it.
Out beyond the town is Quoddy Lighthouse, built about 1809. Near it is the Life Saving Station. On the left of the hill are the low marshes off Lubec, and beyond them the long purple line of Grand Manan.
There is no more varied excursion than to row over to Lubec, and from there to drive through woods and over sandy roads to the lighthouse. Then drive back and along the upper shore to North Lubec, where the Young Men's Christian Associations have bought land and erected a hotel, with the privileges of fair accommodations and the enthusiasm of camp-meetings. At sunset take the Lubec Ferry to Campobello. There is so much to see in each place, and so many hills for the horse to walk up, that it is better to take two separate days for these drives.
=Eastport.= Another favorite pastime with the summer visitor is to row across to Eastport. It is the great shopping place, not only of Campobello, but of its own county. Most excellent and tasteful are its shops, whose proprietors have a courtesy of manner which city merchants might well emulate. The drives from Eastport are pleasant, each one different from the other. Go along the water up to Pleasant Point, where a few Indians live under the care of the kindly sisters of the Catholic Church, and where Rev. John Cheverus once visited, or over to Pembroke with its mills, and up and down long hills.
=Meddy Bemps.= Best of all is it to forsake the viands of the hotels, drive up to Meddy Bemps, and camp there for two or three days; catch what early fish you can, bass and pickerel; eat as big and as sweet blueberries as ever grow; pull up the water lilies by their long stems; buy rag mats; and enjoy the quiet and beauty of the lake and its shores.
=The North Road.= On Campobello itself the most lonesome and picturesque drive is that along the North Road, over stony and narrow ways, up rough hills, and by beaches which seem close to the houses. The view framed by the New Brunswick hills is ever changing, while the St. Croix River extends off into an unrimmed distance. From Head Harbor, lines of fishing boats, brilliant with the red flannel shirts of the men, stretch out into the bay. Eastport seems near and far. Part of the North Road is gay with gardens, for dearly do the Islanders love their dahlias, their princely flowers, and all the lesser floral dignitaries. Here stands the Baptist Church, against which the lambs crouch as if in sacrificial symbol. Far beyond it is Mallock's Beach, sentinelled by high cliffs, reverenced for generations as the baptismal beach. Then come the desolate, low peaks of bare, purple rock, which shut out all but gloom, when suddenly appear the bright, laughing waters of Havre de Lutre--Harbor of the Otter--and its opposite wooded shores, leading to Head Harbor. Let your horse find his own way homeward, and climb home yourself along the shores of Havre de Lutre, which will bring you out at the head of the harbor, near where William Owen first settled.
=Head Harbor.= The longest drive on the Island is to Head Harbor,--the Queen's Highway, as it is called,--past Cold Spring, Cranberry and Bunker Hills. Climb both, and you will never forget the view. Drive on past Conroy's Bridge, the schoolhouses, the church, Wilson's settlement (where do not fail to buy sticks of checkerberry candy), up and down the hills to Head Harbor River (where, report says, the Admiral once built a brig), to Head Harbor Beach, and there picnic. Then, refreshed by a lunch, which tastes better in the open air than indoors, walk over to the Fog Horn House, and, if the tide is right, go down a rocky hill, across a rocky ford, up a short iron ladder and on to Head Harbor Lighthouse. Never start on any excursion at Campobello until you have adjusted your hours to the tides, or else your plans will fail.
=Mill Cove.= This waiting upon the tide is of special importance at Mill Cove, the road to which branches off from Head Harbor road. There is no place on the Island equal to this for surprises. When the fog is "in" half of it is non-existent, as it were. At high tide you see an island which you cannot reach by carriage. At low tide you urge your horse up a short, pebbly beach, down into the water, and up on to an island. By permission of its occupant, you drive through his land out into a broad green field, with the Bay of Fundy fronting you, and the Wolves looking hopelessly lonely. Give a whole day to the weird and sunny beauty of the cove and its nooks.
=Nancy Head.= Between Mill and Schooner Coves are the White Rocks and Nancy Head, so called from a ship that was wrecked there.
=Schooner Cove.= Schooner Cove is another surprise, but a single one. After you have reached it, put on your rubbers and take the mile walk to the left along the cliffs. Ten years ago it was the most solemn trail that you could follow. Now, as civilization has come nearer, and sunlight has penetrated it, the grey moss hangs less heavily from the close branches, leafless even in summer, while the water dashes up over the rocks on the other side of the narrow path. On the right of the cove go with care, and at your peril, over the headlands, along the coves, and in through the almost untrodden forest to Herring Cove.
Here is the longest beach in Campobello, with curiously tinted and marked pebbles. It is but a mile through the woods, starting from the Tyn-Y-Coed, and is the favorite walk and drive of all those who like smooth and shady roads and an air laden with "spicy fragrance." On the left is Eastern Head, never to be forgotten as a place of exploration, with wonderful views from its points and down its ravines.
=Herring Cove.= A unique pleasure, which, though obtained by driving, cannot properly be counted among the drives, is the visit at night to Herring Cove, to see the men "driving the herring." Each wherry has a ball of cotton wool, or a roll of bark, on a stick saturated with kerosene, or else it is put into an iron cradle fastened to an iron pole. As the cotton or bark burns, the moving boats look like a fitful procession of lights. The brightness attracts the herring, and, as one man rows, while another "drives," the nets are hauled up full of wriggling, shining fish.
Lake Glen Severn, so called after the Owen place in Wales, is separated by a short bridge from the high beach before it slopes down to the water.
=Meadow Brook Cove.= Beyond Herring Cove is Meadow Brook Cove, an ideal place for the scene of a summer idyl. Into it runs a tiny brook which starts somewhere near the head of Havre de Lutre, marking the division which once took place in the Island, according to geologists. The ruins of a stone wall which runs along the brook are no longer supposed to have been built by the Northmen, for the Admiral erected it as part of his scheme in draining the meadow.
Branching off from the Herring Cove Road is the Fitz-William road, where many lots have been sold, and also the road to Raccoon Beach. This drive is along another wonderful tangle of forest skirted by beaches. It leads to Liberty Point, the cable line from Welsh Pool to Grand Manan passing by it, on to Skillet Cove, where there is a split rock, on again to Owen Head, desolate and vengeful in its height, down to Chalybeate Spring,--a fortune for the future,--across beaches too rough for a single team with four people, to Cranberry Point, and back to where you started. At Deep Cove, near the Point, is a rock bearing pronounced glacial marks. Take the drive at low tide, and feel its gloom, with the fog drifting across your face. Take it at high tide, on a sunny morning, and feel its cheerfulness.
Once more drive down to the Narrows, past the cottages; stop at Friar's Head, whose Indian name was Skedapsis, the Stone Manikin. Go to the pagoda-like structure on top of the hill, climb down its side, and at low tide go walk between the Friar and the hill; then at high tide wonder how you ever did it. Retrace your steps. Go along the road, past Snug Cove and the schoolhouse, till you come to the Narrows, where runs the swift current which only the experienced boatman can cross in his flat-bottomed boat, that carries alike the passenger or his horse, or brings over from Lubec the funeral hearse.
Yet these are not all the drives. Subdivisions of them lead you into marshes, plains, and woods, though they are preferable as bridle paths or walks. They began as cow-paths, and may end as country roads. Adventures can still be sought over dangerous cliffs. It is more than easy to get lost in the woods. Still, no matter where you go, you cannot help coming out somewhere near water and a fisherman's hut; for Campobello,--in Indian dialect Ebauhuit, signifying by or near the mainland,--having an area of twenty square miles, and a circumference of twenty-five miles, is ten miles long and two to three miles wide. Remember in all these drives to turn to the left, and when you walk not to be afraid of cows.
Perhaps it is the water excursions which render Campobello most famous. Among these is the sail to St. Andrews, which offers modern Wedgewood ware for sale, and where is the far-famed Algonquin Hotel and Cobscook Mountain. The West Isles and Le Tete Canal make another pleasant sail. To go around the Island on a calm day is delightful. Very exquisite in its limited beauty is the sail up St. George's River, the trees on either side arching their branches over the little steamer. St. George's Falls and the stone quarry should also be visited on landing at the pier.
=Johnson's Bay.= For a short outing, row across Friar's Bay to Johnson's Bay; climb the little hill to the pleasant, neat, and hospitable farm-house; go through a grove to the wooden look-out, and clamber upwards. For wondrous beauty of beach and land-locked bay, of great headlands and brown hay-cocks, of the mystery of nature's secretiveness in South Bay, the view is unsurpassed.
=South Bay.= Then, inspired by its loveliness, come home to the hotel, engage Tomar and his canoes, paddle across the wide bay, and in and out of the islands and crannies of South Bay, the happiest, sunniest, cosiest bay on the Maine coast. Go through the canal at high tide; paddle everywhere around till the tide turns, and you can pass back through this narrow and again water-filled canal into Friar's Bay, the cottages at Campobello serving as guide in steering the homeward course.
=The Tides.= But truly there never is any guide among the tides and currents setting in from the different islands and headlands save that of correct knowledge of their ways. To lose an oar in these waters might mean drifting for hours; and then if the fog sets in! That fog, which is the basis of conversation on first acquaintance, the spoiler of picnics, and the promoter of a beauty of landscape so infinite and varied that one only wonders how any summer place can be without it.
=Dennysville.= Yet, if any one chances to feel that he is too much a part of the fog in a row-boat, take the little steamer to Dennysville. The ebb and flow along the coast in this region is so marked, that in going up the Denny River the pilot carefully guides the steamer through the whirlpools and maelstroms, which are dangerous only in winter. The river grows very narrow, till at its source it seems to be set in meadow lands, along which one wanders, through the quiet village roads,--for the town is fifty miles from any railroad,--trying to comprehend why anybody should forsake a spot so soothing to the spirit and so simple in its loveliness for the confusion of city life.
=Grand Manan.= Of all the water excursions that to Grand Manan is by far the most rich in reward. The best way is to take the steamer Flushing, which runs three times a week from Campobello to Grand Manan, and spend two nights and one day there,--longer, if you wish. There is little fear of sea-sickness on board the big steamer. The extraordinary cliffs and the sixteen-mile drive to Southern Head are scenes never to be forgotten, but which beggar words to describe. The sternness of nature stands here revealed, and the moans of the sea-gulls tell of even their need of sympathy.
=The Friar.= Beside these cliffs the noted one of the Friar at Campobello seems comparatively short; yet it is the prominent rock of the Island as one approaches it, and its importance is increased by the legendary lore that has gathered around it. Mr. Charles G. Leland tells the story in this wise:--
"Once there was a young Indian who had married a wife of great beauty, and they were attached to each other by a wonderful love. They lived together on the headland which rises so boldly and beautifully above the so-called Friar. Unfortunately her parents lived with the young married couple, and acted as though they were still entitled to all control over her. One summer the elder couple wished to go up the St. John River, while the young man was determined to remain on Passamaquoddy Bay. Then the parents bade the daughter to come with them, happen what might. She wished to obey her husband, yet greatly feared her father, and was in dire distress. Now the young man grew desperate. He foresaw that he must either yield to the parents--which all his Indian stubbornness and sense of dignity forbade--or else lose his wife. Now, he was m'te[=u]lin, and, thinking that magic could aid him, did all he could to increase his supernatural power. Then, feeling himself strong, he said to his wife one morning, 'Sit here until I return.' She said, 'I will,' and obeyed. But no sooner was she seated than the m'te[=u]lin spell began to work, and she, still as death, soon hardened into stone. Going to the point of land directly opposite, over the bay, the husband called his friends, with his father-in-law and mother-in-law, and told them that he was determined never to part from his wife nor to lose sight of her for an instant to the end of time, and yet withal they would never quit Passamaquoddy. On being asked sneeringly by his wife's father how he would effect this, he said: 'Look across the water. There sits your daughter, and she will never move. Here am I gazing on her. Farewell!' And as he spoke the hue of stone came over his face, and in a few minutes he was a rock. And there they stood for ages, until, some years ago, several fishermen, prompted by the spirit which moves the Anglo-Saxon everywhere to wantonly destroy, rolled the husband with great effort into the bay. As for the bride, she still exists as the Friar; although she has long been a favorite object for artillery practice by both English and American vandal captains, who have thus far, however, only succeeded in knocking off her head."
=Tomar.= Many an Indian legend of doubtful authority still clings to various points on the Island; yet only the Indians themselves are persistent and real. Each summer day they bring their baskets for sale. Tomar, at one time governor of his tribe, on a small salary with large work to do, is one of the few thoroughbred Indians who still live in this region. He is a man of integrity, skill, and gentleness. Each visitor is eager to gain his companionship and guidance in his canoe, as he paddles into nooks where one less experienced might hesitate to penetrate. Greater than his skill in paddling is Tomar's ingenuity in scraping pictures on birch bark symbolical of Indian life.
=His Tribe.= The Passamaquoddy Indians, or Openangoes, were a branch of the Etechemin nation, and apparently of comparatively recent origin. Their earliest village near Campobello was at Joe's Point, near St. Andrews. The majority of the remnants of the tribe are found at Pleasant Point, near Eastport, at Peter Dana's Point, near Princeton, and at The Camps, on the border of Calais. Their language is fast dying out; but their traditions and customs have been carefully studied and collected largely by Mrs. W. Wallace Brown, of Calais, and also by Professor J. Walter Fewkes, who has taken down on the wax cylinders of the phonograph many of their songs and stories.
The following original poem by one of the tribe was written for a sale that was held on August, 1883, for the benefit of a new rectory on the Island, in which Miss Lucy Derby was interested, and through whose efforts the rectory was built, the Company giving the land.
AMWES-WINTO-WAGEN.
Amwézik 'klithwon ya skedabe zogel;
Skedap tatchuwi melan kekousé kiziolgweh.
Ulzee-ik 'lee madjhé goltook kizosook;
Tatchuuwi tewebn'm nenwel kthlee-tahazoo wagenen woolsum'kik.
Piyemee absegékook beskwaswesuk tchicook
Pèmee woolip p'setawkqu'm'see you wen.
P'skèdab tatchuwè oolazoo weeahl m'pseeoo-wenil.
Amwess ooktee-in aboozek;
Uppes kootee-in hedlègit;
Beskwas'wess lookquem hahze;
Nojeemeeko gèmit chooiwigeou:
Weejokègem wee you'h.
Piel John Gabriel kweezee-toon yoot lin to wagun.
Kee zee skee jin wih tun;
Whu-titli keezeetoon Ebawg'hwit,
Wè jee kissi tahzik wenoch chigwam.
N'paowlin kweezee Iglesmani tun.
THE SONG OF THE BEES.
The bees make honey for man;
Man should give something to God.
The trees lift their tops to the sun;
We should lift up our hearts to our father.
The smallest flower in the forest
Gives out a perfume for all.
Man should do good unto all men.
The bee has a tree (for a home);
The tree has a place to grow;
The flower has a stem;
The clergyman must have a house:
May this song help it.
Peter John Gabriel made this song.
He made it in Indian;
He made it in Campobello (the island by the shore),
To help to build the house.
[1] N'pow-o-lin (the scholar, or man learned in mysteries) put it
into English.
[1] MR. CHARLES G. LELAND.
The Fenians
Among the Islanders are many whom it is delightful to know. They are all interested in affairs of church, school, and state, and eager for the future commercial prosperity of the Island. Excitement in local politics often runs high, but only once--in 1886--has there been resort to arms. Then the Fenians were at Eastport and Lubec. From the latter place some came over to low water mark, but were driven back "by the shine of the rifles"; for Captain Luke Byron, with one hundred and fifty Islanders, duly equipped, was stationed at the Narrows, Havre de Lutre, and Wilson's Beach. Though the Fenians were at Eastport but little more than a month, the Campobello committee of safety remained on guard three months. But when an English man-of-war came into the harbor, the Fenians, to avoid capture, sank their own vessel off the Narrows, beyond the lighthouse, and escaped themselves towards Machias.
=Climate.= The summer climate of Campobello is cool and delightful, the thermometer ranging between fifty-five and seventy-five degrees; so one can be outdoors all day long without becoming oppressed by the heat. The extensive forests of balsamic firs seem to affect the atmosphere, soothing and invigorating the visitor by day, and inviting sleep by night.
=Water.= The greater part of the Island is fertile. The common field and garden plants and vegetables grow abundantly, while the deep layer of drift gravel affords excellent well water at almost all points. The water supply for the hotels and cottages is, however, brought in pipes from distant springs, and filters itself by passing through a natural reservoir of sand.
=Soil.= The soil consists of a light clayey loam. "The general surface of the Island is marked by the sharply curved contours characteristic of all glaciated regions, where the rocks are of unequal hardness covered over by a deep bed of soil composed of the drift waste. This soil consists of a light clayey loam of rather remarkable fertility."--says Professor Shaler. "The greater part of the trees are evergreen, belonging to two species of fir and two of spruce. Scattered among them are the common species of birch, poplar, the common red beech, and in open swampy places the alder," which spreads with amazing rapidity.
=Flowers.= Wild Roses, varying in color from the palest pink to an almost magenta red, cover whole fields with their frail beauty. In the grass and round the ledges about Friar's Head the Campanula droops its blue bell. The Blue Iris skirts the borders of Lake Glen Severn. The Field Daisy, Sea-side Buttercup, the Marsh Pea, the Fall Dandelion, and the Sheep Laurel, spread themselves over the pastures in processions of color. The Wood Oxalis, its white petals veined with pink, and the Linnæa or Twinflower, are found half concealed beneath the underbrush of the woods. Among the rarer flowers of the Island is the Alpine Cloud Berry, or Amber Colored Raspberry, found on the Alpine summits of the White Mountains and on the Northeast Coast, which is the same as the Norwegian species. The Corn Chamomile, a rare weed, and the Wild Chamomile, both of which are naturalized from Europe, are found here, but chiefly around Eastport. The aromatic Wintergreen is the real Checkerberry, in Maine called the Trory Plum. The lovely Eyebright is found only along the coast of Maine and Canada; its Alpine form is rare. There are many varieties of Orchids, Asters, and Goldenrod, of Primroses, Honeysuckle, Heath, and of Lilies, from the Trillium or Trinity Flower to the two-leaved Solomon's Seal.
The wild strawberry in July, and the blueberries and raspberries in August, and the small cranberry in September, give occupation to the children, whose prices for berries are variable.
In the waters around the Island there "is a richer animal and vegetable life than is found along any other part of our shore."
=Dispute about Names of Rivers.= These waters have been the subject of constant litigation from early days. According to the oldest maps, the present St. Croix River was called Magaguadavic, and the Schoodic River, the Passamaquoddy; a name applied not alone to that River, but to the bays of Schoodick, St. Andrews, Cobscook, the waters from around Head Harbor (Campobello), to West Quoddy, etc., on account of the great number of pollock taken in these waters. The Magaguadavic received its present name of St. Croix from a cross erected there by the French, before there were any English settlers in its neighborhood. The dispute concerning the identity of these rivers, interesting as an historical matter, has not the political importance which attaches to the settlement of the boundary line between the American and English possessions.
=Boundary Line.= This line goes out "between Deer Island and Campobello, so as to give the United States equal access through the main channel to the sea, and then remands Campobello into British territory," for, by the treaty of 1783, all islands heretofore within the jurisdiction of Nova Scotia were to remain British territory.
=The Owen.= All this now is a matter of almost antiquarian concern, the present interest centering in the development of the Island as a summer resort. In 1881 it was purchased of the Owen heirs by a few New York and Boston gentlemen, who organized the Campobello Land Company. The Owen was at once built upon the site of Admiral Owen's private domain. Part of this dwelling house was moved across the gravelled walk to serve as an office for the Company and in it were placed the Owen relics. The rest of the house was left unaltered, the lower rooms serving as hotel offices and the upper ones as chambers. The following year a larger dining room for the hotel was constructed, William G. Preston being employed as architect of the whole structure.
Tyn-Y-Coed
In 1882 the Tyn-Y-Coed was opened, in 1883 the Tyn-Y-Maes, both erected under the supervision of Cummings and Sears, of Boston.
=Cottages.= The first cottages which were finished in 1884 were those of James Roosvelt, Esq., of New York, and Samuel Wells, Esq., of Boston. Dr. Russell Sturgis, of Boston, Travers Cochran, Esq., of Philadelphia, Alexander Porter, Esq., and Gorham Hubbard, Esq., of Boston, Alfred Pell, Esq., of New York, have each successively built summer residences on the Island.
In 1892 The Owen and its adjacent land and Man-of-War Neck were sold to some Boston gentlemen, who intend to manage the Owen as a summer hotel.
Each year the place becomes better known, but those who early made it their summer home have stamped upon it, it is hoped, that simplicity in manner of living which will prevent it from ever becoming either a place for picnics or a fashionable resort. It can never lose the picturesque beauty and the exhilarating climate which make it a most beautiful summer sojurn from May to November, for the autumn months are as glorious in clearness of atmosphere as the early summer months are lovely in their softness of verdure and coloring, while the sunsets always kindle the imagination into visions of the future.
Transcriber Notes:
Text in bold is enclosed by equal signs (=bold=), and Text in small caps is replaced by all caps (ALL CAPS).
Throughout the book, the current town of Welshpool was referred to as Welch Pool. A review of the internet reveals that this alternative spelling has often been used.
On page 13, the phrase "had do other" was replaced with "had no other".
On page 17, "March, 28, 1789" was replaced with "March 28, 1789".
Starting on page 21, there is a section labeled "Nomination Day" which has an extended quotation starting in the middle of the first paragraph and continuing to the end of the section. That quotation had markers at the beginning of the paragraph and at the end, but not at the start of each paragraph within the quotation. The quotation marks were not modified to current usage.
On page 22, "descendant's" was replaced with "descendants".
On page 24, "arrrive" was replaced with "arrive".
On page 27, There is a missing closing quotation mark in the section on Bishop Medley, but it is unclear where that mark goes.
On page 31, "with a a loving touch" was replaced with "with a loving touch".
On page 37, "Head Habor" was replaced with "Head Harbor."
On page 41, there are two instances, there the character of a u with macron was represented by "[=u]".
On page 47, "sojurn" is a simplified spelling of "sojourn".
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How to acquire BTC
One simple way to acquire Bitcoin is to open a public account, connect it with your bank account and move some money. However, public exchanged that hold your Bitcoin seem to be risky. Setting up a peer node is still the recommended way to get into Bitcoin trading.
The downside of setting up a public node is it uses electricity and internet bandwidth. For a small investment it might not be worth it, unless you are always running your computer and have unlimited bandwith.
Summary
- Get yourself a sofware wallet. That will give you the bitcoin address that you need to acquire BTC.
- Move to a cold storage wallet for safe keeping.
- Purchase a hardware wallet when you holdings get large. (Ledger nano $200)
Online purchase - non custodial account
non custodial Offers transfer from bank using etransfer no fee for loading - though there is hidden fee on purchase price no fee for moving to storage fees seem to be around payment - does offer lightening network
what about KYC?
OTC purchases
Bitcoin units can be purchased from other people or companies by means of a bilateral transaction. These purchases are called over-the-counter (OTC) transactions and can be settled in a face-to-face meeting or via any type of communication channel. Naturally, the appropriate precautionary measures have to be taken in both cases.
It is crucial that you:
. check the current exchange rate. Moreover, insist that the transaction
. includes an acceptable transaction fee and
. wait for at least one confirmation to reduce the risk of a double spend.
. For larger amounts, it is advisable to wait for several confirmations. Three to six confirmations are generally considered sufficient to ensure that the transaction is irreversible. This takes on average between thirty and sixty minutes. For small amounts, one confirmation is perfectly fine.
For purchases that do not involve a face-to-face meeting, it is strongly recommended to use a trusted platform. A trusted platform offers a reputation system and fulfills a fiduciary role.
Face-to-face meetings can be arranged for cash payments, or transactions can be carried out using wire transfers. In the case of a wire transfer, one should take account of the fact that some commercial banks will block payments with a reference mentioning “Bitcoin” or “crypto” for no apparent reason. This problem is so deep-rooted that some banks even refuse to offer accounts to officially regulated Bitcoin companies.
Normally, you will be able to purchase smaller amounts of Bitcoin units without proving your identity. However, for larger amounts, the seller is obliged to satisfy the so-called know-your-customer (KYC) regulation, which requires, among other things, that the customer must be identified.
Caution: Never Purchase a Private Key
Never purchase a private key from another person. The person may have copies of this key and would therefore be in the position to control the associated Bitcoin units. A legitimate OTC purchase must therefore always be carried out using a Bitcoin blockchain transaction that credits the Bitcoin units to one of your Bitcoin addresses.
To ensure that you have exclusive control over the corresponding private key, you must personally generate the key/address pair. Private keys that are communicated or transferred to you via other people are unsafe.
If a person wishes to offer you help when installing a wallet or your client, you must prevent this person from seeing your key or your mnemonic seed. The disclosure of this information can lead to the total loss of your Bitcoin units.
Centralized Exchange Platforms
The most common way to obtain Bitcoin units is to buy them at one of the many centralized Bitcoin exchanges. A user can simply open an account and then transfer fiat currency to it. The account holder can then use these funds to buy Bitcoin units or one of the many other cryptoassets. The pricing on large exchanges is competitive with relatively small bid-ask spreads. Most exchanges provide cryptocurrency order books and relatively sophisticated financial tools that make the trading process transparent.
However, it is still recommended to compare the various fee structures and to do your research on the business practices and reputation of a particular exchange. In particular, when selecting a centralized exchange, one should also consider the trading volumes, the offered services, and security.
Most importantly, users of centralized exchanges must be aware that they do not control the private keys to their assets. This can lead to substantial security issues. It is therefore recommended that the user transfers his cryptoassets as quickly as possible to one of the addresses for which he is in exclusive possession of the private key.
Some centralized exchanges have a registration process that is fully compliant and comparable to the KYC requirements for opening an account with commercial banks. These requirements include domicile and passport checks as well as the respective anti-money laundering rules. A few cryptocurrency exchanges implement none of these requirements and operate in a legal vacuum. We strongly recommend not to use exchanges that are both centralized and nonregulated.
Before you can trade, you must deposit either cryptoassets or government-issued fiat currency to the exchange. For a Bitcoin transaction, the exchange provides you with a Bitcoin address. Currencies can generally be transferred to the exchange’s bank account and normally will be credited within a few days.
A faster alternative is to use a credit card payment. Since credit card payments can be reversed, centralized exchanges who offer credit card payments face a high level of risk. Consequently, only exchanges that verify their customers’ identities offer this option. Moreover, a surcharge is imposed to cover the credit card fees and chargeback risk.
https://www.savvynewcanadians.com/coinsmart-referral-code/
Bitcoin ATM
Bitcoin ATMs are appearing to be similar to standard banking ATMs. With regard to the spectrum of functions that they provide, however, these machines have little in common with traditional cash dispensers. They allow users to buy Bitcoin units in exchange for fiat currency – and some models function as two-way currency converters.
The counterparty is normally the ATM’s operating company. In order to buy Bitcoin units, the customer feeds the desired banknote into the Bitcoin ATM. The Bitcoin units are then credited to a Bitcoin address that the customer has previously generated. To execute the Bitcoin payment, the customer must present a QR code containing the beneficiary Bitcoin address in front of the machine’s integrated camera. Fees are typically 10% which is pretty high.
Some machines generate new addresses and issue a paper receipt on which the public address and the corresponding private key are printed. This method again poses the threat that the private key might remain in the machine’s memory and thus can be copied by the provider or a malicious third party.
What is a Crypto Wallet?
Cryptocurrency wallets store users’ public and private keys while providing an easy-to-use interface to manage crypto balances. They also support cryptocurrency transfers through the blockchain. Some wallets even allow users to perform certain actions with their crypto assets such as buying and selling or interacting with decentralised applications (dapps).
It is important to remember that cryptocurrency transactions do not represent a ‘sending’ of crypto tokens from your mobile phone to someone else’s mobile phone. When you are sending tokens, you are actually using your private key to sign the transaction and broadcast it to the blockchain network. The network will then include your transaction to reflect the updated balance in your address and the recipient’s address.
So, the term ‘wallet’ is actually somewhat of a misnomer as crypto wallets don’t really store cryptocurrency in the same way physical wallets hold cash. Instead, they read the public ledger to show you the balances in your addresses and also hold the private keys that enable you to make transactions.
Your cryptocurrency is only as safe as the method you use to store it. While you can technically store crypto directly on the exchange, it is not advisable to do so unless in small amounts or if you plan to trade them frequently.
For larger amounts, it’s recommended that you withdraw (perform a transfer to another address that you also hold) the majority to a crypto wallet, whether that be a hot wallet or a cold one. This way, you retain ownership of your private keys and have full power and control over your own finances.
Bitcoin Storage
As we shall see below, private keys can be stored in many ways. Irrespective of the method of safekeeping, there are two important principles to follow. First, private keys must be stored in such a way that they will not get lost. The loss of a private key means the irrecoverable loss of the associated Bitcoin units. Second, no other person should ever be given access to your private key because, if a person has possession of a private key, he or she also gains unrestricted control over the assets on the corresponding address.
All storage options have specific advantages and disadvantages. In particular, there is an unavoidable trade-off between convenience and security. Wallets of the category hot storage are directly linked to the internet and have the capacity to initiate transactions. Wallets of the category cold storage consist of wallets that do not have a network connection.
Selecting a Private Key
If you wish to store your Bitcoin units independently, you will need at least one Bitcoin address and the corresponding private key. A basic functionality of practically all software wallets is the generation of new addresses. The wallet generates the private key in the background and, in most cases, displays a mnemonic seed that you can use to restore your Bitcoin units. This convenient way of generating a key is adequate for most applications.
As an alternative, there are websites that can be used to generate private keys. Extreme caution is required when using such services. Websites that have fraudulent motives will generate a private key and keep a copy of it to access your funds later on. It is important that you only use websites whose codebase is disclosed so that you can ensure they use a cryptographically secure random number generator. Further, the process employed for selecting the private key must only be performed on your personal computer. Ideally, you should download the whole website and open it on a computer that has no internet connection. In this way, you will prevent any third party from accessing your data.
Hot Storage
When private keys are stored on devices that are directly or indirectly connected to the internet, the term hot storage is used. This type of storage offers convenience of access, but wallets of this kind are more vulnerable to attacks than the cold storage alternatives, which will be dealt with in section.
Software Wallets
Software wallets are usually very user-friendly and, when connected to the internet, can be used not only for storage purposes but also to transfer Bitcoin units. We distinguish between desktop wallets for computers and mobile wallets for mobile devices such as smart phones or tablets.
Owing to the network connection, software wallets are vulnerable to a variety of attacks. Most smartphones and tablets isolate individual apps and thereby provide better protection against malware. In contrast, desktop computers are vulnerable in this respect because applications are usually deeply anchored within the system and interact with each other without any significant restrictions; as well, there are substantial differences between the various operating systems.
It is always advisable to encrypt the private keys in the software wallet. Almost all popular software wallets offer this option. However, even encryption only provides partial protection. If a computer has been infected with a key logger—that is, a program that reads and registers all keystrokes—the wallet’s encryption will be ineffective.
In addition, there is a considerable risk of losing the private keys. This might occur, for example, as a result of hard drive failure. Backups of the key (mnemonic phrase) can partially counteract this problem, but they should never be stored in digital form.
Software wallets are generally unsuitable for the long-term storage of larger Bitcoin holdings. They should be used instead as a kind of everyday wallet to access smaller Bitcoin holdings quickly and conveniently. A software wallet can be operated either as a full node client, as a simplified payment verification (SPV) client, or on the basis of a centralized subnetwork.
Full nodes are able to autonomously validate transactions but require a continuous internet connection. In addition, it initially takes a few days on average for the complete blockchain to be downloaded and processed. SPV clients and centralized subnetworks have substantially shorter loading times and fewer system requirements but have to rely on third-party information to validate transactions. For many applications, SPV clients are sufficient. Wallets based in centralized subnetworks should be used with caution. Many standard software wallets leave their users in full control of their private keys. This is a welcome development, but it also means that you alone, without exception, are responsible for backups and the safekeeping of your Bitcoin units. An alternative approach consists in splitting the control so that outbound transactions have to be signed by both the user and the wallet operator’s centralized service. These services are usually based on multisig, where the second signature is triggered by the two-factor authentication (2FA) of the user. Normally, systems of this kind provide an alternative method which would allow you to continue using your assets if the service provider were to disappear.
Storage on Centralized Exchanges
Bitcoin units can be stored on centralized exchanges. This is usually very convenient. Nevertheless, we must strongly urge you not to use this type of service for storing your Bitcoin units. The major problem with centralized exchanges is the fact that the user is not in possession of the private keys and therefore has no control over his or her Bitcoin units. If the centralized exchange is unable to or does not wish to sign a transaction, the user cannot regain control over his or her funds. Further, centralized exchanges present a lucrative target for hacker attacks.
Cold Storage
Cold storage wallets consist of wallets that do not have a network connection. The storage of your private keys in strict isolation from the internet prevents hacker attacks and is the best option for long-term safekeeping. The objective of cold storage is to ensure the safety of your Bitcoin units. This comes at the cost of convenience. To initiate a transaction, either a pre-signed transaction or the private keys need to be imported into a hot storage wallet. In the following, we will discuss the main cold storage solutions, such as hardware wallets, paper wallets, and brain wallets.
Hardware Wallet
Hardware wallets are devices that are exclusively intended for storing private keys. For simple hardware wallets without additional functionalities, a secure digital (SD) card, an external hard drive, or a USB stick is sufficient. Private keys can be stored on these media and kept somewhere away from the computer. If you want to store your Bitcoin units in this way for a longer period, it is worthwhile finding out how long the respective medium’s expected life-span is. It is, in any case, advisable to keep copies on another medium.
So-called offline wallets are computers without internet access, which are set up exclusively as a software wallet. The great advantage of these offline wallets, compared with simple storage media, is that you can independently generate new private keys and addresses. In addition, transactions can be generated and signed offline. The signed transaction then only has to be exported to an online wallet to be propagated. The signed transaction contains no information that would allow inferences to be drawn about the private key. It corresponds exactly to the transaction message that will be propagated in the network anyway.
When Bitcoin became more popular, specialized hardware wallets emerged. These devices combine high security standards with simple and convenient handling. The devices can be connected to a computer to trigger the transactions. They only allow the exchange of transaction data but ensure that private keys always remain in the secure module of the hardware wallet.
When you buy such a device, it is crucial to ensure that you order it directly from the manufacturer or from a trusted retailer and that you receive it in its original packaging— sealed, that is. If you buy a used hardware wallet, it is advisable to reset the device prior to first use and to reinstall the official firmware from the manufacturer’s website.
Paper Wallet
Paper wallets are paper-based notes that contain private keys. Alternatively, paper notes can also contain the mnemonic seed that can be used to derive several private keys. Paper wallets offer such advantages that they are easy to store and are the most economical cold storage option.
The notes can be either written by hand or printed. In both cases, it is advisable to write the private key several times on the same paper so that, in the case of partial damage, the complete key can still be restored. Often, the corresponding QR codes are also printed in addition to the private key.
Storing private keys in a physical form protects them from hacker attacks. At the same time, you carry the responsibility for ensuring that no one can view your private keys. If a third party managed to gain access to your paper wallet, this person would obtain control over all your assets. In particular, it is advisable to print only encrypted private keys and store the password in another location. In addition, you should ensure that your paper wallet does not get lost or destroyed. Elemental forces such as fire or water could destroy your note and cause you to lose all your Bitcoin units.
Protecting Private Keys from Loss
Time and again, warnings appear in the press about hacker attacks and Bitcoin thieves. However, most users who lose their Bitcoin units do so through the loss of the private key. One possible way to solve this problem would be, for example, to generate several copies of the private key. The same private key could then be kept in several places. But as the number of copies increase, so do the number of potential attack vectors; this creates a certain trade-off between availability and security against third-party access.
A sophisticated approach for creating availability without compromising security is to split the key. For example, consider a setting where two out of three paper wallets are required to access the assets. If one note is lost, the assets could still be restored without a problem by using the other two notes. At the same time, if a third party has gained physical access to one of the three paper wallets, the attacker will still not be able to gain control over the assets.
Key systems of this kind can be structured by using multisig or a procedure called Shamir’s Secret Sharing. The difference between these two procedures is only technical.
With multisig, several keys exist, a subset of which are necessary to satisfy the unlocking condition. In contrast, Shamir’s Secret Sharing uses traditional Bitcoin addresses with a single private key but splits this private key into several fragments. Here again, at least two fragments are necessary to derive the private key.
Brain Wallet
Private keys do not need to be written down anywhere. It may be sufficient to memorize the private key to ensure that you will remember it in the future. This type of safekeeping is called a brain wallet—a wallet that exists in your memory.
Only a few people will have the capacity to remember a 256-digit binary number. A much more practical procedure is to choose any combination of words and use a hash function (for example, SHA256) to generate a private key. This deterministic procedure is replicable, so you only have to remember the original combination of words. It is crucial that the sentence or the combination of words is produced randomly. Sentences from publicly accessible media, such as books, films, or songs, are a bad choice and will very likely lead to the loss of the Bitcoin units. Alternatively, you can also memorize the mnemonic seed to derive your key.
A further aspect that should be considered in connection with brain wallets is estate planning. If you want your Bitcoin units to pass to someone else in the event of your death, you should plan accordingly. Obviously, the use of brain wallets is highly problematic in this case.
Paying with Bitcoin Units
Technically, it is easy to pay with Bitcoin. However, because the number of shops that accept Bitcoin units is still limited, you have to do some research and adapt your shopping to the limited options available. There are curated lists that record the available points of acceptance.
While real-world locations are limited, you can easily find a large variety of online shops that accept Bitcoin for many goods and services. An interesting starting point is OpenBazaar, a decentralized e-commerce platform that uses Bitcoin units as its main currency.
The precise sequence of the payment process depends on the type of wallet that has been installed. The general process is always the same.
After you have selected your goods and/or services, inform the retailer that you wish to start the payment process
(1). The retailer then gives you a request for payment (2). This contains a Bitcoin address and a description or invoice number as well as the amount that you owe in Bitcoin units. The bill can be sent to your wallet either via Bluetooth, near-field communication (NFC), or a similar technology, or it can be alternatively displayed in the form of a QR code for scanning. In any case, your wallet will show the information on-screen and ask you for your confirmation (3). When you authorize the payment (4), a transaction message is generated, signed, and broadcasted to the Bitcoin network (5). As soon as the retailer receives the transaction message, he will send you an acknowledgement of your payment (6). The time that it takes until you receive the final confirmation (7). will depend on the network connection and on the retailer’s specific acceptance criteria and the transaction fee. Usually, a confirmation takes between three seconds and one hour.
As a client, you do not have to do anything other than scan a QR code and confirm the payment request. All the other processes are performed automatically. The technical details from the previous sections are essential for understanding specific features of the Bitcoin system, but an end user does not need to know these details.
Acceptance of Bitcoin Payments
Accepting Bitcoin payments gives retailers numerous advantages. First, the transaction fees are low in comparison with credit card payments—especially when using second layer solutions like the Lightning Network. Second, customers cannot reverse their payments once they have received the goods or services. Third, acceptance of Bitcoin payments provides an opportunity to attract a new segment of customers.
There are various methods for accepting Bitcoin payments, and these can be split roughly into two categories: acceptance via a self-managed system or via the intermediation of a payment service provider.
Self-Managed Systems
In analogy to cash, Bitcoin units can be accepted without the need for an intermediary. You can simply generate a Bitcoin address and forward it with a request for payment to your customer.
Simple requests for payment are valid as soon as they contain (at the very least) the Bitcoin address. The payment request is usually formatted as follows: bitcoin:<Bitcoin_Adresse>?. Many wallets also recognize QR codes without the Bitcoin prefix.
The standardization according to proposal BIP0021 offers the possibility to specify further parameters such as the payment amount, the retailer’s name, or the payment purpose description. The encoding is done using predefined meta-tags where the Bitcoin address is followed by a “?”, and further parameters are separated from each other using “&”.
The following example of a payment request references the Bitcoin address that was generated on the basis of the private key. The invoiced amount was set at 0.0005 Bitcoin units. In addition, the transaction message contains the owner information “Book” and the payment purpose description “Test payment.”
bitcoin:1E8jc2eRXmjF2FKebTZwAsxwaRWeDvEwDj?amount=0.0005&label=Book %20Address&message=Test%20Payment
The information can also be presented as a QR code so that the customer only has to scan the code.
Try to scan this code using your wallet, and you will see how simple it is to pay with Bitcoin units.
If you wish to implement the payment request yourself, you should follow BIP0071 or BIP0072.
Payment requests are usually straightforward to manage, and there are no additional fees. This method is particularly attractive for smaller companies. However, further business requirements, such as accounting, online shop implementations, or point-of-sale systems, can make independent management considerably more complex. In addition, it is advisable to thoroughly evaluate the security risks. You should, for example, wait for at least one confirmation (on average, ten minutes) before you consider a payment to be valid. With larger payments, you should wait for several confirmations. So-called block explorers are good tools for evaluating the safety of a transaction. In particular, many block explorers offer early warning systems that are able to quickly identify any double spending attempts made by your customers.
A further point that you should consider is the volatility of the Bitcoin price. In addition, take care to ensure that you generate a new, unique payment address for each of your customers. Although it is possible to have all your customers’ payments credited to the same Bitcoin address, this has two major disadvantages. First, it will become increasingly difficult to distinguish among your customers’ transactions.
This is true in particular if you deal with many similar transactions. Analogous to the reference numbers on payment slips, Bitcoin addresses can be assigned to individual customers. Second, you must be aware of the fact that the Bitcoin transactions, although not identifiable by name, can be publicly observed. If you always use the same Bitcoin address, people who know this address (i.e., all your customers) will be able to monitor all your incoming payments.
Self-managed systems are primarily suitable for small companies that do not expect to have large sales volumes and are looking for the most economical system. For such cases, a simple wallet without any additional functions will be sufficient. However, if you expect to receive many Bitcoin payments, it may be worthwhile engaging a payment service provider.
The Use of xpub
If you want to store your private keys in cold storage but at the same time want to be able to generate new Bitcoin addresses directly at a point-of-sale terminal or on the server of the online shop, the process offered by BIP0044 is an option. This proposal describes the standard that is used to derive hierarchical deterministic wallets and to generate new addresses without the corresponding private key.
The hardware wallet Trezor or the software wallet Armory are both very user-friendly and facilitate the simple export of the xpub data file that is necessary for a user to independently derive new Bitcoin addresses. In addition, both wallets have integrated functions that enable addresses to be generated in the absence of the private key.
Payment Service Providers
Payment service providers offer a large number of tools that substantially simplify the implementation of Bitcoin payments at point-of-sale terminals and in online shops. These tools usually include all features needed throughout the payment life cycle—from the issue of the payment request to its receipt and temporary custody of the Bitcoin units.
In addition, the retailer has the possibility to immediately convert a Bitcoin payment into the local currency and thereby protect himself against Bitcoin’s price volatility.
Further, many payment service providers will assume liability for any malfunctions.
If, for example, a double spending attack is successful after the payment service provider has accepted the payment, the retailer will be reimbursed in most cases.
Even though the fees are usually much lower than for credit cards, these services are not free. It is worthwhile to compare the offers, as the fees may depend on the scope of the services desired.
references
https://bitcoin.org/en/full-node#initial-block-downloadibd
https://www.weusecoins.com/full-bitcoin-node-on-a-raspberry-pi-3-with-or-without-a-pidrive/
https://bitnodes.io runs a service that enables the network to scan for active nodes.
https://www.forbes.com/advisor/investing/how-to-buy-bitcoin/
https://www.forbes.com/advisor/investing/coinbase-review/
privacy with bitcoin get btc from non kyc p2p exchange conjoin use TOR lightning network Schnorr signatures + taproot
creating an exchange account
Had to provide my mailing address and telephone. They seem to want verification which involves scanning government id.
coinbase
kraken
uphold
Peer Node
A new network node is created when a user installs a Bitcoin client on his computer and begins to exchange information with other network participants. Most clients are open source, and users are free to choose from a range of software packages. Theoretically, a user could also develop his own client and let it communicate with the network. As long as the software packages are compliant with Bitcoin’s communication protocol, they can be used to create new peer nodes and exchange information with other existing nodes.
Bitcoin Core
The most popular client is known as Bitcoin Core. Bitcoin Core contains the full range of functions. The software creates a full node and can be controlled via a graphical user interface or via the command line.
Bitcoin Core keeps a local copy of the Bitcoin blockchain. The client verifies and relays the transactions and blocks. In addition, Bitcoin Core includes a wallet and a simple mining application. It therefore provides all three functions.
Verification function
The verification function covers all the activities that are necessary so that network participants can participate in the network on their own and verify all transactions independently. In particular, participants verify transaction messages, store these messages locally, and forward them to other network participants. The verification function requires a participant to maintain a copy of the Bitcoin blockchain and to verify the validity of all the blocks of the chain. The verification function also facilitates the exchange of blocks. Network nodes who have a verification function are known as full nodes.
Wallet function
A wallet provides safe storage for private keys and monitors and manages a node’s personal Bitcoin balance. Wallets are developed for end users and normally provide a graphical user interface that enables Bitcoin units to be received and sent easily. In addition, many wallets offer optional security mechanisms to improve the protection of the private keys.
Mining function
Nodes that have a mining function participate actively in generating new blocks and contribute to the extension of the Bitcoin blockchain.
References
https://galoy.io/praia-bitcoin-deploying-galoy-open-source-banking-in-self-hosted-environment/
https://bitcoin.org/en/full-node#initial-block-downloadibd
https://developer.bitcoin.org/devguide/wallets.html
Knowledgable sources
@1Mark Moss - just seems to be a Carny Barker https://www.youtube.com/c/MarkMoss/videos
https://twitter.com/1markmossi https://twitter.com/1MarkMoss
Jimmy Song is the best resource I have found so far - lots of links
Terminology
DEX
CoinJoin
Lightening
layer to settle a transaction faster. I can transact with you peer to peer over lightening and it would be completely transparent
https://www.lynalden.com/lightning-network/ https://coingate.com/blog/post/pay-using-lightning-network https://github.com/ACINQ/eclair https://github.com/lightningnetwork/lnd https://github.com/ElementsProject/lightning
strike sphinx bitrefill
Atomic Swap
: layering to hide the transaction
MultiSig
multi signature setup
Unchained Capital
requires that you provide 2 of three keys to sign transaction. Can call UC to sign but they only have 1 of the keys so they can't do anything.
Taproot
KYC
Know Your Client is part of the identity tracking to meet govt requirements
Hardware wallet -
order from Amazon nano S $89
ATM
https://coinatmradar.com/blog/how-to-buy-bitcoins-at-atm-directly-to-hardware-wallet/
Ubuntu wallet
https://linuxhint.com/best-bitcoin-wallets-for-ubuntu/
Armory (opensource) has cold storage Bitcoin Core Copay Electrum Coin Wallet https://snapcraft.io/install/coin/ubuntu
Definitions
https://geti2p.net/en/blog/post/2021/09/18/i2p-bitcoin?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Electrum
https://electrum.org/#download
Armory
Prune mode
https://coinguides.org/bitcoin-blockchain-pruning/
Pruning mode will not lessen your wallet security. It is same as running a full node wallet.
Running a wallet in pruned mode is incompatible with -rescan and -txindex
Cold storage
To ensure your paper wallet's private and public keys have never touched the Internet, you'll need to save the webpage that generates the keys, disconnect your device from the Internet, open the saved webpage on your desktop, then generate the keys.
https://paperwallet.bitcoin.com/cashwallet.html
exchange fees
https://www.blocknative.com/gas-estimator
bitinfocharts.com/comparison/bitcoin-transactionfees.html
lightning wallets
https://bitcoiner.guide/wallet/lightning/
Lightning network login
https://lightninglogin.live/learn https://github.com/lnurl/luds/blob/luds/04.md https://github.com/chill117/passport-lnurl-auth
non-custodial wallet
Custodial wallets transfer your private keys and asset protection to a third party while providing convenience and accessibility. Non-custodial wallets give you complete control over your keys and are arguably safer. Therefore, it comes down to your preferences, how much control you want over your assets, and what features you need.
https://dyor.net/#home-pricing https://dyortools.io/
Ethereum
catch airdrops
https://twitter.com/milesdeutscher/status/1639030835478409216 https://twitter.com/milesdeutscher/status/1639030846979194880 https://twitter.com/ardizor/status/1638148008888901632
https://www.orbiter.finance/?source=Ethereum&dest=Arbitrum
- Lightening - layer to settle a transaction faster. I can transact with you peer to peer over lightening and it would be completely transparent↩
Bullbitcoin
https://www.bullbitcoin.com/ https://bitcoinsupport.com/ https://preview.mailerlite.com/i3d6g0i8y2/2211035778102860715/c1l5/
Shakepay
Bluewallet
wasabi wallet
https://github.com/zkSNACKs/WalletWasabi
https://docs.wasabiwallet.io/using-wasabi/InstallPackage.html#debian-and-ubuntu
Blockstream Jade hardware wallet
Temperature in Perspective
For a couple of million years, the earth has been going through a series of ice ages that blanket North America & Europe in glacial ice, sometimes 2 or 3 kilometers thick. These glacial actions wax and wane several times over the cycle, and each cycle has a period that is relatively ice-free, called the inter-glacial, and we are in one now.
Here is a chart showing the temperature for the current inter-glacial which we call the Holocene.
The cause of the glacial cycles is well known and due primarily to the various Milankovitch cycles. Yet these cycles are extremely long: 26 thousand years, 41 thousand years and 100 thousand years, and they all drive the 140 thousand year ice glaciation cycles. ...(Wikipedia)
However, all of these cycles are much longer than human lifespan and so is not something that can be experienced in a lifetime.
600M Years
How does our current climate compare to most of the planets history. Looking back, here is pretty much what the climate has been for the past 600 million years. Temperatures range from +12C to +22C and we are currently at the low point of that range. Apart from a couple of dips in temperature like our current situation, for the majority of the 600 million years, the temperature stood around +22C and the graph makes that look pretty much like the norm. However, something has been making the temperature drop slowly for the past 65 million years. Where our current temperature sits, down close to +12 is pretty close to as low as it ever gets and this is way below the norm for the planet. Just to restate that simple fact – our current temperature is way below normal for the planet.
Also worth noting are the current CO2 levels. It has rarely been this low in the planet's history. In fact it is historic lows. During the last glacial cycle it reached 180ppm which is getting very close to 150ppm which is considered the point where plants die off and all life on earth would perish, plants and animals.
400K Years
Now lets look at what the glacial cycles looks like by zooming into just the last 400 thousand years where we can very nicely see the last four glacial cycles.
400 thousand years is enough time to give us a sense of what each glacial period looks like and where we are in our current cycle.
A few things to note. The cycles are fairly regular but no two cycles are exactly alike. The time spent in the more “comfortable” ice free period is only about 20% of the cycle. Our current warm period seems to be past the halfway point yet so far, we experienced a relatively narrow range of temperature changes compared to previous cycles. All the scary man-made climate change occurs in the red blob at the far right where the temperature has been going up and down around the zero line for the past 10,000 years. It is pretty hard to see 100 years on this time scale as it would be the last edge of the blob but it is worth noting that it is well below the extreme temperature highs of previous cycles.
140K Years - Single Glaciation Cycle
(NOTE: This graph has a reversed date range compared to all the other graphs. On this one, present date is on the left and we go back in time as we move from left to right.)
There are few things worth noting which helps put our current situation into perspective. For one thing, the previous inter-glacial was quite a bit warmer than now, for most of it, and as much as 4 degrees C warmer than present.
The graph is showing us one complete cycle of an ice age so that we can understand what typically occurs. Starting at the right, and moving left, from 140 thousand years ago to 130 thousand years ago, the temperature rose from about -10C to +4C. This heralds the end of the glacial period and defines the inter-glacial. It is warm enough to melt away all the glaciers blanketing the earth, with the exception of the permanent ice cap in Antarctica and high altitude regions. We can pretty much consider any period above the -2 temperature line in the graph as the inter-glacial and anything below that as the glacial. As you can see, the inter-glacial is relatively short lived and by the 120 thousand year point, the temperature has dropped below the zero line and the long slow glacial period gets underway until about the 18 thousand year point where the temperature suddenly shoots up again. The next inter-glacial, the one we are currently in, started around 12 or 14 thousand years ago.
This indicates that our current situation sits inside the range of normal behaviour for an ice age. And if it were to warm another 4 degrees, then that would also be within the normal behaviour for a typical cycle.
The other thing that should be terribly obvious at this point, is that the temperature during the last 8,000 years have been relatively stable compared to the previous 140,000 years.
20K Years - Inter-glacial
20 thousand years captures the warming period of the current glacial period called the inter-glacial.
Here is another look at the same period with some of the interesting events highlighted. This graph is taken from a paper by Prof. Don Easterbrook.
The circled numbers on the graph refer to the sudden climate changes listed below:
(1) 15,000 years ago—a sudden, intense climatic warming (~12° C) caused dramatic melting of huge Ice Age continental glaciers that covered vast areas in North America, Europe, and Asia.
(2) A few centuries later, temperatures again plummeted (~11°C) and glaciers readvanced.
(3) 14,000 years ago—global temperatures rose rapidly (4.5°C) and glaciers retreated.
(4) 13,400 years ago—global temperatures plunged (~8°C) and glaciers readvanced.
(5) 13,200 years ago—global temperatures increased rapidly (~5°C) and glaciers retreated.
(6) 12,700 years ago—global temperatures plunged sharply (~8°C) and a 1000 year period of glacial readvance, the Younger Dryas, began.
(7) 11,500 years ago—global temperatures rose sharply (~12° C), marking the end of the Younger Dryas cold period.
(8) 8200 years ago—a sudden cooling interrupted the warm period of the past 10,000 years and was brought to a close by abrupt warming 150 years later. As shown on the graph, the temperature curve for almost all of the past 10,000 years lies above the level of present temperatures, indicating that most the past 10,000 years has been warmer than the present.
(9) 900–1300 AD—The Medieval Warm Period was a time of global warming when temperatures were slightly higher than present.
(10) 1300 AD to last century—The Little Ice Age was a time of cool climates during which glaciers expanded significantly and great famines swept Europe as a result of cold climate.
10K Years - Holocene
This chart shows our current inter-glacial period in the context of a complete glacial cycle. You can see how the temperature climbed out of the ice age and has been relatively stable for the past 11 thousand years.
This chart just appeared recently and it by far represents the context of our current situation better than anything else I have seen before. So take a quick look at the little red line at the right hand side of the graph. This represents the warming that has occurred during the last 150 years.
Yet another perspective of the last 10,000 years.
4K Years
350 Years - Central England
This graph was taken from a database of actual thermometer readings from over three centuries in Central England. Yet another perspective on climate change. Today is barely different than it was 350 years ago. Take a look at the summer temperature in 1650. 15.5? Take a look at the summer temperature today. 15.7? A slight warming trend over the long term to be sure, but just as we would expect, since we are in the midst of the warming portion of the glacial cycle. When the cooling trend starts it won’t be pleasant and it will last about 100,000 years.
129 Years - Global Warming
Let’s start by examining the land temperature record for the continental US. This is the gold standard for two reasons; it comes from an amazing network of stations sprinkled throughout the country going back over a hundreds years, and it comes from teams of trained meteorologists responsible for taking reliable thermometer readings. And so what does it tell us about modern times? As you can clearly see from the trend line, it has never been as hot as it was in the late 30’s.
Climate cooling trend continues! NASA data shows six year global trend for February is 0.43°C cooler! Why is the West shutting down pipelines & fossil fuel resources? pic.twitter.com/mXJnERZhXk
— Jack Eddyfier (@swcrisis) March 15, 2022
Climate Drivers / Cycles
| Years | Cycle | Probable Cause |
|---|---|---|
| 9.1 | Lunar | Moons orbital cycle |
| 11 | Schwabe | Sunspot tied to Jupiter |
| 22 | Hale | Sun Magnetic field reversal |
| 61 | Yoshimura | Sun barycentre with Jupiter/Saturn |
| 84-92 | Gleissberg | Solar related to Uranus |
| 120 | Valasco | Grand Solar minimum |
| 172 | Landscheidt | Uranus/Neptune resonance |
| 210-240 | De-Vriess/Suess | TSI linked /2 resonance Uranus |
| 934 | Bond | Angular |
| 1,470 | Dansgaard-Oeschger | Unknown |
| 2,300 | Hallstatt/Bray | Solar |
| 26,000 | Milankovitch | Precession Earth axis |
| 41,000 | Milankovitch | Obiliquity Earth axial tilt |
| 100,000 | Milankovitch | Eccentricity Earth orbit |
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2017/08/08/the-effects-of-the-bray-climate-and-solar-cycle/
11yr Sunspot cycle
60yr Barycentre cycle
65 year PDO cycle
Prof. Easterbrook has mapped out the periodic rise and fall of temperatures in Greenland during the last 500 years and found it matches pretty well with the alternating warm and cold periods of the 65 year Pacific Decadal Oscillation
Temperature changes in the Greenland GISP ice core show a regular pattern of alternate warming and cooling with a 25-30 year period for the past 500 years, very similar to the pattern shown by the Pacific Decadal Oscillation. – Prof. Don J. Easterbrook
He then goes on to make his own predications about our current situation that are remarkably different from the IPCC alarming predictions.
Figure. Projected global temperatures to 2050. Red line is the IPCC projected temperature curve from the IPCC web site in 2000. Blue lines are temperature curves based on projection of PDO for the past century and temperature patterns over the past 500 years. – Prof Don J. Easterbrook
USHCN - US Land Temperature Data
The USHCN is just a subset which only includes stations for the US. You can start your research into the USHCN at the following location.
Data Source
You can pull the raw datafiles from their FTP and perform your own analysis.
ftp://ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/ghcn/daily/
Data Tampering
Here is a graph produced by taking the data, calculating the average TMAX for all the stations and turning it into a time series. This graph is the official temperature statement published by NOAA. The following comes from the work of Tony Heller and these are his graphs but I have corroborated his findings with my own analysis. I may post my Python software and resulting graphs for these in another blog post after I clean it up.
Lets dive in.
There is one problem with that graph though. It is the “FINAL” result after tampering with the data. You can find several versions of the data on their site because these data adjustments have gone through several iterations in the last 20 years. Setting aside the reasoning behind the adjustments for now, I want to first address what they have done and what was the result. So, here is a result of the original data before any adjustments were made to it. Totally different message. Clearly, the USA has been cooling since the hot 30's. But this does not fit the narrative of CO2 causing global warming.
If you subtract the original raw measurements from the final, or adjusted measurements you can derive the temperature offset that was applied to the data. If you now plot that against the year, you get the following graph. The results of adjusting the data, have cooled much of the past by 1.5 and warmed recent records by a degree. That is fully 2.5F. Sound familiar?
Now, if you then map that data against the co2 levels for those years, you get this graph. The adjustments, map very nicely to the growth of CO2. How is that for making the data fit the narrative?b
Another confirmation. So here is a graph that Nasa released back in 1999. 1998 was hot but not nearly as hot as 1934 and pretty much a cooling trend from 1934-1998.
Now here is the same date range that Nasa has recently released, 20 years later. Compare what has happened to 1934 and 1998 in both graphs.
GISTEMP
This is release 1.0 of the new gistemp code revised by Avi Persin from NASA GISS; it is based on version 0.6.x of the Clear Climate Code GISTEMP project (ccc-gistemp).
URLs for further information:
http://clearclimatecode.org/ Clear Climate Code website and blog.
https://github.com/ClimateCodeFoundation/ccc-gistemp ccc-gistemp
code repository.
Nasa takes data from the GHCN and adjusts it to produce the GISS. This has gone through a number of iterations and they are currently at GISTEMP V4 (as of fall 2019)
Here is another look at what Nasa has done to the temperature record since 2000.
https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/02/WG1AR5_all_final.pdf
Fabrication of data
Wood for Trees
This website has been around for a long time and also confirms something that I found interesting. There seems to be clear and distinct 30 year periods of warming and cooling.
This is just speculation on my part but I thought it was interesting that there were periods of warming and cooling that seem to last 30 years. So I sliced up the period from 1880 to present to draw out the semi-cycles.
Cooling from 1880-1910
https://www.woodfortrees.org/plot/hadcrut3nh/from:1880/to:1910
Warming from 1910 to 1940
https://www.woodfortrees.org/plot/hadcrut3nh/from:1910/to:1940
Cooling from 1940-1970
https://www.woodfortrees.org/plot/hadcrut3nh/from:1940/to:1970
Warming from 1970 to 2000
https://www.woodfortrees.org/plot/hadcrut3nh/from:1970/to:2000
Cooling from 2000
Selection of time period
The careful selection of the time period can greatly affect the impression. Notice how much different the two graphs look just by altering the starting and ending dates. Both graphs cover a span of 100 years, but they give a totally different impression.
100 year Span 1850-1950
100 year Span 1918-2018
Not much warming since 1998
Heatwaves - Increasing or decreasing?
CO2 lags temperature
I plotted CO2 and Temperature for a 30 year period (1980-2010) and you can clearly see that CO2 lags Temperature. Going from left to right is moving forward in time. You can see in several places that Temperature (GREEN) first goes up then down, and then a year later CO2 (RED) goes up and down nearly the same. I have no idea why it would go up, then go down over a 5 year period (like it did in 1985-1990). Although that does seem similar to the El Nino/La Nina period.
Here are the settings that I used to make the plot.
During our lifetime, the polar ice caps have endured both summer and winter. Depending on the season, the poles can experience a range of either 24 hours of total sunlight or 24 hours of total darkness. This understandably, has an impact on the sea ice extent as it waxes and wanes over the seasons. This is all natural variability, but on an annual basis.
This graphic very nicely shows the range of solar heating that occurs at the poles over the course of a year. The most solar heating anywhere on the globe? - the arctic in July.
So what is the annual sea ice extent. The Multisatellite Analyzed Sea Ice Extent (MASIE) NSIDC out of the University of Colorado. NSIDC MASIE Sea Ice Extent: https://nsidc.org/data/seaice_index/masie.html
Sea ice extent is defined as the combined area of all ice concentrations greater than or equal to 15%. (though some researchers use up to 30 or 50% in their measurements)
Some would argue, however, that the polar sea ice is receding over the years due to climate change. Is this true? Is the polar ice receding?
Nasa
Nasa puts out a graphic on sea ice extent going back to the start of the satellite era.
There is a slight problem with their graphic - it starts in 1979 and conveniently does not show any sea ice extent before that period, yet, we obviosly
There is even a problem wiht the NOAA graphic. It does not show data from before the '70's but it turns out we have data for that as well. The DOE has been tracking sea ice extent back almost to the first world war. When you superimpose the graphs it tells a very different story.
Here's the relevant excerpt from the report:
"Sea Ice Extent
Observations of sea ice extent show considerable interannual variability
but no clear long-term trend between 1920 and 1975 (Figure 5.3). However, climate model simulations suggest that increased CO2 concentrations could lead to a reduction in Arctic sea ice extent by about 5-10% per degree Celsius of global warming."
Reference: Carbon Dioxide Research: A Summary Report. DOE/ER-0582(December 1985). Office of Energy Research, U.S. Department of Energy.
So I did track down the DOE data and plotted it along with the SDIC data
Southern Hemisphere
Graphics
Not using
RESEARCH
>>> what is a good source of time series data for sea ice extent for 1920 - 198
... 0 To obtain a reliable time series of sea ice extent for the period from 1920 to 1980, you can consider the following sources and methods:
- Historical Sea Ice Extent Dataset (HadISI): This dataset is part of
the Hadley Centre's suite of climate datasets and provides monthly mean Arctic and Antarctic sea ice extents from 1870 to present. The data for the early period are based on reconstructions using historical observations, such as ship reports and coastal station records. You can access this dataset through the Met Office Hadley Centre website or via the British Oceanic Data Centre (BODC).
Link: https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/datasets/sea-ice-extent-hadis
- Polar Science Center's Arctic Sea Ice Extent Dataset: This dataset,
created by the University of Washington's Polar Science Center, provides daily and monthly sea ice extent data for the Arctic from 1978 to present using satellite observations. To extend your time series back to 1920, you can combine this dataset with reconstructions or historical observations mentioned above.
Link: https://psc.apl.uw.edu/data/sea-ice-extent
- NSIDC Sea Ice Extent Dataset: The National Snow and Ice Data Center
(NSIDC) provides a monthly sea ice extent time series for both the Arctic and Antarctic, based on satellite observations from 1978 to present. As with other sources, you'll need to combine it with historical reconstructions to cover the period from 1920 to 1977.
Link: https://nsidc.org/data/sea-ice-extent/
To create a consistent time series covering the entire period from 1920 to 1980, you might need to combine data from different sources and methods. It's essential to understand the strengths and limitations of each dataset and choose appropriate methods for data merging or interpolation.
Here are some references to help guide your research on historical sea ice extent:
- Vinnikov, K.Y., & Groisman, P.Y. (2008). Global Sea Ice Extent Reconstruction from 1874 to Present: Methodology and Analysis of Results. Journal of Geophysical Research, 113(C10), C10016.
- Zwally, H.J., et al. (2007). AMSR-E Arctic sea ice extent retrieval algorithm and results. IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, 55(4), 918-930.
- National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) (n.d.). Sea Ice Extent Dataset. Retrieved from https://nsidc.org/data/sea-ice-extent/
>>> what other time series datasets do we have on sea ice extend prior to 1978
Before the era of satellite observations, which began in the late 1970s, sea ice extent was primarily monitored using ground-based observations, ship reports, and occasional aerial surveys. Several time series datasets exist for sea ice extent before 1978, although they may have lower spatial resolution and higher uncertainties compared to satellite-based data. Here are some key datasets and sources of sea ice extent prior to 1978:
-
HadISI dataset (Hadley Centre's Historical Sea Ice Extent): This dataset provides monthly mean Arctic and Antarctic sea ice extents from 1870 to present, including the pre-satellite era. The data are reconstructed using historical observations, such as ship reports and coastal station records.
Link:
https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/datasets/sea-ice-extent-hadis
-
Global Sea Ice Extent Dataset (GSIED): This dataset, created by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), provides monthly sea ice extent data for both Arctic and Antarctic regions from 1870 to present. The GSIED combines various observational sources, including ship reports, weather charts, coastal observations, and occasional aerial surveys.
Link: https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/data/gridded/data.gsied.html
-
Polar Science Center's Arctic Sea Ice Extent Dataset: Although this dataset primarily focuses on satellite-era data (1978 to present), it also includes historical reconstructions back to 1850. The earlier part of the dataset is based on a combination of observations, such as those from the International Arctic Buoy Programme and other historical sources.
-
National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) Sea Ice Extent Dataset: While this dataset mainly covers the satellite era, NSIDC provides additional information on historical observations and reconstructions used to extend their time series back to 1900 for some regions.
-
Arctic Climate Archive System (ACAS): This archive contains various historical datasets related to Arctic sea ice, including observations from ship reports, weather charts, and coastal stations. Some of these data have been used in the creation of reconstructed sea ice extent time series.
-
British Oceanic Data Centre (BODC): BODC holds various historical sea ice datasets, including observations from ships and coastal stations. Some of these data can be combined to create time series of sea ice extent.
To create a consistent time series covering the pre-satellite era (1920-1978), you may need to combine data from different sources and methods, considering their strengths and limitations. It's essential to understand that uncertainties will likely be higher for earlier periods due to fewer observations and lower spatial resolution.
References:
- Vinnikov, K.Y., & Groisman, P.Y. (2008). Global Sea Ice Extent Reconstruction from 1874 to Present: Methodology and Analysis of Results. Journal of Geophysical Research, 113(C10), C10016.
- Fetterer, F.I., et al. (2019). Global sea ice extent from passive microwave satellite sensors, version 3. Boulder, Colorado, USA: NOAA/Earth System Research Laboratory Physical Sciences Laboratory.
- Stroeve, C.C., et al. (2014). Sea‐level pressure and Arctic sea-ice variability: Twentieth century trends and historical context. Journal of Climate, 27(9), 3178-3196.
- National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) (n.d.). Historical Observations of Sea Ice Extent. Retrieved from https://nsidc.org/data/sea-ice-extent/historical-observations
Sea levels have risen spectacularly since the end of the last glacial maximum, rising some 140 m in total. But in the last 8,000 years, sea levels have risen slowly and steadily. Actual measurements from tidal gauges in many places around the world averages 1.4-1.7 mm/yr , which equates to 6 inches per century and there is no evidence of an increase in the rate of sea level rise in recent years, though there is constant variability from year to year. This is well within what would be considered normal and would need to rise an additional 5 to 10 m to reach levels in previous inter-glacials.
Compare the .17m rise over 100 years to what is regularly experienced from lunar tides:
Coastal tidal ranges vary globally and can differ anywhere from near zero to over 11 metres (38 feet).[^2](Bay of Fundy can be as much as 16.3m or 53.5ft)
Perigean and Apogean spring tides can add 5cm or 2in to normal tidal range.
Storm Surge can also he high, such as with Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which produced a maximum storm surge of more than 25 ft (8 metres)
IPCC Claims
As one possible reference, we can look at what the UN IPCC said about sea level rise in their last report(AR5):
Current rate of sea level rise is .17m per century for the last 100+ years. {IPCC AR5 pg 46}
During the last interglacial (116,00-129,000 years ago) sea level was 5 to 10m higher than present. {IPCC AR5 pg 385}
The Eemian period (the last Interglacial, 125,000 years ago) is probably a more useful analogue for the future. Global average temperature was about 2 degrees higher than now, whereas sea level was 4-6 metres higher than now (“with individual maxima up to +7 or +9m“).
Historical Perspective
The following two graphics show the rise of sea level during the current inter-glacial. This first graph captures the rise in ocean levels since the beginning of the current inter-glacial that started 14 thousand years ago. The second graphic zooms in on the last 8,000 years where sea levels have been remarkably stable, with a steady but gradual rising trend.
post-glacial_sea_level-incl-3-mm-yr-1-trend
Sea level since the last ice age. As the ice from the last ice age was melting, sea levels rose by some 120 metres over the course of about 8000 years, before it flattened out ~6000 years ago.
holocene_sea_level-incl-trend
Zoom in on the last 9000 years (covering most of the Holocene epoch). The strong sea level rise at the end of the last ice age is still visible on the left hand side, slowing down 7000 years ago and even more so 4000 years ago.
Sea level increase in recent years.
The rate of coastal sea-level rise, as measure from tide gauge measurements averages about 1.4-1.5 mm/yr (under six inches per century), and that rate hasn’t increased since the late 1920s. It is well worth examining the individual tidal graphs as they are all inconsistent, some showing positive rise, some showing a negative drop.
However, Nasa now reports sea level from satellite measurements but does so by offering adjusted rates and seems to give contradictory information.
Their graphic is quite misleading. The 3.42 mm/yr rate does not apply to both graphs. Look closer at the scales, and do the arithmetic, and you’ll realize that the 2nd graph is actually showing a slope of only about half that. It shows a slope of about 1.8 mm/yr, with no evidence of acceleration.
What’s more, the second graph does not represent tide gauge data; it’s from tide gauge data inflated by a +0.3 mm/yr GIA “adjustment,” to subtract off the rate by which the sinking ocean floor is hypothesized to reduce sea-level rise. The real rate of coastal sea-level rise from averaged tide gauge measurements is only about 1.4-1.5 mm/yr (under six inches per century), and that rate hasn’t increased since the late 1920s.
Even NASA’s first graph, of satellite altimetry measurements, is deceptive. It also uses calculated values, not actual observational data and also adds the model-derived GIA, plus by combining the various satellite measurements it also hides the wide variations in rates measured by different satellites as show below:
MSL_Serie_ALL_Global_IB_RWT_NoGIA_Adjust
Rate of change of Sea Level Rise
So, is NASA right? Are sea levels rising faster than before?
Here is a graph showing the changes to sea level rise from one year to the next for the last century. We are not seeing any appreciable acceleration in sea level. Plenty of fluctuation for sure. And if you were to take the period 1910 to 1940 you could argue that sea level rise was accelerating. But that would be misleading of course. sea-level Can someone then tell me how you can infer that sea level rise is accelerating due to AGW, when compared with sea level rise for the first half of the 20th century? It is clear that natural variability has dominated sea level rise during the 20th century, with changes in ocean heat content and changes in precipitation patterns.
Here are some references if you would like to explore this issue further. NOAA tide gauge data shows no coastal sea level rise acceleration
is sea level rise accelerating
Slowing sea level rise
An answer to is the rise in sea levels accelerating
This science site says 1/8 inch per year which equates to 12.5 inches over 100 years.
https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/sealevel.html
https://www.skepticalscience.com/sea-level-rise-intermediate.htm
Graphics:
Covid came out of nowhere and really surprised the world. I first learned about it in mid-January 2020, when I was watching videos from China where people were dropping in the street; whole cities were under lockdown; apartment buildings were quarantined and barricaded; dump trucks were emptying rubble in front of apartment doors to keep the people from leaving the building; they were welding doors shut; teams in plastic hazmat suits were walking down the streets spraying something into the air to sanitize everything. Looking back, most of us now know that this was all theatre and over-reaction. We do not normally behave this way. Why this time. Years later we learned that some of the footage was actually filmed in the USA. Part of a psy-op and injected into social media. Unthinkable at the time.
But still, at the time we were frightened. We did not know what was going on, and our own news media were adding to the fear by posting daily case counts that were climbing straight up. They were telling us the hospitals were filling up and would soon be overrun - we needed 2 weeks to flatten the curve! Except, when they said that, the deaths had already peaked and counts were plummeting downwards just as fast as they had gone up. They forgot to mention that and most people didn't notice. We now know the hospitals were never overrun, they were actually emptied down to about 50% and then came back up to around an 80% occupancy rate where they seemed to have remained ever since. When historically, before this even happened, they were closer to 100%, and during some years even more during peak flu season.
Now, two years later, we have the data and the hindsight to determine what actually happened. So that is the point of this blog. I am publishing the results of all my research along the way to serve as a reference and help with the talking points. There is a reason why it happened and there is a reason why it is not over yet. That is actually the scary part.
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We overreacted. There were no extraordinary deaths in Canada despite the reported high "counts" of seniors dying in the LTC's. On average covid swept through the LTC's killing about 15%. Which sounds significant but the problem with that is that is about the amount that occurs every flu season. We just never payed attention before and it was being reported as if it was extraordinary news. When in fact it was routine.
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Why do they think everyone needs a vaccination? Do they not understand what a healthy immune system does? And countless studies that prove that natural immunity is superior to vaccination.
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Why do they think that years of experience with safety protocols for pharmaceuticals should be thrown out the window and a massive emergency inoculation program should be undertaken? Did this situation pass the test of an actual emergency.
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Are they not aware of just how novel the mRNA technology is and how disastrous the animal trials went.
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Are they just not aware of the adverse events that occurred during clinical pre-trials and were obviously occurring in the first month of the vaccine rollout. How were they able to continue.
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Are they not aware of the scientific examination of long term harm that the mRNA protocol could have on those that receive it?
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Are they not aware of the nature of the organizations that are behind this? The WEF is Malthusian and openly meets about Limits to Growth and Population Control. The pandemic and the worldwide response was coordinated. Take a look at Event201 if you are at all skeptical of this. They knew. They planned for it. It happened as planned.
The Omega Hypothesis is the argument which is foisted to end all argument, period. Social Skeptics work to defend this set of beliefs through several means. First they codify these beliefs into a partly unacknowledged, but comprehensively protected set. Further then, through application of an inverse negation fallacy, and conflating the ethics of skepticism with corrupted methods of cynicism they establish the preeminence of their favored beliefs, without or by skirting the rigor of science. All this stems from a principle of parsimony called Corber’s Burden.
Corber’s Burden When one makes an authoritative claim as to possessing knowledge of a complete set of that which is incorrect, one must be 100% correct (or at least appear to be so). https://theethicalskeptic.com/2015/08/25/skepticisms-corbers-burden-and-the-omega-hypothesis/
Reference sites
Official website of the US Government. Many of the spike protein papers can be found here.
Source for several thousand pre-print studies on Covid-19
https://www.authorea.com/browse-all?tags=%5B%22covid-19%22%5D
A separate blog post about the validity of pre-print science articles can be found here
Covid19 Origins
https://alexwasburne.substack.com/p/zoonotic-origin-evidence-we-dont
Came from Bat soup from a wet market in Wuhan. Yet evidence that it was detected months earlier. Wuhan lab ties to Canada's and USA Level 4 labs, including expelling Chinese scientists back to China. Yet to this day, details have still not been disclosed to the public.
Evidence that Fauci and his CID? organization actually did fund gain of function work in the Wuhan facility.
What scientific experiments were being conducted in that facility? World wide moratorium against recombinant DNA meddling in human virus but China did not sign and seems to have carried on with it.
Had this been a really serious virus and not just a common cold, large numbers of people would have died. Say, had the severity been close to 50%, then our only hope would have been to catch it in the beginning, isolate the sick and rely on contract tracing to keep it our of the general population. If it got into the general population then you would realize that all those none pharmaceutical interventions that were used with Covid19 such as wearing face masks, coughing into your elbow, obsessive hand washing, floor markers signifying distant and direction, plastic shields at checkouts etc would have had no effect.
I think the evidence is more likely that it came out of dual-use research, and is actually a product of bio-weapons research. They added in the spike protein and cleavage site to a virus in nature that can affect humans. Gain of function research. To what end?
They can measure the presence of IGG4 in those that have been inocculated more than once. IGG4 has the affect on the body of surpressing the immune system. This means we have a portion of the population that took the mRNA shot and has a suppressed immune system and a body of the population that did not take the shot and do not have this suppression affect. The chinese did not innoculate their population with mRNA or spike based shots. Our own dual-use researchers were collaborating with chinese dual-use researchers.
Production of Synthetic influenza since 2002
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12034104/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=%22infectious+clones%22&sort=date https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=%22synthetic+virus%22&sort=date https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=%22pseudovirus%22+or+%22pseudo+virus%22&sort=date https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34298099/
Was there a virus
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/why-i-dont-believe-there-ever-was-a-covid-virus/
Patents
Sorry but this section is still a work in progress. Started by dumping in links to interesting resources.
Moderna patent for the Coronavirus filed back in 2004 Moderna patent for pcr test, the only method of detecting Covid also filed back then.
2020
https://brownstone.org/articles/proof-vaccines-were-military-backed-countermeasure/
https://patents.google.com/patent/US8057993?oq=moderna+patent+covid goes back to 2004
https://www.citizen.org/article/modernas-mrna-1273-vaccine-patent-landscape/
https://assets.modernatx.com/m/55e0f0ef1337a0e7/original/US9868692.pdf
https://patents.google.com/patent/US10933127B2/en?q=(mnra+vaccine)&oq=mnra+vaccine&page=4
"Using the SARS-CoV reverse genetics system2, we generated and characterized a chimeric virus expressing the spike of bat coronavirus SHC014 in a mouse-adapted SARS-CoV backbone. The results indicate that group 2b viruses encoding the SHC014 spike in a wild-type backbone can efficiently use multiple orthologs of the SARS receptor human angiotensin converting enzyme II (ACE2), replicate efficiently in primary human airway cells and achieve in vitro titers equivalent to epidemic strains of SARS-CoV...
https://patents.google.com/patent/US10130701B2/en?oq=10130701
https://patents.google.com/patent/US20060257852A1/en?oq=us20060257852a1
https://patents.google.com/patent/US9884895B2/en?oq=US9884895B2
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16115318/
https://patents.google.com/patent/US7279327B2/en?oq=US7279327B2
https://patents.google.com/patent/EP3172319A1/en
They held the patent for the proprietary rights to the disease Patent US 7279327 in 2003, to the virus, Patent US 7220852 and to its detection, Patent US 7776521. From 2003-2018, they controlled 100% of the cashflow on the coronavirus.
Gates? https://patents.justia.com/inventor/charles-m-lieber
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8580522/
System and Method for Testing for COVID-19 (Rothschild) priority 201/10/13 https://patents.google.com/patent/US20200279585A1/en?oq=us-2020279585 https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/patent/US-11024339-B2
The Fauci/COVID-19 Dossier
This document is prepared for humanity by Dr. David E. Martin. https://www.davidmartin.world/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/The_Fauci_COVID-19_Dossier.pdf https://rumble.com/v2mwrgm--dr.-david-martin-documenting-coronavirus-gain-of-function-research-at-the-.html https://plandemicseries.com/
Biosafety and biosecurity.
Reported studies were initiated after the University of North Carolina Institutional Biosafety Committee approved the experimental protocol (Project Title: Generating infectious clones of bat SARS-like CoVs; Lab Safety Plan ID: 20145741; Schedule G ID: 12279). These studies were initiated before the US Government Deliberative Process Research Funding Pause on Selected Gain-of-Function Research Involving Influenza, MERS and SARS Viruses
(http://www.phe.gov/s3/dualuse/Documents/gain-of-function.pdf). This paper has been reviewed by the funding agency, the NIH. Continuation of these studies was requested, and this has been approved by the NIH."
A SARS-like cluster of circulating bat coronaviruses shows potential for human emergence
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4797993/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4797993/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Covid19 Severity
This has become a large topic and is now covered in another blog post.
Non-pharmaceutical Interventions
Ok, so we believed that Covid19 was harmful and we wanted to avoid getting it or if we get it we want to reduce its severity and overall risk to us. That is perfectly understandable, but we do need to separate fact from fiction, and not take measures that just make us feel good but do not actually do anything. If this had been a real emergency, foolish measures would just doom us. Seriously, we need to get better at this.
So what did we do?
Social distancing was a big part of our intervention. People were told to keep 6 feet apart. Plastic barriers were erected at cashier's checkouts. Separate doors for entry and exit. Arrows in aisles to indicate direction. Certain shelves of products were taped off and we were not able to purchase those particular products but could purchase other products. They reduced the hours that stores were able to be opened. Certain stores were allowed to be open, others had to remain closed. They closed parks and children's playgrounds. They added curfews and gave people tickets for being out during the curfew. At first people could go out to walk their dog, but they eventually stopped allowing even this.
It is partly understandable. The virus moves through the population from person to person, so we are led to believe. The thinking is that if you restrict person to person contact, this will stop the spread. Theoretically. However,there was no signal in the data to indicate that this has had any affect whatsoever. I have been digging away at scientific papers and textbooks for several years now and I am just not seeing clear indications about transmission. In fact, attempts to force transmission to test the effectiveness of vaccines have failed.
Here is a range of comments from a variety of people in a recent twitter post.
- Natural immunity is stronger
- Masking doesn't work
- The vax has side effects
- The vax doesn't stop spread
- Lockdowns are harmful & ineffective
- School closures are a disaster
- Covid isn't spread outside or on surfaces
- It may have come from a lab
- The vax doesn't stop infection
- Without comorbidities the disease is easily healed
- The vax doesn't induce mucosal immunity
- FDA is captured & will indemnify vax mfgs by putting it on the childhood sched.
- remdesvir maims or kills people more often than it helps
- ivermectin is horse paste and dangerous to humans, and has been "proven " ineffective for covid
- Covid-passes don't work.
- Covid-passes are senseless discrimination.
- Severe covid restrictions are not sustainable for ever (see China) and can't be the "new normal".
- Cleaning shopping trolley's is useless.
- Distancing is anti-social
- Hand gels are toxic
- Breathing doesn't kill granny
- Medical ethics is an oxymoron
- Nature and The Lancet aren't the Bible.
- Modelers are pour court astrologers.
- Omerta is opposed to science.
- Insult and exclusion is anti-ethical to science.
- distancing is pointless.
- children are essentially unaffected by covid
- Funding silo-science leads to disaster.
- Copy-paste science leads to disaster.
- Copy-paste governments lead to disaster.
- Unity of consultancy leads to disaster.
- Politicians lack courage and brains.
- Controlling a virus is an illusion.
- Controlling nature is an illusion
- Censorship and indoctrination disrupt society.
- Collateral damages has to be factored into all decisions.
- Bad science undermines science, healthcare and pharma.
- Critics are worthy of debate.
- 90% of the population is capable of doing visibly foolish things
Obsessive hand washing and sanitizer
The biggest failure has been our response to C-19. We claimed it was a novel virus We claimed it was a pandemic, similar to past serious pandemics, yet, it was no more that a regular normal flu season We failed to investigate its origins when lab leak was suspected
A lot of the NPI were based on a zero-covid policy which itself is highly suspect. The idea that you can completly sanitize the entire population so that the virus no longer exists.
Face Masks
What are the value of face masks? Do masks slow the spread of influenza? Are there any harms associated with their use? What about the affect of masking on children?
influenza is a human respiratory virus similar in many ways to SARS-CoV-2: it is transmitted the same way, is about the same size, and often has similar health consequences. It has been studied extensively for decades.
Explanation on how the PCR test works
https://criticalcheck.wordpress.com/2022/05/08/pcr-and-real-time-rt-pcr-under-critical-review/
Are the PCR tests effective?
https://controlstudies.substack.com/p/rapid-antigen-test-controls
Vaccine Effectiveness
So how many people has the vaccine saved? How would you know? Since more than 99% of people survive Covid, then by definition they were not in danger of dying and so the vaccine could not be saving them. And the number might actually be 99.99%. What about the ones that Covid did kill? How many of those would have been saved if they had the vaccine? That is a better question. Remember, most of those were sick and frail with comorbidities and in LTC's (Long Term Care). Do we know if the vaccine actually helps them survive?
This is going to be a huge topic because there are so many nuances here. Vaccines are not like taking an antibiotic because you have an infection and being very aware of whether it is working or not. Or taking an advil for a headache, where it either works or it doesn't. Vaccines are in a different category. More like a prophylactic. But they are not sanitizing and they are not shielding.
Couple things to start with. First of all, most people do not die when exposed to Covid. The average IFR suggests it is around 99.98% survivable. So for 99.98% of the people, a vax will not save their life because they were never in danger of dying. That is a very important point. Secondly, most people do not even come into contact with Covid19 in any given year. So again, it will not save their life either. Hard to know how many people are exposed but we do know that there are about 6% of positive cases per year.
Finally, we all have a natural immune system that exists to address virus infestations and keep us safe. It is particularly important to know what that is and how it works, and how a vaccine might affect the operation of the immune system, good or bad.
So having said that what is a vaccine and why do we need one.
Vaccine Harm
"a recent study showed that SARS-CoV-2 RNA can be reverse-transcribed and integrated into the genome of human cells."
Intracellular Reverse Transcription of Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine BNT162b2 In Vitro in Human Liver Cell Line
Genotoxicity and Carcinogenicity studies were NOT done because... the WHO
https://jessicar.substack.com/p/genotoxicity-and-carcinogenicity?utm_medium=email&s=rreferences
End of the COVID-19 pandemic
(https://twitter.com/andrewbostom/status/1508491869847797760/photo/1)
400-studies-on-the-failure-of-compulsory-covid-interventions
Judicial Watch announced today that it received 221 pages of records from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) which include a grant application for research involving the coronavirus that was submitted in referencesreferences. The grant application appears to describe “gain of function” research involving RNA extractions from bats, experiments on viruses, attempts to develop a chimeric virus and efforts to genetically manipulate the full-length bat SARSr-CoV WIV1 strain molecular clone.
Collateral Global is a UK registered Charity (No. 1195125) dedicated to researching, understanding, and communicating the effectiveness and collateral impacts of the Mandated Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions (MNPIs) taken by governments worldwide in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.]
(https://collateralglobal.org/)referencesreferencesreferences
SCIENCE BRIEFS. Informing Ontario’s response to COVID-19
https://covid19-sciencetable.ca/science-briefs/#epidemiology-public-health-implementation
Voice for Science and Solidarity
The importance of understanding SARS-CoV-2 evolution cannot be overlooked. Recent studies confirm that natural selection is the dominating mechanism of SARS-CoV-2 evolution, which favors mutations that strengthen viral infectivity. Here, we demonstrate that vaccine-breakthrough or antibody-resistant mutations provide a new mechanism of viral evolution. Specifically, vaccine-resistant mutation Y449S in the spike (S) protein receptor-binding domain, which occurred in co-mutations Y449S and N501Y, has reduced infectivity compared to that of the original SARS-CoV-2 but can disrupt existing antibodies that neutralize the virus.
Miracle or Mirage? mRNA, Moderna, BioNtech, and COVID-19 Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Moderna and BioNtech had never produced a single product. The biotech outfits were founded in 2008 and 2010 respectively, with the stated goal of pioneering messenger RNA (mRNA) therapies to the world of healthcare. Moderna and BioNtech share a history rife with secrecy, speculative hype, the benefits of networking effects, and most notably, a failure to deliver the goods.
(https://dossier.substack.com/p/miracle-or-mirage-mrna-moderna-biontech?s=r)
Abstract 10712: Observational Findings of PULS Cardiac Test Findings for Inflammatory Markers in Patients Receiving mRNA Vaccines...Baseline IL-16 increased from 35+/-20 above the norm to 82 +/- 75 above the norm post-vac; sFas increased from 22+/- 15 above the norm to 46+/-24 above the norm post vac; HGF increased from 42+/-12 above the norm to 86+/-31 above the norm post vac. These changes resulted in an increase of the pre vac PULS score of predicted 11% 5 yr ACS risk to a post vac PULS score of a predicted 25% 5 yr ACS risk, based on data which has not been validated in this population.
(https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/abs/10.1161/circ.144.suppl_1.10712)
deaths by vaccination status england
Pfizer’s Clinical Trial data strongly indicates their Covid-19 Vaccine causes the recipient to develop Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome
(https://dailyexpose.uk/2021/11/13/pfizer-trial-data-suggests-covid-19-vaccine-causes-aids/)
Hospital Beds Staffed and In Operation, 2018–2019
https:// cihi.ca/sites/default/ files/document/beds-staffed-and-in-operation-2018-2019-en-web.xlsx …
Summary of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths, cases following vaccination, testing and variants of concern across Canada and over time.
https://health-infobase.canada.ca/covid-19/epidemiological-summary-covid-19-cases.html
Covid-19: Researcher blows the whistle on data integrity issues in Pfizer’s vaccine trial
Science Brief: SARS-CoV-2 Infection-induced and Vaccine-induced Immunity
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/science/science-briefs/vaccine-induced-immunity.html
After release of their MMWR study, CDC releases this BRIEF on Infection-induced vs. Vax-induced Immunity. It is a CONFUSED document – both accepting NI, but illogically recommending VAX anyway. This 🧵🧵 appraises the BRIEF
https://twitter.com/mahesh_shenai/status/1455235148895694852
Lancet Study Finds COVID Shots Do Not Prevent Transmission
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(21)00648-4/fulltext
Nov 1, 2021
ORLANDO, FL -- A recently released yearlong study by the Lancet Infectious Diseases medical journal comparing the efficacy of COVID injections has shown that people who have received the COVID shots can be equally as infectious and are just as likely to spread the Delta variant of the virus to contacts in their household as those who have not received the shots.
In the study of 621 people in the U.K. with mild COVID-19 between Sept 13, 2020, and Sept 15, 2021, scientists found that their peak viral load was similar regardless of vaccination status. The analysis also found that 25 percent of vaccinated household contacts still contracted the virus, while 38 percent of those who had not taken the shots became infected.
In fact, the researchers noted, “Fully vaccinated individuals with breakthrough infections have peak viral load similar to unvaccinated cases and can efficiently transmit infection in household settings, including to fully vaccinated contacts.”
The researchers performed PCR tests on swab samples provided daily by each participant for 14-20 days. Changes over time in viral load -- the amount of virus in a person's nose and throat -- were estimated by modeling PCR data.
The study found that the viral load declined more rapidly among vaccinated people infected with the Delta variant compared with unvaccinated people with Delta, Alpha, or pre-Alpha. However, the authors note that vaccinated people did not record a lower peak viral load than unvaccinated people, which may explain why the Delta variant can still spread despite vaccination as people are most infectious during the peak viral load phase.
In addition, the statistics regarding the harm from these injections is staggering. The VAERS data shows 837,593 reported adverse events, including 17,619 deaths as of October 22, 2021.
How effective is immunity after Covid recovery relative to vaccination? An Israeli study by Gazit et al. found that the vaccinated have a 27 times higher risk of symptomatic infection than the Covid recovered. At the same time, the vaccinated were nine times more likely to be hospitalized for Covid. In contrast, a CDC study by Bozio et al. claims that the Covid recovered are five times more likely to be hospitalized for Covid than the vaccinated. Both studies cannot be right.
A Review and Autopsy of Two COVID Immunity Studies
https://brownstone.org/articles/a-review-and-autopsy-of-two-covid-immunity-studies/
Polio vs. C19 Vaccine Trials
1/ Vaccinating Children for Polio v. Covid-19: Controlled (placebo & obs controls) 1954 polio vax field trial https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/301691 for a lethal, crippling childhood illness involved ~1.83 million total, ~1.35 million in paralytic polio analysis
2/ Covid-19 RCT https://fda.gov/media/153409/download for 5 to 11 year olds given Pfizer mRNA vax involved ~2300 for a disease whose mortality in the pediatric age range approaches ZERO, while childhood “long covid” = “long pandemic” (i.e.,=psychosomatic) references
3/ The 1954 polio field trial paralytic polio analysis recorded 516 cases of paralytic polio; the Pfizer C19 RCT in 5 to 11yos recorded ZERO cases of severe C19 despite recruiting ~20% with comorbidities
4/ The 1954 polio field trial showed vax ↓ed paralytic polio by 71.1% & 62.4% vs. the pbo- and obs-control grps, respectively; the Pfizer C19 had ZERO severe outcomes to ↓, but “sniffles syndrome” was ↓ed by 90.7%
A Report on Myocarditis Adverse Events in the U.S. Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) in Association with COVID-19 Injectable Biological Products...Myocarditis rates reported in VAERS were significantly higher in youths between the ages of 13 to 23 (p<0.0001) with ∼80% occurring in males. Within 8 weeks of the public offering of COVID-19 products to the 12-15-year-old age group, we found 19 times the expected number of myocarditis cases in the vaccination volunteers over background myocarditis rates for this age group.
Efficacy Studies that Rebuke Vaccine Mandates
As some people have now been vaccinated for more than half a year, evidence is pouring in about Covid vaccine efficacy. The gestalt of the findings implies that the infection explosion globally that we have been experiencing– post double vaccination in e.g. Israel, UK, US etc. –may be due to the vaccinated spreading Covid as much or more than the unvaccinated.
https://brownstone.org/articles/16-studies-on-vaccine-efficacy/
Respiratory Virus Report, week 41 - ending October 16, 2021
Moderna COVID-19 Vaccines
Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for an Unapproved Product Review Memorandum
Development and Licensure of Vaccines to Prevent COVID-19
Death Spiral - Medical Assisted in Canada
Long lasting Immunity
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“Overall, our results indicate that mild infection with SARS-CoV-2 induces robust antigen-specific, long-lived humoral immune memory in humans.”
SARS-CoV-2 infection induces long-lived bone marrow plasma cells in humans. Nature | Vol 595 | 15 July 2021 | 421
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“The data suggest that immunity in convalescent individuals will be very long lasting… Nearly 93% of the plasma neutralizing antibody activity is retained between 6 and 12 months after infection”
Naturally enhanced neutralizing breadth against SARS-CoV-2 one year after infection Nature | Vol 595 | 15 July 2021 | 426
Cross-neutralizing with high potency
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“Our study demonstrates that convalescent subjects previously infected with ancestral variant SARS-CoV-2 produce antibodies that cross-neutralize emerging VOCs with high potency.”
Ultrapotent antibodies against diverse and highly transmissible variants. Science 373, 759. 13 August 2021.
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“Substantial immune memory is generated after COVID-19 [infection and recovery], involving all four major types of immune memory. About 95% of subjects retained immune memory at ~6 months after infection… simple serological tests for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies do not reflect the richness and durability of natural immune memory to SARS-CoV-2.”
Immunological memory to SARS-CoV-2 assessed for up to 8 months after infection. Science 371, 587 (2021) 5 February 2021
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“Our findings demonstrate that robust cellular immunity against SARS-CoV-2 is likely to be present within the great majority of adults at 6 months following asymptomatic and mild-to-moderate infection.”
Robust SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell immunity is maintained at 6 months following primary infection. Nature Immunology | VOL 22 | May 2021 | 620–626
- “Protection against SARS-CoV-2 after natural infection is comparable with the highest available estimates on vaccine efficacies.”
SARS-CoV-2 re-infection risk in Austria. Eur J Clin Invest. 2021; 51:e13520 February 2021.
- “This study shows that previous infection with SARS-CoV-2 induces effective immunity to future infections in most individuals.”
SARS-CoV-2 infection rates of antibody-positive compared with antibody-negative health-care workers in England: a large, multicentre, prospective cohort study (SIREN). The Lancet, volume 397, issue 10283, p1459-1469, April 17, 2021
- “Natural infection appears to elicit strong protection against reinfection with an efficacy ~95% for at least seven months.”
SARS-CoV-2 antibody-positivity protects against reinfection for at least seven months with 95% efficacy. EClinicalMedicine Volume 35, May 2021.
- “policy makers should consider recovery from previous SARS-CoV-2 infection equal to immunity from vaccination for purposes related to entry to public events, businesses, and the workplace, or travel requirements.”
Protective immunity after recovery from SARS-CoV-2 infection. The Lancet, November 2021.
Natural Immunity is far superior to vaccine
- “SARS-CoV-2-naive vaccines had a 13.06-fold (95% CI, 8.08 to 21.11) increased risk for breakthrough infection with the Delta variant compared to those previously infected [but not vaccinated]. This study demonstrated that natural immunity confers longer lasting and stronger protection against infection, symptomatic disease and hospitalization caused by the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2, compared to the BNT162b2 two-dose vaccine-induced immunity.”
Comparing SARS-CoV-2 natural immunity to vaccine-induced immunity: reinfections versus breakthrough infections. medRxiv preprint August 2021.
- “Nine clinical studies were identified… All of the included studies found at least statistical equivalence between the protection of full vaccination and natural immunity; and, three studies found superiority of natural immunity.”
Equivalency of Protection from Natural Immunity in COVID-19 Recovered Versus Fully Vaccinated Persons: A Systematic Review and Pooled Analysis. medRxiv preprint September 2021
unlikely to benefit from vaccination
- “Not one of the 1359 previously infected subjects who remained unvaccinated had a SARS-CoV-2 infection over the duration of the study. Conclusion: Individuals who have had SARS-CoV-2 infection are unlikely to benefit from COVID-19 vaccination”
Necessity of COVID-19 vaccination in previously infected individuals. medRxiv preprint, June 2021.
- “This study suggests that both the BNT162b2 vaccine and prior SARS-CoV-2 infection are effective against both subsequent SARS-CoV-2 infection and other COVID-19 related outcomes. Moreover, the effectiveness seems similar for both cohorts. This puts into question the need to vaccinate recent (up to six month) previously-infected individuals.”
Protection of previous SARS-CoV-2 infection is similar to that of BNT162b2 vaccine protection: A three-month nationwide experience from Israel. medRxiv preprint, April 2021
- “The protective effect of prior SARS-CoV-2 infection on re-infection is high and similar to the protective effect of vaccination… There is consistent epidemiologic evidence that prior SARS-CoV-2 infection provides substantial immunity to repeat SARS-CoV-2 infection.”
A Systematic Review of the Protective Effect of Prior SARS-CoV-2 Infection on Repeat Infection. medRxiv preprint, August 2021.
- “Prior infection in patients with COVID-19 was highly protective against reinfection and symptomatic disease. This protection increased over time, suggesting that viral shedding or ongoing immune response may persist beyond 90 days and may not represent true reinfection. As vaccine supply is limited, patients with known history of COVID-19 could delay early vaccination to allow for the most vulnerable to access the vaccine and slow transmission.”
Reinfection Rates among Patients who Previously Tested Positive for COVID-19: a Retrospective Cohort Study. Clinical infectious diseases, March 2021.
- “Although neutralizing antibody titres decline from the initial peak response, robust neutralizing activity can still be detected in a large proportion of convalescent sera at up to 10 months POS [post onset of symptoms]. These data highlight [that] the polyclonal nature of convalescent sera enables antiviral functionality against mutant Spikes present in emerging viral variants.”
Antibody longevity and cross-neutralizing activity following SARS-CoV-2 wave 1 and 2 B.1.1.7 infections. medRxiv preprint, June 2021.
- “We conclude that memory antibodies selected over time by natural infection have greater potency and breadth than antibodies elicited by vaccination.”
Antibody Evolution after SARS-CoV-2 mRNA Vaccination. bioRxiv preprint, July 2021.
- “While both infections and vaccines induce memory B cell (MBC) populations that participate in secondary immune responses, the MBCs generated in each case can differ… infection-induced primary MBCs have undergone more affinity maturation than vaccine-induced primary MBCs and produce more robust secondary responses.”
High affinity memory B cells induced by SARS-CoV-2 infection produce more plasmablasts and atypical memory B cells than those primed by mRNA vaccines. Cell Reports. Sept. 2021.
- “This in depth longitudinal study demonstrates that durable immune memory persists in most COVID-19 patients, including those with mild disease… Recovered COVID-19 patients are likely to better defend against the variants than persons who have not been infected but have been immunized with spike-containing vaccines only.”
Longitudinal analysis shows durable and broad immune memory after SARS-2 CoV-2 infection with persisting antibody responses and memory B and T cells. medRxiv preprint, April 2021.
- “Here we performed a comprehensive analysis of SARS-CoV-2-specific CD4+ and CD8+ T cell responses from COVID-19 convalescent subjects. as well as recipients of the Moderna (mRNA-1273) or Pfizer/BioNTech (BNT162b2) COVID-19 vaccines… Overall, the results demonstrate that CD4+ and CD8+ T cell responses in convalescent COVID-19 subjects or COVID-19 mRNA vaccinees are not substantially affected by mutations found in the SARS-CoV-2 variants.”
Negligible impact of SARS-CoV-2 variants on CD4+ and CD8+ T cell reactivity in COVID-19 exposed donors and vaccinees. BioRxiv preprint, March 2021
- “Conclusion: No neutralisation escape could be feared concerning the two variants of concern in both [previously infected but unvaccinated] populations. The reduced neutralising response observed towards the [variants of concern] in fully immunized subjects with the BNT162b2 vaccine is a striking finding of the study.”
Live virus neutralisation testing in convalescent patients and subjects vaccinated against 19A, 20B, 20I/501Y.V1 and 20H/501Y.V2 isolates of SARS-CoV-2. medRxiv preprint, May 2021.
No difference in viral loads when comparing unvaccinated
- “We find no difference in viral loads when comparing unvaccinated [but PCR+] individuals to those who have vaccine ‘breakthrough’ infections. Furthermore, individuals with vaccine breakthrough infections frequently test positive with viral loads consistent with the ability to shed infectious viruses.”
Vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals have similar viral loads in communities with a high prevalence of the SARS-CoV-2 delta variant. medRxiv preprint July 2021.
- “These results suggest that following a typical case of mild COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2-specific CD8+ T cells not only persist but continuously differentiate in a coordinated fashion well into convalescence, into a state characteristic of long-lived, self-renewing memory.”
Protracted yet coordinated differentiation of long-lived SARS-CoV-2-specific CD8+ T cells during COVID-19 convalescence. bioRxiv April 2021.
- “Eleven large cohort studies were identified that estimated the risk of SARS‐CoV‐2 reinfection over time… These data suggest that naturally acquired SARS‐CoV‐2 immunity does not wane for at least 10 months post‐infection”
Quantifying the risk of SARS‐CoV‐2 reinfection over time, Rev Med Virol. 2021;e2260. May 2021.
- “We analyzed SARS-CoV-2 whole-genome sequences and viral loads from 1,373 persons with COVID-19 from the San Francisco Bay Area from February 1 to June 30, 2021. Fully vaccinated were more likely than unvaccinated persons to be infected by variants carrying mutations… Differences in viral loads were non-significant between unvaccinated and fully vaccinated persons. These findings suggest that vaccine breakthrough cases are preferentially caused by circulating antibody-resistant SARS-CoV-2 variants, and that symptomatic breakthrough infections may potentially transmit COVID-19 as efficiently as unvaccinated infections.”
Predominance of antibody-resistant SARS-CoV-2 variants in vaccine breakthrough cases from the San Francisco Bay Area, California. medRxiv preprint August 2021.
- “Group 1 [naive] had an incidence [of infection] of 25.9 per 100 person-years… Group 2 [convalescent] had an incidence [of re-infection] of 0 per 100 person-years… Group 3 [vaccinated] had an incidence [of breakthrough infection] of 1.6 per 100 person-years”
Incidence of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 infection among previously infected or vaccinated employees. medRxiv preprint July 2021.
- “Despite 290 symptomatic infections in 10,137 non-immune HCWs [health care workers], there were no symptomatic reinfections in over 1000 HCWs with past infection”
Prior SARS-CoV-2 infection is associated with protection against symptomatic reinfection. Journal of Infection. Vol 82, No 4, E29-E30, April 2021.
- “During July 2–August 11, 2020, an outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) occurred at a boys’ overnight summer school retreat in Wisconsin. The retreat included 152 high school-aged boys, counselors, and staff members. An important feature of this outbreak was that 24 attendees had documented evidence of antibodies [from previous infection] to SARS-CoV-2 before arrival. None of these persons received a positive SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR test result at the retreat… Excluding the 24 attendees with previous positive serologic results, the COVID-19 attack rate on the remaining susceptible population was 91%.”
COVID-19 Outbreak at an Overnight Summer School Retreat — Wisconsin, July–August 2020. CDC Morbidity and Mortality Wkly Rep. 2020 Oct 30; 69(43): 1600–1604.
- “From March 1 to July 31, 2021, a total of 227 UCSDH health care workers tested positive… 57.3% were fully vaccinated. Symptoms were present in 109 of the 130 fully vaccinated workers (83.8%) and in 80 of the 90 unvaccinated workers (88.9%). No deaths were reported in either group; one unvaccinated person was hospitalized”
Resurgence in Highly Vaccinated
Resurgence of SARS-CoV-2 Infection in a Highly Vaccinated Health System Workforce. The New England Journal of Medicine. Sept. 2021.
- “None of the three individuals who had neutralizing antibodies [from previous infection] were infected during the subsequent outbreak… In contrast, among the other 117 of 120 individuals with pre-departure serological data who were seronegative or lacked spike-reactive antibodies prior to departure, 103 of 117 were infected…”
Neutralizing antibodies correlate with protection from SARS-CoV-2 in humans during a fishery vessel outbreak with high attack rate. Journal of Clinical Microbiology Vol. 58, No. 11. Oct. 2020.
- “During July 2021, 469 cases of COVID-19 associated with multiple summer events and large public gatherings in a town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, were identified among Massachusetts residents; vaccination coverage among eligible Massachusetts residents was 69%. Approximately three quarters (346; 74%) of cases occurred in fully vaccinated persons (those who had completed a 2-dose course of mRNA vaccine [Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna] or had received a single dose of Janssen [Johnson & Johnson] vaccine ≥14 days before exposure). Among five COVID-19 patients who were hospitalized, four were fully vaccinated”
Outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 Infections, Including COVID-19 Vaccine Breakthrough Infections, Associated with Large Public Gatherings — Barnstable County, Massachusetts,y July 2021. CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) August 6, 2021 / 70(31);1059-1062.
- “SAR (secondary attack rate) among household contacts exposed to fully vaccinated index cases was similar to household contacts exposed to unvaccinated index cases. Fully vaccinated individuals with breakthrough infections have peak viral load similar to unvaccinated cases and can efficiently transmit infection in household settings, including to fully vaccinated contacts.”
Community transmission and viral load kinetics of the SARS-CoV-2 delta (B.1.617.2) variant in vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals in the UK: a prospective, longitudinal, cohort study. The Lancet. October, 2021.
- “No statistically significant difference was detected in the duration of viral culture positivity between participants who were fully vaccinated compared with those who were not fully vaccinated… Ct values were comparable between vaccinated and unvaccinated persons… Cumulatively, available data have not clearly or consistently identified markers of reduced transmission potential in vaccinated persons with SARS-CoV-2 infection.”
Transmission potential of vaccinated and unvaccinated persons infected with the SARS-CoV-2 Delta. medRxiv preprint November, 2021
Severity of reinfections rare and mild
- “Reinfections had 90% lower odds of resulting in hospitalization or death than primary infections… None [out of 1300 reinfections] led to hospitalization in an ICU, and none ended in death. Reinfections were rare and were generally mild, perhaps because of the primed immune system after primary infection.”
Severity of SARS-CoV-2 Reinfections as Compared with Primary Infections. New England Journal of Medicine. November, 2021.
"Understanding immune memory to Common Cold Coronaviruses (CCCs) is relevant for assessing its potential impact on the outcomes of SARS-CoV-2 infection, and for the prospects of pan-corona vaccines development. We performed a longitudinal analysis, of pre-pandemic samples collected from 2016–2019. CD4+ T cells and antibody responses specific for CCC and to other respiratory viruses, and chronic or ubiquitous pathogens were assessed. CCC-specific memory CD4+ T cells were detected in most subjects, and their frequencies were comparable to those for other common antigens. Notably, responses to CCC and other antigens such as influenza and Tetanus Toxoid (TT) were sustained over time. CCC-specific CD4+ T cell responses were also associated with low numbers of HLA-DR+CD38+ cells and their magnitude did not correlate with yearly changes in the prevalence of CCC infections. Similarly, spike RBD-specific IgG responses for CCC were stable throughout the sampling period. Finally, high CD4+ T cell reactivity to CCC, but not antibody responses, was associated with high pre-existing SARS-CoV-2 immunity. Overall, these results suggest that the steady and sustained CCC responses observed in the study cohort are likely due to a relatively stable pool of CCC-specific memory CD4+ T cells instead of fast decaying responses and frequent reinfections."
Immunological memory to Common Cold Coronaviruses assessed longitudinally over a three-year period
"This paper is rather complex, but the abstract is fairly easier to understand. Authors tested and found one of the causes for the lymphopenia (in a crude way, immune suppression) in severe patients, that frequently leads to death. They found virus antigen (parts) and infectious viral particles in lung T cells and peripheral blood cells (cells that can go anywhere, others blood cells go to lymphatic system, spleen, liver, or bone marrow)."
“Cumulative incidence of COVID-19 was examined among 52,238 employees in an American healthcare system. The cumulative incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection remained almost zero among previously infected unvaccinated subjects, previously infected subjects who were vaccinated, and previously uninfected subjects who were vaccinated, compared with a steady increase in cumulative incidence among previously uninfected subjects who remained unvaccinated. Not one of the 1359 previously infected subjects who remained unvaccinated had a SARS-CoV-2 infection over the duration of the study. Individuals who have had SARS-CoV-2 infection are unlikely to benefit from COVID-19 vaccination…”
Necessity of COVID-19 vaccination in previously infected individuals, Shrestha, 2021
“Studied T cell responses against the structural (nucleocapsid (N) protein) and non-structural (NSP7 and NSP13 of ORF1) regions of SARS-CoV-2 in individuals convalescing from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) (n = 36). In all of these individuals, we found CD4 and CD8 T cells that recognized multiple regions of the N protein…showed that patients (n = 23) who recovered from SARS possess long-lasting memory T cells that are reactive to the N protein of SARS-CoV 17 years after the outbreak of SARS in 2003; these T cells displayed robust cross-reactivity to the N protein of SARS-CoV-2.”
“A retrospective observational study comparing three groups: (1) SARS-CoV-2-naïve individuals who received a two-dose regimen of the BioNTech/Pfizer mRNA BNT162b2 vaccine, (2) previously infected individuals who have not been vaccinated, and (3) previously infected and single dose vaccinated individuals found para a 13 fold increased risk of breakthrough Delta infections in double vaccinated persons, and a 27 fold increased risk for symptomatic breakthrough infection in the double vaccinated relative to the natural immunity recovered persons…the risk of hospitalization was 8 times higher in the double vaccinated (para)…this analysis demonstrated that natural immunity affords longer lasting and stronger protection against infection, symptomatic disease and hospitalization due to the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2, compared to the BNT162b2 two-dose vaccine-induced immunity.”
“Studied SARS-CoV-2–specific T cells in a cohort of asymptomatic (n = 85) and symptomatic (n = 75) COVID-19 patients after seroconversion…thus, asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2–infected individuals are not characterized by weak antiviral immunity; on the contrary, they mount a highly functional virus-specific cellular immune response.”
“A total of 2,653 individuals fully vaccinated by two doses of vaccine during the study period and 4,361 convalescent patients were included. Higher SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibody titers were observed in vaccinated individuals (median 1581 AU/mL IQR [533.8-5644.6]) after the second vaccination, than in convalescent individuals (median 355.3 AU/mL IQR [141.2-998.7]; p<0.001). In vaccinated subjects, antibody titers decreased by up to 40% each subsequent month while in convalescents they decreased by less than 5% per month…this study demonstrates individuals who received the Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA vaccine have different kinetics of antibody levels compared to patients who had been infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, with higher initial levels but a much faster exponential decrease in the first group”.
Researchers recorded “40 tentative re-infections in 14, 840 COVID-19 survivors of the first wave (0.27%) and 253 581 infections in 8, 885, 640 individuals of the remaining general population (2.85%) translating into an odds ratio (95% confidence interval) of 0.09 (0.07 to 0.13)…relatively low re-infection rate of SARS-CoV-2 in Austria. Protection against SARS-CoV-2 after natural infection is comparable with the highest available estimates on vaccine efficacies.” Additionally, hospitalization in only five out of 14,840 (0.03%) people and death in one out of 14,840 (0.01%) (tentative re-infection). 7) mRNA vaccine-induced SARS-CoV-2-specific T cells recognize B.1.1.7 and B.1.351 variants but differ in longevity and homing properties depending on prior infection status, Neidleman, 2021
“Spike-specific T cells from convalescent vaccinees differed strikingly from those of infection-naïve vaccinees, with phenotypic features suggesting superior long-term persistence and ability to home to the respiratory tract including the nasopharynx. These results provide reassurance that vaccine-elicited T cells respond robustly to the B.1.1.7 and B.1.351 variants, confirm that convalescents may not need a second vaccine dose.”
“Months after recovering from mild cases of COVID-19, people still have immune cells in their body pumping out antibodies against the virus that causes COVID-19, according to a study from researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Such cells could persist for a lifetime, churning out antibodies all the while. The findings, published May 24 in the journal Nature, suggest that mild cases of COVID-19 leave those infected with lasting antibody protection and that repeated bouts of illness are likely to be uncommon.”
Good news: Mild COVID-19 induces lasting antibody protection, Bhandari, 2021
“Neutralizing antibody titers against the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein persisted for at least 5 months after infection. Although continued monitoring of this cohort will be needed to confirm the longevity and potency of this response, these preliminary results suggest that the chance of reinfection may be lower than is currently feared.”
Robust neutralizing antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 infection persist for months, Wajnberg, 2021
“Concurrently, neutralizing activity in plasma decreases by five-fold in pseudo-type virus assays. In contrast, the number of RBD-specific memory B cells is unchanged. Memory B cells display clonal turnover after 6.2 months, and the antibodies they express have greater somatic hypermutation, increased potency and resistance to RBD mutations, indicative of continued evolution of the humoral response…we conclude that the memory B cell response to SARS-CoV-2 evolves between 1.3 and 6.2 months after infection in a manner that is consistent with antigen persistence.”
“Assessed the persistence of serum antibodies following WT SARS-CoV-2 infection at 8 and 13 months after diagnosis in 367 individuals…found that NAb against the WT virus persisted in 89% and S-IgG in 97% of subjects for at least 13 months after infection.”
Persistence of neutralizing antibodies a year after SARS-CoV-2 infection in humans, Haveri, 2021
“Eleven large cohort studies were identified that estimated the risk of SARS‐CoV‐2 reinfection over time, including three that enrolled healthcare workers and two that enrolled residents and staff of elderly care homes. Across studies, the total number of PCR‐positive or antibody‐positive participants at baseline was 615,777, and the maximum duration of follow‐up was more than 10 months in three studies. Reinfection was an uncommon event (absolute rate 0%–1.1%), with no study reporting an increase in the risk of reinfection over time.”
Quantifying the risk of SARS‐CoV‐2 reinfection over time, Murchu, 2021
The Western Journal-Makary https://www.westernjournal.com/johns-hopkins-doc-says-natural-immunity-27-times-effective-vaccine/
Makary writes “it’s okay to have an incorrect scientific hypothesis. But when new data proves it wrong, you have to adapt. Unfortunately, many elected leaders and public health officials have held on far too long to the hypothesis that natural immunity offers unreliable protection against covid-19 — a contention that is being rapidly debunked by science. More than 15 studies have demonstrated the power of immunity acquired by previously having the virus. A 700,000-person study from Israel two weeks ago found that those who had experienced prior infections were 27 times less likely to get a second symptomatic covid infection than those who were vaccinated. This affirmed a June Cleveland Clinic study of health-care workers (who are often exposed to the virus), in which none who had previously tested positive for the coronavirus got reinfected. The study authors concluded that “individuals who have had SARS-CoV-2 infection are unlikely to benefit from covid-19 vaccination.” And in May, a Washington University study found that even a mild covid infection resulted in long-lasting immunity.”
“The data on natural immunity are now overwhelming,” Makary told the Morning Wire. “It turns out the hypothesis that our public health leaders had that vaccinated immunity is better and stronger than natural immunity was wrong. They got it backwards. And now we’ve got data from Israel showing that natural immunity is 27 times more effective than vaccinated immunity.”
Natural immunity to covid is powerful. Policymakers seem afraid to say so, Makary, 2021
“203 recovered SARS-CoV-2 infected patients in Denmark between April 3rd and July 9th 2020, at least 14 days after COVID-19 symptom recovery… report broad serological profiles within the cohort, detecting antibody binding to other human coronaviruses… the viral surface spike protein was identified as the dominant target for both neutralizing antibodies and CD8+ T-cell responses. Overall, the majority of patients had robust adaptive immune responses, regardless of their disease severity.”
SARS-CoV-2 elicits robust adaptive immune responses regardless of disease severity, Nielsen, 2021
“Analyze an updated individual-level database of the entire population of Israel to assess the protection efficacy of both prior infection and vaccination in preventing subsequent SARS-CoV-2 infection, hospitalization with COVID-19, severe disease, and death due to COVID-19… vaccination was highly effective with overall estimated efficacy for documented infection of 92·8% (CI:[92·6, 93·0]); hospitalization 94·2% (CI:[93·6, 94·7]); severe illness 94·4% (CI:[93·6, 95·0]); and death 93·7% (CI:[92·5, 94·7]). Similarly, the overall estimated level of protection from prior SARS-CoV-2 infection for documented infection is 94·8% (CI: [94·4, 95·1]); hospitalization 94·1% (CI: [91·9, 95·7]); and severe illness 96·4% (CI: [92·5, 98·3])…results question the need to vaccinate previously-infected individuals.”
“Employees were divided into three groups: (1) SARS-CoV-2 naïve and unvaccinated, (2) previous SARS-CoV-2 infection, and (3) vaccinated. Person-days were measured from the date of the employee first test and truncated at the end of the observation period. SARS-CoV-2 infection was defined as two positive SARS-CoV-2 PCR tests in a 30-day period… 4313, 254 and 739 employee records for groups 1, 2, and 3…previous SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination for SARS-CoV-2 were associated with decreased risk for infection or re-infection with SARS-CoV-2 in a routinely screened workforce. The was no difference in the infection incidence between vaccinated individuals and individuals with previous infection.”
“Israelis who had an infection were more protected against the Delta coronavirus variant than those who had an already highly effective COVID-19 vaccine…the newly released data show people who once had a SARS-CoV-2 infection were much less likely than never-infected, vaccinated people to get Delta, develop symptoms from it, or become hospitalized with serious COVID-19.”
“A systematic antigen-specific immune evaluation in 101 COVID-19 convalescents; SARS-CoV-2-specific IgG antibodies, and also NAb can persist among over 95% COVID-19 convalescents from 6 months to 12 months after disease onset. At least 19/71 (26%) of COVID-19 convalescents (double positive in ELISA and MCLIA) had detectable circulating IgM antibody against SARS-CoV-2 at 12m post-disease onset. Notably, the percentages of convalescents with positive SARS-CoV-2-specific T-cell responses (at least one of the SARS-CoV-2 antigen S1, S2, M and N protein) were 71/76 (93%) and 67/73 (92%) at 6m and 12m, respectively.”
One-year sustained cellular and humoral immunities of COVID-19 convalescents, Zhang, 2021
“Recovered individuals developed SARS-CoV-2-specific immunoglobulin (IgG) antibodies, neutralizing plasma, and memory B and memory T cells that persisted for at least 3 months. Our data further reveal that SARS-CoV-2-specific IgG memory B cells increased over time. Additionally, SARS-CoV-2-specific memory lymphocytes exhibited characteristics associated with potent antiviral function: memory T cells secreted cytokines and expanded upon antigen re-encounter, whereas memory B cells expressed receptors capable of neutralizing virus when expressed as monoclonal antibodies. Therefore, mild COVID-19 elicits memory lymphocytes that persist and display functional hallmarks of antiviral immunity.”
Functional SARS-CoV-2-Specific Immune Memory Persists after Mild COVID-19, Rodda, 2021
“Performed multimodal single-cell sequencing on peripheral blood of patients with acute COVID-19 and healthy volunteers before and after receiving the SARS-CoV-2 BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine to compare the immune responses elicited by the virus and by this vaccine…both infection and vaccination induced robust innate and adaptive immune responses, our analysis revealed significant qualitative differences between the two types of immune challenges. In COVID-19 patients, immune responses were characterized by a highly augmented interferon response which was largely absent in vaccine recipients. Increased interferon signaling likely contributed to the observed dramatic upregulation of cytotoxic genes in the peripheral T cells and innate-like lymphocytes in patients but not in immunized subjects. Analysis of B and T cell receptor repertoires revealed that while the majority of clonal B and T cells in COVID-19 patients were effector cells, in vaccine recipients clonally expanded cells were primarily circulating memory cells…we observed the presence of cytotoxic CD4 T cells in COVID-19 patients that were largely absent in healthy volunteers following immunization. While hyper-activation of inflammatory responses and cytotoxic cells may contribute to immunopathology in severe illness, in mild and moderate disease, these features are indicative of protective immune responses and resolution of infection.”
Discrete Immune Response Signature to SARS-CoV-2 mRNA Vaccination Versus Infection, Ivanova, 2021
“Bone marrow plasma cells (BMPCs) are a persistent and essential source of protective antibodies… durable serum antibody titres are maintained by long-lived plasma cells—non-replicating, antigen-specific plasma cells that are detected in the bone marrow long after the clearance of the antigen … S-binding BMPCs are quiescent, which suggests that they are part of a stable compartment. Consistently, circulating resting memory B cells directed against SARS-CoV-2 S were detected in the convalescent individuals. Overall, our results indicate that mild infection with SARS-CoV-2 induces robust antigen-specific, long-lived humoral immune memory in humans…overall, our data provide strong evidence that SARS-CoV-2 infection in humans robustly establishes the two arms of humoral immune memory: long-lived bone marrow plasma cells (BMPCs) and memory B-cells.”
SARS-CoV-2 infection induces long-lived bone marrow plasma cells in humans, Turner, 2021
“The SARS-CoV-2 Immunity and Reinfection Evaluation study… 30 625 participants were enrolled into the study… a previous history of SARS-CoV-2 infection was associated with an 84% lower risk of infection, with median protective effect observed 7 months following primary infection. This time period is the minimum probable effect because seroconversions were not included. This study shows that previous infection with SARS-CoV-2 induces effective immunity to future infections in most individuals.”
“Enrolled 200 patient-facing HCWs between March 26 and April 8, 2020…represents a 13% infection rate (i.e. 14 of 112 HCWs) within the 1 month of follow-up in those with no evidence of antibodies or viral shedding at enrolment. By contrast, of 33 HCWs who tested positive by serology but tested negative by RT-PCR at enrolment, 32 remained negative by RT-PCR through follow-up, and one tested positive by RT-PCR on days 8 and 13 after enrolment.”
“Critical to understand whether infection with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) protects from subsequent reinfection… 12219 HCWs participated…prior SARS-CoV-2 infection that generated antibody responses offered protection from reinfection for most people in the six months following infection.”
Antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 are associated with protection against reinfection, Lumley, 2021
“Evaluate 254 COVID-19 patients longitudinally up to 8 months and find durable broad-based immune responses. SARS-CoV-2 spike binding and neutralizing antibodies exhibit a bi-phasic decay with an extended half-life of >200 days suggesting the generation of longer-lived plasma cells… most recovered COVID-19 patients mount broad, durable immunity after infection, spike IgG+ memory B cells increase and persist post-infection, durable polyfunctional CD4 and CD8 T cells recognize distinct viral epitope regions.”
“Used single-cell RNA sequencing and functional assays to compare humoral and cellular responses to two doses of mRNA vaccine with responses observed in convalescent individuals with asymptomatic disease… natural infection induced expansion of larger CD8 T cell clones occupied distinct clusters, likely due to the recognition of a broader set of viral epitopes presented by the virus not seen in the mRNA vaccine.”
“SARS-CoV-2 antibody-positive persons from April 16 to December 31, 2020 with a PCR-positive swab ≥14 days after the first-positive antibody test were investigated for evidence of reinfection, 43,044 antibody-positive persons who were followed for a median of 16.3 weeks…reinfection is rare in the young and international population of Qatar. Natural infection appears to elicit strong protection against reinfection with an efficacy ~95% for at least seven months.”
“Conducted a serological study to define correlates of immunity against SARS-CoV-2. Compared to those with mild coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases, individuals with severe disease exhibited elevated virus-neutralizing titers and antibodies against the nucleocapsid (N) and the receptor binding domain (RBD) of the spike protein…neutralizing and spike-specific antibody production persists for at least 5–7 months… nucleocapsid antibodies frequently become undetectable by 5–7 months.”
“In the general population using representative data from 7,256 United Kingdom COVID-19 infection survey participants who had positive swab SARS-CoV-2 PCR tests from 26-April-2020 to 14-June-2021…we estimated antibody levels associated with protection against reinfection likely last 1.5-2 years on average, with levels associated with protection from severe infection present for several years. These estimates could inform planning for vaccination booster strategies.”
Anti-spike antibody response to natural SARS-CoV-2 infection in the general population, Wei, 2021
“A study of the blood of older people who survived the 1918 influenza pandemic reveals that antibodies to the strain have lasted a lifetime and can perhaps be engineered to protect future generations against similar strains…the group collected blood samples from 32 pandemic survivors aged 91 to 101..the people recruited for the study were 2 to 12 years old in 1918 and many recalled sick family members in their households, which suggests they were directly exposed to the virus, the authors report. The group found that 100% of the subjects had serum-neutralizing activity against the 1918 virus and 94% showed serologic reactivity to the 1918 hemagglutinin. The investigators generated B lymphoblastic cell lines from the peripheral blood mononuclear cells of eight subjects. Transformed cells from the blood of 7 of the 8 donors yielded secreting antibodies that bound the 1918 hemagglutinin.” Yu: “here we show that of the 32 individuals tested that were born in or before 1915, each showed sero-reactivity with the 1918 virus, nearly 90 years after the pandemic. Seven of the eight donor samples tested had circulating B cells that secreted antibodies that bound the 1918 HA. We isolated B cells from subjects and generated five monoclonal antibodies that showed potent neutralizing activity against 1918 virus from three separate donors. These antibodies also cross-reacted with the genetically similar HA of a 1930 swine H1N1 influenza strain.”
“No significant difference was observed between the 20B and 19A isolates for HCWs with mild COVID-19 and critical patients. However, a significant decrease in neutralisation ability was found for 20I/501Y.V1 in comparison with 19A isolate for critical patients and HCWs 6-months post infection. Concerning 20H/501Y.V2, all populations had a significant reduction in neutralising antibody titres in comparison with the 19A isolate. Interestingly, a significant difference in neutralisation capacity was observed for vaccinated HCWs between the two variants whereas it was not significant for the convalescent groups…the reduced neutralising response observed towards the 20H/501Y.V2 in comparison with the 19A and 20I/501Y.V1 isolates in fully immunized subjects with the BNT162b2 vaccine is a striking finding of the study.”
“Characterized SARS-CoV-2 spike-specific humoral and cellular immunity in naïve and previously infected individuals during full BNT162b2 vaccination…results demonstrate that the second dose increases both the humoral and cellular immunity in naïve individuals. On the contrary, the second BNT162b2 vaccine dose results in a reduction of cellular immunity in COVID-19 recovered individuals.”
“Epidemiologists estimate over 160 million people worldwide have recovered from COVID-19. Those who have recovered have an astonishingly low frequency of repeat infection, disease, or death.”
“To evaluate evidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection based on diagnostic nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT) among patients with positive vs negative test results for antibodies in an observational descriptive cohort study of clinical laboratory and linked claims data…the cohort included 3 257 478 unique patients with an index antibody test…patients with positive antibody test results were initially more likely to have positive NAAT results, consistent with prolonged RNA shedding, but became markedly less likely to have positive NAAT results over time, suggesting that seropositivity is associated with protection from infection.”
Association of SARS-CoV-2 Seropositive Antibody Test With Risk of Future Infection, Harvey, 2021
“Investigated the risk of subsequent SARS-CoV-2 infection among young adults (CHARM marine study) seropositive for a previous infection…enrolled 3249 participants, of whom 3168 (98%) continued into the 2-week quarantine period. 3076 (95%) participants…Among 189 seropositive participants, 19 (10%) had at least one positive PCR test for SARS-CoV-2 during the 6-week follow-up (1·1 cases per person-year). In contrast, 1079 (48%) of 2247 seronegative participants tested positive (6·2 cases per person-year). The incidence rate ratio was 0·18 (95% CI 0·11–0·28; p<0·001)…infected seropositive participants had viral loads that were about 10-times lower than those of infected seronegative participants (ORF1ab gene cycle threshold difference 3·95 [95% CI 1·23–6·67]; p=0·004).”
“Of 9,180 individuals with no record of vaccination but with a record of prior infection at least 90 days before the PCR test (group 3), 7694 could be matched to individuals with no record of vaccination or prior infection (group 2), among whom PCR positivity was 1.01% (95% CI, 0.80%-1.26%) and 3.81% (95% CI, 3.39%-4.26%), respectively. The relative risk for PCR positivity was 0.22 (95% CI, 0.17-0.28) for vaccinated individuals and 0.26 (95% CI, 0.21-0.34) for individuals with prior infection compared with no record of vaccination or prior infection.”
“Followed up with a subsample of our previous sero-survey participants to assess whether natural immunity against SARS-CoV-2 was associated with a reduced risk of re-infection (India)… out of the 2238 participants, 1170 were sero-positive and 1068 were sero-negative for antibody against COVID-19. Our survey found that only 3 individuals in the sero-positive group got infected with COVID-19 whereas 127 individuals reported contracting the infection the sero-negative group…from the 3 sero-positives re-infected with COVID-19, one had hospitalization, but did not require oxygen support or critical care…development of antibody following natural infection not only protects against re-infection by the virus to a great extent, but also safeguards against progression to severe COVID-19 disease.”
“The researchers found durable immune responses in the majority of people studied. Antibodies against the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2, which the virus uses to get inside cells, were found in 98% of participants one month after symptom onset. As seen in previous studies, the number of antibodies ranged widely between individuals. But, promisingly, their levels remained fairly stable over time, declining only modestly at 6 to 8 months after infection… virus-specific B cells increased over time. People had more memory B cells six months after symptom onset than at one month afterwards… levels of T cells for the virus also remained high after infection. Six months after symptom onset, 92% of participants had CD4+ T cells that recognized the virus… 95% of the people had at least 3 out of 5 immune-system components that could recognize SARS-CoV-2 up to 8 months after infection.”
Lasting immunity found after recovery from COVID-19, NIH, 2021
“The seropositive rate in the convalescent individuals was above 95% at all sampling time points for both assays and remained stable over time; that is, almost all convalescent individuals developed antibodies… results show that SARS-CoV-2 antibodies persisted at least 12 months after symptom onset and maybe even longer, indicating that COVID-19-convalescent individuals may be protected from reinfection.”
“ex vivo assays to evaluate SARS-CoV-2-specific CD4+ and CD8+ T cell responses in COVID-19 convalescent patients up to 317 days post-symptom onset (DPSO), and find that memory T cell responses are maintained during the study period regardless of the severity of COVID-19. In particular, we observe sustained polyfunctionality and proliferation capacity of SARS-CoV-2-specific T cells. Among SARS-CoV-2-specific CD4+ and CD8+ T cells detected by activation-induced markers, the proportion of stem cell-like memory T (TSCM) cells is increased, peaking at approximately 120 DPSO.”
“Analyzed 42 unexposed healthy donors and 28 mild COVID-19 subjects up to 5 months from the recovery for SARS-CoV-2 specific immunological memory. Using HLA class II predicted peptide megapools, we identified SARS-CoV-2 cross-reactive CD4+ T cells in around 66% of the unexposed individuals. Moreover, we found detectable immune memory in mild COVID-19 patients several months after recovery in the crucial arms of protective adaptive immunity; CD4+ T cells and B cells, with a minimal contribution from CD8+ T cells. Interestingly, the persistent immune memory in COVID-19 patients is predominantly targeted towards the Spike glycoprotein of the SARS-CoV-2. This study provides the evidence of both high magnitude pre-existing and persistent immune memory in Indian population.”
“Current evidence points to most individuals developing strong protective immune responses following natural infection with SARSCoV-2. Within 4 weeks following infection, 90-99% of individuals infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus develop detectable neutralizing antibodies. The strength and duration of the immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 are not completely understood and currently available data suggests that it varies by age and the severity of symptoms. Available scientific data suggests that in most people immune responses remain robust and protective against reinfection for at least 6-8 months after infection (the longest follow up with strong scientific evidence is currently approximately 8 months).”
“We conclude that memory antibodies selected over time by natural infection have greater potency and breadth than antibodies elicited by vaccination…boosting vaccinated individuals with currently available mRNA vaccines would produce a quantitative increase in plasma neutralizing activity but not the qualitative advantage against variants obtained by vaccinating convalescent individuals.”
Antibody Evolution after SARS-CoV-2 mRNA Vaccination, Cho, 2021
“Measured antibodies in serum samples from 30,576 persons in Iceland…of the 1797 persons who had recovered from SARS-CoV-2 infection, 1107 of the 1215 who were tested (91.1%) were seropositive…results indicate risk of death from infection was 0.3% and that antiviral antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 did not decline within 4 months after diagnosis (para).”
Humoral Immune Response to SARS-CoV-2 in Iceland, Gudbjartsson, 2020
“Analyzed multiple compartments of circulating immune memory to SARS-CoV-2 in 254 samples from 188 COVID-19 cases, including 43 samples at ≥ 6 months post-infection…IgG to the Spike protein was relatively stable over 6+ months. Spike-specific memory B cells were more abundant at 6 months than at 1 month post symptom onset.”
Immunological memory to SARS-CoV-2 assessed for up to 8 months after infection, Dan, 2021
“Fifty-four studies, from 18 countries, with a total of 12 011 447 individuals, followed up to 8 months after recovery, were included. At 6-8 months after recovery, the prevalence of detectable SARS-CoV-2 specific immunological memory remained high; IgG – 90.4%… pooled prevalence of reinfection was 0.2% (95%CI 0.0 – 0.7, I2 = 98.8, 9 studies). Individuals who recovered from COVID-19 had an 81% reduction in odds of a reinfection (OR 0.19, 95% CI 0.1 – 0.3, I2 = 90.5%, 5 studies).”
“Retrospective cohort study of one multi-hospital health system included 150,325 patients tested for COVID-19 infection…prior infection in patients with COVID-19 was highly protective against reinfection and symptomatic disease. This protection increased over time, suggesting that viral shedding or ongoing immune response may persist beyond 90 days and may not represent true reinfection.”
“The study results suggest that reinfections are rare events and patients who have recovered from COVID-19 have a lower risk of reinfection. Natural immunity to SARS-CoV-2 appears to confer a protective effect for at least a year, which is similar to the protection reported in recent vaccine studies.”
“We observed no symptomatic reinfections in a cohort of healthcare workers…this apparent immunity to re-infection was maintained for at least 6 months…test positivity rates were 0% (0/128 [95% CI: 0–2.9]) in those with previous infection compared to 13.7% (290/2115 [95% CI: 12.3–15.2]) in those without (P<0.0001 χ2 test).”
“Using HLA class I and II predicted peptide “megapools,” circulating SARS-CoV-2-specific CD8+ and CD4+ T cells were identified in ∼70% and 100% of COVID-19 convalescent patients, respectively. CD4+ T cell responses to spike, the main target of most vaccine efforts, were robust and correlated with the magnitude of the anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG and IgA titers. The M, spike, and N proteins each accounted for 11%–27% of the total CD4+ response, with additional responses commonly targeting nsp3, nsp4, ORF3a, and ORF8, among others. For CD8+ T cells, spike and M were recognized, with at least eight SARS-CoV-2 ORFs targeted.”
“Much of the study on the immune response to SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19, has focused on the production of antibodies. But, in fact, immune cells known as memory T cells also play an important role in the ability of our immune systems to protect us against many viral infections, including—it now appears—COVID-19.An intriguing new study of these memory T cells suggests they might protect some people newly infected with SARS-CoV-2 by remembering past encounters with other human coronaviruses. This might potentially explain why some people seem to fend off the virus and may be less susceptible to becoming severely ill with COVID-19.”
NIH Director’s Blog: Immune T Cells May Offer Lasting Protection Against COVID-19, Collins, 2021
“Our study demonstrates that convalescent subjects previously infected with ancestral variant SARS-CoV-2 produce antibodies that cross-neutralize emerging VOCs with high potency…potent against 23 variants, including variants of concern.”
Ultrapotent antibodies against diverse and highly transmissible SARS-CoV-2 variants, Wang, 2021
“Requiring the vaccine in people who are already immune with natural immunity has no scientific support. While vaccinating those people may be beneficial – and it’s a reasonable hypothesis that vaccination may bolster the longevity of their immunity – to argue dogmatically that they must get vaccinated has zero clinical outcome data to back it. As a matter of fact, we have data to the contrary: A Cleveland Clinic study found that vaccinating people with natural immunity did not add to their level of protection.”
Why COVID-19 Vaccines Should Not Be Required for All Americans, Makary, 2021
“Screened 21 well-characterized, longitudinally-sampled convalescent donors that recovered from mild COVID-19…following a typical case of mild COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2-specific CD8+ T cells not only persist but continuously differentiate in a coordinated fashion well into convalescence, into a state characteristic of long-lived, self-renewing memory.”
“Characterized the profiles of measles vaccine (MV) vaccine-induced antigen-specific T cells over time since vaccination. In a cross-sectional study of healthy subjects with a history of MV vaccination, we found that MV-specific CD4 and CD8 T cells could be detected up to 34 years after vaccination. The levels of MV-specific CD8 T cells and MV-specific IgG remained stable, whereas the level of MV-specific CD4 T cells decreased significantly in subjects who had been vaccinated >21 years earlier.”
Decrease in Measles Virus-Specific CD4 T Cell Memory in Vaccinated Subjects, Naniche, 2004
“The success of vaccines is dependent on the generation and maintenance of immunological memory. The immune system can remember previously encountered pathogens, and memory B and T cells are critical in secondary responses to infection. Studies in mice have helped to understand how different memory B cell populations are generated following antigen exposure and how affinity for the antigen is determinant to B cell fate… upon re-exposure to an antigen the memory recall response will be faster, stronger, and more specific than a naïve response. Protective memory depends first on circulating antibodies secreted by LLPCs. When these are not sufficient for immediate pathogen neutralization and elimination, memory B cells are recalled.”
Remembrance of Things Past: Long-Term B Cell Memory After Infection and Vaccination, Palm, 2019
“Examined the magnitude, breadth, and durability of SARS-CoV-2 specific antibodies in two distinct B-cell compartments: long-lived plasma cell-derived antibodies in the plasma, and peripheral memory B-cells along with their associated antibody profiles elicited after in vitro stimulation. We found that magnitude varied amongst individuals, but was the highest in hospitalized subjects. Variants of concern (VoC) -RBD-reactive antibodies were found in the plasma of 72% of samples in this investigation, and VoC-RBD-reactive memory B-cells were found in all but 1 subject at a single time-point. This finding, that VoC-RBD-reactive MBCs are present in the peripheral blood of all subjects including those that experienced asymptomatic or mild disease, provides a reason for optimism regarding the capacity of vaccination, prior infection, and/or both, to limit disease severity and transmission of variants of concern as they continue to arise and circulate.”
“T-cell immunity is important for recovery from COVID-19 and provides heightened immunity for re-infection. However, little is known about the SARS-CoV-2-specific T-cell immunity in virus-exposed individuals…report virus-specific CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell memory in recovered COVID-19 patients and close contacts…close contacts are able to gain T-cell immunity against SARS-CoV-2 despite lacking a detectable infection.”
“The CD4 and CD8 responses generated after natural infection are equally robust, showing activity against multiple “epitopes” (little segments) of the spike protein of the virus. For instance, CD8 cells responds to 52 epitopes and CD4 cells respond to 57 epitopes across the spike protein, so that a few mutations in the variants cannot knock out such a robust and in-breadth T cell response…only 1 mutation found in Beta variant-spike overlapped with a previously identified epitope (1/52), suggesting that virtually all anti-SARS-CoV-2 CD8+ T-cell responses should recognize these newly described variants.”
“Exposure to common cold coronaviruses can teach the immune system to recognize SARS-CoV-2”
“Found that the pre-existing reactivity against SARS-CoV-2 comes from memory T cells and that cross-reactive T cells can specifically recognize a SARS-CoV-2 epitope as well as the homologous epitope from a common cold coronavirus. These findings underline the importance of determining the impacts of pre-existing immune memory in COVID-19 disease severity.”
Selective and cross-reactive SARS-CoV-2 T cell epitopes in unexposed humans, Mateus, 2020
“Better understanding of antibody responses against SARS-CoV-2 after natural infection might provide valuable insights into the future implementation of vaccination policies. Longitudinal analysis of IgG antibody titers was carried out in 32 recovered COVID-19 patients based in the Umbria region of Italy for 14 months after Mild and Moderately-Severe infection…study findings are consistent with recent studies reporting antibody persistency suggesting that induced SARS-CoV-2 immunity through natural infection, might be very efficacious against re-infection (>90%) and could persist for more than six months. Our study followed up patients up to 14 months demonstrating the presence of anti-S-RBD IgG in 96.8% of recovered COVID-19 subjects.”
“Characterized humoral and circulating follicular helper T cell (cTFH) immunity against spike in recovered patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). We found that S-specific antibodies, memory B cells and cTFH are consistently elicited after SARS-CoV-2 infection, demarking robust humoral immunity and positively associated with plasma neutralizing activity.”
“149 COVID-19-convalescent individuals…antibody sequencing revealed the expansion of clones of RBD-specific memory B cells that expressed closely related antibodies in different individuals. Despite low plasma titres, antibodies to three distinct epitopes on the RBD neutralized the virus with half-maximal inhibitory concentrations (IC50 values) as low as 2 ng ml−1.”
Convergent antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 in convalescent individuals, Robbiani, 2020
“COVID-19 patients rapidly generate B cell memory to both the spike and nucleocapsid antigens following SARS-CoV-2 infection…RBD- and NCP-specific IgG and Bmem cells were detected in all 25 patients with a history of COVID-19.”
“People who recover from mild COVID-19 have bone-marrow cells that can churn out antibodies for decades…the study provides evidence that immunity triggered by SARS-CoV-2 infection will be extraordinarily long-lasting.”
Had COVID? You’ll probably make antibodies for a lifetime, Callaway, 2021
In greater Vancouver Canada, “using a highly sensitive multiplex assay and positive/negative thresholds established in infants in whom maternal antibodies have waned, we determined that more than 90% of uninfected adults showed antibody reactivity against the spike protein, receptor-binding domain (RBD), N-terminal domain (NTD), or the nucleocapsid (N) protein from SARS-CoV-2.”
“The presence of pre-existing SARS-CoV-2-reactive T cells in a subset of SARS-CoV-2 naïve HD is of high interest.”
Presence of SARS-CoV-2-reactive T cells in COVID-19 patients and healthy donors, Braun, 2020
“The results indicate that spike-protein cross-reactive T cells are present, which were probably generated during previous encounters with endemic coronaviruses.”
SARS-CoV-2-reactive T cells in healthy donors and patients with COVID-19, Braun, 2020
“A cohort of 63 individuals who have recovered from COVID-19 assessed at 1.3, 6.2 and 12 months after SARS-CoV-2 infection…the data suggest that immunity in convalescent individuals will be very long lasting.”
Naturally enhanced neutralizing breadth against SARS-CoV-2 one year after infection, Wang, 2021
“Long-lasting immunological memory against SARS-CoV-2 after mild COVID-19… activation-induced marker assays identified specific T-helper cells and central memory T-cells in 80% of participants at a 12-month follow-up.”
“Immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 following natural infection can persist for at least 11 months… natural infection (as determined by a prior positive antibody or PCR-test result) can confer protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection.”
Denmark, “during the first surge (ie, before June, 2020), 533 381 people were tested, of whom 11 727 (2·20%) were PCR positive, and 525 339 were eligible for follow-up in the second surge, of whom 11 068 (2·11%) had tested positive during the first surge. Among eligible PCR-positive individuals from the first surge of the epidemic, 72 (0·65% [95% CI 0·51–0·82]) tested positive again during the second surge compared with 16 819 (3·27% [3·22–3·32]) of 514 271 who tested negative during the first surge (adjusted RR 0·195 [95% CI 0·155–0·246]).”
“Adaptive immune responses limit COVID-19 disease severity…multiple coordinated arms of adaptive immunity control better than partial responses…completed a combined examination of all three branches of adaptive immunity at the level of SARS-CoV-2-specific CD4+ and CD8+ T cell and neutralizing antibody responses in acute and convalescent subjects. SARS-CoV-2-specific CD4+ and CD8+ T cells were each associated with milder disease. Coordinated SARS-CoV-2-specific adaptive immune responses were associated with milder disease, suggesting roles for both CD4+ and CD8+ T cells in protective immunity in COVID-19.”
“Collected blood from COVID-19 patients who have recently become virus-free, and therefore were discharged, and detected SARS-CoV-2-specific humoral and cellular immunity in eight newly discharged patients. Follow-up analysis on another cohort of six patients 2 weeks post discharge also revealed high titers of immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies. In all 14 patients tested, 13 displayed serum-neutralizing activities in a pseudotype entry assay. Notably, there was a strong correlation between neutralization antibody titers and the numbers of virus-specific T cells.”
“Analysed the magnitude and phenotype of the SARS-CoV-2 cellular immune response in 100 donors at six months following primary infection and related this to the profile of antibody level against spike, nucleoprotein and RBD over the previous six months. T-cell immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 were present by ELISPOT and/or ICS analysis in all donors and are characterised by predominant CD4+ T cell responses with strong IL-2 cytokine expression… functional SARS-CoV-2-specific T-cell responses are retained at six months following infection.”
“Performed a comprehensive analysis of SARS-CoV-2-specific CD4+ and CD8+ T cell responses from COVID-19 convalescent subjects recognizing the ancestral strain, compared to variant lineages B.1.1.7, B.1.351, P.1, and CAL.20C as well as recipients of the Moderna (mRNA-1273) or Pfizer/BioNTech (BNT162b2) COVID-19 vaccines… the sequences of the vast majority of SARS-CoV-2 T cell epitopes are not affected by the mutations found in the variants analyzed. Overall, the results demonstrate that CD4+ and CD8+ T cell responses in convalescent COVID-19 subjects or COVID-19 mRNA vaccinees are not substantially affected by mutations.”
Israel, “out of 149,735 individuals with a documented positive PCR test between March 2020 and January 2021, 154 had two positive PCR tests at least 100 days apart, reflecting a reinfection proportion of 1 per 1000.”
“Measured plasma and/or serum antibody responses to the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of the spike (S) protein of SARS-CoV-2 in 343 North American patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 (of which 93% required hospitalization) up to 122 days after symptom onset and compared them to responses in 1548 individuals whose blood samples were obtained prior to the pandemic…IgG antibodies persisted at detectable levels in patients beyond 90 days after symptom onset, and seroreversion was only observed in a small percentage of individuals. The concentration of these anti-RBD IgG antibodies was also highly correlated with pseudovirus NAb titers, which also demonstrated minimal decay. The observation that IgG and neutralizing antibody responses persist is encouraging, and suggests the development of robust systemic immune memory in individuals with severe infection.”
“To track population-based SARS-CoV-2 antibody seropositivity duration across the United States using observational data from a national clinical laboratory registry of patients tested by nucleic acid amplification (NAAT) and serologic assays… specimens from 39,086 individuals with confirmed positive COVID-19…both S and N SARS-CoV-2 antibody results offer an encouraging view of how long humans may have protective antibodies against COVID-19, with curve smoothing showing population seropositivity reaching 90% within three weeks, regardless of whether the assay detects N or S-antibodies. Most importantly, this level of seropositivity was sustained with little decay through ten months after initial positive PCR.”
“Progress in laboratory markers for SARS-CoV2 has been made with identification of epitopes on CD4 and CD8 T-cells in convalescent blood. These are much less dominated by spike protein than in previous coronavirus infections. Although most vaccine candidates are focusing on spike protein as antigen, natural infection by SARS-CoV-2 induces broad epitope coverage, cross-reactive with other betacoronviruses.”
“Study of 42 patients following recovery from COVID-19, including 28 mild and 14 severe cases, comparing their T cell responses to those of 16 control donors…found the breadth, magnitude and frequency of memory T cell responses from COVID-19 were significantly higher in severe compared to mild COVID-19 cases, and this effect was most marked in response to spike, membrane, and ORF3a proteins…total and spike-specific T cell responses correlated with the anti-Spike, anti-Receptor Binding Domain (RBD) as well as anti-Nucleoprotein (NP) endpoint antibody titre…furthermore showed a higher ratio of SARS-CoV-2-specific CD8+ to CD4+ T cell responses…immunodominant epitope clusters and peptides containing T cell epitopes identified in this study will provide critical tools to study the role of virus-specific T cells in control and resolution of SARS-CoV-2 infections.”
“SARS-CoV-2-specific memory T cells will likely prove critical for long-term immune protection against COVID-19…mapped the functional and phenotypic landscape of SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell responses in unexposed individuals, exposed family members, and individuals with acute or convalescent COVID-19…collective dataset shows that SARS-CoV-2 elicits broadly directed and functionally replete memory T cell responses, suggesting that natural exposure or infection may prevent recurrent episodes of severe COVID-19.”
Robust T Cell Immunity in Convalescent Individuals with Asymptomatic or Mild COVID-19, Sekine, 2020
“Provide a full picture of cellular and humoral immune responses of COVID-19 patients and prove that robust polyfunctional CD8+ T cell responses concomitant with low anaphylatoxin levels correlate with mild infections.”
“The first work identifying and characterizing SARS-CoV-2-specific and cross-reactive HLA class I and HLA-DR T-cell epitopes in SARS-CoV-2 convalescents (n = 180) as well as unexposed individuals (n = 185) and confirming their relevance for immunity and COVID-19 disease course…cross-reactive SARS-CoV-2 T-cell epitopes revealed pre-existing T-cell responses in 81% of unexposed individuals, and validation of similarity to common cold human coronaviruses provided a functional basis for postulated heterologous immunity in SARS-CoV-2 infection…intensity of T-cell responses and recognition rate of T-cell epitopes was significantly higher in the convalescent donors compared to unexposed individuals, suggesting that not only expansion, but also diversity spread of SARS-CoV-2 T-cell responses occur upon active infection.”
SARS-CoV-2 T-cell epitopes define heterologous and COVID-19 induced T-cell recognition, Nelde, 2020
“Results have just been published of a study suggesting that 40%-60% of people who have not been exposed to coronavirus have resistance at the T-cell level from other similar coronaviruses like the common cold…the true portion of people who are not even susceptible to Covid-19 may be as high as 80%.”
Karl Friston: up to 80% not even susceptible to Covid-19, Sayers, 2020
“Screening of SARS-CoV-2 peptide pools revealed that the nucleocapsid (N) protein induced an immunodominant response in HLA-B7+ COVID-19-recovered individuals that was also detectable in unexposed donors…the basis of selective T cell cross-reactivity for an immunodominant SARS-CoV-2 epitope and its homologs from seasonal coronaviruses, suggesting long-lasting protective immunity.”
“COVID-19 patients showed strong T cell responses, with up to 25% of all CD8+ lymphocytes specific to SARS-CoV-2-derived immunodominant epitopes, derived from ORF1 (open reading frame 1), ORF3, and Nucleocapsid (N) protein. A strong signature of T cell activation was observed in COVID-19 patients, while no T cell activation was seen in the ‘non-exposed’ and ‘high exposure risk’ healthy donors.”
“Systematic review and pooled analysis of clinical studies to date, that (1) specifically compare the protection of natural immunity in the COVID-recovered versus the efficacy of full vaccination in the COVID-naive, and (2) the added benefit of vaccination in the COVID-recovered, for prevention of subsequent SARS-CoV-2 infection…review demonstrates that natural immunity in COVID-recovered individuals is, at least, equivalent to the protection afforded by full vaccination of COVID-naïve populations. There is a modest and incremental relative benefit to vaccination in COVID-recovered individuals; however, the net benefit is marginal on an absolute basis.”
“The third key finding is that previous infections with SARS-CoV-2 were significantly protective against all studied outcomes, with an effectiveness of 93% (87 to 96%) seen against symptomatic infections, 89% (57 to 97%) against moderate to severe disease and 85% (-9 to 98%) against supplemental oxygen therapy. All deaths occurred in previously uninfected individuals. This was higher protection than that offered by single or double dose vaccine.”
ChAdOx1nCoV-19 effectiveness during an unprecedented surge in SARS CoV-2 infections, Satwik, 2021
“Explore the impact of T cells and to quantify the protective levels of the immune responses…5,340 Moscow residents were evaluated for the antibody and cellular immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 and monitored for COVID-19 up to 300 days. The antibody and cellular responses were tightly interconnected, their magnitude inversely correlated with infection probability. Similar maximal level of protection was reached by individuals positive for both types of responses and by individuals with antibodies alone…T cells in the absence of antibodies provided an intermediate level of protection.”
“SARS-CoV-2 infection produces B-cell responses that continue to evolve for at least one year. During that time, memory B cells express increasingly broad and potent antibodies that are resistant to mutations found in variants of concern.”
Anti- SARS-CoV-2 Receptor Binding Domain Antibody Evolution after mRNA Vaccination, Cho, 2021
“Impact of pre-existing antibodies to human coronaviruses causing common cold (HCoVs), is essential to understand protective immunity to COVID-19 and devise effective surveillance strategies…after the peak response, anti-spike antibody levels increase from ~150 days post-symptom onset in all individuals (73% for IgG), in the absence of any evidence of re-exposure. IgG and IgA to HCoV are significantly higher in asymptomatic than symptomatic seropositive individuals. Thus, pre-existing cross-reactive HCoVs antibodies could have a protective effect against SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 disease.”
“Findings suggest that SARS-CoV-2 reactive T-cells are likely to be present in many individuals because of prior exposure to flu and CMV viruses.”
“117 blood samples were collected from 70 COVID-19 inpatients and convalescent patients…the neutralizing antibodies were detected even at the early stage of disease, and a significant response was shown in convalescent patients.”
“Reports that antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 are not maintained in the serum following recovery from the virus have caused alarm…the absence of specific antibodies in the serum does not necessarily mean an absence of immune memory.”
Not just antibodies: B cells and T cells mediate immunity to COVID-19, Cox, 2020
“Although T cell durability to SARS-CoV-2 remains to be determined, current data and past experience from human infection with other CoVs demonstrate the potential for persistence and the capacity to control viral replication and host disease, and importance in vaccine-induced protection.”
T cell immunity to SARS-CoV-2 following natural infection and vaccination, DiPiazza, 2020
“Multiple studies have shown loss of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2-specific (SARS-CoV-2-specific) antibodies over time after infection, raising concern that humoral immunity against the virus is not durable. If immunity wanes quickly, millions of people may be at risk for reinfection after recovery from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). However, memory B cells (MBCs) could provide durable humoral immunity even if serum neutralizing antibody titers decline… data indicate that most SARS-CoV-2-infected individuals develop S-RBD-specific, class-switched rMBCs that resemble germinal center-derived B cells induced by effective vaccination against other pathogens, providing evidence for durable B cell-mediated immunity against SARS-CoV-2 after mild or severe disease.”
Durable SARS-CoV-2 B cell immunity after mild or severe disease, Ogega, 2021
“All memory T cell responses detected target the SARS-Co-V structural proteins… these responses were found to persist up to 11 years post-infection… knowledge of the persistence of SARS-specific cellular immunity targeting the viral structural proteins in SARS-recovered individuals is important.”
“The adaptive immune system is important for control of most viral infections. The three fundamental components of the adaptive immune system are B cells (the source of antibodies), CD4+ T cells, and CD8+ T cells…a picture has begun to emerge that reveals that CD4+ T cells, CD8+ T cells, and neutralizing antibodies all contribute to control of SARS-CoV-2 in both non-hospitalized and hospitalized cases of COVID-19.”
“These findings provide support for the prognostic value of early functional SARS-CoV-2-specific T cells with important implications in vaccine design and immune monitoring.”
“A multiplexed peptide-MHC tetramer approach was used to screen 408 SARS-CoV-2 candidate epitopes for CD8+ T cell recognition in a cross-sectional sample of 30 coronavirus disease 2019 convalescent individuals…Modelling demonstrated a coordinated and dynamic immune response characterized by a decrease in inflammation, increase in neutralizing antibody titer, and differentiation of a specific CD8+ T cell response. Overall, T cells exhibited distinct differentiation into stem cell and transitional memory states (subsets), which may be key to developing durable protection.”
SARS-CoV-2–specific CD8+ T cell responses in convalescent COVID-19 individuals, Kared, 2021
“Most importantly, we demonstrate that infection generates both IgG and IgG MBCs against the novel receptor binding domain and the conserved S2 subunit of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. Thus, even if antibody levels wane, long-lived MBCs remain to mediate rapid antibody production. Our study results also suggest that SARS-CoV-2 infection strengthens pre-existing broad coronavirus protection through S2-reactive antibody and MBC formation.”
“A cross-sectional study to assess the virus-specific antibody and memory T and B cell responses in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients up to 343 days after infection…found that approximately 90% of patients still have detectable immunoglobulin (Ig)G antibodies against spike and nucleocapsid proteins and neutralizing antibodies against pseudovirus, whereas ~60% of patients had detectable IgG antibodies against receptor-binding domain and surrogate virus-neutralizing antibodies…SARS-CoV-2-specific IgG+ memory B cell and interferon-γ-secreting T cell responses were detectable in more than 70% of patients…coronavirus 2-specific immune memory response persists in most patients approximately 1 year after infection, which provides a promising sign for prevention from reinfection and vaccination strategy.”
“A prospective, longitudinal analysis of COVID-19 convalescent plasma donors at multiple time points over an 11-month period to determine how circulating antibody levels change over time following natural infection… data suggest that immunological memory is acquired in most individuals infected with SARS-CoV-2 and is sustained in a majority of patients.”
“A long-term high rate of seropositivity persists after natural measles infection. By contrast, it decreases over time after vaccination. Similarly, the concentrations of antibodies in persons with measles history persist for a longer time at a higher level than in vaccinated persons.”
“The expansion of these rare types of memory B cells may explain why most people did not become severely ill, even in the absence of pre-existing protective antibody titers”…found “extraordinarily” powerful antibodies in the blood of nine people who caught the swine flu naturally and recovered from it.”…unlike antibodies elicited by annual influenza vaccinations, most neutralizing antibodies induced by pandemic H1N1 infection were broadly cross-reactive against epitopes in the hemagglutinin (HA) stalk and head domain of multiple influenza strains. The antibodies were from cells that had undergone extensive affinity maturation.”
“Reinfection was identified in 0.7% (n = 63, 95% confidence interval [CI]: .5%–.9%) during follow-up of 9119 patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection.”
“Interrogated antibody and antigen-specific memory B cells over time in 33 SARS-CoV-2 naïve and 11 SARS-CoV-2 recovered subjects… In SARS-CoV-2 recovered individuals, antibody and memory B cell responses were significantly boosted after the first vaccine dose; however, there was no increase in circulating antibodies, neutralizing titers, or antigen-specific memory B cells after the second dose. This robust boosting after the first vaccine dose strongly correlated with levels of pre-existing memory B cells in recovered individuals, identifying a key role for memory B cells in mounting recall responses to SARS-CoV-2 antigens.”
“Six studies have reported T cell reactivity against SARS-CoV-2 in 20% to 50% of people with no known exposure to the virus… in a study of donor blood specimens obtained in the US between 2015 and 2018, 50% displayed various forms of T cell reactivity to SARS-CoV-2… Researchers are also confident that they have made solid inroads into ascertaining the origins of the immune responses. “Our hypothesis, of course, was that it’s so called ‘common cold’ coronaviruses, because they’re closely related…we have really shown that this is a true immune memory and it is derived in part from common cold viruses.”
Covid-19: Do many people have pre-existing immunity? Doshi, 2020
“We demonstrate the presence of pre-existing humoral immunity in uninfected and unexposed humans to the new coronavirus. SARS-CoV-2 S-reactive antibodies were readily detectable by a sensitive flow cytometry-based method in SARS-CoV-2-uninfected individuals and were particularly prevalent in children and adolescents.”
Pre-existing and de novo humoral immunity to SARS-CoV-2 in humans, Ng, 2020
“We detected SARS-CoV-2-specific CD4+ and CD8+ T cells in 100% and 80% of COVID-19 patients, respectively. We also detected low levels of SARS-CoV-2-reactive T-cells in 20% of the healthy controls, not previously exposed to SARS-CoV-2 and indicative of cross-reactivity due to infection with ‘common cold’ coronaviruses.”
“T cell reactivity against SARS-CoV-2 was observed in unexposed people…it is speculated that this reflects T cell memory to circulating ‘common cold’ coronaviruses.”
Pre-existing immunity to SARS-CoV-2: the knowns and unknowns, Sette, 2020
“Memory T-cell immunity against S-OIV is present in the adult population and that such memory is of similar magnitude as the pre-existing memory against seasonal H1N1 influenza…the conservation of a large fraction of T-cell epitopes suggests that the severity of an S-OIV infection, as far as it is determined by susceptibility of the virus to immune attack, would not differ much from that of seasonal flu.”
“The 2009 H1N1 pandemic (pH1N1) provided a unique natural experiment to determine whether cross-reactive cellular immunity limits symptomatic illness in antibody-naive individuals… Higher frequencies of pre-existing T cells to conserved CD8 epitopes were found in individuals who developed less severe illness, with total symptom score having the strongest inverse correlation with the frequency of interferon-γ (IFN-γ)(+) interleukin-2 (IL-2)(-) CD8(+) T cells (r = -0.6, P = 0.004)… CD8(+) T cells specific to conserved viral epitopes correlated with cross-protection against symptomatic influenza.”
Cellular immune correlates of protection against symptomatic pandemic influenza, Sridhar, 2013
“Precise role of T cells in human influenza immunity is uncertain. We conducted influenza infection studies in healthy volunteers with no detectable antibodies to the challenge viruses H3N2 or H1N1…mapped T cell responses to influenza before and during infection…found a large increase in influenza-specific T cell responses by day 7, when virus was completely cleared from nasal samples and serum antibodies were still undetectable. Pre-existing CD4+, but not CD8+, T cells responding to influenza internal proteins were associated with lower virus shedding and less severe illness. These CD4+ cells also responded to pandemic H1N1 (A/CA/07/2009) peptides and showed evidence of cytotoxic activity.”
“No increase in cross-reactive antibody response to the novel influenza A (H1N1) virus was observed among adults aged >60 years. These data suggest that receipt of recent (2005–2009) seasonal influenza vaccines is unlikely to elicit a protective antibody response to the novel influenza A (H1N1) virus.”
“Memory T cells that are specific for one virus can become activated during infection with an unrelated heterologous virus, and might have roles in protective immunity and immunopathology. The course of each infection is influenced by the T-cell memory pool that has been laid down by a host’s history of previous infections, and with each successive infection, T-cell memory to previously encountered agents is modified.”
No one is naive: the significance of heterologous T-cell immunity, Welsh, 2002
“Individuals belonging to households with an index COVID-19 patient, reported symptoms of COVID-19 but discrepant serology results… All index patients recovered from a mild COVID-19. They all developed anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies and a significant T cell response detectable up to 69 days after symptom onset. Six of the eight contacts reported COVID-19 symptoms within 1 to 7 days after the index patients but all were SARS-CoV-2 seronegative… exposure to SARS-CoV-2 can induce virus-specific T cell responses without seroconversion. T cell responses may be more sensitive indicators of SARS-Co-V-2 exposure than antibodies…results indicate that epidemiological data relying only on the detection of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies may lead to a substantial underestimation of prior exposure to the virus.”
“It important to note that antibodies are incomplete predictors of protection. After vaccination or infection, many mechanisms of immunity exist within an individual not only at the antibody level, but also at the level of cellular immunity. It is known that SARS-CoV-2 infection induces specific and durable T-cell immunity, which has multiple SARS-CoV-2 spike protein targets (or epitopes) as well as other SARS-CoV-2 protein targets. The broad diversity of T-cell viral recognition serves to enhance protection to SARS-CoV-2 variants, with recognition of at least the alpha (B.1.1.7), beta (B.1.351), and gamma (P.1) variants of SARS-CoV-2. Researchers have also found that people who recovered from SARS-CoV infection in 2002–03 continue to have memory T cells that are reactive to SARS-CoV proteins 17 years after that outbreak. Additionally, a memory B-cell response to SARS-CoV-2 evolves between 1·3 and 6·2 months after infection, which is consistent with longer-term protection.”
Protective immunity after recovery from SARS-CoV-2 infection, Kojima, 2021
“This ‘super antibody’ for COVID fights off multiple coronaviruses…12 antibodies…that was involved in the study, isolated from people who had been infected with either SARS-CoV-2 or its close relative SARS-CoV.”
This ‘super antibody’ for COVID fights off multiple coronaviruses, Kwon, 2021
“Taken together, our data indicate sustained humoral immunity in recovered patients who suffer from symptomatic COVID-19, suggesting prolonged immunity.”
“Whereas anti-CoV-2 IgA antibodies rapidly decayed, IgG antibodies remained relatively stable up to 115 days PSO in both biofluids. Importantly, IgG responses in saliva and serum were correlated, suggesting that antibodies in the saliva may serve as a surrogate measure of systemic immunity.”
“Early appearance, multi-specificity and functionality of SARS-CoV-2-specific T cells are associated with accelerated viral clearance and with protection from severe COVID-19.”
“Found a significantly faster decay in naïve vaccinees compared to recovered patients suggesting that the serological memory following natural infection is more robust compared to vaccination. Our data highlights the differences between serological memory induced by natural infection vs. vaccination.”
The longitudinal kinetics of antibodies in COVID-19 recovered patients over 14 months, Eyran, 2020
“Followed a population of urban Massachusetts HCWs…we found no re-infection among those with prior COVID-19, contributing to 74,557 re-infection-free person-days, adding to the evidence base for the robustness of naturally acquired immunity.”
“Compared the vaccination induced immune response profile with that of natural infection, evaluating thereby if individuals infected during the first wave retained virus specific immunity…the overall immune response resulting from natural infection in and around Kolkata is not only to a certain degree better than that generated by vaccination, especially in the case of the Delta variant, but cell mediated immunity to SARS-CoV-2 also lasts for at least ten months after the viral infection.”
Immunity to COVID-19 in India through vaccination and natural infection, Sarraf, 2021
“Evaluated humoral immune responses in 69 children and adolescents with asymptomatic or mild symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection. We detected robust IgM, IgG, and IgA antibody responses to a broad array of SARS-CoV-2 antigens at the time of acute infection and 2 and 4 months after acute infection in all participants. Notably, these antibody responses were associated with virus-neutralizing activity that was still detectable 4 months after acute infection in 94% of children. Moreover, antibody responses and neutralizing activity in sera from children and adolescents were comparable or superior to those observed in sera from 24 adults with mild symptomatic infection. Taken together, these findings indicate that children and adolescents with mild or asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection generate robust and durable humoral immune responses that can likely contribute to protection from reinfection.”
“Symptomatic adult COVID-19 cases consistently show peripheral T cell lymphopenia, which positively correlates with increased disease severity, duration of RNA positivity, and non-survival; while asymptomatic and paediatric cases display preserved counts. People with severe or critical disease generally develop more robust, virus-specific T cell responses. T cell memory and effector function has been demonstrated against multiple viral epitopes, and, cross-reactive T cell responses have been demonstrated in unexposed and uninfected adults, but the significance for protection and susceptibility, respectively, remains unclear.”
T cell response to SARS-CoV-2 infection in humans: A systematic review, Shrotri, 2021
“Reinfections had 90% lower odds of resulting in hospitalization or death than primary infections. Four reinfections were severe enough to lead to acute care hospitalization. None led to hospitalization in an ICU, and none ended in death. Reinfections were rare and were generally mild, perhaps because of the primed immune system after primary infection.”
Severity of SARS-CoV-2 Reinfections as Compared with Primary Infections, Abu-Raddad, 2021
“SARS-CoV-2 reinfection can occur but is a rare phenomenon suggestive of protective immunity against reinfection that lasts for at least a few months post primary infection.”
“Analyzed 28,578 sequenced SARS-CoV-2 samples from individuals with known immune status obtained through national community testing in the Netherlands from March to August 2021. They found evidence for an “increased risk of infection by the Beta (B.1.351), Gamma (P.1), or Delta (B.1.617.2) variants compared to the Alpha (B.1.1.7) variant after vaccination. No clear differences were found between vaccines. However, the effect was larger in the first 14-59 days after complete vaccination compared to 60 days and longer. In contrast to vaccine-induced immunity, no increased risk for reinfection with Beta, Gamma or Delta variants relative to Alpha variant was found in individuals with infection-induced immunity.”
“Studies did not address whether prior infection is protective in the absence of a detectable humoral immune response. Patients with primary or secondary antibody deficiency syndrome and reduced or absent B cells can recover from COVID-19…Although there have been few mechanistic studies, preliminary data show that such individuals generate striking T-cell immune responses against SARS-CoV-2 peptide pools…SARS-CoV-2 specific T cell immune responses but not neutralising antibodies are associated with reduced disease severity suggesting the immune system may have considerable redundancy or compensation following COVID-19…our results add to the emerging evidence that detectable serum antibody may be an incomplete marker of protection against reinfection. This could have implications for public health and policy-making, for example if using seroprevalence data to assess population immunity, or if serum antibody levels were to be taken as official evidence of immunity – a minority of truly immune patients have no detectable antibody and could be disadvantaged as a result. Our findings highlight the need for further studies of immune correlates of protection from infection with SARS-CoV-2, which may in turn enhance development of effective vaccines and treatments.”
“With a total of 835,792 Israelis known to have recovered from the virus, the 72 instances of reinfection amount to 0.0086% of people who were already infected with COVID…By contrast, Israelis who were vaccinated were 6.72 times more likely to get infected after the shot than after natural infection, with over 3,000 of the 5,193,499, or 0.0578%, of Israelis who were vaccinated getting infected in the latest wave.”
Natural infection vs vaccination: Which gives more protection?, Rosenberg, 2021
“Nonetheless, fully vaccinated individuals with breakthrough infections have peak viral load similar to unvaccinated cases and can efficiently transmit infection in household settings, including to fully vaccinated contacts.”
“The neutralizing activity of vaccine-elicited antibodies was more targeted to the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein compared to antibodies elicited by natural infection. However, within the RBD, binding of vaccine-elicited antibodies was more broadly distributed across epitopes compared to infection-elicited antibodies. This greater binding breadth means that single RBD mutations have less impact on neutralization by vaccine sera compared to convalescent sera. Therefore, antibody immunity acquired by natural infection or different modes of vaccination may have a differing susceptibility to erosion by SARS-CoV-2 evolution.”
“Limited knowledge is available on the relationship between antigen-specific immune responses and COVID-19 disease severity. We completed a combined examination of all three branches of adaptive immunity at the level of SARS-CoV-2-specific CD4+ and CD8+ T cell and neutralizing antibody responses in acute and convalescent subjects. SARS-CoV-2-specific CD4+ and CD8+ T cells were each associated with milder disease. Coordinated SARS-CoV-2-specific adaptive immune responses were associated with milder disease, suggesting roles for both CD4+ and CD8+ T cells in protective immunity in COVID-19. Notably, coordination of SARS-CoV-2 antigen-specific responses was disrupted in individuals ≥ 65 years old. Scarcity of naive T cells was also associated with aging and poor disease outcomes. A parsimonious explanation is that coordinated CD4+ T cell, CD8+ T cell, and antibody responses are protective, but uncoordinated responses frequently fail to control disease, with a connection between aging and impaired adaptive immune responses to SARS-CoV-2.”
“Protection from reinfection decreases with time since previous infection, but is, nevertheless, higher than that conferred by vaccination with two doses at a similar time since the last immunity-conferring event.”
Protection and waning of natural and hybrid COVID-19 immunity, Goldberg, 2021
“The protective effect of prior SARS-CoV-2 infection on re-infection is high and similar to the protective effect of vaccination.”
“Compare SARS-CoV-2 spike receptor binding domain (S1-RBD)-specific primary MBCs that form in response to infection or a single mRNA vaccination. Both primary MBC populations have similar frequencies in the blood and respond to a second S1-RBD exposure by rapidly producing plasmablasts with an abundant immunoglobulin (Ig)A+ subset and secondary MBCs that are mostly IgG+ and cross-react with the B.1.351 variant. However, infection-induced primary MBCs have better antigen-binding capacity and generate more plasmablasts and secondary MBCs of the classical and atypical subsets than do vaccine-induced primary MBCs. Our results suggest that infection-induced primary MBCs have undergone more affinity maturation than vaccine-induced primary MBCs and produce more robust secondary responses.”
“Optimal immune responses furnish long-lasting (durable) antibodies protective across dynamically mutating viral variants (broad). To assess robustness of mRNA vaccine-induced immunity…compared antibody durability and breadth after SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination…While vaccination delivered robust initial virus-specific antibodies with some cross-variant coverage, pre-variant SARS-CoV-2 infection-induced antibodies, while modest in magnitude, showed highly stable long-term antibody dynamics…Differential antibody durability trajectories favored COVID-19-recovered subjects with dual memory B cell features of greater early antibody somatic mutation and cross-coronavirus reactivity…illuminating an infection-mediated antibody breadth advantage and an anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody durability-enhancing function conferred by recalled immunity.”
Differential antibody dynamics to SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination, Chen, 2021
Non-technical articles
“vaccinating people who have had covid-19 would seem to offer nothing or very little to benefit, logically leaving only harms—both the harms we already know about as well as those still unknown… The real risk in vaccinating people who have had covid-19 is of doing more harm than good.’ says Christine Stabell Benn, vaccinologist and professor in global health at the University of Southern Denmark.”
Vaccinating people who have had covid-19: why doesn’t natural immunity count in the US? The bmj | BMJ 2021;374:n2101 | Sept. 2021
“Individuals with a known history of SARS-CoV-2 infection or previous diagnosis of Covid-19 were excluded from Moderna’s and Pfizer’s trials… why were there five times more participants excluded in the vaccine group [compared to the placebo group]? ... A rough estimate of vaccine efficacy against developing covid-19 symptoms, with or without a positive PCR test result, would be a relative risk reduction of 19%... far below the 50% effectiveness threshold for authorization set by regulators… Addressing the many open questions about these trials requires access to the raw trial data. But no company seems to have shared data with any third party at this point.” [the FDA has now suggested they will withhold the raw data for 55 years(!)]
From: Pfizer and Moderna’s “95% effective” vaccines—we need more details and the raw data. The bmj - Opinion. Jan. 2021.
“The realization that natural immunity – which pertains now to perhaps half of the US population and billions around the world – is effective in providing protection should have a dramatic effect on vaccine mandates.”
From: Natural Immunity and Covid-19: Twenty-Nine Scientific Studies to Share with Employers, Health Officials, and Politicians. Brownstone Institute, Oct 2021
“existing immunity should be assessed before any vaccination, via an accurate, dependable, and reliable antibody test (or T cell immunity test) or be based on documentation of prior infection (a previous positive PCR or antigen test). Such would be evidence of immunity that is equal to that of vaccination and the immunity should be provided the same societal status as any vaccine-induced immunity.”
From: 81 Research Studies Affirm Naturally Acquired Immunity to Covid-19: Documented, Linked, and Quoted. Brownstone Institute, Oct 2021
“it is overwhelmingly clear that vaccinated people without natural immunity are far more likely to contract and spread covid than are unvaccinated people with natural immunity. There is not a shred of evidence from real world populations to the contrary.”
From: Updated Letter to Institutions Re: Natural Immunity. Charles Brewer’s newsletter, substack.com, Aug 2021.
“Not allowing a mere anti-nucleocapsid antibody test [indicating prior infection and recovery] or any record of any positive PCR test to serve as equal proof of immunity to a vaccination card is scientifically unjustifiable.” [from perhaps the best detailed comparison of studies - including the vaccine trials conducted by the vaccine manufacturers - comparing natural immunity vs. vaccine-induced immunity].
From: Natural Immunity Vs. Vaccination. Chris Masterjohn’s blog. October 2021.
“Requiring the vaccine in people who are already immune with natural immunity has no scientific support.”
From: Why COVID-19 Vaccines Should Not Be Required for All Americans. US News & World Report. Aug. 2021.
“The incorrect hypothesis that natural immunity is unreliable has resulted in the loss of thousands of American lives, avoidable vaccine complications, and damaged the credibility of public health officials. Given the recent mandate announcement by the White House, it would be good for our public health leaders to show humility by acknowledging that the hypothesis they repeatedly trumpeted was not only wrong, but it may be harmful.” From: Natural immunity to covid is powerful. Policymakers seem afraid to say so. The Washington Post. September 15, 2021.
From: https://twitter.com/MonicaGandhi9/status/1373510909868470272
This is a good video which discusses natural immunity vs. vaccine-induced immunity: Suspended Medical Ethics Professor Aaron Kheriaty on Vaccine Coercion, Risks, and Natural Immunity
Another interesting video presentation is:
Winning the War Against Therapeutic Nihilism & Trusted Treatments vs Untested Novel Therapies by Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPH. Presented at the 78th Annual Meeting of Association of American Physicians and Surgeons on October 2, 2021. Dr. McCullough has over 500 peer-reviewed publications with over 100,000 (!) citations according to google scholar. Nevertheless his lecture was removed from youtube for “violating community standards''. It is available at the link above. The discussion about vaccinating those with natural immunity starts at 48m58s.
Dr. McCullough also did an updated podcast on covid-related topics including natural immunity on the Joe Rogan Experience, available on Spotify (video) or vimeo (audio).
"Had COVID? You’ll probably make antibodies for a lifetime."
Had COVID? You’ll probably make antibodies for a lifetime. Nature, May 2021.
Having SARS-CoV-2 once confers much greater immunity than a vaccine. Science, Aug 2021.
[Lasting immunity found after recovery from COVID-19.] (https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/lasting-immunity-found-after-recovery-covid-19) NIH, January 2021.
Natural immunity vs Covid-19 vaccine-induced immunity – Marc Girardot of PANDA. Biznews.com, June 2021.
Pre-existing immunity to Covid-19 – Marc Girardot of PANDA unpacks its evolution. Biznews.com, August 2021.
The Risk of Vaccinated COVID Transmission Is Not Low. Scientific American, December 16, 2021.
“...what they [COVID vaccines] can't do anymore is prevent transmission." -- CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky (quoted by CNN)
We were told two weeks to flatten the curve, so our hospitals would not get overwhelmed. Looking back, how did we do?
- Notice the period before Covid hit. We can use that as a baseline.
- Notice the uptick and then fall just before the hospitals were emptied. The surge had already peaked and was falling back just as the measures were being put in place (March 12 was when the lockdowns started)
- Notice the steps taken to prepare for the supposed coming covid wave. THe hospitals were briefly emptied down to 60% capacity levels.
- Notice the absence of a surge in covid hospitalizations after they were emptied. The wave never came.
- How were they able to empty the hospitals down to 60% so rapidly, seemingly almost overnight Partly removing the incoming waves by cancelling surgeries but they also moved sick people back to their LTC/nursing homes and caused a huge wave of sudden deaths there.
- Notice that ever since that period, they are no longer running at 100% capacity but rather hover around 80% yet the mainstream media was constantly moaning about overwhelmed hospitals and tired front line workers.
- Notice the lack of surges yet we were constantly told another wave coming, our hospitals are overrun, our staff are exhausted...
[TODO: Compare Covid mandate timeline in ontario as a reference] 2021-03-12 - Complete lockdown throught Ontario
OST fraud on hospital data
https://twitter.com/ClimateAudit/status/1480199107633459203
today's disinformation from Ontario Science Table. Local to me, but prob representative of science advice elsewhere. Left- ACTUAL hospitalization data by vax status. Right - hospitalization infographic from Science Table. Look at difference, pic.twitter.com/ULXNORcfkP
— Stephen McIntyre (@ClimateAudit) January 9, 2022
(in case the link eventually breaks)
vaccinated are leading ICU occupancy
(although I don't believe this is population adjusted)
Fh-tOkXWQAEpH4L.jpeg
When I started following this story back in January, I was quite alarmed at what the Communist Party of China was doing to their people. From the numbers that were coming out of the National Health Commission of the PRC, it really looked like this was far more serious than the annual flu season. The death rate seemed to be 20-25x higher which is in itself scary. Since then, it has become very obvious that we can not trust their numbers.
I think it is fair to compare Covid-19 to the season flu because that is something we are familiar with and it gives us something to relate to. Not saying it is the same as the seasonal flu, just saying it is worth comparing. So how does it compare?
Since Oct 2019 USA CDC reports the following numbers for Pneumonia and Influenza:
38M-54M flu illnesses
18M-26M flu medical visits
400k-730k flu hospitalizations (compared to 900k in 2018)
24k-62k flu deaths (compared to 80k deaths in 2018)
We have to be cautious in referencing number as there can be a large variation from one year to the next and periodically there is a very large swelling. We also have to be careful with average numbers because in a normalized distribution, that is more like the mid-point in a range of variation, and half the time it is more than average and half the time it is less than average. I don't think it is meaningful to use average. And now I am seeing even a more vague term such as "expected". What does that even mean? It never seems to be defined whenever it is used.
Italy is currently showing 19/100k deaths for C19 with 88% having 1 or more comorbidities. In previous flu seasons, Italy showed 11.6 – 41.2 deaths/100k for all age groups. Since we know that the majority of the C19 deaths are those > 65 years old, it is useful to know that during recent flu seasons, mortality rate of those in age >65 for Europe was 147.1/100k and for Italy was 292.8/100k.
So, my own opinion is that Covid-19 is not nearly as bad as I thought it was back in January. I think it compares very well to seasonal flu and will likely be with us for years.(UPDATE) Scott Gottlieb just tweeted that he thinks the final deaths in USA for this season will be 80k-160k. Which puts it at as bad as the last few years to as bad as 1965 making it a 50 year flu. Its numbers seem to be comparable as well but probably slightly higher but certainly not an order of magnitude higher. The flu season has many viruses and we have added another one to it. The good that will come out of this is that we may have the will to finally do something about the common cold. We are all learning about community spread that will help us in future seasons. Personally, I am not hopeful for a vaccine but there are some promising cures and this has certainly helped propel the science forward.
Association between the 2008–09 Seasonal Influenza Vaccine and Pandemic H1N1 Illness during Spring–Summer 2009: Four Observational Studies from Canada "Prior receipt of 2008–09 TIV was associated with increased risk of medically attended pH1N1 illness during the spring–summer 2009 in Canada... However, estimates from all four studies (which included about 1,200 laboratory-confirmed pH1N1 cases and 1,500 controls) showed that prior recipients of the 2008–09 TIV had approximately 1.4–2.5 times increased chances of developing pH1N1 illness that needed medical attention during the spring–summer of 2009 compared to people who had not received the TIV."" https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1000258
respitory virus
New Canadian studies suggest seasonal flu shot increased H1N1 risk
Reassessing the Global Mortality Burden of the 1918 Influenza Pandemic:
World population estimates
Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed the World:
Experiments Upon Volunteers to Determine the Cause and Mode of Spread of Influenza, Boston, November and December, 1918:
Influenza virus-related critical illness: pathophysiology and epidemiology
Probable limited person-to-person transmission of highly pathogenic avian influenza A (H5N1) virus in China
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(08)60493-6/fulltext
Detection and Isolation of Airborne Influenza A H3N2 Virus Using a Sioutas Personal Cascade Impactor Sampler
Viable influenza A virus in airborne particles expelled during coughs versus exhalations
Transmission routes of respiratory viruses among humans
Exposure to Influenza Virus Aerosols During Routine Patient Care
R. Edgar Hope-simpson: The Transmission of Epidemic Influenza
https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-4899-2385-1#aboutBook
Why have three long-running Cochrane Reviews on influenza vaccines been stabilised?
Vaccines for preventing influenza in the elderly
Older adults receiving the influenza vaccine may have a lower risk of influenza (from 6% to 2.4%), and probably have a lower risk of ILI compared with those who do not receive a vaccination over the course of a single influenza season (from 6% to 3.5%). We are uncertain how big a difference these vaccines will make across different seasons. Very few deaths occurred, and no data on hospitalisation were reported. No cases of pneumonia occurred in one study that reported this outcome. We do not have enough information to assess harms relating to fever and nausea in this population.
https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD004876.pub4/full
The seasonal wave seems to be over in most places so it is time to revisit the numbers and see how our understanding has changed from our preliminary perspective on this pandemic. Remember, we were told that millions would die, and that we had to do our part to flatten the curve so that the health facilities would not be overrun. It was also just supposed to be for two weeks.
The average age of Canadians who died of COVID-19 in 2020 is 83.8 years, according to Statistics Canada, yet the Average life expectancy is only 76.5 years.
Excess deaths in Canada
Deaths in Canada for Covid-19 are reported to be 8,947 for the 18th month period ending Aug 5, 2020. 90% of those deaths were people 70 and older. 82% of deaths occurred in Long Term Health Care facilities. In the province of Quebec it was 93%. Annual deaths in Canada are approximately 300,000 so Covid-19 deaths are just under 3% of that.
Leading causes of Death, Canada 2018 (for 12 month period)
| Rank | Cause of death | Total deaths |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cancer | 79,536 |
| 2 | Heart disease | 53,134 |
| 3 | Cerebrovascular diseases | 13,480 |
| 4 | Accidents | 13,290 |
| 5 | Chronic lower respiratory diseases | 12,998 |
| 6 | Flu and pneumonia | 8,511 |
| 7 | Diabetes | 6,794 |
| 8 | Alzheimer’s disease | 6,429 |
| 9 | Suicide | 3,811 |
| 10 | Kidney diseases | 3,615 |
Lets look at all-cause mortality, as provided by StatsCan.
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/200724/dq200724a-eng.htm
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/71-607-x/71-607-x2020017-eng.htm
The following graphs, taken from their website, show the number of deaths in each week for the past five years. For comparison, each year is superimposed over top of each other, and each year is represented by a different colour. The current year is represented by a dashed line.
Even though these graphs were just released, I have no explanation for why the covid period ends in May. I am going to assume it is just due to a processing delay of the raw information. This is my biggest problem with StatsCan - they are not transparent about what they are doing.
Looking first at children and young adults, we are unable to see anything unusual in this year compared to prior years. It is actually difficult to see the Covid period because it is right in the middle of previous years. There does not appear to be any excess deaths caused by COVID19 for this age group. Why are we involving children in this pandemic scare when they are no more affected by it than they would be by the seasonal flu.
Children and young adults
Adults
Deaths for adults is also lower than normal, which is actually quite surprising.
Senior Citizens
Only with the senior citizens do we see a noticeable but temporary increase in the number of deaths, followed by a decrease below normal level. So how will this average out over the year?
Elderly
Finally, looking at the elderly, we clearly see a bump in the number of deaths for a few weeks. Even then, April deaths are below January deaths, and as we have already seen, the rise above normal is followed by a fall below normal which means the year will average out as, well, average.
Just a reminder. The typical government response to the alarming rise in covid deaths at the beginning of the first wave was to draw down the number of patients in the hospitals by sending them back to the LTC's. A number of people have noted that this caused problems for the other residents of the LTC and resulted in a wave of additional deaths.
2024 UPDATE
Stats Canada now have an update to the graphics that were released back in 2020 that worth looking at.
Excess mortality in Ontario (2020)
Statscan has also provided graphs for all-cause mortality for a number of the provinces. Here is what Ontario looks like.
Ontario deaths in 2020-compared to previous 5 years
You can find it here. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/200724/g-a004-eng.htm
Sure there was a bump that began two weeks after the lockdowns (Mar 12) but it was short lived and compares similarly with the previous 5 years. It has all ages combined so once again, it is mostly those over 70. Also, from May onward, deaths are below normal compared to the previous 5 years.
US deaths as reported by the CDC
Majority of deaths occurred in Long Term Care Facilities
This is such an important point because the media and politicians try to portray the risk being equal across the population. But this is simply not the case. In Quebec, deaths in Long Term Care facilities accounted for 93% of deaths which is pretty much all of them. The remaining 7% were not in LTC but also had comorbidities, which means they were already dying of something else. Remember, 100% had at least one comorbidity. 99% had two or more. What most people do not realize, or may have forgotten is that people that go into Long Term Care Facilities are already sick and frail. The average lifespan of a resident in an LTC is 18 months. Which means the attrition rate is 30% of the population of the LTC, each year. In addition, deaths are very seasonal with half of them occuring during the flu season, which amounts to 15% of the population of the LTC. This is exactly the same death rate that occurred during the initial Covid outbreak. Most LTC's experienced about 15% of deaths. And remember, this is an average across all LTC's. Some had higher percentages and some had lower. 15% is the average. This is why we are saying Covid mortality is pretty much in keeping with influenza mortality and why StatsCan are not reporting any excess deaths.
How Canada compares to other countries
In terms of deaths per million, Canada ranks around 184 as shown by worldometers.info with 237 deaths per million. That means 183 countries did better than us. This puts us in the middle of it's peer of first world countries. (100-1000 deaths/million) which I have covered in another blog post. In comparison, USA ranks 205 with 479 deaths per million, more than twice Canada’s rate. Sweden, which I will get back to shortly, came in at 202, pretty close to Canada. A question that really needs to get answered is why are we in a cluster that is 10x - 100x more severe than countries that are in the single-digit cluster:
Clustering
| cluster (deaths/million) | cohorts (sample) |
|---|---|
| 100-1000 | Belgium, Peru, Spain, Italy |
| 10-100 | Canada, US, Sweden, Norway, Netherlands |
| 1-10 | China, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan |
We still have no explanation offered why the proportion of deaths varies so widely from one country to the next. Is it due to their methods of counting? Are they healthier? Do they have less old people?
The death rate for the Seasonal flu around .1% of those infected, which is called the IFR. With Covid19, we are seeing a 3.6% case fatality rate, which is referred to as CFR. However, cases refer only to those that have been tested, not to the overall population, which is something that is used in the seasonal flu calculations, so you can not compare those two numbers without making an adjustment to determine how many people were actually infected. You have to compare Covid IFR to Seasonal flue IFR if you want to do a comparison.
Canada has tested just over 10% of the population with 4.5 million tests out of a population of 37 million which resulted in 120 thousand cases. Could this be extrapolated to the whole population to derive an estimated 1 million cases? That would put the case death rate at .36 if it is true. Difficult to estimate the total number of those infected, but we do know most are asymptomatic so it is probably a high number.
The Covid19 pandemic can also be compared to the last three flu pandemics during the last century. But remember, the population has doubled a few times during this period so past events would have to be scaled up to as much as 3x to compare to today’s population, and these numbers have not been population adjusted. For example the 25-50 million deaths a hundred years ago would be equivalent to 75-150 million proportional deaths given hat the size of our current population has grown 3 times during that period.
- 1918 flu pandemic – 25-50 million deaths
- 1957 flu pandemic – 1-2 million deaths with death rate around .67
- 1968 flu pandemic – 1-4 million deaths. Immunity from 1957 carried forward
- 2020 Covid19 pandemic – 0.75 million deaths.
Note. When I first wrote this, Aug 2020 the first wave of deaths was over. Since then the mainstream media continues to report that as many as 50 million have died from covid. Is that actually true?
Children
Children are doing better in 2020 than previous years.
Here is an interesting graph from EUROMOMO for children all across Europe. 2020 is shown to be lower than the previous 5 years for this age group.
EUROMOMO: Deaths for children are lower than previous years in all of Europe
All Cause Mortality Canada Historic
All Cause Mortality (UPDATED Dec 2022)
USA experience (CDC)
https://data.cdc.gov/NCHS/Provisional-COVID-19-Death-Counts-by-Sex-Age-and-S/9bhg-hcku
April, 2022 edition of The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal, entitled, “The Role of Children and Young People in the Transmission of SARS-CoV-2,” concluded: “there is NO convincing evidence to date, 2 years into the pandemic, that children are key drivers of the pandemic.
Childhood covid-19 disease burden, however, is not exclusively defined by mortality; it includes morbidity. To that end, I have begun analyzing hospitalization datasets I purchased from RIDOH for all hospitalizations in our state, organized by what are called ICD diagnostic codes, for calendar years 2019, 2020, and 2021, comparing influenza and covid-19 hospitalizations among children, up to age 18. My initial analyses are summarized in the tables provided, below.
What is the evidence that masking of children in schools can reduce their risk for contracting and transmitting covid-19 regardless of their very low risk for clinically significant disease?
Notes and References
These are new items of interest for this topic that I have recently discovered but not yet explored.
death < 14 days
contrary argument on vaers
C19 “vaccine” - the cause of causes
https://coquindechien.substack.com/p/c19-vaccine-the-cause-of-causes?s=r
New-onset autoimmune phenomena post-COVID-19 vaccination
US covid test positivity rates by vaccination status
yet another set of evidence that vaccines are not working to stop covid spread and that boosters wind up making you more likely to contract covid in the long run
https://boriquagato.substack.com/p/us-covid-test-positivity-rates-by?s=r
Myocarditis, Pulmonary Hemorrhage, and Extensive Myositis with Rhabdomyolysis 12 Days After First Dose of Pfizer-BioNTech BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 Vaccine: A Case Report
Case Report: Anti-NF186+ CIDP After Receiving the Inactivated Vaccine for Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP)
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fneur.2022.838222/full
A Case Series of Ketoacidosis After Coronavirus Disease 2019 Vaccination in Patients With Type 1 Diabetes
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fendo.2022.840580/full
A Public Health Emergency in Canada: The Rate of Change in Excess Millennial Deaths Can’t Be Explained by a Sudden Rush of Suicides, Overdoses, Cancers
https://lionessofjudah.substack.com/p/a-public-health-emergency-in-canada?s=r
- Data shows that it has a 12% efficacy rate for the first 7 days and then falls to less than 1%
- No human clinical trials to determine if it is safe for pregnant or breastfeeding. Instead they concluded it was safe from testin on 44 rats
- Only 6% of the subjects are accounted for. Where are the 25,70 patients missing from their data?
- lipid nanoparticles were found to be distributed throughout the body, in the liver, ovaries and other vital organs 48 hours after injection.
Pfizer’s Documents
On What Basis Did Pfizer Claim 95%?
The 95% VE (vaccine efficacy) arises from the 8 confirmed Covid cases from the vaccinated group (from at least 7 days after Dose 2) compared to 162 from the placebo group.
A key section buried within this document, which alludes to possibly the real VE at that time, is the following damning data below (found on page 42).
Among 3410 total cases of suspected but unconfirmed COVID-19 in the overall study population,
1594 occurred in the vaccine group vs.
1816 in the placebo group.
Suspected COVID-19 cases that occurred within 7 days after any vaccination were
409 in the vaccine group vs.
287 in the placebo group.
These were people showing actual symptoms. If you calculate the VE from these numbers, it’s a staggeringly low 12%. VE is calculated by dividing the difference between the case numbers in the placebo and vaccine groups, by the case number in the placebo group x 100 = VE of 12 %
This is a vast climb down from the 95% VE generated by easily manipulated PCR tests, conducted in a central lab chosen by Pfizer. What’s even more alarming, is that this data was known almost a year and a half ago, by the FDA themselves.
On What Basis Did Pfizer Claim 95%?
By Sonia ElijahSonia Elijah May 3, 2022
https://brownstone.org/articles/on-what-basis-did-pfizer-claim-95/
Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee Meeting
December 10, 2020 FDA Briefing Document Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine
genotoxicity and carcinogenicity
https://jessicar.substack.com/p/genotoxicity-and-carcinogenicity?utm_medium=email&s=r
https://phmpt.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/125742_S1_M2_24_nonclinical-overview.pdf
Genotoxicity is descriptive of chemically-induced damage to genetic information that causes mutations1 (a change in DNA sequence) and may lead to cancer.
Carcinogenicity is descriptive of the ability to induce cancer and remember, a carcinogen does not necessarily have to be a toxin!
Cancer is any disease in which normal cells are damaged and the balance of growth versus death/removal is skewed toward growth.
Secondary pharmacodynamics involve studies on the mode of action and/or effects of a substance not related to its desired therapeutic target and safety pharmacology involves studies that investigate the potential undesirable pharmacodynamic effects of a substance on physiological functions in relation to exposure in the therapeutic range and above.
Genetic mutations can result from DNA copying mistakes that occur during cell division, from exposure to ionizing radiation (like from medical X-rays - physical mutagen), exposure to chemicals (chemical mutagens) or even by infection by viruses like Human Papillomavirus (HPV)2 (biological mutagen).
Mechanistically, we found that the spike protein localizes in the nucleus and inhibits DNA damage repair by impeding key DNA repair protein BRCA1 and 53BP1 recruitment to the damage site.
There were NO genotoxicity or carcinogencinity studies done in the context of the COVID-19 modified RNA LNP-based products during pre-market testing. - Because the genetic material and the fats were not expected to have genotoxic, carcinogenic or tumorigenic potential.
“Carcinogenicity testing is generally not considered necessary to support the development and licensure of vaccine products for infectious diseases (WHO, 2005).”
These products are called ‘vaccines’ but they are based on a completely different model - a completely different platform and delivery system, so they cannot be deemed non-mutagenic until proven otherwise with studies.
2.4.4.4. Genotoxicity
No genotoxicity studies are planned for BNT162b2 as the components
of the vaccine construct are lipids and RNA and are not expected
to have genotoxic potential (WHO, 2005).
2.4.4.5. Carcinogenicity
Carcinogenicity studies with BNT162b2 have not been conducted as the
components of the vaccine construct are lipids and RNA and are not expected to
have carcinogenic or tumorigenic potential. Carcinogenicity testing is
generally not considered necessary to support the development and licensure
of vaccine products for infectious diseases
(WHO, 2005).
No phototoxicity, dependence, metabolite, impurity and ‘other’ studies were also not conducted in the context the BNT162b2 product. No Safety Pharmacology, no Secondary Pharmacodynamic and no Pharmacodynamic Drug Interaction studies were done.
Source reference for more than 170 citations on mask ineffectiveness and mask harms. Studies include non-surgical as well as hospital settings. It actually surprised me that they had carried out clinical trials on masks in a hospital setting, then determined that they were ineffective in controlling the spread of influenza but yet continue to use masks anyway. Obviously placing more importance on appearance than effectiveness. One can not help but wonder where else have they done this.
It would be difficult to construct a filter that traps all viruses yet still allow the passage of air. From an engineering standpoint these face masks do not make sense.
The other aspect that is getting little attention is there may be less understood about transmission that we think we know. Some people get infected, some don't. So obviously other factors may be at play that are more important to determining infection. There is ample evidence of people already having it but there immune system gets compromised which results in the breakout of symptoms. The so called opportunistic infection. Infections from bacteria can be isolated and proven to be viable but we lack this with viruses. No one seems to have isolated the Sars-Cov2 virus or proven its viability.
EFFECTIVENESS
[1] “Infection with SARS-CoV-2 occurred in 42 participants recommended masks (1.8%) and 53 control participants (2.1%). The between-group difference was −0.3 percentage point (95% CI, −1.2 to 0.4 percentage point; P = 0.38) (odds ratio, 0.82 [CI, 0.54 to 1.23]; P = 0.33). Multiple imputation accounting for loss to follow-up yielded similar results…the recommendation to wear surgical masks to supplement other public health measures did not reduce the SARS-CoV-2 infection rate among wearers by more than 50% in a community with modest infection rates, some degree of social distancing, and uncommon general mask use.”
[2] “Our study showed that in a group of predominantly young male military recruits, approximately 2% became positive for SARS-CoV-2, as determined by qPCR assay, during a 2-week, strictly enforced quarantine. Multiple, independent virus strain transmission clusters were identified…all recruits wore double-layered cloth masks at all times indoors and outdoors.”
[SARS-CoV-2 Transmission among Marine Recruits during Quarantine, Letizia, 2020] (https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2029717)
[3] “There is low certainty evidence from nine trials (3507 participants) that wearing a mask may make little or no difference to the outcome of influenza‐like illness (ILI) compared to not wearing a mask (risk ratio (RR) 0.99, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.82 to 1.18. There is moderate certainty evidence that wearing a mask probably makes little or no difference to the outcome of laboratory‐confirmed influenza compared to not wearing a mask (RR 0.91, 95% CI 0.66 to 1.26; 6 trials; 3005 participants)…the pooled results of randomised trials did not show a clear reduction in respiratory viral infection with the use of medical/surgical masks during seasonal influenza.”
Physical interventions to interrupt or reduce the spread of respiratory viruses, Jefferson, 2020 https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD006207.pub5/full
[4] A cluster-randomized trial of community-level mask promotion in rural Bangladesh from November 2020 to April 2021 (N=600 villages, N=342,126 adults. Heneghan writes: “In a Bangladesh study, surgical masks reduced symptomatic COVID infections by between 0 and 22 percent, while the efficacy of cloth masks led to somewhere between an 11 percent increase to a 21 percent decrease. Hence, based on these randomized studies, adult masks appear to have either no or limited efficacy.”
The Impact of Community Masking on COVID-19: A Cluster-Randomized Trial in Bangladesh, Abaluck, 2021 Heneghan et al. https://www.poverty-action.org/sites/default/files/publications/Mask_RCT____Symptomatic_Seropositivity_083121.pdf
[5] “The available clinical evidence of facemask efficacy is of low quality and the best available clinical evidence has mostly failed to show efficacy, with fourteen of sixteen identified randomized controlled trials comparing face masks to no mask controls failing to find statistically significant benefit in the intent-to-treat populations. Of sixteen quantitative meta-analyses, eight were equivocal or critical as to whether evidence supports a public recommendation of masks, and the remaining eight supported a public mask intervention on limited evidence primarily on the basis of the precautionary principle.”
Evidence for Community Cloth Face Masking to Limit the Spread of SARS-CoV-2: A Critical Review, Liu/CATO, 2021
https://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/2021-11/working-paper-64.pdf
[6] “Evidence from 14 randomized controlled trials of these measures did not support a substantial effect on transmission of laboratory-confirmed influenza…none of the household studies reported a significant reduction in secondary laboratory-confirmed influenza virus infections in the face mask group…the overall reduction in ILI or laboratory-confirmed influenza cases in the face mask group was not significant in either studies.”
Nonpharmaceutical Measures for Pandemic Influenza in Nonhealthcare Settings—Personal Protective and Environmental Measures, CDC/Xiao, 2020 https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26/5/19-0994_article
[7] “We agree that the data supporting the effectiveness of a cloth mask or face covering are very limited. We do, however, have data from laboratory studies that indicate cloth masks or face coverings offer very low filter collection efficiency for the smaller inhalable particles we believe are largely responsible for transmission, particularly from pre- or asymptomatic individuals who are not coughing or sneezing…though we support mask wearing by the general public, we continue to conclude that cloth masks and face coverings are likely to have limited impact on lowering COVID-19 transmission, because they have minimal ability to prevent the emission of small particles, offer limited personal protection with respect to small particle inhalation, and should not be recommended as a replacement for physical distancing or reducing time in enclosed spaces with many potentially infectious people.”
CIDRAP: Masks-for-all for COVID-19 not based on sound data, Brosseau, 2020 https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2020/04/commentary-masks-all-covid-19-not-based-sound-data
[8] “We know that wearing a mask outside health care facilities offers little, if any, protection from infection. Public health authorities define a significant exposure to Covid-19 as face-to-face contact within 6 feet with a patient with symptomatic Covid-19 that is sustained for at least a few minutes (and some say more than 10 minutes or even 30 minutes). The chance of catching Covid-19 from a passing interaction in a public space is therefore minimal. In many cases, the desire for widespread masking is a reflexive reaction to anxiety over the pandemic…The calculus may be different, however, in health care settings. First and foremost, a mask is a core component of the personal protective equipment (PPE) clinicians need when caring for symptomatic patients with respiratory viral infections, in conjunction with gown, gloves, and eye protection…universal masking alone is not a panacea. A mask will not protect providers caring for a patient with active Covid-19 if it’s not accompanied by meticulous hand hygiene, eye protection, gloves, and a gown. A mask alone will not prevent health care workers with early Covid-19 from contaminating their hands and spreading the virus to patients and colleagues. Focusing on universal masking alone may, paradoxically, lead to more transmission of Covid-19 if it diverts attention from implementing more fundamental infection-control measures.”
Universal Masking in Hospitals in the Covid-19 Era, Klompas/NEJM, 2020 https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2006372
[9] “This systematic review found limited evidence that the use of masks might reduce the risk of viral respiratory infections. In the community setting, a possible reduced risk of influenza-like illness was found among mask users. In health care workers, the results show no difference between N95 masks and surgical masks on the risk of confirmed influenza or other confirmed viral respiratory infections, although possible benefits from N95 masks were found for preventing influenza-like illness or other clinical respiratory infections. Surgical masks might be superior to cloth masks but data are limited to 1 trial.”
Masks for prevention of viral respiratory infections among health care workers and the public: PEER umbrella systematic review, Dugré, 2020 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32675098/#affiliation-1
[10] “Facemask use provided a non-significant protective effect (OR = 0.53; 95% CI 0.16–1.71; I2 = 48%) against 2009 pandemic influenza infection.”
Effectiveness of personal protective measures in reducing pandemic influenza transmission: A systematic review and meta-analysis, Saunders-Hastings, 2017 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1755436516300858?via=ihub
[11] “Nevertheless, high-efficiency masks, such as the KN95, still offer substantially higher apparent filtration efficiencies (60% and 46% for R95 and KN95 masks, respectively) than the more commonly used cloth (10%) and surgical masks (12%), and therefore are still the recommended choice in mitigating airborne disease transmission indoors.”
Experimental investigation of indoor aerosol dispersion and accumulation in the context of COVID-19: Effects of masks and ventilation, Shah, 2021 https://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/5.0057100
“Exercising with facemasks may reduce available Oxygen and increase air trapping preventing substantial carbon dioxide exchange. The hypercapnic hypoxia may potentially increase acidic environment, cardiac overload, anaerobic metabolism and renal overload, which may substantially aggravate the underlying pathology of established chronic diseases. Further contrary to the earlier thought, no evidence exists to claim the facemasks during exercise offer additional protection from the droplet transfer of the virus.”
Exercise with facemask; Are we handling a devil’s sword?- A physiological hypothesis, Chandrasekaran, 2020 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32590322/
“Following the commissioning of a new suite of operating rooms air movement studies showed a flow of air away from the operating table towards the periphery of the room. Oral microbial flora dispersed by unmasked male and female volunteers standing one metre from the table failed to contaminate exposed settle plates placed on the table. The wearing of face masks by non-scrubbed staff working in an operating room with forced ventilation seems to be unnecessary.”
Surgical face masks in modern operating rooms–a costly and unnecessary ritual?, Mitchell, 1991 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1680906/
“By intention-to-treat analysis, facemask use did not seem to be effective against laboratory-confirmed viral respiratory infections (odds ratio [OR], 1.4; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.9 to 2.1, p = 0.18) nor against clinical respiratory infection (OR, 1.1; 95% CI, 0.9 to 1.4, p = 0.40).”
Facemask against viral respiratory infections among Hajj pilgrims: A challenging cluster-randomized trial, Alfelali, 2020 https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0240287
- Simple respiratory protection–evaluation of the filtration performance of cloth masks and common fabric materials against 20-1000 nm size particles, Rengasamy, 2010
“Results obtained in the study show that common fabric materials may provide marginal protection against nanoparticles including those in the size ranges of virus-containing particles in exhaled breath.”
- Respiratory performance offered by N95 respirators and surgical masks: human subject evaluation with NaCl aerosol representing bacterial and viral particle size range, Lee, 2008 “The study indicates that N95 filtering facepiece respirators may not achieve the expected protection level against bacteria and viruses. An exhalation valve on the N95 respirator does not affect the respiratory protection; it appears to be an appropriate alternative to reduce the breathing resistance.”
- Aerosol penetration and leakage characteristics of masks used in the health care industry, Weber, 1993 “We conclude that the protection provided by surgical masks may be insufficient in environments containing potentially hazardous sub-micrometer-sized aerosols.”
- Disposable surgical face masks for preventing surgical wound infection in clean surgery, Vincent, 2016 “We included three trials, involving a total of 2106 participants. There was no statistically significant difference in infection rates between the masked and unmasked group in any of the trials…from the limited results it is unclear whether the wearing of surgical face masks by members of the surgical team has any impact on surgical wound infection rates for patients undergoing clean surgery.”
- Disposable surgical face masks: a systematic review, Lipp, 2005 “From the limited results it is unclear whether wearing surgical face masks results in any harm or benefit to the patient undergoing clean surgery.”
- Comparison of the Filter Efficiency of Medical Nonwoven Fabrics against Three Different Microbe Aerosols, Shimasaki , 2018 “We conclude that the filter efficiency test using the phi-X174 phage aerosol may overestimate the protective performance of nonwoven fabrics with filter structure compared to that against real pathogens such as the influenza virus.”
- The use of masks and respirators to preventtransmission of influenza: a systematic review of thescientific evidence21) The use of masks and respirators to prevent transmission of influenza: a systematic review of the scientific evidence, Bin-Reza, 2012 The use of masks and respirators to preventtransmission of influenza: a systematic review of thescientific evidence“None of the studies established a conclusive relationship between mask/respirator use and protection against influenza infection. Some evidence suggests that mask use is best undertaken as part of a package of personal protection especially hand hygiene.”
- Facial protection for healthcare workers during pandemics: a scoping review, Godoy, 2020 “Compared with surgical masks, N95 respirators perform better in laboratory testing, may provide superior protection in inpatient settings and perform equivalently in outpatient settings. Surgical mask and N95 respirator conservation strategies include extended use, reuse or decontamination, but these strategies may result in inferior protection. Limited evidence suggests that reused and improvised masks should be used when medical-grade protection is unavailable.”
- Assessment of Proficiency of N95 Mask Donning Among the General Public in Singapore, Yeung, 2020 “These findings support ongoing recommendations against the use of N95 masks by the general public during the COVID-19 pandemic.5 N95 mask use by the general public may not translate into effective protection but instead provide false reassurance. Beyond N95 masks, proficiency among the general public in donning surgical masks needs to be assessed.”
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2766070
- Evaluating the efficacy of cloth facemasks in reducing particulate matter exposure, Shakya, 2017 “Standard N95 mask performance was used as a control to compare the results with cloth masks, and our results suggest that cloth masks are only marginally beneficial in protecting individuals from particles<2.5 μm.”
- Use of surgical face masks to reduce the incidence of the common cold among health care workers in Japan: a randomized controlled trial, Jacobs, 2009 “Face mask use in health care workers has not been demonstrated to provide benefit in terms of cold symptoms or getting colds.”
- N95 Respirators vs Medical Masks for Preventing Influenza Among Health Care Personnel, Radonovich, 2019 “Among outpatient health care personnel, N95 respirators vs medical masks as worn by participants in this trial resulted in no significant difference in the incidence of laboratory-confirmed influenza.”
- Does Universal Mask Wearing Decrease or Increase the Spread of COVID-19?, Watts up with that? 2020 “A survey of peer-reviewed studies shows that universal mask wearing (as opposed to wearing masks in specific settings) does not decrease the transmission of respiratory viruses from people wearing masks to people who are not wearing masks.”
- Masking: A Careful Review of the Evidence, Alexander, 2021 “In fact, it is not unreasonable at this time to conclude that surgical and cloth masks, used as they currently are, have absolutely no impact on controlling the transmission of Covid-19 virus, and current evidence implies that face masks can be actually harmful.”
https://www.aier.org/article/masking-a-careful-review-of-the-evidence/
- Community and Close Contact Exposures Associated with COVID-19 Among Symptomatic Adults ≥18 Years in 11 Outpatient Health Care Facilities — United States, July 2020, Fisher, 2020 Reported characteristics of symptomatic adults ≥18 years who were outpatients in 11 US academic health care facilities and who received positive and negative SARS-CoV-2 test results (N = 314)* — United States, July 1–29, 2020, revealed that 80% of infected persons wore face masks almost all or most of the time.
- Impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions against COVID-19 in Europe: a quasi-experimental study, Hunter, 2020
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.01.20088260v1.full.pdf
Face masks in public was not associated with reduced incidence.
- Masking lack of evidence with politics, CEBM, Heneghan, 2020 “It would appear that despite two decades of pandemic preparedness, there is considerable uncertainty as to the value of wearing masks. For instance, high rates of infection with cloth masks could be due to harms caused by cloth masks, or benefits of medical masks. The numerous systematic reviews that have been recently published all include the same evidence base so unsurprisingly broadly reach the same conclusions.”
https://www.cebm.net/covid-19/masking-lack-of-evidence-with-politics/
- Transmission of COVID-19 in 282 clusters in Catalonia, Spain: a cohort study, Marks, 2021 “We observed no association of risk of transmission with reported mask usage by contacts, with the age or sex of the index case, or with the presence of respiratory symptoms in the index case at the initial study visit.”
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(20)30985-3/fulltext
- Non-pharmaceutical public health measures for mitigating the risk and impact of epidemic and pandemic influenza, WHO, 2020
https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/329438/9789241516839-eng.pdf?ua=1
“Ten RCTs were included in the meta-analysis, and there was no evidence that face masks are effective in reducing transmission of laboratory-confirmed influenza.”
- The Strangely Unscientific Masking of America, Younes, 2020 “One report reached its conclusion based on observations of a “dummy head attached to a breathing simulator.” Another analyzed use of surgical masks on people experiencing at least two symptoms of acute respiratory illness. Incidentally, not one of these studies involved cloth masks or accounted for real-world mask usage (or misusage) among lay people, and none established efficacy of widespread mask-wearing by people not exhibiting symptoms. There was simply no evidence whatsoever that healthy people ought to wear masks when going about their lives, especially outdoors.”
https://www.aier.org/article/the-strangely-unscientific-masking-of-america/
- Facemasks and similar barriers to prevent respiratory illness such as COVID-19: A rapid systematic review, Brainard, 2020 “31 eligible studies (including 12 RCTs). Narrative synthesis and random-effects meta-analysis of attack rates for primary and secondary prevention in 28 studies were performed. Based on the RCTs we would conclude that wearing facemasks can be very slightly protective against primary infection from casual community contact, and modestly protective against household infections when both infected and uninfected members wear facemasks. However, the RCTs often suffered from poor compliance and controls using facemasks.”
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.01.20049528v1
- The Year of Disguises, Koops, 2020 “The healthy people in our society should not be punished for being healthy, which is exactly what lockdowns, distancing, mask mandates, etc. do…Children should not be wearing face coverings. We all need constant interaction with our environments and that is especially true for children. This is how their immune system develops. They are the lowest of the low-risk groups. Let them be kids and let them develop their immune systems… The “Mask Mandate” idea is a truly ridiculous, knee-jerk reaction and needs to be withdrawn and thrown in the waste bin of disastrous policy, along with lockdowns and school closures. You can vote for a person without blindly supporting all of their proposals!”
- Open Schools, Covid-19, and Child and Teacher Morbidity in Sweden, Ludvigsson, 2020 “1,951,905 children in Sweden (as of December 31, 2019) who were 1 to 16 years of age, were examined…social distancing was encouraged in Sweden, but wearing face masks was not…No child with Covid-19 died.”
- Double-Masking Benefits Are Limited, Japan Supercomputer Finds, Reidy, 2021 “Wearing two masks offers limited benefits in preventing the spread of droplets that could carry the coronavirus compared to one well-fitted disposable mask, according to a Japanese study that modeled the dispersal of droplets on a supercomputer.”
- Physical interventions to interrupt or reduce the spread of respiratory viruses. Part 1 – Face masks, eye protection and person distancing: systematic review and meta-analysis, Jefferson, 2020 “There was insufficient evidence to provide a recommendation on the use of facial barriers without other measures. We found insufficient evidence for a difference between surgical masks and N95 respirators and limited evidence to support effectiveness of quarantine.”
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.30.20047217v2
- Should individuals in the community without respiratory symptoms wear facemasks to reduce the spread of COVID-19?, NIPH, 2020 “Non-medical facemasks include a variety of products. There is no reliable evidence of the effectiveness of non-medical facemasks in community settings. There is likely to be substantial variation in effectiveness between products. However, there is only limited evidence from laboratory studies of potential differences in effectiveness when different products are used in the community.”
- Is a mask necessary in the operating theatre?, Orr, 1981 “It would appear that minimum contamination can best be achieved by not wearing a mask at all but operating in silence. Whatever its relation to contamination, bacterial counts, or the dissemination of squames, there is no direct evidence that the wearing of masks reduces wound infection.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2493952/pdf/annrcse01509-0009.pdf
- The surgical mask is a bad fit for risk reduction, Neilson, 2016 “As recently as 2010, the US National Academy of Sciences declared that, in the community setting, “face masks are not designed or certified to protect the wearer from exposure to respiratory hazards.” A number of studies have shown the inefficacy of the surgical mask in household settings to prevent transmission of the influenza virus.”
- Facemask versus No Facemask in Preventing Viral Respiratory Infections During Hajj: A Cluster Randomised Open Label Trial, Alfelali, 2019 “Facemask use does not prevent clinical or laboratory-confirmed viral respiratory infections among Hajj pilgrims.”
- Facemasks in the COVID-19 era: A health hypothesis, Vainshelboim, 2021 “The existing scientific evidences challenge the safety and efficacy of wearing facemask as preventive intervention for COVID-19. The data suggest that both medical and non-medical facemasks are ineffective to block human-to-human transmission of viral and infectious disease such SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19, supporting against the usage of facemasks. Wearing facemasks has been demonstrated to have substantial adverse physiological and psychological effects. These include hypoxia, hypercapnia, shortness of breath, increased acidity and toxicity, activation of fear and stress response, rise in stress hormones, immunosuppression, fatigue, headaches, decline in cognitive performance, predisposition for viral and infectious illnesses, chronic stress, anxiety and depression.”
- The use of masks and respirators to prevent transmission of influenza: a systematic review of the scientific evidence, Bin-Reza, 2011 “None of the studies established a conclusive relationship between mask/respirator use and protection against influenza infection. Some evidence suggests that mask use is best undertaken as part of a package of personal protection especially hand hygiene.”
- Are Face Masks Effective? The Evidence., Swiss Policy Research, 2021 “Most studies found little to no evidence for the effectiveness of face masks in the general population, neither as personal protective equipment nor as a source control.”
- Postoperative wound infections and surgical face masks: A controlled study, Tunevall, 1991 “These results indicate that the use of face masks might be reconsidered. Masks may be used to protect the operating team from drops of infected blood and from airborne infections, but have not been proven to protect the patient operated by a healthy operating team.”
- Mask mandate and use efficacy in state-level COVID-19 containment, Guerra, 2021 “Mask mandates and use are not associated with slower state-level COVID-19 spread during COVID-19 growth surges.”
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.18.21257385v1
- Twenty Reasons Mandatory Face Masks are Unsafe, Ineffective and Immoral, Manley, 2021 “A CDC-funded review on masking in May 2020 came to the conclusion: “Although mechanistic studies support the potential effect of hand hygiene or face masks, evidence from 14 randomized controlled trials of these measures did not support a substantial effect on transmission of laboratory-confirmed influenza… None of the household studies reported a significant reduction in secondary laboratory-confirmed influenza virus infections in the face mask group.” If masks can’t stop the regular flu, how can they stop SAR-CoV-2?”
- A cluster randomised trial of cloth masks compared with medical masks in healthcare workers, MacIntyre, 2015 “First RCT of cloth masks, and the results caution against the use of cloth masks. This is an important finding to inform occupational health and safety. Moisture retention, reuse of cloth masks and poor filtration may result in increased risk of infection…the rates of all infection outcomes were highest in the cloth mask arm, with the rate of ILI statistically significantly higher in the cloth mask arm (relative risk (RR)=13.00, 95% CI 1.69 to 100.07) compared with the medical mask arm. Cloth masks also had significantly higher rates of ILI compared with the control arm. An analysis by mask use showed ILI (RR=6.64, 95% CI 1.45 to 28.65) and laboratory-confirmed virus (RR=1.72, 95% CI 1.01 to 2.94) were significantly higher in the cloth masks group compared with the medical masks group. Penetration of cloth masks by particles was almost 97% and medical masks 44%.”
- Horowitz: Data from India continues to blow up the ‘Delta’ fear narrative, Blazemedia, 2021 “Rather than proving the need to sow more panic, fear, and control over people, the story from India — the source of the “Delta” variant — continues to refute every current premise of COVID fascism…Masks failed to stop the spread there.”
- An outbreak caused by the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant (B.1.617.2) in a secondary care hospital in Finland, May 2021, Hetemäki, 2021 Reporting on a nosocomial hospital outbreak in Finland, Hetemäli et al. observed that “both symptomatic and asymptomatic infections were found among vaccinated health care workers, and secondary transmission occurred from those with symptomatic infections despite use of personal protective equipment.”
https://www.eurosurveillance.org/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2021.26.30.2100636
- Nosocomial outbreak caused by the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant in a highly vaccinated population, Israel, July 2021, Shitrit, 2021 In a hospital outbreak investigation in Israel, Shitrit et al. observed “high transmissibility of the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant among twice vaccinated and masked individuals.” They added that “this suggests some waning of immunity, albeit still providing protection for individuals without comorbidities.” Again, despite use of personal protective equipment.
https://www.eurosurveillance.org/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2021.26.39.2100822#html_fulltext
- 47 studies confirm ineffectiveness of masks for COVID and 32 more confirm their negative health effects, Lifesite news staff, 2021 “No studies were needed to justify this practice since most understood viruses were far too small to be stopped by the wearing of most masks, other than sophisticated ones designed for that task and which were too costly and complicated for the general public to properly wear and keep changing or cleaning. It was also understood that long mask wearing was unhealthy for wearers for common sense and basic science reasons.”
- Are EUA Face Masks Effective in Slowing the Spread of a Viral Infection?, Dopp, 2021 The vast evidence shows that masks are ineffective.
- CDC Study finds overwhelming majority of people getting coronavirus wore masks, Boyd/Federalist, 2021 “A Centers for Disease Control report released in September shows that masks and face coverings are not effective in preventing the spread of COVID-19, even for those people who consistently wear them.”
- Most Mask Studies Are Garbage, Eugyppius, 2021 “The other kind of study, the proper kind, would be a randomised controlled trial. You compare the rates of infection in a masked cohort against rates of infection in an unmasked cohort. Here things have gone much, much worse for mask brigade. They spent months trying to prevent the publication of the Danish randomised controlled trial, which found that masks do zero. When that paper finally squeaked into print, they spent more months trying desperately to poke holes in it. You could feel their boundless relief when the Bangladesh study finally appeared to save them in early September. Every last Twitter blue-check could now proclaim that Science Shows Masks Work. Such was their hunger for any scrap of evidence to prop up their prior convictions, that none of them noticed the sad nature of the Science in question. The study found a mere 10% reduction in seroprevalence among the masked cohort, an effect so small that it fell within the confidence interval. Even the study authors couldn’t exclude the possibility that masks in fact do zero.”
https://eugyppius.substack.com/p/most-mask-studies-are-garbage
- Using face masks in the community: first update, ECDC, 2021 “No high-quality evidence in favor of face masks and recommended their use only based on the ‘precautionary principle.”
- Do physical measures such as hand-washing or wearing masks stop or slow down the spread of respiratory viruses?, Cochrane, 2020 “Seven studies took place in the community, and two studies in healthcare workers. Compared with wearing no mask, wearing a mask may make little to no difference in how many people caught a flu-like illness (9 studies; 3507 people); and probably makes no difference in how many people have flu confirmed by a laboratory test (6 studies; 3005 people). Unwanted effects were rarely reported, but included discomfort.”
- Mouth-nose protection in public: No evidence of effectiveness, Thieme/ Kappstein, 2020 “The use of masks in public spaces is questionable simply because of the lack of scientific data. If one also considers the necessary precautions, masks must even be considered a risk of infection in public spaces according to the rules known from hospitals… If masks are worn by the population, the risk of infection is potentially increased, regardless of whether they are medical masks or whether they are so-called community masks designed in any way. If one considers the precautionary measures that the RKI as well as the international health authorities have pronounced, all authorities would even have to inform the population that masks should not be worn in public spaces at all. Because no matter whether it is a duty for all citizens or voluntarily borne by the citizens who want it for whatever reason, it remains a fact that masks can do more harm than good in public.”
https://www.thieme-connect.com/products/ejournals/html/10.1055/a-1174-6591
- US mask guidance for kids is the strictest across the world, Skelding, 2021 “Kids need to see faces,” Jay Bhattacharya, a professor of medicine at Stanford University, told The Post. Youngsters watch people’s mouths to learn to speak, read and understand emotions, he said.“We have this idea that this disease is so bad that we must adopt any means necessary to stop it from spreading,” he said. “It’s not that masks in schools have no costs. They actually do have substantial costs.”
https://nypost.com/2021/10/02/us-mask-guidance-for-kids-is-the-strictest-across-the-world/
- Masking young children in school harms language acquisition, Walsh, 2021 “This is important because children and/or students do not have the speech or language ability that adults have — they are not equally able and the ability to see the face and especially the mouth is critical to language acquisition which children and/or students are engaged in at all times. Furthermore, the ability to see the mouth is not only essential to communication but also essential to brain development.”
- The Case Against Masks for Children, Makary, 2021 “It’s abusive to force kids who struggle with them to sacrifice for the sake of unvaccinated adults… Do masks reduce Covid transmission in children? Believe it or not, we could find only a single retrospective study on the question, and its results were inconclusive. Yet two weeks ago the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sternly decreed that 56 million U.S. children and adolescents, vaccinated or not, should cover their faces regardless of the prevalence of infection in their community. Authorities in many places took the cue to impose mandates in schools and elsewhere, on the theory that masks can’t do any harm. That isn’t true. Some children are fine wearing a mask, but others struggle. Those who have myopia can have difficulty seeing because the mask fogs their glasses. (This has long been a problem for medical students in the operating room.) Masks can cause severe acne and other skin problems. The discomfort of a mask distracts some children from learning. By increasing airway resistance during exhalation, masks can lead to increased levels of carbon dioxide in the blood. And masks can be vectors for pathogens if they become moist or are used for too long.”
https://thehighwire.com/videos/do-masks-protect-kids-from-covid/
- Face Covering Mandates, Peavey, 2021 “Face Covering Mandates And Why They AREN’T Effective.”
https://rumble.com/vkyutx-face-covering-mandates-and-why-they-arent-effective.html
- Do masks work? A Review of the evidence, Anderson, 2021 “In truth, the CDC’s, U.K.’s, and WHO’s earlier guidance was much more consistent with the best medical research on masks’ effectiveness in preventing the spread of viruses. That research suggests that Americans’ many months of mask-wearing has likely provided little to no health benefit and might even have been counterproductive in preventing the spread of the novel coronavirus.”
https://www.city-journal.org/do-masks-work-a-review-of-the-evidence
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Most face masks won’t stop COVID-19 indoors, study warns, Anderer, 2021 “New research reveals that cloth masks filter just 10% of exhaled aerosols, with many people not wearing coverings that fit their face properly.” https://www.studyfinds.org/face-masks-wont-stop-covid-indoors/
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How face masks and lockdowns failed/the face mask folly in retrospect, Swiss Policy Research, 2021 “Mask mandates and lockdowns have had no discernible impact.”
- CDC Releases School COVID Transmission Study But Buries One of the Most Damning Parts, Davis, 2021 “The 21% lower incidence in schools that required mask use among students was not statistically significant compared with schools where mask use was optional… With tens of millions of American kids headed back to school in the fall, their parents and political leaders owe it to them to have a clear-sighted, scientifically rigorous discussion about which anti-COVID measures actually work and which might put an extra burden on vulnerable young people without meaningfully or demonstrably slowing the spread of the virus…that a masking requirement of students failed to show independent benefit is a finding of consequence and great interest.”
- World Health Organization internal meeting, COVID-19 – virtual press conference – 30 March 2020, 2020 “This is a question on Austria. The Austrian Government has a desire to make everyone wear a mask who’s going into the shops. I understood from our previous briefings with you that the general public should not wear masks because they are in short supply. What do you say about the new Austrian measures?… I’m not specifically aware of that measure in Austria. I would assume that it’s aimed at people who potentially have the disease not passing it to others. In general WHO recommends that the wearing of a mask by a member of the public is to prevent that individual giving the disease to somebody else. We don’t generally recommend the wearing to masks in public by otherwise well individuals because it has not been up to now associated with any particular benefit.”
- Face masks to prevent transmission of influenza virus: a systematic review, Cowling, 2010 “Review highlights the limited evidence base supporting the efficacy or effectiveness of face masks to reduce influenza virus transmission.”“None of the studies reviewed showed a benefit from wearing a mask, in either HCW or community members in households (H).”
- Effectiveness of N95 respirators versus surgical masks in protecting health care workers from acute respiratory infection: a systematic review and meta-analysis, Smith, 2016 “Although N95 respirators appeared to have a protective advantage over surgical masks in laboratory settings, our meta-analysis showed that there were insufficient data to determine definitively whether N95 respirators are superior to surgical masks in protecting health care workers against transmissible acute respiratory infections in clinical settings.”
- Effectiveness of Masks and Respirators Against Respiratory Infections in Healthcare Workers: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis, Offeddu, 2017 “We found evidence to support universal medical mask use in hospital settings as part of infection control measures to reduce the risk of CRI and ILI among HCWs. Overall, N95 respirators may convey greater protection, but universal use throughout a work shift is likely to be less acceptable due to greater discomfort…Our analysis confirms the effectiveness of medical masks and respirators against SARS. Disposable, cotton, or paper masks are not recommended. The confirmed effectiveness of medical masks is crucially important for lower-resource and emergency settings lacking access to N95 respirators. In such cases, single-use medical masks are preferable to cloth masks, for which there is no evidence of protection and which might facilitate transmission of pathogens when used repeatedly without adequate sterilization…We found no clear benefit of either medical masks or N95 respirators against pH1N1…Overall, the evidence to inform policies on mask use in HCWs is poor, with a small number of studies that is prone to reporting biases and lack of statistical power.”
- N95 Respirators vs Medical Masks for Preventing Influenza Among Health Care Personnel, Radonovich, 2019 “Use of N95 respirators, compared with medical masks, in the outpatient setting resulted in no significant difference in the rates of laboratory-confirmed influenza.”
Effectiveness of N95 respirators versus surgical masks againstinfluenza: A systematic review and meta-analysis74) Masks Don’t Work: A Review of Science Relevant to COVID-19 Social Policy, Rancourt, 2020 The use of N95 respirators compared with surgical masks is not associated with alower risk of laboratory-confirmed influenza. It suggests that N95 respirators should not be rec-ommended for general public and nonhigh-risk medical staff those are not in close contact withinfluenza patients or suspected patients. “No RCT study with verified outcome shows a benefit for HCW or community members in households to wearing a mask or respirator. There is no such study. There are no exceptions. Likewise, no study exists that shows a benefit from a broad policy to wear masks in public (more on this below). Furthermore, if there were any benefit to wearing a mask, because of the blocking power against droplets and aerosol particles, then there should be more benefit from wearing a respirator (N95) compared to a surgical mask, yet several large meta-analyses, and all the RCT, prove that there is no such relative benefit.”
- More Than a Dozen Credible Medical Studies Prove Face Masks Do Not Work Even In Hospitals!, Firstenberg, 2020 “Mandating masks has not kept death rates down anywhere. The 20 U.S. states that have never ordered people to wear face masks indoors and out have dramatically lower COVID-19 death rates than the 30 states that have mandated masks. Most of the no-mask states have COVID-19 death rates below 20 per 100,000 population, and none have a death rate higher than 55. All 13 states that have death rates higher 55 are states that have required the wearing of masks in all public places. It has not protected them.”
- Does evidence based medicine support the effectiveness of surgical facemasks in preventing postoperative wound infections in elective surgery?, Bahli, 2009 “From the limited randomized trials it is still not clear that whether wearing surgical face masks harms or benefit the patients undergoing elective surgery.”
- Peritonitis prevention in CAPD: to mask or not?, Figueiredo, 2000 “The current study suggests that routine use of face masks during CAPD bag exchanges may be unnecessary and could be discontinued.”
- The operating room environment as affected by people and the surgical face mask, Ritter, 1975 “The wearing of a surgical face mask had no effect upon the overall operating room environmental contamination and probably work only to redirect the projectile effect of talking and breathing. People are the major source of environmental contamination in the operating room.”
- The efficacy of standard surgical face masks: an investigation using “tracer particles, Ha’eri, 1980 “Particle contamination of the wound was demonstrated in all experiments. Since the microspheres were not identified on the exterior of these face masks, they must have escaped around the mask edges and found their way into the wound.”
- Wearing of caps and masks not necessary during cardiac catheterization, Laslett, 1989 “Prospectively evaluated the experience of 504 patients undergoing percutaneous left heart catheterization, seeking evidence of a relationship between whether caps and/or masks were worn by the operators and the incidence of infection. No infections were found in any patient, regardless of whether a cap or mask was used. Thus, we found no evidence that caps or masks need to be worn during percutaneous cardiac catheterization.”
- Do anaesthetists need to wear surgical masks in the operating theatre? A literature review with evidence-based recommendations, Skinner, 2001 “A questionnaire-based survey, undertaken by Leyland’ in 1993 to assess attitudes to the use of masks, showed that 20% of surgeons discarded surgical masks for endoscopic work. Less than 50% did not wear the mask as recommended by the Medical Research Council. Equal numbers of surgeons wore the mask in the belief they were protecting themselves and the patient, with 20% of these admitting that tradition was the only reason for wearing them.”
- Mask mandates for children are not backed by data, Faria, 2021 “Even if you want to use the 2018-19 flu season to avoid overlap with the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the CDC paints a similar picture: It estimated 480 flu deaths among children during that period, with 46,000 hospitalizations. COVID-19, mercifully, is simply not as deadly for children. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, preliminary data from 45 states show that between 0.00%-0.03% of child COVID-19 cases resulted in death. When you combine these numbers with the CDC study that found mask mandates for students — along with hybrid models, social distancing, and classroom barriers — did not have a statistically significant benefit in preventing the spread of COVID-19 in schools, the insistence that we force students to jump through these hoops for their own protection makes no sense.”
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/mask-mandates-for-children-are-not-backed-by-data
- The Downsides of Masking Young Students Are Real, Prasad, 2021 “The benefits of mask requirements in schools might seem self-evident—they have to help contain the coronavirus, right?—but that may not be so. In Spain, masks are used in kids ages 6 and older. The authors of one study there examined the risk of viral spread at all ages. If masks provided a large benefit, then the transmission rate among 5-year-olds would be far higher than the rate among 6-year-olds. The results don’t show that. Instead, they show that transmission rates, which were low among the youngest kids, steadily increased with age—rather than dropping sharply for older children subject to the face-covering requirement. This suggests that masking kids in school does not provide a major benefit and might provide none at all. And yet many officials prefer to double down on masking mandates, as if the fundamental policy were sound and only the people have failed.”
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/09/school-mask-mandates-downside/619952/
- Masks In Schools: Scientific American Fumbles Report On Childhood COVID Transmission, English/ACSH, 2021 “Masking is a low-risk, inexpensive intervention. If we want to recommend it as a precautionary measure, especially in situations where vaccination isn’t an option, great. But that’s not what the public has been told. “Florida governor Ron DeSantis and politicians in Texas say research does not support mask mandates,” SciAm’s sub-headline bellowed. “Many studies show they are wrong.”If that’s the case, demonstrate that the intervention works before you mandate its use in schools. If you can’t, acknowledged what UC San Francisco hematologist-oncologist and Associate Professor of Epidemiology Vinay Prasad wrote over at the Atlantic:”No scientific consensus exists about the wisdom of mandatory-masking rules for schoolchildren … In mid-March 2020, few could argue against erring on the side of caution. But nearly 18 months later, we owe it to children and their parents to answer the question properly: Do the benefits of masking kids in school outweigh the downsides? The honest answer in 2021 remains that we don’t know for sure.”
- Masks ‘don’t work,’ are damaging health and are being used to control population: Doctors panel, Haynes, 2021 “The only randomized control studies that have ever been done on masks show that they don’t work,” began Dr. Nepute. He referred to Dr. Anthony Fauci’s “noble lie,” in which Fauci “changed his tune,” from his March 2020 comments, where he downplayed the need and efficacy of mask wearing, before urging Americans to use masks later in the year. “Well, he lied to us. So if he lied about that, what else has he lied to you about?” questioned Nepute.Masks have become commonplace in almost every setting, whether indoors or outdoors, but Dr. Popper mentioned how there have been “no studies” which actually examine the “effect of wearing a mask during all your waking hours.”“There’s no science to back any of this and particularly no science to back the fact that wearing a mask twenty four-seven or every waking minute, is health promoting,” added Popper.”
- Aerosol penetration through surgical masks, Chen, 1992 “The mask that has the highest collection efficiency is not necessarily the best mask from the perspective of the filter-quality factor, which considers not only the capture efficiency but also the air resistance. Although surgical mask media may be adequate to remove bacteria exhaled or expelled by health care workers, they may not be sufficient to remove the sub-micrometer-sized aerosols containing pathogens to which these health care workers are potentially exposed.”
https://www.ajicjournal.org/article/S0196-6553(05)80143-9/pdf
- CDC: Schools With Mask Mandates Didn’t See Statistically Significant Different Rates of COVID Transmission From Schools With Optional Policies, Miltimore, 2021 “The CDC did not include its finding that “required mask use among students was not statistically significant compared with schools where mask use was optional” in the summary of its report.”
- Horowitz: Data from India continues to blow up the ‘Delta’ fear narrative, Howorwitz, 2021 “Rather than proving the need to sow more panic, fear, and control over people, the story from India — the source of the “Delta” variant — continues to refute every current premise of COVID fascism…Unless we do that, we must return to the very effective lockdowns and masks. In reality, India’s experience proves the opposite true; namely:1) Delta is largely an attenuated version, with a much lower fatality rate, that for most people is akin to a cold.2) Masks failed to stop the spread there.3) The country has come close to the herd immunity threshold with just 3% vaccinated.
- Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 Delta Variant Among Vaccinated Healthcare Workers, Vietnam, Chau, 2021 While not definitive in the LANCET publication, it can be inferred that the nurses were all masked up and had PPE etc. as was the case in Finland and Israel nosocomial outbreaks, indicating the failure of PPE and masks to constrain Delta spread.
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Aerosol penetration through surgical masks, Willeke, 1992 “The mask that has the highest collection efficiency is not necessarily the best mask from the perspective of the filter-quality factor, which considers not only the capture efficiency but also the air resistance. Although surgical mask media may be adequate to remove bacteria exhaled or expelled by health care workers, they may not be sufficient to remove the submicrometer-size aerosols containing pathogens to which these health care workers are potentially exposed.”
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The efficacy of standard surgical face masks: an investigation using “tracer particles”, Wiley, 1980 “Particle contamination of the wound was demonstrated in all aexperiments. Since the microspheres were not identified on the exterior of these face masks, they must have escped around the mask edges and found their way into the wound. The wearing of the mask beneath the headgear curtails this route of contamination.”
- An Evidence Based Scientific Analysis of Why Masks are Ineffective, Unnecessary, and Harmful, Meehan, 2020 “Decades of the highest-level scientific evidence (meta-analyses of multiple randomized controlled trials) overwhelmingly conclude that medical masks are ineffective at preventing the transmission of respiratory viruses, including SAR-CoV-2…those arguing for masks are relying on low-level evidence (observational retrospective trials and mechanistic theories), none of which are powered to counter the evidence, arguments, and risks of mask mandates.”
- Open Letter from Medical Doctors and Health Professionals to All Belgian Authorities and All Belgian Media, AIER, 2020 “Oral masks in healthy individuals are ineffective against the spread of viral infections.”
- Effectiveness of N95 respirators versus surgical masks against influenza: A systematic review and meta-analysis, Long, 2020 “The use of N95 respirators compared with surgical masks is not associated with a lower risk of laboratory-confirmed influenza. It suggests that N95 respirators should not be recommended for general public and nonhigh-risk medical staff those are not in close contact with influenza patients or suspected patients.”
- Advice on the use of masks in the context of COVID-19, WHO, 2020 “However, the use of a mask alone is insufficient to provide an adequate level of protection or source control, and other personal and community level measures should also be adopted to suppress transmission of respiratory viruses.”
- Farce mask: it’s safe for only 20 minutes, The Sydney Morning Herald, 2003 “Health authorities have warned that surgical masks may not be an effective protection against the virus.”Those masks are only effective so long as they are dry,” said Professor Yvonne Cossart of the Department of Infectious Diseases at the University of Sydney.”As soon as they become saturated with the moisture in your breath they stop doing their job and pass on the droplets.”Professor Cossart said that could take as little as 15 or 20 minutes, after which the mask would need to be changed. But those warnings haven’t stopped people snapping up the masks, with retailers reporting they are having trouble keeping up with demand.”
https://www.smh.com.au/national/farce-mask-its-safe-for-only-20-minutes-20030427-gdgnyo.html
- Study: Wearing A Used Mask Is Potentially Riskier Than No Mask At All, Boyd, 2020
Effects of mask-wearing on the inhalability and deposition of airborne SARS-CoV-2 aerosols in human upper airway “According to researchers from the University of Massachusetts Lowell and California Baptist University, a three-layer surgical mask is 65 percent efficient in filtering particles in the air. That effectiveness, however, falls to 25 percent once it is used.“It is natural to think that wearing a mask, no matter new or old, should always be better than nothing,” said author Jinxiang Xi.“Our results show that this belief is only true for particles larger than 5 micrometers, but not for fine particles smaller than 2.5 micrometers,” he continued.”
- Unravelling the Role of the Mandatory Use of Face Covering Masks for the Control of SARS-CoV-2 in Schools: A Quasi-Experimental Study Nested in a Population-Based Cohort in Catalonia (Spain), Coma, 2022 “A recent study (Catalonia, Spain) done on face masks and their effectiveness was a retrospective population-based study among near 600,000 children aged 3 to 11 years attending preschool (3-5 years, without facial covering mandate) and primary education (6-11 years, with facial covering mandate); to assess the incidence of SARS-CoV-2, secondary attack rates (SAR) and the effective reproductive number (R*) for each grade during the first trimester of the 2021-2022 academic year, including an analysis of the differences between 5-year-old, without facial covering mandate, and 6 year-old children, with mandate.
Researchers found that “the SARS-CoV-2 incidence was significantly lower in preschool than in primary education, and an age-dependent trend was observed. Children aged 3 and 4 showed lower outcomes for all the analyzed epidemiological variables, while children aged 11 had the higher values. Six-year-old children showed higher incidence than 5 year-olds (3·54% vs 3·1%; OR: 1·15 [95%CI: 1·08-1·22]) and slightly lower but not statistically significant SAR and R*: SAR were 4·36% in 6 year-old children, and 4·59% in 5 year-old (IRR: 0·96 [95%CI: 0·82-1·11]); and R* was 0·9 and 0·93 (OR: 0·96 [95%CI: 0·87-1·09]), respectively.” Overall, facial covering mandates (face masks) in examined schools were not linked to lower SARS-CoV-2 incidence or spread, implying that these masks were not effective.”
- Correlation Between Mask Compliance and COVID-19 Outcomes in Europe, Spira, 2022
“The aim of this short study was to analyse the correlation between mask usage against morbidity and mortality rates in the 2020-2021 winter in Europe. Data from 35 European countries on morbidity, mortality, and mask usage during a six-month period were analysed and crossed. Mask usage was more homogeneous in Eastern Europe than in Western European countries. Spearman’s correlation coefficients between mask usage and COVID-19 outcomes were either null or positive, depending on the subgroup of countries and type of outcome (cases or deaths). Positive correlations were stronger in Western than in Eastern European countries. These findings indicate that countries with high levels of mask compliance did not perform better than those with low mask usage.”
MASK MANDATES
- Mask mandate and use efficacy for COVID-19 containment in US States, Guerra, 2021 “Calculated total COVID-19 case growth and mask use for the continental United States with data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. We estimated post-mask mandate case growth in non-mandate states using median issuance dates of neighboring states with mandates…did not observe association between mask mandates or use and reduced COVID-19 spread in US states.”
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.18.21257385v2
- These 12 Graphs Show Mask Mandates Do Nothing To Stop COVID, Weiss, 2020 “Masks can work well when they’re fully sealed, properly fitted, changed often, and have a filter designed for virus-sized particles. This represents none of the common masks available on the consumer market, making universal masking much more of a confidence trick than a medical solution…Our universal use of unscientific face coverings is therefore closer to medieval superstition than it is to science, but many powerful institutions have too much political capital invested in the mask narrative at this point, so the dogma is perpetuated. The narrative says that if cases go down it’s because masks succeeded. It says that if cases go up it’s because masks succeeded in preventing more cases. The narrative simply assumes rather than proves that masks work, despite overwhelming scientific evidence to the contrary.”
https://thefederalist.com/2020/10/29/these-12-graphs-show-mask-mandates-do-nothing-to-stop-covid/
- Mask Mandates Seem to Make CCP Virus Infection Rates Climb, Study Says, Vadum, 2020 “Protective-mask mandates aimed at combating the spread of the CCP virus that causes the disease COVID-19 appear to promote its spread, according to a report from RationalGround.com, a clearinghouse of COVID-19 data trends that’s run by a grassroots group of data analysts, computer scientists, and actuaries.”
- Horowitz: Comprehensive analysis of 50 states shows greater spread with mask mandates, Howorwitz, 2020
Justin Hart “How long do our politicians get to ignore the results?… The results: When comparing states with mandates vs. those without, or periods of times within a state with a mandate vs. without, there is absolutely no evidence the mask mandate worked to slow the spread one iota. In total, in the states that had a mandate in effect, there were 9,605,256 confirmed COVID cases over 5,907 total days, an average of 27 cases per 100,000 per day. When states did not have a statewide order (which includes the states that never had them and the period of time masking states did not have the mandate in place) there were 5,781,716 cases over 5,772 total days, averaging 17 cases per 100,000 people per day.”
- The CDC’s Mask Mandate Study: Debunked, Alexander, 2021 “Thus, it is not surprising that the CDC’s own recent conclusion on the use of nonpharmaceutical measures such as face masks in pandemic influenza, warned that scientific “evidence from 14 randomized controlled trials of these measures did not support a substantial effect on transmission…” Moreover, in the WHO’s 2019 guidance document on nonpharmaceutical public health measures in a pandemic, they reported as to face masks that “there is no evidence that this is effective in reducing transmission…” Similarly, in the fine print to a recent double-blind, double-masking simulation the CDC stated that “The findings of these simulations [supporting mask usage] should neither be generalized to the effectiveness …nor interpreted as being representative of the effectiveness of these masks when worn in real-world settings.”
https://www.aier.org/article/the-cdcs-mask-mandate-study-debunked/
- Phil Kerpin, tweet, 2021
The Spectator “The first ecological study of state mask mandates and use to include winter data: “Case growth was independent of mandates at low and high rates of community spread, and mask use did not predict case growth during the Summer or Fall-Winter waves.”
- How face masks and lockdowns failed, SPR, 2021 “Infections have been driven primarily by seasonal and endemic factors, whereas mask mandates and lockdowns have had no discernible impact”
- Analysis of the Effects of COVID-19 Mask Mandates on Hospital Resource Consumption and Mortality at the County Level, Schauer, 2021 “There was no reduction in per-population daily mortality, hospital bed, ICU bed, or ventilator occupancy of COVID-19-positive patients attributable to the implementation of a mask-wearing mandate.”
- Do we need mask mandates, Harris, 2021 “But masks proved far less useful in the subsequent 1918 Spanish flu, a viral disease spread by pathogens smaller than bacteria. California’s Department of Health, for instance, reported that the cities of Stockton, which required masks, and Boston, which did not, had scarcely different death rates, and so advised against mask mandates except for a few high-risk professions such as barbers….Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on mask use, generally more reliable than observational studies, though not infallible, typically show that cloth and surgical masks offer little protection. A few RCTs suggest that perfect adherence to an exacting mask protocol may guard against influenza, but meta-analyses find little on the whole to suggest that masks offer meaningful protection. WHO guidelines from 2019 on influenza say that despite “mechanistic plausibility for the potential effectiveness” of masks, studies showed a benefit too small to be established with any certainty. Another literature review by researchers from the University of Hong Kong agrees. Its best estimate for the protective effect of surgical masks against influenza, based on ten RCTs published through 2018, was just 22 percent, and it could not rule out zero effect.”
MASK HARMS
- Corona children studies: Co-Ki: First results of a German-wide registry on mouth and nose covering (mask) in children, Schwarz, 2021 “The average wearing time of the mask was 270 minutes per day. Impairments caused by wearing the mask were reported by 68% of the parents. These included irritability (60%), headache (53%), difficulty concentrating (50%), less happiness (49%), reluctance to go to school/kindergarten (44%), malaise (42%) impaired learning (38%) and drowsiness or fatigue (37%).”
- Dangerous pathogens found on children’s face masks, Cabrera, 2021 “Masks were contaminated with bacteria, parasites, and fungi, including three with dangerous pathogenic and pneumonia-causing bacteria.”
https://rationalground.com/dangerous-pathogens-found-on-childrens-face-masks/
- Masks, false safety and real dangers, Part 2: Microbial challenges from masks, Borovoy, 2020/2021 “Laboratory testing of used masks from 20 train commuters revealed that 11 of the 20 masks tested contained over 100,000 bacterial colonies. Molds and yeasts were also found. Three of the masks contained more than one million bacterial colonies… The outside surfaces of surgical masks were found to have high levels of the following microbes, even in hospitals, more concentrated on the outside of masks than in the environment. Staphylococcus species (57%) and Pseudomonas spp (38%) were predominant among bacteria, and Penicillium spp (39%) and Aspergillus spp. (31%) were the predominant fungi.”
- Preliminary report on surgical mask induced deoxygenation during major surgery, Beder, 2008 “Considering our findings, pulse rates of the surgeon’s increase and SpO2 decrease after the first hour. This early change in SpO2 may be either due to the facial mask or the operational stress. Since a very small decrease in saturation at this level, reflects a large decrease in PaO2, our findings may have a clinical value for the health workers and the surgeons.”
- Mask mandates may affect a child’s emotional, intellectual development, Gillis, 2020 “The thing is we really don’t know for sure what the effect may or may not be. But what we do know is that children, especially in early childhood, they use the mouth as part of the entire face to get a sense of what’s going on around them in terms of adults and other people in their environment as far as their emotions. It also has a role in language development as well… If you think about an infant, when you interact with them you use part of your mouth. They are interested in your facial expressions. And if you think about that part of the face being covered up, there is that possibility that it could have an effect. But we don’t know because this is really an unprecedented time. What we wonder about is if this could play a role and how can we stop it if it would affect child development.”
https://www.wishtv.com/news/mask-mandates-may-affect-a-childs-emotional-intellectual-development/
- Headaches and the N95 face-mask amongst healthcare providers, Lim, 2006 “Healthcare providers may develop headaches following the use of the N95 face-mask.”
- Maximizing Fit for Cloth and Medical Procedure Masks to Improve Performance and Reduce SARS-CoV-2 Transmission and Exposure, 2021, Brooks, 2021 “Although use of double masking or knotting and tucking are two of many options that can optimize fit and enhance mask performance for source control and for wearer protection, double masking might impede breathing or obstruct peripheral vision for some wearers, and knotting and tucking can change the shape of the mask such that it no longer covers fully both the nose and the mouth of persons with larger faces.”
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7007e1.htm?s_cid=mm7007e1_w
- Facemasks in the COVID-19 era: A health hypothesis, Vainshelboim, 2021 “Wearing facemasks has been demonstrated to have substantial adverse physiological and psychological effects. These include hypoxia, hypercapnia, shortness of breath, increased acidity and toxicity, activation of fear and stress response, rise in stress hormones, immunosuppression, fatigue, headaches, decline in cognitive performance, predisposition for viral and infectious illnesses, chronic stress, anxiety and depression.”
- Wearing a mask can expose children to dangerous levels of carbon dioxide in just THREE MINUTES, study finds, Shaheen/Daily Mail, 2021 “European study found that children wearing masks for only minutes could be exposed to dangerous carbon dioxide levels…Forty-five children were exposed to carbon dioxide levels between three to twelve times healthy levels.”
- How many children must die? Shilhavy, 2020 “How long are parents going to continue masking their children causing great harm to them, even to the point of risking their lives? Dr. Eric Nepute in St. Louis took time to record a video rant that he wants everyone to share, after the 4-year-old child of one of his patients almost died from a bacterial lung infection caused by prolonged mask use.”
- Medical Doctor Warns that “Bacterial Pneumonias Are on the Rise” from Mask Wearing, Meehan, 2021 “I’m seeing patients that have facial rashes, fungal infections, bacterial infections. Reports coming from my colleagues, all over the world, are suggesting that the bacterial pneumonias are on the rise…Why might that be? Because untrained members of the public are wearing medical masks, repeatedly… in a non-sterile fashion… They’re becoming contaminated. They’re pulling them off of their car seat, off the rear-view mirror, out of their pocket, from their countertop, and they’re reapplying a mask that should be worn fresh and sterile every single time.”
https://www.globalresearch.ca/medical-doctor-warns-bacterial-pneumonias-rise-mask-wearing
- Open Letter from Medical Doctors and Health Professionals to All Belgian Authorities and All Belgian Media, AIER, 2020 “Wearing a mask is not without side effects. Oxygen deficiency (headache, nausea, fatigue, loss of concentration) occurs fairly quickly, an effect similar to altitude sickness. Every day we now see patients complaining of headaches, sinus problems, respiratory problems and hyperventilation due to wearing masks. In addition, the accumulated CO2 leads to a toxic acidification of the organism which affects our immunity. Some experts even warn of an increased transmission of the virus in case of inappropriate use of the mask.”
- Face coverings for covid-19: from medical intervention to social practice, Peters, 2020 “At present, there is no direct evidence (from studies on Covid19 and in healthy people in the community) on the effectiveness of universal masking of healthy people in the community to prevent infection with respiratory viruses, including Covid19. Contamination of the upper respiratory tract by viruses and bacteria on the outside of medical face masks has been detected in several hospitals. Another research shows that a moist mask is a breeding ground for (antibiotic resistant) bacteria and fungi, which can undermine mucosal viral immunity. This research advocates the use of medical / surgical masks (instead of homemade cotton masks) that are used once and replaced after a few hours.”
- Face masks for the public during the covid-19 crisis, Lazzarino, 2020 “The two potential side effects that have already been acknowledged are: (1) Wearing a face mask may give a false sense of security and make people adopt a reduction in compliance with other infection control measures, including social distancing and hands washing. (2) Inappropriate use of face mask: people must not touch their masks, must change their single-use masks frequently or wash them regularly, dispose them correctly and adopt other management measures, otherwise their risks and those of others may increase. Other potential side effects that we must consider are: (3) The quality and the volume of speech between two people wearing masks is considerably compromised and they may unconsciously come closer. While one may be trained to counteract side effect n.1, this side effect may be more difficult to tackle. (4) Wearing a face mask makes the exhaled air go into the eyes. This generates an uncomfortable feeling and an impulse to touch your eyes. If your hands are contaminated, you are infecting yourself.”
- Contamination by respiratory viruses on outer surface of medical masks used by hospital healthcare workers, Chughtai, 2019 “Respiratory pathogens on the outer surface of the used medical masks may result in self-contamination. The risk is higher with longer duration of mask use (> 6 h) and with higher rates of clinical contact. Protocols on duration of mask use should specify a maximum time of continuous use, and should consider guidance in high contact settings.”
https://bmcinfectdis.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12879-019-4109-x
- Reusability of Facemasks During an Influenza Pandemic, Bailar, 2006 “After considering all the testimony and other information we received, the committee concluded that there is currently no simple, reliable way to decontaminate these devices and enable people to use them safely more than once. There is relatively little data available about how effective these devices are against flu even the first time they are used. To the extent they can help at all, they must be used correctly, and the best respirator or mask will do little to protect a person who uses it incorrectly. Substantial research must be done to increase our understanding of how flu spreads, to develop better masks and respirators, and to make it easier to decontaminate them. Finally, the use of face coverings is only one of many strategies that will be needed to slow or halt a pandemic, and people should not engage in activities that would increase their risk of exposure to flu just because they have a mask or respirator.”
https://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=s04272006
- Exhalation of respiratory viruses by breathing, coughing, and talking, Stelzer-Braid, 2009 “The exhaled aerosols generated by coughing, talking, and breathing were sampled in 50 subjects using a novel mask, and analyzed using PCR for nine respiratory viruses. The exhaled samples from a subset of 10 subjects who were PCR positive for rhinovirus were also examined by cell culture for this virus. Of the 50 subjects, among the 33 with symptoms of upper respiratory tract infections, 21 had at least one virus detected by PCR, while amongst the 17 asymptomatic subjects, 4 had a virus detected by PCR. Overall, rhinovirus was detected in 19 subjects, influenza in 4 subjects, parainfluenza in 2 subjects, and human metapneumovirus in 1 subject. Two subjects were co-infected. Of the 25 subjects who had virus-positive nasal mucus, the same virus type was detected in 12 breathing samples, 8 talking samples, and in 2 coughing samples. In the subset of exhaled samples from 10 subjects examined by culture, infective rhinovirus was detected in 2.”
- [Effect of a surgical mask on six minute walking distance], Person, 2018 “Wearing a surgical mask modifies significantly and clinically dyspnea without influencing walked distance.”
- Protective masks reduce resilience, Science ORF, 2020 “The German researchers used two types of face masks for their study – surgical masks and so-called FFP2 masks, which are mainly used by medical personnel. The measurements were carried out with the help of spiroergometry, in which patients or in this case the test persons exert themselves physically on a stationary bicycle – a so-called ergometer – or a treadmill. The subjects were examined without a mask, with surgical masks and with FFP2 masks. The masks therefore impair breathing, especially the volume and the highest possible speed of the air when exhaling. The maximum possible force on the ergometer was significantly reduced.”
- Wearing masks even more unhealthy than expected, Coronoa transition, 2020 “They contain microplastics – and they exacerbate the waste problem…”Many of them are made of polyester and so you have a microplastic problem.” Many of the face masks would contain polyester with chlorine compounds: “If I have the mask in front of my face, then of course I breathe in the microplastic directly and these substances are much more toxic than if you swallow them, as they get directly into the nervous system,” Braungart continues.”
https://corona-transition.org/maskentragen-noch-ungesunder-als-gedacht
- Masking Children: Tragic, Unscientific, and Damaging, Alexander, 2021 “Children do not readily acquire SARS-CoV-2 (very low risk), spread it to other children or teachers, or endanger parents or others at home. This is the settled science. In the rare cases where a child contracts Covid virus it is very unusual for the child to get severely ill or die. Masking can do positive harm to children – as it can to some adults. But the cost benefit analysis is entirely different for adults and children – particularly younger children. Whatever arguments there may be for consenting adults – children should not be required to wear masks to prevent the spread of Covid-19. Of course, zero risk is not attainable – with or without masks, vaccines, therapeutics, distancing or anything else medicine may develop or government agencies may impose.”
https://www.aier.org/article/masking-children-tragic-unscientific-and-damaging/
- The Dangers of Masks, Alexander, 2021 “With that clarion call, we pivot and refer here to another looming concern and this is the potential danger of the chlorine, polyester, and microplastic components of the face masks (surgical principally but any of the mass-produced masks) that have become part of our daily lives due to the Covid-19 pandemic. We hope those with persuasive power in the government will listen to this plea. We hope that the necessary decisions will be made to reduce the risk to our populations.”
- 13-year-old mask wearer dies for inexplicable reasons, Corona Transition, 2020 “The case is not only causing speculation in Germany about possible poisoning with carbon dioxide. Because the student “was wearing a corona protective mask when she suddenly collapsed and died a little later in the hospital,” writes Wochenblick.Editor’s Review: The fact that no cause of death was communicated nearly three weeks after the girl’s death is indeed unusual. The carbon dioxide content of the air is usually about 0.04 percent. From a proportion of four percent, the first symptoms of hypercapnia, i.e. carbon dioxide poisoning, appear. If the proportion of the gas rises to more than 20 percent, there is a risk of deadly carbon dioxide poisoning. However, this does not come without alarm signals from the body. According to the medical portal netdoktor, these include “sweating, accelerated breathing, accelerated heartbeat, headaches, confusion, loss of consciousness”. The unconsciousness of the girl could therefore be an indication of such poisoning.”
https://corona-transition.org/13-jahrige-maskentragerin-stirbt
- Student Deaths Lead Chinese Schools to Change Mask Rules, that’s, 2020 “During the month of April, three cases of students suffering sudden cardiac death (SCD) while running during gym class have been reported in Zhejiang, Henan and Hunan provinces. Beijing Evening News noted that all three students were wearing masks at the time of their deaths, igniting a critical discussion over school rules on when students should wear masks.”
- Blaylock: Face Masks Pose Serious Risks To The Healthy, 2020 “As for the scientific support for the use of face mask, a recent careful examination of the literature, in which 17 of the best studies were analyzed, concluded that, “ None of the studies established a conclusive relationship between mask/respirator use and protection against influenza infection.”1 Keep in mind, no studies have been done to demonstrate that either a cloth mask or the N95 mask has any effect on transmission of the COVID-19 virus. Any recommendations, therefore, have to be based on studies of influenza virus transmission. And, as you have seen, there is no conclusive evidence of their efficiency in controlling flu virus transmission.”
https://www.technocracy.news/blaylock-face-masks-pose-serious-risks-to-the-healthy/
- The mask requirement is responsible for severe psychological damage and the weakening of the immune system, Coronoa Transition, 2020 “In fact, the mask has the potential to “trigger strong psychovegetative stress reactions via emerging aggression, which correlate significantly with the degree of stressful after-effects”.
Prousa is not alone in her opinion. Several psychologists dealt with the mask problem — and most came to devastating results. Ignoring them would be fatal, according to Prousa.”
- The physiological impact of wearing an N95 mask during hemodialysis as a precaution against SARS in patients with end-stage renal disease, Kao, 2004 “Wearing an N95 mask for 4 hours during HD significantly reduced PaO2 and increased respiratory adverse effects in ESRD patients.”
- Is a Mask That Covers the Mouth and Nose Free from Undesirable Side Effects in Everyday Use and Free of Potential Hazards?, Kisielinski, 2021 “We objectified evaluation evidenced changes in respiratory physiology of mask wearers with significant correlation of O2 drop and fatigue (p < 0.05), a clustered co-occurrence of respiratory impairment and O2 drop (67%), N95 mask and CO2 rise (82%), N95 mask and O2 drop (72%), N95 mask and headache (60%), respiratory impairment and temperature rise (88%), but also temperature rise and moisture (100%) under the masks. Extended mask-wearing by the general population could lead to relevant effects and consequences in many medical fields.”“Here are the pathophysiological changes and subjective complaints: 1) Increase in blood carbon dioxide 2) Increase in breathing resistance 3) Decrease in blood oxygen saturation 4) Increase in heart rate 5) Decrease in cardiopulmonary capacity 6) Feeling of exhaustion 7) Increase in respiratory rate 8) Difficulty breathing and shortness of breath 9) Headache 10) Dizziness 11) Feeling of dampness and heat 12) Drowsiness (qualitative neurological deficits) 13) Decrease in empathy perception 14) Impaired skin barrier function with acne, itching and skin lesions”
- Is N95 face mask linked to dizziness and headache?, Ipek, 2021 “Respiratory alkalosis and hypocarbia were detected after the use of N95. Acute respiratory alkalosis can cause headache, anxiety, tremor, muscle cramps. In this study, it was quantitatively shown that the participants’ symptoms were due to respiratory alkalosis and hypocarbia.”
- COVID-19 prompts a team of engineers to rethink the humble face mask, Myers, 2020 “But in filtering those particles, the mask also makes it harder to breathe. N95 masks are estimated to reduce oxygen intake by anywhere from 5 to 20 percent. That’s significant, even for a healthy person. It can cause dizziness and lightheadedness. If you wear a mask long enough, it can damage the lungs. For a patient in respiratory distress, it can even be life threatening.”
- 70 doctors in open letter to Ben Weyts: ‘Abolish mandatory mouth mask at school’ – Belgium, World Today News, 2020 “In an open letter to the Flemish Minister of Education Ben Weyts (N-VA), 70 doctors ask to abolish the mandatory mouth mask at school, both for the teachers and for the students. Weyts does not intend to change course. The doctors ask that Minister Ben Weyts immediately reverses his working method: no mouth mask obligation at school, only protect the risk group and only the advice that people with a possible risk profile should consult their doctor.”
- Face masks pose dangers for babies, toddlers during COVID-19 pandemic, UC Davis Health, 2020 “Masks may present a choking hazard for young children. Also, depending on the mask and the fit, the child may have trouble breathing. If this happens, they need to be able to take it off,” said UC Davis pediatrician Lena van der List. “Children less than 2 years of age will not reliably be able to remove a face mask and could suffocate. Therefore, masks should not routinely be used for young children…“The younger the child, the more likely they will be to not wear the mask properly, reach under the mask and touch potentially contaminated masks,” said Dean Blumberg, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at UC Davis Children’s Hospital. “Of course, this depends on the developmental level of the individual child. But I think masks are not likely to provide much potential benefit over risk until the teen years.”
https://health.ucdavis.edu/health-news/newsroom/masks-pose-dangers-for-babies-toddlers-/2020/04
- Covid-19: Important potential side effects of wearing face masks that we should bear in mind, Lazzarino, 2020 “Other potential side effects that we must consider, however, are 1) The quality and volume of speech between people wearing masks is considerably compromised and they may unconsciously come closer2) Wearing a mask makes the exhaled air go into the eyes. This generates an impulse to touch the eyes. 3) If your hands are contaminated, you are infecting yourself, 4) Face masks make breathing more difficult. Moreover, a fraction of carbon dioxide previously exhaled is inhaled at each respiratory cycle. Those phenomena increase breathing frequency and deepness, and they may worsen the burden of covid-19 if infected people wearing masks spread more contaminated air. This may also worsen the clinical condition of infected people if the enhanced breathing pushes the viral load down into their lungs, 5) The innate immunity’s efficacy is highly dependent on the viral load. If masks determine a humid habitat where SARS-CoV-2 can remain active because of the water vapour continuously provided by breathing and captured by the mask fabric, they determine an increase in viral load (by re-inhaling exhaled viruses) and therefore they can cause a defeat of the innate immunity and an increase in infections.”
- Risks of N95 Face Mask Use in Subjects With COPD, Kyung, 2020 “Of the 97 subjects, 7 with COPD did not wear the N95 for the entire test duration. This mask-failure group showed higher British modified Medical Research Council dyspnea scale scores and lower FEV1 percent of predicted values than did the successful mask use group. A modified Medical Research Council dyspnea scale score ≥ 3 (odds ratio 167, 95% CI 8.4 to >999.9; P = .008) or a FEV1 < 30% predicted (odds ratio 163, 95% CI 7.4 to >999.9; P = .001) was associated with a risk of failure to wear the N95. Breathing frequency, blood oxygen saturation, and exhaled carbon dioxide levels also showed significant differences before and after N95 use.”
- Masks too dangerous for children under 2, medical group warns, The Japan Times, 2020 “Children under the age of 2 shouldn’t wear masks because they can make breathing difficult and increase the risk of choking, a medical group has said, launching an urgent appeal to parents as the nation reopens from the coronavirus crisis…Masks can make breathing difficult because infants have narrow air passages,” which increases the burden on their hearts, the association said, adding that masks also raise the risk of heat stroke for them.”
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/05/27/national/masks-children-coronavirus/
- Face masks can be problematic, dangerous to health of some Canadians: advocates, Spenser, 2020 “Face masks are dangerous to the health of some Canadians and problematic for some others…Asthma Canada president and CEO Vanessa Foran said simply wearing a mask could create risk of an asthma attack.”
https://globalnews.ca/news/6967625/coronavirus-canada-face-masks-disabilities/
- COVID-19 Masks Are a Crime Against Humanity and Child Abuse, Griesz-Brisson, 2020 “The rebreathing of our exhaled air will without a doubt create oxygen deficiency and a flooding of carbon dioxide. We know that the human brain is very sensitive to oxygen depravation. There are nerve cells for example in the hippocampus, that can’t be longer than 3 minutes without oxygen – they cannot survive. The acute warning symptoms are headaches, drowsiness, dizziness, issues in concentration, slowing down of the reaction time – reactions of the cognitive system. However, when you have chronic oxygen depravation, all of those symptoms disappear, because you get used to it. But your efficiency will remain impaired and the undersupply of oxygen in your brain continues to progress. We know that neurodegenerative diseases take years to decades to develop. If today you forget your phone number, the breakdown in your brain would have already started 20 or 30 years ago…The child needs the brain to learn, and the brain needs oxygen to function. We don’t need a clinical study for that. This is simple, indisputable physiology. Conscious and purposely induced oxygen deficiency is an absolutely deliberate health hazard, and an absolute medical contraindication.”
- Study shows how masks are harming children, Mercola, 2021 “Data from the first registry to record children’s experiences with masks show physical, psychological and behavioral issues including irritability, difficulty concentrating and impaired learning.Since school shutdowns in spring 2020, an increasing number of parents are seeking drug treatment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) for their children.Evidence from the U.K. shows schools are not the super spreaders health officials said they were; measured rates of infection in schools were the same as the community, not higher.A large randomized controlled trial showed wearing masks does not reduce the spread of SARS-CoV-2.”
https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/study-shows-how-masks-are-harming-children/
- New Study Finds Masks Hurt Schoolchildren Physically, Psychologically, and Behaviorally, Hall, 2021
“A new study, involving over 25,000 school-aged children, shows that masks are harming schoolchildren physically, psychologically, and behaviorally, revealing 24 distinct health issues associated with wearing masks…Though these results are concerning, the study also found that 29.7% of children experienced shortness of breath, 26.4% experienced dizziness, and hundreds of the participants experiencing accelerated respiration, tightness in chest, weakness, and short-term impairment of consciousness.”
- Protective Face Masks: Effect on the Oxygenation and Heart Rate Status of Oral Surgeons during Surgery, Scarano, 2021 “In all 20 surgeons wearing FFP2 covered by surgical masks, a reduction in arterial O2 saturation from around 97.5% before surgery to 94% after surgery was recorded with increase of heart rates. A shortness of breath and light-headedness/headaches were also noted.”
- Effects of surgical and FFP2/N95 face masks on cardiopulmonary exercise capacity, Fikenzer, 2020 “Ventilation, cardiopulmonary exercise capacity and comfort are reduced by surgical masks and highly impaired by FFP2/N95 face masks in healthy individuals. These data are important for recommendations on wearing face masks at work or during physical exercise.”
- Headaches Associated With Personal Protective Equipment – A Cross-Sectional Study Among Frontline Healthcare Workers During COVID-19, Ong, 2020 “Most healthcare workers develop de novo PPE-associated headaches or exacerbation of their pre-existing headache disorders.”
https://headachejournal.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/head.13811
- Open letter from medical doctors and health professionals to all Belgian authorities and all Belgian media, The American Institute of Stress, 2020 “Wearing a mask is not without side effects. Oxygen deficiency (headache, nausea, fatigue, loss of concentration) occurs fairly quickly, an effect similar to altitude sickness. Every day we now see patients complaining of headaches, sinus problems, respiratory problems, and hyperventilation due to wearing masks. In addition, the accumulated CO2 leads to a toxic acidification of the organism which affects our immunity. Some experts even warn of increased transmission of the virus in case of inappropriate use of the mask.”
- Reusing masks may increase your risk of coronavirus infection, expert says, Laguipo, 2020 “For the public, they should not wear facemasks unless they are sick, and if a healthcare worker advised them.”For the average member of the public walking down a street, it is not a good idea,” Dr. Harries said.”What tends to happen is people will have one mask. They won’t wear it all the time, they will take it off when they get home, they will put it down on a surface they haven’t cleaned,” she added.Further, she added that behavioral issues could adversely put themselves at more risk of getting the infection. For instance, people go out and don’t wash their hands, they touch parts of the mask or their face, and they get infected.”
- What’s Going On Under the Masks?, Wright, 2021 “Americans today have pretty good chompers on average, at least relative to most other people, past and present. Nevertheless, we do not think enough about oral health as evidenced by the almost complete lack of discussion regarding the effect of lockdowns and mandatory masking on our mouths.”
https://www.aier.org/article/whats-going-on-under-the-masks/
- Experimental Assessment of Carbon Dioxide Content in Inhaled Air With or Without Face Masks in Healthy ChildrenA Randomized Clinical Trial, Walach, 2021 “A large-scale survey in Germany of adverse effects in parents and children using data of 25 930 children has shown that 68% of the participating children had problems when wearing nose and mouth coverings.”
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2781743#pld210019f1
- NM Kids forced to wear masks while running in 100-degree heat; Parents are striking back, Smith, 2021 “Nationally, children have a 99.997% survival rate from COVID-19. In New Mexico, only 0.7% of child COVID-19 cases have resulted in hospitalization. It is clear that children have an extremely low risk of severe illness or death from COVID-19, and mask mandates are placing a burden upon kids which is detrimental to their own health and well-being.”
- Health Canada issues advisory for disposable masks with graphene, CBC, 2021 “Health Canada is advising Canadians not to use disposable face masks that contain graphene. Health Canada issued the notice on Friday and said wearers could inhale graphene, a single layer of carbon atoms. Masks containing the toxic particles may have been distributed in some health-care facilities.”
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/health-canada-disposable-1.5974867
- COVID-19: Performance study of microplastic inhalation risk posed by wearing masks, Li, 2021
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304389420329460?dgcid=rss_sd_all
Is graphene safe?
“Wearing masks considerably reduces the inhalation risk of particles (e.g., granular microplastics and unknown particles) even when they are worn continuously for 720 h. Surgical, cotton, fashion, and activated carbon masks wearing pose higher fiber-like microplastic inhalation risk, while all masks generally reduced exposure when used under their supposed time (<4 h). N95 poses less fiber-like microplastic inhalation risk. Reusing masks after they underwent different disinfection pre-treatment processes can increase the risk of particle (e.g., granular microplastics) and fiber-like microplastic inhalation. Ultraviolet disinfection exerts a relatively weak effect on fiber-like microplastic inhalation, and thus, it can be recommended as a treatment process for reusing masks if proven effective from microbiological standpoint. Wearing an N95 mask reduces the inhalation risk of spherical-type microplastics by 25.5 times compared with not wearing a mask.”
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1369702112701013
- Manufacturers have been using nanotechnology-derived graphene in face masks — now there are safety concerns, Maynard, 2021 “Early concerns around graphene were sparked by previous research on another form of carbon — carbon nanotubes. It turns out that some forms of these fiber-like materials can cause serious harm if inhaled. And following on from research here, a natural next-question to ask is whether carbon nanotubes’ close cousin graphene comes with similar concerns.Because graphene lacks many of the physical and chemical aspects of carbon nanotubes that make them harmful (such as being long, thin, and hard for the body to get rid of), the indications are that the material is safer than its nanotube cousins. But safer doesn’t mean safe. And current research indicates that this is not a material that should be used where it could potentially be inhaled, without a good amount of safety testing first…As a general rule of thumb, engineered nanomaterials should not be used in products where they might inadvertently be inhaled and reach the sensitive lower regions of the lungs.”
https://medium.com/edge-of-innovation/how-safe-are-graphene-based-face-masks-b88740547e8c
- Masking young children in school harms language acquisition, Walsh, 2021 “This is important because children and/or students do not have the speech or language ability that adults have — they are not equally able and the ability to see the face and especially the mouth is critical to language acquisition which children and/or students are engaged in at all times. Furthermore, the ability to see the mouth is not only essential to communication but also essential to brain development.“Studies show that by age four, kids from low-income households will hear 30 million less words than their more affluent counterparts, who get more quality face-time with caretakers.” (https://news.stanford.edu/news/2014/november/language-toddlers-fernald-110514.html).”
- Dangerous pathogens found on children’s face masks, Rational Ground, 2021 “A group of parents in Gainesville, FL, sent 6 face masks to a lab at the University of Florida, requesting an analysis of contaminants found on the masks after they had been worn. The resulting report found that five masks were contaminated with bacteria, parasites, and fungi, including three with dangerous pathogenic and pneumonia-causing bacteria. Although the test is capable of detecting viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, only one virus was found on one mask (alcelaphine herpesvirus 1)…Half of the masks were contaminated with one or more strains of pneumonia-causing bacteria. One-third were contaminated with one or more strains of meningitis-causing bacteria. One-third were contaminated with dangerous, antibiotic-resistant bacterial pathogens. In addition, less dangerous pathogens were identified, including pathogens that can cause fever, ulcers, acne, yeast infections, strep throat, periodontal disease, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, and more.”
https://rationalground.com/dangerous-pathogens-found-on-childrens-face-masks/
- Face mask dermatitis” due to compulsory facial masks during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: data from 550 health care and non-health care workers in Germany, Niesert, 2021 “The duration of wearing masks showed a significant impact on the prevalence of symptoms (p < 0.001). Type IV hypersensitivity was significantly more likely in participants with symptoms compared to those without symptoms (p = 0.001), whereas no increase in symptoms was observed in participants with atopic diathesis. HCWs used facial skin care products significantly more often than non-HCWs (p = 0.001).”
- Effect of Wearing Face Masks on the Carbon Dioxide Concentration in the Breathing Zone, AAQR/Geiss, 2020 “Detected carbon dioxide concentrations ranged from 2150 ± 192 to 2875 ± 323 ppm. The concentrations of carbon dioxide while not wearing a face mask varied from 500–900 ppm. Doing office work and standing still on the treadmill each resulted in carbon dioxide concentrations of around 2200 ppm. A small increase could be observed when walking at a speed of 3 km h–1 (leisurely walking pace)…concentrations in the detected range can cause undesirable symptoms, such as fatigue, headache, and loss of concentration.”
- Surgical masks as source of bacterial contamination during operative procedures, Zhiqing, 2018 “The source of bacterial contamination in SMs was the body surface of the surgeons rather than the OR environment. Moreover, we recommend that surgeons should change the mask after each operation, especially those beyond 2 hours.”
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214031X18300809
- The Damage of Masking Children Could be Irreparable, Hussey, 2021 “When we surround children with mask-wearers for a year at a time, are we impairing their face barcode recognition during a period of hot neural development, thus putting full development of the FFA at risk? Does the demand for separation from others, reducing social interaction, add to the potential consequences as it might in autism? When can we be sure that we won’t interfere with visual input to the face recognition visual neurology so we don’t interfere with brain development? How much time with stimulus interference can we allow without consequences? Those are all questions currently without answers; we don’t know. Unfortunately, the science implies that if we mess up brain development for faces, we may not currently have therapies to undo everything we’ve done.”
https://brownstone.org/articles/the-damage-of-masking-children-could-be-irreparable/
- Masks can be Murder, Grossman, 2021 “Wearing masks can create a sense of anonymity for an aggressor, while also dehumanizing the victim. This prevents empathy, empowering violence, and murder.” Masking helps remove empathy and compassion, allowing others to commit unspeakable acts on the masked person.”
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/01/masks_can_be_murder.html
- London high school teacher calls face masks an ‘egregious and unforgivable form of child abuse, Butler, 2020 “In his email, Farquharson called the campaign to legislate mask wearing a “shameful farce, a charade, an act of political theatre” that’s more about enforcing “obedience and compliance” than it is about public health. He also likened children wearing masks to “involuntary self-torture,” calling it “an egregious and unforgivable form of child abuse and physical assault.”
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/beal-teacher-masks-1.5739327
- UK Government Advisor Admits Masks Are Just “Comfort Blankets” That Do Virtually Nothing, ZeroHedge, 2021 “As the UK Government heralds “freedom day” today, which is anything but, a prominent government scientific advisor has admitted that face masks do very little to protect from coronavirus and are basically just “comfort blankets…the professor noted that “those aerosols escape masks and will render the mask ineffective,” adding “The public were demanding something must be done, they got masks, it is just a comfort blanket. But now it is entrenched, and we are entrenching bad behaviour…all around the world you can look at mask mandates and superimpose on infection rates, you cannot see that mask mandates made any effect whatsoever,” Axon further noted, adding that “The best thing you can say about any mask is that any positive effect they do have is too small to be measured.”
- Masks, false safety and real dangers, Part 1: Friable mask particulate and lung vulnerability, Borovoy, 2020 “Surgical personnel are trained to never touch any part of a mask, except the loops and the nose bridge. Otherwise, the mask is considered useless and is to be replaced. Surgical personnel are strictly trained not to touch their masks otherwise. However, the general public may be seen touching various parts of their masks. Even the masks just removed from manufacturer packaging have been shown in the above photos to contain particulate and fiber that would not be optimal to inhale… Further concerns of macrophage response and other immune and inflammatory and fibroblast response to such inhaled particles specifically from facemasks should be the subject of more research. If widespread masking continues, then the potential for inhaling mask fibers and environmental and biological debris continues on a daily basis for hundreds of millions of people. This should be alarming for physicians and epidemiologists knowledgeable in occupational hazards.”
- Medical Masks, Desai, 2020 “Face masks should be used only by individuals who have symptoms of respiratory infection such as coughing, sneezing, or, in some cases, fever. Face masks should also be worn by health care workers, by individuals who are taking care of or are in close contact with people who have respiratory infections, or otherwise as directed by a doctor. Face masks should not be worn by healthy individuals to protect themselves from acquiring respiratory infection because there is no evidence to suggest that face masks worn by healthy individuals are effective in preventing people from becoming ill.”
Mask usage in non-surgical settings
Provides a list of 12 clinical studies that show masks are ineffectual in preventing transmission of viruses and 7 clinical studies that show they are ineffectual in surgical settings as well.
"None of the studies established a conclusive relationship between mask ⁄ respirator use and protection against influenza infection."
"Our review identified a lack of compelling evidence for the effectiveness of hand hygiene, respiratory etiquette and face masks against influenza transmission in the community... there was no evidence that face masks are effective in reducing transmission of laboratory-confirmed influenza."
Excerpt from: “Non-pharmaceutical public health measures for mitigating the risk and impact of epidemic and pandemic influenza. Annex: Report of systematic literature reviews” (2019). World Health Organization.
"We identified 10 RCTs [randomized controlled trials] that reported estimates of the effectiveness of face masks in reducing laboratory-confirmed influenza virus infections in the community from literature published during 1946–July 27, 2018. In pooled analysis, we found no significant reduction in influenza transmission with the use of face masks"
Excerpt from: “Non-pharmaceutical Measures for Pandemic Influenza in Non-healthcare Settings—Personal Protective and Environmental Measures” (2020). Emerging Infectious Diseases. www.cdc.gov/eid Vol. 26, No. 5, May 2020
"Of the 6 RCTs examining the use of masks by health care workers, only 2 had a control group assigned to 'no mask.' In these trials, masks did not reduce influenza-like illness ..., any clinical respiratory infection..., confirmed influenza, or confirmed viral respiratory infection compared with no masks."
Excerpt from: “Masks for prevention of viral respiratory infections among health care workers and the public - PEER umbrella systematic review” (2020). Canadian Family Physician Vol 66: July, 2020.
"The pooled results of randomised trials did not show a clear reduction in respiratory viral infection with the use of medical/surgical masks during seasonal influenza.. wearing a mask may make little or no difference to the outcome of influenza-like illness (ILI) compared to not wearing a mask... There is moderate certainty evidence that wearing a mask probably makes little or no difference to the outcome of laboratory-confirmed influenza compared to not wearing a mask"
Excerpt from: “Physical interventions to interrupt or reduce the spread of respiratory viruses” (2020). Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2020, Issue 11. Art.No.CD006207.
“Face masks should not be worn by healthy individuals to protect themselves from acquiring respiratory infection because there is no evidence to suggest that face masks worn by healthy individuals are effective in preventing people from becoming ill... Because N95 respirators require special fit testing, they are not recommended for use by the general public.”
Excerpt from: “Medical Masks” (2020). Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) 2020 Volume 323, Number 15 pp1517-8.
“There was no reduction of influenza-like illness (ILI)... or influenza ... for masks compared to no masks in the general population, nor in healthcare workers.” Do masks slow the spread of Covid-19?
Excerpt from: “Physical interventions to interrupt or reduce the spread of respiratory viruses.Part 1 - Face masks, eye protection and person distancing: systematic review and meta-analysis” (2020). medRxiv preprint (not peer reviewed).
“Medical staff who do not work in clinical areas do not need to use a medical mask during routine activities… At present, there is no direct evidence... on the effectiveness of universal masking of healthy people in the community to prevent infection with respiratory viruses, including COVID-19… the widespread use of masks by healthy people in the community setting is not yet supported by high quality or direct scientific evidence”
“The evidence is not sufficiently strong to support widespread use of facemasks as a protective measure against COVID-19. However, there is enough evidence to support the use of facemasks for short periods of time by particularly vulnerable individuals when in transient higher risk situations”
Excerpt from: “Facemasks and similar barriers to prevent respiratory illness such as COVID-19: A rapid systematic review” (2020) medRxiv preprint.
"A total of 3030 participants were randomly assigned to the recommendation to wear masks, and 2994 were assigned to control; 4862 completed the study. Infection with SARS-CoV- 2 occurred in 42 participants recommended masks (1.8%) and 53 control participants (2.1%)... the difference observed was not statistically significant…”
Excerpt from: “Effectiveness of Adding a Mask Recommendation to Other Public Health Measures to Prevent SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Danish Mask Wearers” (2020) [DANMASK]. Annals of Internal Medicine.
“Conclusions: Mask mandates and use are not associated with slower state-level COVID-19 spread during COVID-19 growth surges.”
Excerpt from: “Mask mandate and use efficacy in state-level COVID-19 containment” (2021) medRxiv preprint.
“The proportion of individuals with COVID-like symptoms was 7.62% (N=13,273) in the intervention arm and 8.62% (N=13,893) in the control arm” [widely reported in the media as “proof that masks work” but it turns out that claim is unsupported by the raw data collected for the study].
Excerpt from: “The Impact of Community Masking on COVID-19: A Cluster-Randomized Trial in Bangladesh”. Yale University (2021)
"There is low certainty evidence from nine trials (3507 participants) that wearing a mask may make little or no difference to the outcome of influenza‐like illness (ILI) compared to not wearing a mask (risk ratio (RR) 0.99, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.82 to 1.18. There is moderate certainty evidence that wearing a mask probably makes little or no difference to the outcome of laboratory‐confirmed influenza compared to not wearing a mask (RR 0.91, 95% CI 0.66 to 1.26; 6 trials; 3005 participants). Harms were rarely measured and poorly reported. Two studies during COVID‐19 plan to recruit a total of 72,000 people. One evaluates medical/surgical masks (N = 6000) (published Annals of Internal Medicine, 18 Nov 2020), and one evaluates cloth masks (N = 66,000). "
Physical interventions to interrupt or reduce the spread of respiratory viruses
Do masks reduce operating room infections?
People ask: “if masks don’t work, then why do doctors and nurses wear them in operating rooms?”.
I have not found any clinical studies that support masking against covid, and I have not found any supporting clinical evidence for masks against influenza (above) or surgical site infections (below).
“No masks were worn in one operating theatre for 6 months. There was no increase in the incidence of wound infection… that there was an appreciable fall in the wound infection rate when masks were not worn certainly warrants further investigation… The conclusion is that the wearing of a mask has very little relevance to the wellbeing of patients undergoing routine general surgery and it is a standard practice that could be abandoned.”
Excerpt from: “Is a mask necessary in the operating theatre?” (1981). Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England (I98I) vol. 63 pp. 390-392
"It has never been shown that wearing surgical face masks decreases postoperative wound infections. On the contrary, a 50% decrease has been reported after omitting face masks."
Excerpt from: “Postoperative Wound Infections and Surgical Face Masks: A Controlled Study”(1991). World Journal of Surgery 15, 383-388, 1991
"The routine wearing of masks by all staff working in a modern operating room with forced ventilation is a costly and unnecessary ritual."
Excerpt from: “Surgical face masks in modern operating rooms-a costly and unnecessary ritual?” (1991). Journal of Hospital Infection (1991) 18, 239-242.
"Conclusion: From the limited randomized trials it is still not clear that whether wearing surgical face masks harms or benefits the patients undergoing elective surgery.”
Excerpt from: “Does Evidence Based Medicine Support The Effectiveness Of Surgical Facemasks In Preventing Postoperative Wound Infections In Elective Surgery?” (2009). Journal of Ayub Medical College Abbottabad 2009;21(2)
"Masks have not been shown to reduce overall bacterial counts within the operatory. Several studies have failed to show reductions in SSIs [surgical site infections] with the use of masks.”
Excerpt from: “Surgeon’s garb and infection control: What’s the evidence?” (2011). Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, v 64, n 5
“In conclusion, current literature has been unable to support the use of surgical masks in reducing rates of surgical site infection in the operating room”
Excerpt from: “Current Concepts Review - Surgical Attire and the Operating Room: Role in Infection Prevention” (2014). The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery. 2014;96:1485-92
"The use of face masks and surgical caps by inhabitants in the operating room (OR) has not been shown to impact SSI [surgical site infection] rates, but with the limited evidence available a recommendation for or against patient usage cannot be made.”
Excerpt from: “Surgical Attire: Proceedings of International Consensus on Orthopedic Infections” (2019). The Journal of Arthroplasty general assembly section, prevention, volume 34, issue 2, supplement , S97-S104, 2019
Non-technical discussions
Dr. Bailey does an excellent job of summarizing the steps that are followed to bring new drugs to market, which follow a very predictable route.
| Phase | Target | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-clinical Trial | animals | on average 31 months |
| Phase 1 | healthy | several months |
| Phase 2 | carefully chosen | 1-2 years |
| Phase 3 | 1-3,000 | 3-5 years |
| Phase 4 | small general public | 1.5 years |
| FDA Approval | all general public |
Pre-clinical trial on animals to determine toxic dose and safe dose for humans, and look at side affects that may affect humans.
Phase 1 Clinical trial on small group of humans (20-80). Healthy individuals, who are paid for their participation.
Phase 2 Clinical trial on target patients to identify side affects and efficacy or how well the drug works (100-300 people). Participants are carefully chosen.
Phase 3 Clinical trial to measure effectiveness and monitor side affects (1000-3000 people). Some side affects take time to reveal themselves. Randomized, double-blind, placebo.
Phase 4 Public Trial – regulatory approval to use the drug in the general population under varied conditions, drug interactions and discover untoward affects that might have been missed in earlier trials. Continue to monitor side affects. Many drugs have shown harmful effects only during phase 4 trials and have subsequently been banned from use.
Informed Consent
Following the horrendous government practices during world war two, most countries signed the Nuremberg agreement to make participation an individual choice and after providing information about the risks of the procedure. Technically you can not be involved in a clinic trial without signing first an Informed Consent agreement.
Fast tracking
It can take 10-15 years to get a new drug to market and many will fail along the way.
FDA has a provision for Accelerated Approval before effectiveness is understood and allows for the drug to be used for new drugs for serious and life threatening illnesses that lack satisfactory treatments. In as early as 2.5 years. The drugs are continuously monitored for effectiveness and removed if they do not appear effective and confirm the initial results. This was used for HIV drugs for example.
Emergency Use Authorization – EUA
Special circumstances exist for approval and this was obtained by Pfizer for use in only 8 months.
It is very important to understand that Clinical Trials are still running while the product has already been purchased by government and is being given to the general public. The study that is currently running since April 2020 but is not actively recruiting patients. It is a phase one, two, and three study. It is just under 44,000 patients and is looking to find the correct dose and efficacy of the product in healthy people. It’s estimated to finish in January 2023 so we may not see any long-term safety data until that date.
Legal Liability
One of the reasons that clinical trials are so expensive is the pharmaceutical company is legally liable for injury and compensation during the trial and even continues after the drug goes to market.
There are exceptions to this rule and the govt has invoked the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act on Feb 4, 2020. The 2005 law empowers the HHS secretary to provide legal protection to companies making or distributing medical supplies, such as vaccines and treatments, unless there is “wilful misconduct” by the pharmaceutical company. This protection lasts until 2024.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7h7mLhjYvF8
technical notes
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid19/excess_deaths.htm
https://www.cdc.gov/flu/symptoms/flu-vs-covid19.htm
https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/preliminary-in-season-estimates.htm
https://www.fda.gov/media/143557/download
https://vaers.hhs.gov/data.html
https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/
From FDA to MHRA: are drug regulators for hire? Patients and doctors expect drug regulators to provide an unbiased, rigorous assessment of investigational medicines before they hit the market. But do they have sufficient independence from the companies they are meant to regulate? Maryanne Demasi investigates https://www.bmj.com/content/377/bmj.o1538.long
Something is not right
Like everyone else, I have had my series of childhood vaccinations and never thought much about it. At least until now. But, there is something about these new Covid vaccines that does not seem right. They appeared awfully fast, just months after a novel virus appears. They are not even vaccine's in the traditional sense: neutered virus particles that are meant to stimulate an immune reaction to the pathogen without the ability to replicate. Nor are they something that has ever been used on humans before. We should have proceeded with caution. We should have followed the safety protocols of clinical trials. The system failed us.
Clinical trials are underway and will not be reporting their results until 2024. I have already published a blog on this What is a Clinical Trial? The key thing to know about the clinical trials is that they are a protocol developed after decades of trial and error. It is the best way and safest way that we know in order to get new drugs to market. Tampering with this should never have occurred. Furthermore, the pharmaceutical companies were offered immunity from prosecution and civil litigation. The latest is that the pharmaceuticals have now been given permission to adjust the recipes for their vaccines without going back through clinical trials. All our protections have been removed. Why are people ok with this?
USA Adverse Reporting
The USA maintains a Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) that can be found here. https://vaers.hhs.gov/
European Adverse Reporting
Europe maintains their own adverse reporting and can be found here. https://dap.ema.europa.eu/analytics/saw.dll?PortalPages
Canadian Adverse Reporting
There is an adverse reporting system in Canada, and can be found here. https://health-infobase.canada.ca/covid-19/vaccine-safety/
The following was taken from Canada’s reporting system on Feb 10, 2021.
Of the 480 individual AEFI reports (0.051% of all doses administered), 68 were considered serious (0.007% of all doses administered). The 480 individual adverse events reports represent 480 people who reported one or more adverse events. Among the 480 adverse events reports, the most frequently reported adverse events were:
- vaccination site reactions,
- paraesthesia (tingling or prickling),
- urticaria (hives),
- pruritis (itching), and
- nausea.
Among the 68 serious adverse events reports, the most frequently reported adverse event was anaphylaxis.
Three deaths were reported. These deaths occurred after the administration of a vaccine. Following medical case review, it has been determined that these deaths are not linked to a COVID-19 vaccine.
There may be delays in receiving reporting forms. These delays may be due to jurisdictions investigating and reviewing each AEFI prior to submitting the information to PHAC. There are also limitations to reporting practices such as under reporting, missing information, and differing AEFI reporting practices across jurisdictions in Canada. Information is collected on individuals for whom an AEFI report was submitted, not on the total number of individuals who experience an adverse event as not every adverse event is reported.
Does it work?
Again, very difficult to assess this because clinical trials are underway but not yet reporting. They claim the vaccines are effective, but they needed to make this claim to get regulatory fast track approval. They are relying on the outcome of the clinical trials that are underway to prove this claim. It is not yet proven. I have had this argument with a number of people. The pretrials did not prove effectiveness against death or hospitalizations. That is a false assumption that everyone seems to make. They define effectiveness as measured by counting the number of symptoms, which is highly subjective, vague and inconclusive.
Do I need it?
This one is easy to decide. In Canada, according to StatsCan, 80% of deaths are people in their 80’s. 82% are in long term health care facilities (93% in Quebec). 99% have comorbidities. None of these factors apply to me, so if anything, I am in the other group – the 10% of deaths who are under 70. On further consideration, the age is an issue for comorbiditie more than covid outcome. The table on CFR by age is a better measure. But remember, CFR is a measure of people seeking medical assistance not an actual measurement of people getting sick.
But again, 99% of those are with comorbidity, leaving me in the 1% of the 10%. That is pretty good odds in my favour, should I actually encounter the virus.
Dataset: Ontario #COVID19 age-stratified CFRs
Dataset: Ontario deaths by vaccination status
| age range | CFR | Rate |
|---|---|---|
| 0-19: | 0.003% | (1 in 32,018 cases) |
| 20-29: | 0.008% | (1 in 12,075) |
| 30-39: | 0.03% | (1 in 3,542) |
| 40-49: | 0.076% | (1 in 1,316) |
| 50-59: | 0.30% | (1 in 329) |
| 60-69: | 1.43% | (1 in 70) |
| 70-79: | 3.64% | (1 in 27) |
| 80-89: | 10.96% | (1 in 9) |
| 90+: | 19.31% | (1 in 5) |
So because I do not have comorbidity, my odds are much greater than 1 in 70 and may even be closer to 1 in 7000 but certainly at least 1 in 700.
| age range | IFR |
|---|---|
| 0-19 | .0013% |
| 20-29 | .0088% |
| 30-39 | .021 % |
| 40-49 | .042% |
| 50-59 | .14% |
| 60-69 | .65% |
| 70+ nonLTC | 2.9% |
| 70+ all | 4.9% |
The odds are also pretty good that I won’t even encounter the virus this year. I just checked the Covid-19 case tracker for Canada and after a year, we seem to have about 804,000 cases. Out of 38 million Canadians, that is about 2.1% of the population, or 1 in 47, so my chance of getting Covid in the next year is probably the same as last year which is 1 in 47. Again, pretty low odds. So why take a risky procedure for something that I have very low odds of getting and very low odds of perishing if I get it. I can afford to wait a few years and watch what happens, and make a more informed decision at that time.
So, to summarize, 2.1% chance of getting Covid and a 1.43% chance of perishing if I get Covid leaves me with a 0.03% chance of perishing from Covid this year. Compare that with a 100% chance of perishing in the next 30 years or 3% chance per year (an actuarial table gives it at 2% because your chance of dying doubles every 8 years).
Pathologist Dr. Roger Hodkinson -they are lying about everything.
Dr. Patrick Philips - damages caused by lockdowns and suppression of treatments.
[“These vaccines don’t prevent transmission.. Infections can still happen whether ppl vaccinated or not.. This idea that vac mandates needed to create safe workplaces is a complete lie & is not backed by science.. Denial of natural immunity”](FL Surgeon General, Twitter account removed)
Discussion and Summary
The scientific methods states that any claim can be made but it has to be observable and repeatable to be proven. It also has the concept of a null hypothesis, in that one would have to show the efficacy of a
- Pharma took a toxic protein (Spike) known since the 1990s.
- Then, adjusted its code to make it more genetically invasive (furin cleavage).
- Then, packaged it into a vehicle designed to invade cellular life (lipid nanoparticles).
"We now know that spike protein, although people want to ignore & deny it, actually activates many genetic pathways, which lead to cancer, & it's a form of cancer called 'turbo cancers.'" @drpaulmarik1
Arguments for vaccines
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The vaccines are perfectly safe and effective
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Vaccination should be mandatory for the rest of humanity's sake.
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It is just like the polio vaccine and look how good that was
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Vaccines prevent dying
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Vaccines prevent hospitalization
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Vaccines reduce the severity
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Unvaccinated individuals should be isolated from others
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Vaccines prevent you from acquiring the disease from other vaccinated individuals. But you can still acquire the disease from an unvaccinated individual - both need to be vaccinated.
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Vaccines prevent the hospitals from being overrun and the taxing of the health care system.
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Vaccines help us develop herd immunity
Arguments against the vaccines
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Not everyone dies from the disease and consequently not everyone needs the vaccine.
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The vaccines do not prevent tranmission. Either receiving it or passing it to others if you are infected
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The pre-clinical trials did not look at effectiveness against mortality, hospitalization, severity nor transmission. They focussed solely on the count of symptoms and only demonstrated a reduction in count.
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The vaccines were not safe. Overwhelming number of adverse events - in the millions reported. Unknown number went unreported.
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Vaccines are exempt from double-blind placebo testing during clinical pre-trials.
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Natural immunity is far superior to vaccination and is proven in study after study.
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There are many successful treatments which were show to improve the outcome of the disease and are cheap and effective.
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There do not appear to be any excess mortality during the first year which was without vaccines. There are now significant mortality which correlates with increased vaccination and it is growing each year even though vaccine uptake has practically vanished.
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evidence of the incentivisation of vaccine use being given to health care providers
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The harmful outcomes of the vaccines were well known before emergency approval was granted and were absent from the discussions. Pamplets with a long list of side affects were included with the vaccine but were not shown or discussed with patients. Patients did not get informed consent.
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Governments considered individuals in the healthcare system as unvaccinated within the last 15 days with the result that all adverse events from the vaccinated were counted as unvaccinated.
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The treatments administered to those that caught the disease were causing deaths such as respirators, medazolam, and removal of antibiotics.
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Patents going back 20 years. Event 201, a preparedness exercise was held three months before the lockdowns so it was a planned and coordinated response. If it truly was an existential threat then that looks like prudence, however if it was a scam, then that looks like culpability. The theatre coming out of China at the time. Seniors dying in record numbers in Italy which coincided with a recent vaccination program
100% of the deaths had comorbidities, 99% had 2 or more comorbidities. Canada wide Average 85% were residents of LTC facilities (93% in Quebec) 80% of the deaths were individuals 80 or older. 10% in the 70-80 range, and 10% under 70. Highly targetted group and it was false to claim that the general public were at risk. This was known at the time. Also false to claim that vaccines saved lives because these extremely unhealthy individuals did not get the vaccine. So the very ones that died of Covid were unable to receive the vaccine.
This is the stated requirment made by the FDA for emergency approval and the submissions only looked at symptom counts. These are public records
https://www.midwesterndoctor.com/p/what-are-the-risks-and-benefits-of
https://romanbystrianyk.substack.com/p/60-years-of-failing-flu-vaccines
Years later - no impact on mortality
"We could not correlate increasing vaccination coverage after 1980 with declining mortality rates in any age group. Because fewer than 10% of all winter deaths were attributable to influenza in any season, we conclude that observational studies substantially overestimate vaccination benefit." Impact of Influenza Vaccination on Seasonal Mortality in the US Elderly Population
"After the late 1980s, no decline in age-adjusted excess mortality was associated with increasing influenza vaccination distribution primarily targeted for the elderly." Influenza-related mortality in the Italian elderly: No decline associated with increasing vaccination coverage
Claims of Effectiveness Sources
"Results: Vaccine effectiveness of the mRNA vaccines to prevent COVID-19-associated hospitalizations included: 85% (95% CI: 82 to 88%) for 2 vaccine doses against Alpha; 85% (95% CI: 83 to 87%) for 2 doses against Delta; 94% (95% CI: 92 to 95%) for 3 doses against Delta; 65% (95% CI: 51 to 75%) for 2 doses against Omicron; and 86% (95% CI: 77 to 91%) for 3 doses against Omicron.
Among hospitalized unvaccinated COVID-19 patients, severity on the WHO Clinical Progression Scale was higher for Delta than Alpha (adjusted proportional odds ratio [aPOR] 1.28, 95% CI: 1.11 to 1.46), and lower for Omicron than Delta (aPOR 0.61, 95% CI: 0.49 to 0.77). Compared to unvaccinated cases, severity was lower for vaccinated cases for each variant, including Alpha (aPOR 0.33, 95% CI: 0.23 to 0.49), Delta (aPOR 0.44, 95% CI: 0.37 to 0.51), and Omicron (aPOR 0.61, 95% CI: 0.44 to 0.85). Conclusions: mRNA vaccines were highly effective in preventing COVID-19-associated hospitalizations from Alpha, Delta, and Omicron variants, but three vaccine doses were required to achieve protection against Omicron similar to the protection that two doses provided against Delta and Alpha. Among adults hospitalized with COVID-19, Omicron caused less severe disease than Delta, but still resulted in substantial morbidity and mortality. Vaccinated patients hospitalized with COVID-19 had significantly lower disease severity than unvaccinated patients for all the variants."
disease mortality
Clinical Severity and mRNA Vaccine Effectiveness for Omicron, Delta, and Alpha SARS-CoV-2 Variants in the United States: A Prospective Observational Study
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.02.06.22270558v1
A test negative design study in Ontario
Effectiveness of BNT162b2 and mRNA-1273 covid-19 vaccines against symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection and severe covid-19 outcomes in Ontario, Canada.
This study was given to me to support the claim that these vaccines improve the severity of outcome. They claim that the unvaccinated are 16 times more likely to be hospitalized and die than the vaccinated. It also seems to be a technical reference used by the mainstream media, such as the Ottawa Citizen, who also are making similar claims. But is this true.
My own conclusions
Anyone can make a claim but to be scientific, it has to be supported by evidence - observable and repeatable by others. We have the claim for effectiveness here but we can not see how they arrived at their results so it can not be considered proof, just their word. They even say that their work can not be replicated by others because of the restricted access to the data citing confidentiality. However, the confidentialy reasons are bogus because you don't need to identify a person, you just need a bit of meta data on each patient such as age, vax status, comorbidity, symptoms etc to perform this analysis. You don't need anything that would identify them. You don't even need to know which hospital unless you are also examining this across economic sectors which they did here, but that is tangential to the core question and could easily have been removed.
So this is the fundamental flaw with this study. Without showing their calculations in their analysis we have no way of knowing if this is correct or errors were made, and the wrong conclusions drawn. Having read this several times I have zero confidence in their claim. It fails as supporting evidence, and so it is just another opinion piece, just dressed up to look sciency.
This is not evidence and can not be used to support the claim.
Furthermore, it appears on a somewhat prestigious science journal database which has a reputation for peer-reviewed science. This does not appear to have been peer reviewed, how could it have been. It looks more like science theatre - all the appearance of science but without the science.
Finally, the problem with these studies is who funded the study and did they get what they paid for. This study was commissioned from Ontario Health, but it was not conducted by their employees or by contractors. It was through an endowment grant. Which always feels like money laundering to me. A pharma company can not commission such a study directly, because it would obviously look bad. So they give the endowment to a university or in this case, a public organization to give the appearance of being arms length. But is it really?
How they marshalled their data
- Used individuals that were pcr tested positives, negatives were the control
- hospital admission, or death with recent positive test
- n=2,171,449 people tested. 40% removed as priors? (not sure why they were removed or what affect this has on results).
- 24% were asymptomatic and 15% symptomatic
- of the 324,033 people with symptoms who were tested, 53 270 (16.4%) tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, 42 567 (79.9%) had information available on tests for variants, 21 272 (6.6%) had received at least one dos of mRNA vaccine, and 4 894 (1.5%) had received two doses (table 1).
- Among test positive cases, 2 479 (4.7%) had a severe outcome, of whom 2 035 were admitted to hospital and 444 died.
What they concluded
"Estimates for both full and partial vaccination were about 10 percentage points higher against hospital admission or death than against symptomatic infection."
"We observed an effectiveness against symptomatic infection of 63%""
"In our study, we observed an increased risk of infection 7-13 days after vaccination. Thus, the generalisability of our findings to the broader population is uncertain and we could not estimate vaccine effectiveness against asymptomatic infection."
Questions it raised while I was reading
- how many died that were vaccinated. Ontario guidelines consider those vaccinated under 14 days as un-vaccinated,
- how many died that were not vaccinated, truly unvaccinated
- did they include deaths in the first two weeks from the date of vaccination
- role that comorbidities played which we know is crucial
- does the vax skew the pcr test results?
- was this really peer reviewed? feels like it wasn't. How could it be with the analysis missing. What were their comments about it? That would be so interesting to read.
- look at the rolling totals for vax uptake, starts almost zero
- Look at the ratio pos to neg,
- starts 7.8 vs 10.1 when no vax
- ends 24.9 vs 15.2 when 40.1 vax vs 15.1 unvax it flipped!!!!
- why is comorbid missing from Table 1! so relevent here
- why symptomatic focus for this study? question the focus of the study when we know that c19 targetted comorbids and age,and most specifically residents of Long Term Care facilities. also know that most people are asymptomatic
- what were the percentage of hospitialization and death overall
"Among adults aged ≥70 years, vaccine effectiveness against symptomatic infection after one dose was observed to be 64%" What does "effectiveness" actually mean here? hospitalization? death? Don't think so. Suspicious that they are referring to a count of symptoms, which was required for FDA approval, rather than an actual measure of severity.
Retraction of scientific papers
The purpose of this study was to analyze, for the first time, the subjective views of researchers whose papers were retracted. Study participants are active researchers, most with international reputations in their respective fields. They perceived retraction as a means of censoring and silencing critical voices with the aim of preserving the pro-vaccination agenda of interested parties. Participants also reported additional measures aimed at harming them personally and professionally. These findings point to the need for a fair, open, and honest discourse about the safety of vaccines for the benefit of public health and the restoration of trust in science and medicine.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09581596.2021.1878109?journalCode=ccph20
Risk/Benefits of Vaccines
https://amidwesterndoctor.substack.com/p/what-are-the-risks-and-benefits-of
Common Outcomes for Vaccines
A minimal common outcome measure set for COVID-19 clinical research
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(20)30483-7/fulltext
"These vaccine types include viral vector-based vaccines, COVID-19 mRNA-based vaccines, inactivated or attenuated virus vaccine, and protein-based vaccines. In viral vector-based vaccines, adenovirus is used to deliver a part of SARS-COV-2 genome to human cells. Human cells use this genetic material to produce SARS-COV-2 spike protein. Human body recognizes this protein to start a defensive response. The mRNA-based vaccines consist of SARS-COV-2 RNA. Once introduced, genetic material helps in making SARS-COV-2-specific protein. This protein is recognized by human body to start defensive immune reaction. In inactivated or attenuated vaccines, killed or attenuated SARS-COV-2 virus triggers immune response. Protein-based vaccines use the spike protein or its fragments for inciting immune response. The most devastating neurological post-vaccination complication is cerebral venous sinus thrombosis. Cerebral venous sinus is frequently reported in females of childbearing age, generally following adenovector-based vaccination. Another major neurological complication of concern is Bell’s palsy that was reported dominantly following mRNA vaccine administration. Acute transverse myelitis, acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, and acute demyelinating polyneuropathy are other unexpected neurological adverse events that occur as result of phenomenon of molecular mimicry. Reactivation of herpes zoster in many persons, following administration of mRNA vaccines, has been also recorded. "
Spectrum of neurological complications following COVID-19 vaccination
(https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10072-021-05662-9)
Ethics
The Ethical Significance of Post‑Vaccination COVID‑19 Transmission Dynamics
(https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11673-022-10223-6)
"The potential for vaccines to prevent the spread of infectious diseases is crucial for vaccination policy and ethics. In this paper, I discuss recent evidence that the current COVID-19 vaccines have only a modest and short-lived effect on reducing SARS-CoV-2 transmission and argue that this has at leastfour important ethical implications. First, getting vaccinated against COVID-19 should be seen primarily as a self-protective choice for individuals. Second, moral condemnation of unvaccinated people for causing direct harm to others is unjustified. Third, the case for a harm-based moral obligation to get vaccinated against COVID-19 is weak. Finally, and perhaps most significantly, coercive COVID-19 vaccination policies (e.g., measures that exclude unvaccinated people from society) cannot be directly justified by the harm principle."
Asymmetric Risk from Covid
The majority of deaths from C19 in the first wave were residents of Long Term Facilities. All had comorbidities, the most commone being obesity.Covid-19 does not strike indescrimanently.
A few blood-serum tests that occured before the roll out of vaccines showed that the vast majority of the population already had antibodies to the coronavirus. No effort was made to check whether a particular patient needed the vaccine before administering it. Furthermore, studies show natural immunty is superiour to vaccine immunity.
The creation of an "emergency" led to the rushing of the vaccine before clinical trials had been undertaken.
The safety data appeared in the FDA slide deck and VAERS
The bar for effectiness was set very low
The Fallacy of Universal Protection
The protected need to be protected from the unprotected by forcing the unprotected to use the protection that didn’t work for the protected.
Don't hate people for being unvaccinated - they were just born that way.
A vaccine is just a commercial product yet it seems to have been given special status - almost life-giving qualities.
If the Vax were 90% effective at saving lives we would expect deaths to be 10% of what they were before vaccines. And since the vast majority of deaths were residents of Long Term Care Facilities (93%) and which had comorbidities (99%), then this is actually saving old people from dying. We just may have found the fountain of eternal youth!
But the truth is, for 99.9% (now 99.97%) of Canadians, the vaccination will do nothing to save their life, simply because they were not in danger of dying.
Another way to look at it is the vax will not save the lives of 99.9% of people in Canada so it is wasted on them. Its actually worse than this because in any given year most people will not even come into contact with C19. Do we know how many actually will? If positive tests are an indication and it seems to be the only indication that we have, and that the number of cases last year were around 6%. But people are tested multiple times and each time is considered a new case so even that number should be reduced in half or thirds, say 2 or 3%
That is the fallacy of the vax as a therapeutic. It's value for most people is very questionable. Most drugs are given to people that need it. I.e. antibiotics, if and when you have an infection. We don’t give antibiotics to the entire population in case someone might have an infection later that year.
On top of that, they have turned the vax into a subscription service, multiple doses in a year. Really, this is collective insanity.
Lipid Nanoparticle Studies
https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/results?cond=&term=lipid+nanoparticle&cntry=&state=&city=&dist=
- Not a sufficient emergency
- Not a question of deaths from a particular virus, it is a question of an extraordinary difference
- deaths mostly occurred in LTC and advanced ages and comorbidities
- deaths were within the range of deaths of prior years
For my part I see that mortality is essentially unchanged from pre covid so it means the cause of death is being attributed differently rather than it being additional deaths. This is more of an administrative change rather than a pandemic. I did an analysis of the mortality data from StatsCan, CDC and Euromomo a year ago. There are no excess deaths from Covid and this is so unlike historic pandemics which rapidly killed
We are essentially at zero deaths from Covid at this time but they are using “cases“ as a metric for disease spread, as a reason for more non-pharmaceutical interventions, but is it? What is a “case”? It is certainly not a sick person as most cases are asymptomatic. Is it a measure of how widespread the disease is from testing samples of the population? Then why use the total number of positives rather than dividing by the number of tests performed to get the rate of positivity?
People are being coerced into taking an experimental drug that skipped the normal safety and effectiveness trials because of the emergency and the early data is not looking so good. We have never seen a vaccine with this level of adverse affects. It is literally off the scale and the trials should have been discontinued under normal circumstances. It doesn’t even seem to be getting any attention which is strange given the hyperfocus on variants, cases and people dying that tested positive for covid.
Age stratification is being ignored as the risk to the under 65yo group is lower than the risk from seasonal influenza, yet they are being coerced into taking the experimental vaccine. The adverse affects on this age group is disheartening and these just may be additional deaths.
Asymptomatics are being blamed for the spread. Which is only somewhat true. Anyone that has come into contact with the virus is possibly a spreader but that includes whether you had the vaccine or not. Either one are spreaders. The super spreaders are the really sick ones but they are being hospitalized and not walking among the general population.
Covid zero seems to be the strategy as if it can be irradicated by vaccines just like we did with smallpox. Coronavirus is nothing like the smallpox virus or any of the other childhood diseases for that matter.
Vaccine passport and the social constructs for a two tiered society, those that comply and those that opt out. It is more of a social compliance mechanism rather than a health regime. And we can see where the idea came from. Childhood diseases such as Diptheria, Small pox etc seem to have been eradicated from mass vacinnations. The preoblem is that the Coronavirus is not the same beast as
The problem with the current public policy is it is based on germ theory and the notion that covid-zero is possible and will save us. This is simply not true.
The weak argument with germ theory is that it overlooks and ignores some pretty solid science and promotes germ avoidance as a solution. A competing theory called Terrain Theory attempts to solve those limitations. Like germ theory it recognizes that we are surrounded by micro-organisms and som
Arguments
Covid targets mainly the elderly 80% and frail 99% and the obese 80%. The elderly are disproportionately affected because they have a higher percentage of weak and frail than the young. This is so unlike past epidemics which affected everyone and usually had a average age in the 20-30year olds.
- A healthy immune system is designed to handle this virus and given the large percentage (>80%) of asymptomatics, it obviously is handing it for most people.
- Some of us may have immunity from prior corona viruses.
- Most of us have t-cell immunity as well as antibodies from recent exposure to coronavirus going back to 2005. Blood serum testing keeps showing high levels of immunity in the population.
- Vit D boosts the immune system and there may be a large population with deficient levels.
- Masks and social distancing do little to stop the spread, do not save lives
- Hospitals are running below capacity.
- Cases and fatalities peak each year around january.
- Most people do not realize the amount of deaths each day (850/day in Canada, 8k/day in US).
- in the UK, at this time, Covid is the 26th killer. Not even in the top ten.
“The largest population-based study comparing the unvaccinated/naturally immune to the vaccinated found that vaccinated people were 6 to 13 times more likely to get infected, 27 times more likely to get symptomatic infections, and 8 times more likely to be hospitalized. These findings are not surprising, since infection with the virus allows our body to form an immune response to many parts (epitopes) on the virus, whereas the vaccines expose us only to one part, the spike protein.”
The spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 variant A.30 is heavily mutated and evades vaccine-induced antibodies with high efficiency
SARS-CoV-2 antibody-positivity protects against reinfection for at least seven months with 95% efficacy
vaccine
The Potential Serious Danger of Antibody-Dependent Enhancement with Coronavirus Vaccines
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. warns: Don’t take a COVID-19 vaccine under any circumstances
Dr. Carrie Madej – An Urgent Wake-Up Call About New COVID-19 Vaccine
https://visionlaunch.com/dr-carrie-madej-an-urgent-wake-up-call-about-new-covid-19-vaccine/
Location of FDA docs on C-19 vaccine
explanation of vax trials and requirements for EUA
https://www.fda.gov/vaccines-blood-biologics/vaccines/emergency-use-authorization-vaccines-explained
FDA’s analysis of the efficacy data from 28,207 participants 18 years of age and older without evidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection prior to dose 1 confirms the vaccine was 94.1% effective (95% confidence interval (CI) 89.3, 96.8) in preventing COVID-19 occurring at least 14 days after the second dose (with 11 COVID-19 cases in the vaccine group compared to 185 COVID-19 cases in the placebo group).
Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for an Unapproved Product Moderna
EUA order
Failure
- Vaccine value wanes after 3 months, and in some after 5-6 weeks
- Some vaccinated were counted as unvax to inflate unvax case-counts
- Vax'd within first 2 weeks were counted as unvax to attribute vax harm to the unvax'd
- Double vax testing positive 2x higher than unvax (per 100k)
- Boosted are testing positive 3x higher than unvax (per 100k)
- Most people have natural immunity by now
- More than 90% of uninfected adults show pre-existing antibody reactivity against SARSCoV2
- Natural immunity is superior to vax
- Vaccinated have 6x the infection rate compared to unvax (per 100k) Israel
- The vaccinated cannot develop “natural immunity”
- Unexplained doubling of deaths in the young 2021Q3
Evidence suggests that these vaccines can alter our innate immune response, actually producing tolerance to vaccines and infections. Study showed Pfizer vaccine produced vaccine interference and the potential for these vaccinated people to respond poorly to other vaccines, ie influenza. 76 given Pfizer LNP mRNA. Results, Lymphocyte (T-cell) counts actually decrease following vaccination. This was most pronounced during initial vaccination. T-cell responses after Moderna mRNA-1273: 24 revealed low or undetectable Th2 or CD8+ Cytotoxic T-cells following vaccination. Evidence is strong that people who have had other viral infections have a robust immunity to Sars-Cov-2 independant of the severity of infection
The EUA documents showed no statistical reduction in Covid or death when the vaccinated and non-vaccinated groups were statistically compared.
"We did not observe an increased incidence of neither pericarditis nor myocarditis in adult patients recovering from COVID-19 infection. "
The Incidence of Myocarditis and Pericarditis in Post COVID-19 Unvaccinated Patients—A Large Population-Based Study
An interview with my pediatric cardiologist husband, Kirk Milhoan, MD, PhD, FAAP, FACC Kimberly Milhoan, MD
https://kimberlymilhoanmd.substack.com/p/myocarditis?utm_source=twitter&sd=pf&s=r
Dr. Kulvinder Kaur MD
Public Health Ontario's new report was used by politicians, media, academics to claim majority of hospitalized & ICU Covid "cases" & deaths "with Covid" are "unvaccinated"
BUT their definition for "unvaccinated" actually INCLUDES vaccinated ppl.
"Unvaccinated cases include cases that are not yet protected from immunization and are 0-13 days post-dose 1"
To make ethical evidence-based decisions, critical that all data is reported transparently: data from the control group (non-immune unvaccinated) must never be mixed with other test groups (immune unvaccinated, post-vaccination 0-13 days, post-vaccination ≥14 days)
Published Pfizer Phase 1/2 Covid vaccine clinical trial data showed dramatic transient lymphophenia (reduced white blood cells such as Tcells, NK cells, antibody producing Bcells) in ppl 1-3 days post-vaccination compared to unvaccinated control group.
Extended Data Fig. 1: Post vaccination changes in lymphocyte count over time
Phenomena of post-vaccination immunosuppression in Covid vac trials also studied with other vaccines, incl yellow fever: vaccinated ppl had increased risk of infection within 7d post-vac d/t sharp/transient lymphophenia (Tcell depletion). h/t @gerdosi
Early drop of circulating T cells negatively correlates with the protective immune response to Yellow Fever vaccination
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21645515.2020.1750249
New Peer-reviewed Canadian study in Journal of Clinical Investigation Insight: "Majority of uninfected adults show pre-existing antibody reactivity against SARSCoV2"
"Pre-existing cross-reactivity to SARSCoV2 occurs in absence of prior viral exposure"
But PHO & 🇨🇦govt’s “covid immunity taskforce” reports base “natural immunity” entirely only on humoural immunity (antibodies) and (by omission) completely deny existence of critical cellular immunity (Tcells) & secretary IgA
https://www.publichealthontario.ca/-/media/documents/ncov/epi/2020/12/covid-19-epi-seroprevalence-in-ontario-oct-30.pdf?sc_lang=en > https://www.covid19immunitytaskforce.ca/final-results-of-initial-canadian-sars-cov-2-seroprevalence-study-announced/
Recent pre-print of Danish study found: nursing home residents at 40% increased risk of Covid infection 0-14 days post-vac and healthcare workers at 104% increased risk of Covid infection 0-14 days post-vac respectively compared to unvaccinated people
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.08.21252200v1.full.pdf
Vaccinated people were 6.72 times more likely to get infected than those with natural immunity from prior #COVID disease.
Ontario
Confirmed Cases of COVID-19 Following Vaccination in Ontario: December 14, 2020 to March 13, 2022
During early days of the vaccine rollout (mar-july) anyone not > 14days since second dose was counted as unvaccinated which was most people. And data was showing most cases were from the unvax. Today we are seeing boosted are testing 3x higher and double 2x higher than unvax.
Most vax have natural immunity by now. Vaccine wanes after 3 months. Vaccine is doing something to reduce the immune system and govt can no longer blame it on the unvax.
To make ethical evidence-based decisions, critical that all data is reported transparently: data from the control group (non-immune unvaccinated) must never be mixed with other test groups (immune unvaccinated, post-vaccination 0-13 days, post-vaccination ≥14 days)
Published Pfizer Phase 1/2 Covid vaccine clinical trial data showed dramatic transient lymphophenia (reduced white blood cells such as Tcells, NK cells, antibody producing Bcells) in ppl 1-3 days post-vaccination compared to unvaccinated control group
(https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2639-4/figures/5)
Phenomena of post-vaccination immunosuppression in Covid vac trials also studied with other vaccines, incl yellow fever: vaccinated ppl had increased risk of infection within 7d post-vac d/t sharp/transient lymphophenia (Tcell depletion). h/t
(https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21645515.2020.1750249)
Tcells are critical for our innate & adaptive immune responses, including both cellular (CD4 and CD8 Tcells) & humoural (antibody) immune responses. Our "warrior" Tcells play a critical role in our natural immune response to viruses, including SARSCoV2
BC
A Canadian peer-reviewed study from BC also found:
-
">90% of uninfected adults show pre-existing antibody reactivity against SARSCoV2"
-
"Current study is consistent with detection of Tcell reactivity against SARSCoV2 in ~40% of uninfected individuals"
Final results of initial Canadian SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence study announced
Recent pre-print of Danish study found: nursing home residents at 40% increased risk of Covid infection 0-14 days post-vac and healthcare workers at 104% increased risk of Covid infection 0-14 days post-vac respectively compared to unvaccinated people
(https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.08.21252200v1.full.pdf) medrxiv 2021 03
"A genuine increased risk of contracting infection post vaccination is important to understand, both for evaluating the vaccination programmes as well as planning the best time of year to carry such programmes out"
According to UK government's report by its SAGE advisors released in early July 2021: "The combination of high prevalence and high levels of vaccination creates the conditions in which an immune escape variant is most likely to emerge."
Israel
Interesting thread from @prof_shahar on transparency of Covid data reporting from Israel
Interesting article posted by Harvard Professor @MartinKulldorff on Covid infections in Israel - Vaccinated people were 6.72 times more likely to get infected than those with natural immunity from prior #COVID disease.
New Zealand
Vaccinated Have Up To SIX Times the Infection Rate of Unvaccinated, New Zealand Government Data Show
- 10% of the triple vaccinated in New Zealand were infected.
- 14% of the single vaccinated were infected.
- An astounding 18% of the double vaccinated were infected.
- Yet only 3% of the unvaccinated appear to have been infected.
Israel study: the naturally immune had a:
10.5 per 100,000 infection rate 4-6 mos. following recovery, vs a
69.2 per 100,000 infection rate among vaccinated.
Original Antigenic Sin
Original Antigenic Sin is a Real and Very Serious Reason to Stop Vaccinating Everyone. Two papers discover that cross-reacting antibodies from common coronavirus infections can hinder effective antibody response to SARS-CoV-2.
(https://www.eugyppius.com/p/original-antigenic-sin-is-a-real?s=r)
This is not a crazy internet fantasy, but a well-observed limitation of human immunity. It is the primary reason that respiratory viruses like influenza return again and again. Despite multiple reinfections across the whole population, we are never quite immune to the flu, because its strategy is to exploit the way our immune systems learn.
(https://www.eugyppius.com/p/more-on-original-antigenic-sin-and?s=r)
COVID Vaccines Aren’t Working — And No Amount of Boosting Will Change That
https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/covid-vaccines-arent-working-boosting-change/
The vaccinated cannot develop “natural immunity”, The boosted cannot clear the virus quickly upon infection, Covid virions invade and damage monocytes, the blood cells providing immunity, due to Antibody Dependent Enhancement (ADE), leading to gradual destruction of the immune system. Sars-Cov-2 also infects immune T-cells.
(https://igorchudov.substack.com/p/aids-like-chronic-covid-is-taking?s=r)
New-onset autoimmune phenomena post-COVID-19 vaccination
(https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/imm.13443)
New Brunswick
https://jessicar.substack.com/p/what-is-going-on-in-new-brunswick?s=r
https://jessicar.substack.com/p/and-whats-going-on-in-ontario?s=r
Doubling of deaths in young
Pre-exposure to mRNA-LNP inhibits adaptive immune responses and alters innate immune fitness in an inheritable fashion https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.03.16.484616v2
The mRNA-LNP-based SARS-CoV-2 vaccine is highly inflammatory, and its synthetic ionizable lipid component responsible for the induction of inflammation has a long in vivo half-life.
Interestingly, mice pre-exposed to the mRNA-LNP platform can pass down the acquired immune traits to their offspring, providing better protection against influenza. In summary, the mRNA-LNP vaccine platform induces long-term unexpected immunological changes affecting both adaptive immune responses and heterologous protection against infections. Thus, our studies highlight the need for more research to determine this platform’s true impact on human health.
https://react19.org/1250-covid-vaccine-reports/
https://amidwesterndoctor.substack.com/p/what-is-causing-the-died-suddenly