Author: BlackMask Financial

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Studies confirm waning immunity from Pfizer vaccine

 

Two real-world studies published Wednesday confirm that the immune protection offered by two doses of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine drops off after two months or so, although protection against severe disease, hospitalization and death remains strong. The studies, from Israel and from Qatar and published in the New England Journal of Medicine, support arguments that even fully vaccinated people need to maintain precautions against infection. One study from Israel covered 4,800 health care workers and showed antibody levels wane rapidly after two doses of vaccine “especially among men, among persons 65 years of age or older, and among persons with immunosuppression.” “We conducted this prospective longitudinal cohort study involving health care workers at Sheba Medical Center, a large tertiary medical center in Israel,” Sheba’s Dr. Gili Regev-Yochay and colleagues wrote. The researchers noted that levels of so-called neutralizing antibodies — the immune system’s first line of defense against infection — correlate with protection against infection, but for this study they studied only antibody levels. “Published work about many vaccines, such as those against measles, mumps, and rubella, has shown a small decrease each year of 5 to 10% in the neutralizing antibody levels,” they wrote. “We found that a significant and rapid decrease in humoral response to the BNT162b2 vaccine was observed within months after vaccination.” The study also indicated that immunity for people who get vaccinated after natural Covid-19 infection lasts longer. It’s especially strong for people who recovered from infection and then got vaccinated, also. “Overall, the accumulating evidence from our study and others shows that long-term humoral response and vaccine effectiveness in previously infected persons were superior to that in recipients of two doses of vaccine,” they wrote. A second study from Qatar looked at actual infections among the highly vaccinated population of that small Gulf nation. People there mostly got Pfizer/BioNTech’s vaccine, also known as BNT162b2. “BNT162b2-induced protection against infection builds rapidly after the first dose, peaks in the first month after the second dose, and then gradually wanes in subsequent months,” Laith Abu-Raddad of Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar and colleagues wrote. “The waning appears to accelerate after the fourth month, to reach a low level of approximately 20% in subsequent months,” they added. Nonetheless, protection against hospitalization and death stayed at above 90%, they said. The waning protection may involve behavior, they noted. “Vaccinated persons presumably have a higher rate of social contact than unvaccinated persons and may also have lower adherence to safety measures,” they wrote. “This behavior could reduce real-world effectiveness of the vaccine as compared with its biologic effectiveness, possibly explaining the waning of protection.” But it’s a signal that countries should prepare for fresh surges of Covid-19. “These findings suggest that a large proportion of the vaccinated population could lose its protection against infection in the coming months, perhaps increasing the potential for new epidemic waves,” they wrote. Pfizer has been arguing that immunity from the first two doses of its vaccine begins to wear off after a few months. Last month, Pfizer won authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration for booster doses of its vaccine for some six months after people finish their first two doses. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that people older than 65, people with conditions making them more susceptible to getting seriously ill with breakthrough infections, and people at high risk of infection such as health care workers and prison inmates get boosters. Israel has been boosting its entire population and now says it will require people to have had a third shot to be considered fully vaccinated. In the United States, more than 6 million people have received a third dose of vaccine and average the pace of booster shots is higher than the rate of people getting vaccinated for the first time, according to CDC data.

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US stocks close higher on debt-ceiling extension and upbeat jobs data

US stocks closed higher as congressional lawmakers reached a deal to increase the debt ceiling in the short term. The agreement, according to reports, will extend the debt ceiling through early December. Also helping sentiment on Thursday — weekly jobless claims fell sharply last week as the enhanced unemployment benefits ended. Initial filings for unemployment benefits totaled 326,000 for the week ended October 2, below the 345,000 estimates and a drop from the previous week’s 364,000. On the day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average increased by 337 points, or 0.98%, to 34,754, while the S&P 500 rose 0.83% to 4,399. And the tech-heavy Nasdaq jumped 1.05% to 14,654.

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Democrats and Republicans agreed debt limit deal to December…… Markets Celebrate

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate on Thursday took a step toward passing a $480 billion increase in Treasury Department borrowing authority, a move that would avert a catastrophic debt default later this month but set up another partisan showdown in early December.  Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is aiming to hold an important procedural vote on Saturday that could clear the way for passing the debt limit increase. That vote could come sooner if all 100 members of the Senate, which is evenly split between Democrats and Republicans, agreed to speed up the process. If the legislation clears the first hurdle to limit debate on the bill, as expected, the Senate would then be poised to vote on raising the debt ceiling to $28.9 trillion from the current $28.4 trillion. Senate passage could come as late as Sunday or Monday if any senator insists that all available debate time be used. But Schumer held out hope for faster action.

“We have reached agreement to extend the debt ceiling through early December and it’s our hope we can get this done as soon as today,” Schumer said.

There were early signs of resistance from some Republicans.  Senator John Cornyn told reporters there were objections raised from “one or more” Republican senators, but he did not know whether that might create delays in passing the bill. Senate Republicans huddled in a closed-door lunch to determine whether they would allow the vote to be expedited, Cornyn said. Washington’s debt limit troubles are unlikely to be resolved even with passage of a stop-gap increase. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell is still expected to insist that the next debt limit increase in December be achieved through a complicated “budget reconciliation” process that is time-consuming but will allow for passage without any Republican support. Democrats adamantly have rejected such a process for dealing with the debt ceiling as too unwieldy and establishing a bad precedent. Referring to the deal providing a debt limit reprieve until December, McConnell said in a Senate speech: “Now there will be no question. They’ll (Democrats) have plenty of time” to pass the next increase using reconciliation. Democrats had been trying to pass legislation that would have raised the debt limit through the end of 2022 but Republicans blocked that effort. Without congressional action, the Treasury Department has forecast that it will run out of ways to pay all of its bills and meet its debt obligations by Oct. 18. While the deal relieves debt limit pressures for now, it adds to the high-stakes, partisan battles that Congress will be waging through the end of the year. Democrats want to pass two massive spending bills that make up much of Biden’s domestic agenda in the coming weeks, including a multitrillion-dollar social policy package and a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill. It also faces a deadline for funding the government beyond Dec. 3. The partisan debt limit fight raised Republican fears that Democrats might change a rule https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-senate-filibuster-looms-large-leaders-seek-debt-ceiling-deal-2021-10-06 known as the filibuster that requires a supermajority of 60 votes for most legislation to advance if the debt issue were not resolved. The 50-50 split in the Senate has allowed Republicans to use the filibuster to block Democratic efforts to suspend the debt limit as well as other initiatives.

Biden said late on Tuesday that Democrats would consider making an exception to the filibuster https://www.reuters.com/world/us/what-is-us-senate-filibuster-why-is-everyone-talking-about-it-2021-10-06 to hike the debt ceiling and defend the economy. (Reporting by Susan Cornwell, David Morgan and Makini Brice; Writing by Richard Cowan; Editing by Scott Malone, Chizu Nomiyama and Sonya Hepinstall)

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Ivermectin or Molnupiravir…… That is the question….. After your vaccinated hopefully 3 times

This is an interesting twist in the theraputics war. Everybody knows about Ivermectin; its been around forever and has a remarkable safety record. Unfortunately it has been denigrated at least as much as hydroxychloroqine to the point that most people don’t know what to believe. Ivermectin was originally produced by Merck, but has been off patent for a long time. Now Merck has produced a new antiviral pill, Molnupiravir, that has done quite well in initial clinical trials. Of course this is ONE clinical trial, performed by Merck.  There hasn’t been much interest by Big Pharma on doing clinical trials on Ivermectin, possibly for a number of reasons, but the one that stands out is that it’s cheap and the patents have long ago expired. No Billions to be made there. Most of the epidemiological work on Ivermectin has been done in the third world or by enterprising groups of physicians (FLCCC comes to mind, but there are others as well). Also, a very good peer reviewed meta-analysis has been published in the “American Journal of Theraputics”  Molnupiravir claims about a 50% success rate at keeping people out of the hospital, with perhaps an impact on disease severity if a person is hospitalized (I’m inferring this based on Merck’s report that nobody in the treatment group died whereas a few people in the control group died). Interestingly, this trial was stopped early on ethical grounds; a placebo treated control group was considered unethical because additional untreated subjects would certainly die in the control group. For Ivermectin, it’s difficult to put a success rate on the same endpoint because there have been lots of studies, of varying quality, done with results that vary a lot.  Ivermectin is around 62 odd percent effective with the same endpoint. Some studies show Ivermectin to be effective even with very sick patients but there be methodological issues with these (non-randomization, non-comprability of groups, etc.) and I would not be comparing apples to apples by assessing efficacy with Molnupiravir. NN a interesting part of this antiviral war is the fact that Ivermectin is a drug Merak invented that is off patent and sold as a  Generic available in third world countries for pennies a pill and Mclinupravir cost $100 a pill. This newly release study was very enlightening to me. I read it as i took my twice weekly dose of ivermectin. Let me quote for the study:

“As most but not all double blind studies, and meta-analyses, have shown benefits of ivermectin in COVID19 including 56% mortality reduction [11], and given the complimentary pharmacokinetics and
pharmacodynamics of the drugs, direct head -to -head comparison of molnupiravir and ivermectin, in blinded randomized clinical trials are needed.
or cytokine release.  1. Painter WP, Holman W, Bush JA, Almazedi F, Malik H, Eraut

This is a short read. In the study are boxexs that show detailed comparisons of the two medicines….

Comparison Molnupiravir and Ivermectin

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Merck prices Molnupiravir at a 4000% mark up

Merck is the Big Pharma company producing an experimental antiviral pill for Covid-19 treatment is accused of selling the drug to the US at 40 times the cost of its production, found a report. Molnupiravir, manufactured by pharmaceutical company Merck, has entered into a contract with the US government to supply 1.7 million courses at a price of $700 per course.

An analysis of drug pricing by Harvard School of Public Health and King’s College Hospital in London found that it takes about $17.74 to produce a five-day course.

The pill, hailed as a breakthrough in the treatment of coronavirus, was originally developed to treat influenza using government funds. The antiviral drug could halve the chances of dying or being hospitalised for those most at risk of contracting severe Covid-19. The medicine is designed to introduce error in the genetic code of the virus itself and is the first oral antiviral medication for Covid-19. Defense Threat Reduction Agency, a body under the Department of Defence, invested in a “broad-spectrum antiviral, leading to the discovery of molnupiravir through collaborative research” with Merck, Emory University, Ridgeback Biotherapeutics and National Institute of Health. The government originally provided Emory University with $29mn in grants between 2013 to 2020, reported Axios. But the federal government declined to put more money into the drug until there was more data. In May 2020, Merck bought the exclusive rights to sell and manufacture the drug worldwide. Despite the government’s investment, the company plans to seek emergency use authorisation in the US in the coming weeks, will reap the profits alongside Ridgeback and could earn as much as $7bn by the end of this year, reported <em>Quartz</em>. While critics have argued that the prices should be subsidised due to the funding from the government exchequers, in an interview with <em>CNBC</em>, Ridgeback co-founder Wendy Holman defended the prices saying that while the company asked for, they “never got government funding” to help manufacture the drug before they turned to Merck. Merck had earlier said that it will “implement a tiered pricing approach based on World Bank data that recognizes countries’ relative ability to finance their health response to the pandemic.” It has already entered into licensing agreements with at least eight companies in India including Aurobindo Pharma, Cipla, Dr Reddy’s Labs, Emcure Pharmaceuticals, Hetero Labs, Sun Pharmaceuticals, Torrent Pharmaceuticals and Viatris. This would allow each company to make and sell the drug in India and 100 other low and middle-income countries. NN: I do not get into a tizzy fit by this kind of shit. We all know that drug companies and Wall Street to name a couple are out to screw us… so So SO. Its all started since Adam got fucked when Eve in the first documented conspiracy colluded with the snake. And we got fucked….

Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it:

cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

What you believe is your business. But the point of this story is the fact that the Thorns and thistles grow in my fields. No fertilizer, no water and no cultivation. Early in life when i was sent to the “punishment” farm my first job was cutting thickets with a hoe. My hands were blistered and bloodied……. So i believe this shit. I always wondered would it not be a wonderful world if corn and wheat would grow like weeds……..

SO the point of my story is we are not going to change things. So instead of a tizzy fit i learned how to trade a corrupt market and make millions. As far as big Pharma….. I do not care what they charge because i am smart enough to get the medicines I decide to take. And i can steal enough money from Wall Street to pay the going rate for medicines, food and women. I am not going ta waste my time fighting a losing battle in futile attempt to change a system that has been stacked against me since dirt was created. I have learned how to out think the bastards. And I know how to beat them at their own game. And i am glad you have joined me… and besides it more fun my way….

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US debt ceiling compromise on the horizon…….. US closes higher amid debt ceiling talks

“Republicans and Democrats in Congress opened the door to a temporary solution to the debt ceiling issue, saying they would consider a stop-gap measure extending the borrowing limit until December. “ “A Senate vote might follow today. While the deal merely postpones the default risk until the year-end, it at least removes another downside risk to market sentiment in the near-term. US treasury yields retreated somewhat from their highs.”

US closes higher amid debt ceiling talks

Major United States stock markets closed higher on Wednesday as the debate on the debt ceiling continued. President Joe Biden met with business leaders and CEOs to discuss the matter, with chief officers of Nasdaq and JPMorgan Chase warning against the dangers of defaulting, and Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen saying it could “cause a recession.” Notably, Biden and Xi agreed to meet virtually by the end of the year, with both sides reporting willingness to avoid conflict. The Dow Jones rose 0.30% as Microsoft Corp increased 1.51%, while S&P 500 gained 0.41% with Enphase Energy jumping 4.19%. The Nasdaq 100 ended the session 0.63% in the green led by Marvell Technology gaining 7.34%. The euro dropped 0.34% against the dollar to trade for $1.15578 at 4:06 pm ET. NN: I am amendment they will raise the debt ceiling they always do. So to me this is not a selling moment but a bear trap. It is rare for me to stand aside this long.But it does happen.  In reviewing my trade ledger i found something interesting. Before most every major wipe out its has not been uncommon for me to stand aside for a time. It happened in 1987, 2001 and 2008….. To be clear here i expect a relief rally when they announce a deal on the debt ceiling. And another leg up when they announce the stimulus bill passing. Then we will start operations…

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McConnell suggests short-term debt limit increase

Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell is offering Democrats an agreement on raising the U.S. debt ceiling through November, alleviating the immediate risk of a default. The proposal would push back the partisan confrontation over the debt ceiling but not resolve it. It would increase the ceiling by a fixed dollar amount that would be sufficient to tide the Treasury over until December. “This will moot Democrats’ excuses about the time crunch they created and give the unified Democratic government more than enough time to pass standalone debt limit legislation through reconciliation,” McConnell said in a statement. Stocks rose on the news, reversing an earlier decline, as investors reacted with relief to the prospect of dodging a crisis. The S&P 500 Index hit a session high, rising 0.2 per cent at 2:13 p.m. in New York. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer hasn’t received an offer according to a spokesman, who declined to comment about whether Schumer would agree to it.Schumer plans to hold a procedural vote Wednesday to advance a bill that would suspend the debt ceiling until December 2022. Republicans are expected to block it. McConnell is demanding Democrats raise the debt limit using a more cumbersome process known as reconciliation that is being employed for legislation to enact much of President Joe Biden’s agenda and exempts it from any GOP filibuster. Schumer has said there isn’t enough time to use reconciliation, but a short term increase in the ceiling would provide that time.Budget experts have said using reconciliation would take about two weeks. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen projects that the U.S. will reach its limit on sovereign debt on about Oct. 18. The Bipartisan Policy Center think tank on Wednesday put the estimated date of a payment default between Oct. 19 and Nov. 2. A default could have catastrophic results for the economy that include raising the cost of borrowing by driving up interest rates, rattling financial markets and delaying Social Security payments to the elderly. NN: This is very bad Washington theater… Their will be no default!!

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Illinois toddler fights for his life as COVID transmission rages

No one else in the family was sick. Adrian James just had a bit of a cough. She gave him cough syrup and put a humidifier in his room. But by Friday he was sweaty and his breathing was labored. Jackson took him to an emergency room in her small town of Mt. Vernon, Illinois. Doctors and nurses there did a chest X-ray and swabbed him for COVID – and then airlifted the child to Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital in St. Louis, about 80 miles away. Jackson followed in a car, her grandmother at the wheel. They made the usually 90 minute-drive in about an hour. “I didn’t know if he was going to make it or not,” Jackson said. “I was very emotional and just very upset.”

Her boy is one of nearly 840,000 children under the age of four to contract COVID-19 in the United States, according to statistics from the United States

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Vaccinations against COVID-19 have not been approved for young children, and the United States is being ravaged by a surge of cases driven by the highly contagious Delta variant, which Adrian has. By late Tuesday night, he was intubated and heavily sedated, wrapped in his baby blanket with his favorite Paw Patrol stuffed animal at hand. Over the past couple of days, his lungs have been able to do more of the work of breathing, and it is possible that he may be removed from the ventilator soon. The United States crossed the milestone of 700,000 COVID deaths last week, and concern is growing over the number of infections among children.Transmission of the virus remains high in every U.S. state except California, CDC data show. Adrian, who will be three years old next month, had developed pneumonia in his left lung. He was breathing fast, trying to gulp air with 76 respirations per minute, nearly twice the normal 40, Jackson said. At the hospital, doctors and nurses wearing masks, face shields and protective gowns sedated him and put him on a breathing tube attached to a ventilator in the intensive care unit. Jackson has been sleeping on a couch in his room in the ICU.  Jackson doesn’t know how her boy contracted the virus. She had COVID last summer; no one else in the family caught it at that time. Jackson is not vaccinated against COVID-19 because she has a rare auto-immune disorder called Guillain-Barre syndrome contracted as a result of a flu shot when she was 16. The syndrome, which is incurable, causes nervous system damage. Adrian’s father, who is home with their younger child in Illinois, received one dose of a COVID vaccine but not the second dose, she said. Maybe, she thinks, someone at work passed it to him, although everyone in the factory where he is employed is supposed to wear masks and practice physical distancing. NN: as far as i am concerned opening schools to unvaccinated children is genocide. I do not speak these words lightly… Protect your own make sure they are wearing N95 NOISH certified filter mask. We have them in stock. And we are about to introduce our fun masks. We tested them in several school districts and the authorities accept them. Ans more important the Kids love them. Which means they wear them…..

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Oil prices soar as EU warns of energy crisis

OIL prices could rocket in the next few weeks exacerbating the fuel shortage and leading to a winter energy crisis, City analysts are warning. That in turn will put intense pressure on central banks to shove up interest rates faster than they would like. Crude is already at a seven-year high, after Opec refused last night to increase production levels in order to keep profits up. Brent Crude today rose xx to xx and might surge to $100 or even $120 say some experts. That would feed through to higher prices for home heating and at the pump. Gas and coal are already at the highest price on record.

Bank of America said: “Like in the 1970s or in 2008, oil could once again become the destabilising factor that causes the next macro crisis.”

It says $120 a barrel is possible. The government says the petrol crisis is easing as the army helps get fuel to forecourts, but problems remain, especially in London. While the jump in oil is partly just a sign of economic recovery, it is feeding inflation which in turn could derail growth. The Bank of England is still insisting that inflation will peak at 4% and then quickly fade. There is growing scepticism about this forecast. Oanda’s senior market analyst Jeffrey Halley said: “Assuming the energy squeeze is the new normal, it is hard to see transient inflation being as transient as the world’s central bankers are forecasting/hoping it will be. The effect will be felt throughout the world’s supply chains.”

Deutsche Bank warned that the “spike in energy prices has led to renewed fears about inflation accelerating even further than current forecasts are implying, with knock-on implications for central banks”.

Russ Mould at AJ Bell said: “A sustained spell of high energy prices could slow the recovery and check demand growth. That perhaps leaves consumers and companies and governments with an uncomfortable near-term choice between their desire for a greener, more renewable world and higher fuel bills.” NN: Being smart is really really a good thing. But do you want to know the really bad part? Its being forced to be around so many stupid people. Specifically the greeneewinnnieee who have made great strides doing stupid. Their thinking went like this. Shut down the pipelines. Stop fracking and oil exploitation under the dubious excuse of saving some endangered species ( or some burial ground where the spirits will trip over the buried pipeline) no one ever heard of. Embarrass investors from making money available to fund fossil fuel projects. And get government to regulate to death export ports, new wells, fracking and make it impossible to produce oil…. And they made great strides doing this. Here comes the stupid part, They have stopped dead in its track the utilization of  clean burning natural gas a a bride fuel in transportation and for electric generation. The thinking was choke off fossil fuel supplies and you force the world to turn to renewables. So they got their greenneee wet dream. One little problem is their is not enough renewables to fill the gap… Worse yet the technology is just not their yet. So the outcome is they have killed the bridge fuel natural gas, And the world is turning back to the most polluting fuel of them all coal! And the hell of it is they still do not realize what they have done…….. More coal is being burned then ever before!