Category: Monkey Pox Vaccine

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A Risky Monkeypox Vaccine Is Looking Better All the Time

October 23, 2022

The transition from Monkeypox Inoculation Plan A to Monkeypox Inoculation Plan B has been a smashing successat least, if you ask federal officials. Just a few weeks ago, the U.S. had nowhere near enough of the Jynneos vaccine to doubly dose even a quarter of the Americans at highest risk of monkeypox, roughly 1.6 million men who have sex with men. Now that the administration has asked that every dose of Jynneos be split into five and delivered a different way, between the layers of the skin, the party line has changed. Everyone that wants to get vaccinated within that group is going to have an opportunity to get vaccinated by Septembers end, Robert Fenton, the White Houses monkeypox czar, said on a podcast last week.

But this new strategy of intradermal dosing is a gamble, says Caitlin Rivers, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins, and its weaknesses are already beginning to show. It may be high time to start acting on a fallback plan for our fallback plan, should Plan Bs high-stakes wager not pay off.

Read: Americas new monkeypox strategy rests on a single study

The Plan Cs on the table arent very palatablewhich is probably why theyre Plan Cs. One option, largely dismissed early on, could entail turning to ACAM2000, a hypereffective smallpox shot, with sometimes dangerous side effects, that the U.S. has stockpiled in spades. Already, three jurisdictions, including the state of California, have ordered more than 800 doses of ACAM from the government, according to Timothy Granholm, a spokesperson for HHS.

Simply anticipating the possibility of Plan Bs failure might count as atypical for modern American public healthgetting ahead of the virus du jour, rather than taking a reactive stance, says Stella Safo, an HIV physician in New York. Too often in the past few years, the institutions of public health have observed rather than acted, allowing SARS-CoV-2, and now monkeypox, to run roughshod over the American populace. It would be really nice to not be saying, Lets wait and see, Safo told me. ACAM2000 may not be the countrys best or safest option for curtailing monkeypox, but the risk of not considering it may soon outweigh the risks of the shot itself.

Theres a world in which the U.S. didnt even need a Monkeypox Inoculation Plan B. Had U.S. leaders been willing to invest resources in heading off the pathogen, by offering aid to countries where the virus has been endemic for decades or by focusing earlier this year on tests, treatments, vaccines, and public communications, maybe Americas original immunization planusing the full, subcutaneous Jynneos dosewould have been all the nation needed on the injection front.

That didnt happen, and instead the country adopted intradermal delivery, without real clarity on how well such doses might guard against infection, transmission, or disease. The notion that intradermal shots will work as hoped rests on a chain of assumptions, says John Beigel, an immunologist at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, several of which may not hold during a large, fast-spreading outbreak thats tightly linked to sexa poorly studied form of monkeypox transmission. Jynneoss original approval was based on an antibody analogue of protection, rather than efficacy against bona fide illness. And the FDAs authorization of intradermal shots rests on a single study, which didnt directly check the vaccines ability to stave off disease, either. The study also enrolled only healthy adults, most of them whitea poor reflection of the population now being hit. Its a big leap to build a nationwide vaccine campaign on just those results, says Sri Edupuganti, a vaccinologist at Emory University and one of the studys authors. (Beigel is now designing a clinical trial that will reevaluate the intradermal route among participants more relevant to the current outbreak. He and his team will also test one-tenth intradermal doses, which could further stretch supply.)

Read: America should have been able to handle monkeypox

The intradermal plan has logistical challenges, too. Administering in-skin shots requires extra training and special needles, burdening already stressed staff, especially in low-resource regions. Several jurisdictions are struggling to extract more than three or four doses from some vials, rather than the governments promised fivea shortchanging of those hoping to increase their stocks by a clean 400 percent. Plus, some bottle caps are breaking before all the doses are withdrawn. Intradermal vaccination can also come with grating side effects, including redness and swelling that can stick around for days, potentially deterring people from returning for the essential second shot.

Fenton, from the White House, noted in a press briefing last week that the switch to intradermal increased our supplies significantly without compromising safety or effectiveness. But that assertion seems disingenuous at best, says Gregg Gonsalves, an epidemiologist and AIDS activist at Yales School of Public Health. Even the CEO of Bavarian Nordic, the vaccines manufacturer, criticized the FDAs pivot as too hasty. (The FDA attempted to counter the companys criticisms.)

Meanwhile, demand may continue to grow, especially if the epidemic starts to concentrate less among men who have sex with men. The longer the outbreak lasts, the longer you have for jumping to other populations, Gonsalves told me. College campuses, reopening now, seem like the most obvious next stop. And if this gets into other networks, says Ina Park, a sexual-health expert at UC San Francisco, Plan B just wont be enough.

Equity, too, is becoming an issue. If we lived in a world where we had plenty of vaccine, you would go with subcutaneous, Beigel told me. But in North Carolina, for instance, where 70 percent of monkeypox cases have been among Black men, some two-thirds of the subcutaneous shots administered before August 8 went to people who are white; similar skews have been noted in New York City. Now Black and brown gay men are really angry, says Kenyon Farrow, a writer and public-health activist based in Ohio. They watched white gay men get full doses and now they feel like they are getting less of a dose. Farrow has pushed for everyone to get at least one subcutaneous shota strategy that advocates in New York City also backbut the Biden administration seems set on moving all jurisdictions onto the intradermal route.

Mapping out yet another vaccination strategy wont address all of these problems. (And no matter what, the administration should keep ordering more Jynneos, stat.) But the forecast for fall is murky. And should the present situation worsen, a fresh tactic could give the U.S. a head startsomething the country hasnt had on the public-health playing field in a while.

Already, some experts are mulling the nuclear option: ACAM2000, the smallpox shot that the government has been hoarding to counter a potential bioterrorism attack. Doses of the vaccine are available by the many millions, and thought to be both effective and durable. Its also, Edupuganti told me, one of the vaccines with the highest amount of adverse reactions, occasionally triggering side effects as serious as heart inflammation. The shot contains a replicating virus, and shouldnt be taken by immunocompromised people, including many of those who are living with HIV. And just about everyone who gets the shot sprouts an oozy lesion at the injection site that can pass the vaccine virus to others. Against something like smallpoxa far more contagious virus that killed up to 30 percent of its victimsACAM2000 would be a no-brainer, says Rafi Ahmed, a vaccinologist at Emory University. With monkeypox, though, Johns Hopkinss Rivers told me, the risk-benefit calculation is really hazy.

Read: What should worry most Americans about our monkeypox response

Its not time to trot out ACAM yet, Safo, the New York physician, told me. But maybe autumn will bring many more cases. Maybe monkeypoxs symptoms could grow more severe. Maybe the virus will start to surge in new populations. Maybe intradermal Jynneos will fall short in effectiveness or safety. In any case, containment with the current tools isnt a guarantee. If things do get out of control, Ahmed told me, you want to have some ACAM stocks ready to go. No clear, perfect threshold can yet denote out of control. Still, a trend toward a worse outbreak would inch the country closer to tapping into its ACAM2000 supply, Park told me: I dont think we have another choice. Which means that the FDA and CDC should probably start poring over the ACAM data now, Rivers said.

Resorting to ACAM2000 will also put the onus on officials to explain to the public what theyre getting into. If some are balking at intradermal shots, people further back in line could reasonably wonder why theyve been stuck with a less-safe vaccine, Farrow pointed out. There could be a middle ground worth testing in a clinical trial: one shot of Jynneos, via either administration route, followed by a dose of ACAM2000, says Stephen Goldstein, a virologist at the University of Utah. One 2019 study hints that this shot, chaser approach could shrink infectious lesions, as well as cut down on ACAM2000s side effects, while still offering an immunological boostthough that trial used two subcutaneous Jynneos doses first. In any case, the government would do well to pursue more options, even enroll people in trials comparing the different vaccines, Gonsalves told me. And transparency is tantamount. Back in the days of AIDS, he said, many of us were saying, as new drugs were coming online, we wanted access and answers about the options at hand. Right now, the nations short on both.

That were even having to ask these questions about ACAM, Farrow told me, is a sobering reminder that we didnt get our shit together early on. Instead, the U.S. has backed itself into having to reckon with its appetite for risk. Being too cautious with vaccines could allow the outbreak to further balloon; being too reckless with shots could compromise public trust. The administration firmly contends that Jynneos remains the best available option, according to Granholm, the HHS spokesman. (That said, ACAM2000 is available upon request, he told me.)

Such a position may feel like the safe oneit potentially sidesteps the gnarliness of ACAM. But perhaps its actually dicier, because its not properly preparative. We cant just say intradermal is going to solve all of our problems, Park told me. Although the hope is that the countrys ACAM supply can stay stashed away, we need to be ready to use it, and quickly, should the need arise. If the country once again waits until were in a pinch to act, Rivers told me, its going to be too late.

Excerpt from:

A Risky Monkeypox Vaccine Is Looking Better All the Time

Monkeypox vaccination eligibility expanded in St. Louis region – KSDK.com

October 19, 2022

The vaccination process is a two-dose series. It is given 28 days apart and helps prevent the spread of monkeypox.

ST. LOUIS More people are eligible for the monkeypox vaccine in the St. Louis region.

The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services has expanded eligibility for the vaccine to include anyone who is likely to be exposed to the virus.

Anybody who meets the criteria below from the Department of Health is now eligible for the monkeypox vaccine:

The vaccination process is a two-dose series. It is given 28 days apart and helps prevent the spread of monkeypox.

Vaccines are available across the St. Louis region. The locations ask people to bring their insurance card and a photo ID to their appointment. The locations listed below will provide vaccination if you do not have insurance.

Find the locations available and how to schedule your appointment below:

See more here:

Monkeypox vaccination eligibility expanded in St. Louis region - KSDK.com

Baltimore, with the state’s most monkeypox cases, is opening new way to get vaccine – Baltimore Sun

October 19, 2022

The monkeypox outbreak has hit Baltimore the hardest of all Maryland jurisdictions, with about a third of the states cases, leaving some of the most vulnerable uninsured and underinsured unable to get the vaccine.

But with more supplies coming from federal sources, and a partnership with the Baltimore Health Department, Nomi Health will begin offering shots through a health clinic on the west side of downtown and a mobile van, the city health commissioner, Dr. Letitia Dzirasa, and other officials announced Tuesday.

This will really increase our capacity, said Adena Greenbaum, assistant Baltimore health commissioner for clinical services and HIV/STI prevention, on a clinic tour ahead of the announcement. We will be able to go beyond the health department and other partners in the community.

The increased availability of shots comes as the monkeypox virus outbreak appears to be on the wane in the United States. the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported last week an average of about 60 cases a day down from a high of 580 in early August. That may be due to some vaccinations and lifestyle adjustments by those most at risk.

But public health officials and experts warn the virus continues to infect people and can, like the coronavirus, morph into new variants that are more efficient at infecting humans. Any delays or pullback in tackling the virus could make it more difficult to control, according to research from the University of Maryland.

Just because a disease like monkeypox appears controllable does not mean it will stay controllable, said Philip Johnson, the researchs lead author and University of Maryland biology assistant professor, in a statement. Slowly simmering epidemics like monkeypox have a higher probability of evolution during the time frame while case numbers are low.

The city and Nomi Health will offer the shots by appointment only and take people who pre-registered through a state site. Currently about there are 460 city residents on the list out of about 3,700 statewide.

Patients and advocates have criticized the slow rollout of testing and vaccination nationally, which officials believe was due to a combination of low vaccine supply, public health infrastructure burdened by the coronavirus pandemic and underfunding. A concern about stigmatizing the most hard hit in the gay community also may have played a role.

Now there appears to be ample doses available.

Maryland has received 14,539 vials of vaccine from federal officials in recent weeks, which can be divided up to five doses each using a technique called intradermal vaccination where the shot is given between layers of skin in the forearm instead of in the muscle. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized the method in August to stretch limited doses.

In September, the Maryland Department of Health expanded eligibility to anyone at high risk of a monkeypox infection and not just those directly exposed. So far, 7,353 people have been vaccinated in Maryland.

To get the word out, the health department continues to engage local communities on human monkeypox with a webinar series this month and continuing partnerships with local health departments and community partners, said Chase Cook, a department spokesman.

Previously, health officials had been alerting medical professionals to be on the lookout for symptoms and refer for testing.

Clusters of monkeypox began showing up in May in European countries that do not normally have significant cases. Soon after cases were detected in the United States and Maryland. They caused a telltale body rash that can last weeks, swollen lymph nodes and achiness that can be severe.

The state has logged 692 cases, with the most, 255, or nearly a third, in Baltimore. About half the cases have been in the city and surrounding metro area. More than 95% have been male, 61% Black and 47% ages 30 to 39.

Sean Arroyo, vice president of operations at Nomi, a nationwide health care provider to underserved communities, said the West Baltimore Street clinic has been busy in the past year offering COVID testing and vaccines.

The lines that were out the door and down the street at times have dropped significantly though there are still widespread cases and the clinic now offers the bivalent omicron COVID vaccine, he said.

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Now Nomi will add monkeypox vaccine to the lineup, and later flu vaccine, under a $1 million contract with the city health department that lasts through December.

He and city officials are unsure what the demand will be, especially as cases wane and people feel less fearful of a monkeypox infection. The clinic can vaccinate up to 125 people a day and will get the van into neighborhoods in coming weeks.

Registered nurse Diona Harrington, operations manager of Nomi Baltimore holds the door for incoming Nomi Health personnel from out of town as Baltimore health officials plan opening a new monkeypox inoculation clinic at Nomi Health's Baltimore Street location, which aims to make the vaccine more easily accessible. (Karl Merton Ferron/The Baltimore Sun)

Weve seen a national drop-off in demand, but there are pockets of demand so we will be here and bring the van into the communities, Arroyo said. Were working on a plan for the van. Not everyone has transportation to get here.

Health officials say vaccinations will be essential to combating the outbreak.

Waiting until the number of cases is high again would give monkeypox the opportunity to adapt more substantially to humans, the University of Marylands Johnson said.

The research was published last month in the journal The Lancet. It cited Ebola and the omicron variants of the coronavirus as examples of viruses more difficult to control once they evolve from their original form and jump to humans from animals.

We have finite public health resources, meaning that we need more research to develop tools that can identify possible early-stage evolutionary adaptations and help guide control efforts to where theyll be most effective, Johnson said.

Excerpt from:

Baltimore, with the state's most monkeypox cases, is opening new way to get vaccine - Baltimore Sun

Monkeypox vaccine arrives – and rollout coming shortly – Bahamas Tribune

October 19, 2022

MINISTER of Health and Wellness Dr Michael Darville welcomes the arrival of the monkeypox vaccine yesterday - although The Bahamas has had no serious impact from the outbreak so far. Dr Darville also warned of a drop in overall vaccination rates. Photo: Austin Fernander

By LETRE SWEETING

lsweeting@tribunemedia.net

HEALTH officials said that there has been a decrease in the uptake of all vaccine types, amid the arrival of 1,400 monkeypox vaccines at the Lynden Pindling International Airport yesterday.

Shortly after 3pm, health officials, including Health and Wellness Minister Dr Michael Darville, gathered on the tarmac at LPIA to receive the doses of the vaccine, which were acquired through PAHOs revolving fund.

The vaccines, which were requested earlier this year, arrived in the capital on British Airways and will be taken to an appropriate storage unit.

Its been a long time coming, Dr Darville said. I had an idea when it was coming but we wanted to make sure and today on British Airways, the vaccine is here.

We would like to thank the Pan American Health Organisation, our partners, to ensure we have the monkeypox vaccine in the country.

The vaccine will be moved from here to the proper storage site and our teams will be responsible to administer to the high risk groups and individuals that may have been exposed, Dr Darville said.

On behalf of the government, wed like to thank PAHO and the entire team at the Ministry of Health who worked assiduously to ensure that these vaccines arrived in the country.

Though Dr Darville did not reveal a date for the official rollout of the vaccines, he said the high risk groups will receive doses very shortly.

The official roll out will begin very shortly. We have a strategy on how its going to be utilised and we would notify the media exactly how we would roll it out. We have our vaccination consultative committee, which also will play an intricate role, along with our team.

When we talk about high risk groups we talk about people who might have been potentially exposed. We also have other groups that we believe may be at high risk. This is not like COVID, where everyone needs to be vaccinated. It is basically those groups that are at high risk.

When asked if there will be another batch of the monkeypox vaccine doses in the future, Dr Darvile said, We are back in negotiations with PAHO and that possibility exists. That final decision will have to be made along with our entire team. But we are definitely looking at the second batch.

Meanwhile, Dr Cherita Moxey, Ministry of Healths acting chief medical officer and coordinator said as with the paediatric doses of the COVID 19 vaccine, which arrived in The Bahamas several weeks ago, the monkeypox vaccines indicate a step in the right direction.

Like the monkeypox vaccine, its (paediatric doses of the Covid 19 vaccine) arrival here in The Bahamas indicates that the Ministry of Health has taken a very proactive step. There was a lot of demand in the public space for these vaccines, she said.

Unfortunately we have not seen the realisation of that demand at our COVID vaccination centres. Right now were seeing a percentage of less than one percent of that particular population vaccinated.

Not only the COVID-19 vaccines, I also want to speak to the fact that weve had a decrease in uptake for all vaccine types that are on our national immunisation schedule. So, we really want to encourage persons to get vaccinated for COVID 19, but (also) for the other vaccine preventable diseases that are out there.

Last month, Dr Marcos Espinal, PAHOs interim assistant director revealed that batches of monkeypox vaccines are on the way for countries as part of their revolving fund.

PAHO director Dr Carissa F Etienne also said that monkeypox was declared a public health emergency of international concern by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in July and the region is now home to the highest burden of monkeypox cases worldwide.

In July, paediatric doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, for children aged five to 11 years arrived in The Bahamas.

Dr Darville said the paediatric vaccinations would be voluntary and not mandatory.

View original post here:

Monkeypox vaccine arrives - and rollout coming shortly - Bahamas Tribune

Inside the monkeypox crisis: How Georgia worked to curb an outbreak – The Atlanta Journal Constitution

October 19, 2022

Public health experts are optimistic the new approach will ultimately change the trajectory of the virus.

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

The White House is hopeful, too. Fulton County was singled out for praise by administration officials as an example of a major U.S. metropolitan area thats confronting vaccine inequity. Black men who have sex with other men are not receiving monkeypox vaccines at a rate matching the number of cases affecting their population. Anyone can contract monkeypox, but men who have sex with men have been mainly affected in this latest outbreak.

After an initial cluster of cases in the United Kingdom in May, the first diagnoses started cropping up in Georgia in June and quickly ballooned. Just two short months ago, the situation looked grim. With cases exploding nationwide, the federal government on August 4 declared monkeypox a public health emergency.

Dr. Melanie Thompson, a doctor who cares for people living with HIV and researcher based in Atlanta, described it as heartbreaking to see people struggling to get tested and vaccinated. She said some were turned away from emergency rooms.

One of my patients said, Its like the early days of AIDS. Nobody knows whats going on. Nobody wants to take care of you. Nobody knows where to get help. It just broke my heart, Thompson said.

Right then, she and others in metro Atlanta decided they would not let the past repeat itself.

Kendoll Brinkley Brown, 39, was on three waiting lists for the monkeypox vaccine when he got sick.

During the last week of July, Brinkley Brown developed a bad headache and body aches. At first, he didnt think much of it. He had recently been in a car accident and had just undergone a root canal. A day after the dental procedure, he noticed a lesion filled with pus on the front of his hand. It started itching and other lesions quickly followed on his arms and buttocks.

At that particular point, I was already paranoid about the whole monkeypox outbreak. I stay pretty tucked away in a bubble. So I was hoping that it was not that, but something in my gut was telling me that it was, he said.

Monkeypox causes a distinctive rash that goes through several stages from blisters to scabs before healing. The rash can be located in sensitive areas, cause extreme pain and, in some cases, lead to hospitalization. An infection can last from two to four weeks, and those infected are usually unable to work and must avoid contact with others.

After struggling to reach anyone with the Fulton County Health Department by phone, he eventually decided to go to the health department in person on Aug. 1. He said it took several hours for him to be seen and tested. As he suspected, he had monkeypox.

Before long, he was reeling in pain. To ease the agony, he soaked in warm baths with colloidal oatmeal. He took Ibuprofen.

During his visit to the health department, Brinkley Brown said he had asked for treatment, but was told there was none. And, although the health department promised to contact his doctor, he also said that he heard nothing during or after his bout with monkeypox, which left him frustrated.

He wasnt alone.

The immediate response to the outbreak at the federal, state and local levels was hampered by missteps and delays.

The first pop-up vaccination event in Fulton County took place on July 9, but only a paltry 200 doses of the vaccine were available and required an appointment. At the time, Georgia was ranked No. 5 for the most monkeypox cases in the U.S., but was receiving far fewer vaccines than other parts of the country with far fewer cases. State health officials werent even requesting all of the doses allocated to the state.

A DPH spokeswoman said the state wasnt ordering its allocated vaccines all at once because officials planned to stagger the shipments. They needed time to prepare to store and administer the vaccines.

When vaccines became available, Fulton County sent press releases and posted information about vaccination opportunities on social media. When appointment slots were posted online, they were snapped up within minutes.

It didnt take long for Joshua ONeal, sexual health program director for Fulton County Board of Health, to notice a trend. As a gay white man, I will say that the people who are connected to me on Instagram and my social networks, I talk about this, so they were most activated at the time, said ONeal, and there were other communities who just werent aware and thats when we started seeing the racial disparities.

Though they didnt yet have the data, ONeal, HIV doctors and leaders of community-based organizations said early indications were showing the virus was heavily affecting Black men, especially those who are HIV positive. And they werent getting vaccinated at the same rate as white men, much to the chagrin of the states public health officials.

Initially, people thought they could just put notifications online, and people would sign up for them and everything would be fine, said HIV doctor Thompson. You know, first come, first served. And what we saw were the same disparities being repeated again, the same HIV disparities, the COVID disparities. It was the most impacted populations who were being left out.

But what happened this time is they pivoted, she said of public health officials.

ONeal, at the Fulton County Health Department, and others insisted that they change course and work harder to get vaccines in the arms of the people most at risk.

It was: Why is this not happening? ONeal recalled. But also, if we have such a limited amount of these vaccines, we need to be doing the right thing to get it to all the people who are heavily impacted. he said.

By mid-July, with ONeal taking the lead, Fulton County Health Department started collaborating with several community-based organizations that advocate for the LGBTQ community. Among them, Thrive SS Inc., A Vision 4 Hope and Heres to Life. They were prioritized for vaccine access and given a sign-up link to help their clients get appointments.

With monkeypox cases in the state surpassing 400 by the beginning of August, the new collaborative approach started taking shape in Atlanta and Fulton County: Federal, state, and local public health officials were working closely with activists, community groups and local HIV doctors and clinics. They gave presentations, held town halls, started outreach in bars.

In the backs of their minds, they kept thinking about the AIDS epidemic decades before, and how it should have been handled better. People were like, Never again. Lets do what we have to do, said David Folkes, community health outreach manager at Thrive SS Inc., which focuses on the health of Black gay men, especially those living with HIV.

They decided to use Atlanta Black Pride week events in early September as an opportunity to reach a large number of people. Smith, of Heres to Life, developed a QR code with details on how to get a vaccine and put it on postcards with information about Pride events. Taking the cards with him, he started making the rounds to local bars, including the one where Carter was sipping his cocktail and had given up on getting an appointment for vaccination.

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

It was one of those things where we were in an emergency. It was a state of emergency, Smith said. We dont want that stigma on the community. We dont need an outbreak with gay men. It was an easy conversation: Have you had your vaccination? Let me get you on a list.

When Smith brought up the monkeypox vaccine, Carter gladly accepted his help. His name was added to a list of 112 that Smith passed along to the Fulton County Health Department. Two days later, Carter received a text confirming his appointment for the first of the two-dose vaccine.

In Georgia, case numbers were nearly doubling every week in mid-July and continued to jump in August. But, according to the most recent tally released Oct. 12 the total number of cases only rose 1.5% from the previous week.

Public health experts say the decline was likely brought about by a combination of factors, including vaccinations, immunity gained from infection in the population at risk, and a change in sexual behavior in the highest risk group. In a survey conducted by the CDC in August, roughly half of men who have sex with men said they had reduced the number of their partners and one-time sexual encounters.

I really think this is a very interesting case study, said Thompson. Number one, what a difference it makes when there is good communication between the community and county, state and federal governments because what we saw was a concentrated effort.

There are still racial disparity issues to address. As the city prepared to host Atlanta Black Pride on Labor Day weekend, Black people accounted for 78% of monkeypox cases in Georgia but had received only 45% of the vaccines. That inequity in vaccines hasnt changed, according to DPH figures.

And public health officials need to pay attention to the lingering psychological toll, said Brinkley Brown. He started an online journal on Facebook documenting what his days of managing the illness were like. Thats grown into an online support group.

Im glad to have made it through it, he said. Im glad that my experience can be a testimony, and it has helped others come through their experiences.

Read the rest here:

Inside the monkeypox crisis: How Georgia worked to curb an outbreak - The Atlanta Journal Constitution

A growing trend of Covid-19 vaccination harm: Is the virus breaking through? Or is it being encouraged to enter? – BizNews

October 19, 2022

For most people, the term breakthrough infection was first heard shortly after the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines in 2021. The speed at which the powers that be normalised this plausible-sounding term is almost impressive, particularly given that the very need therefore evidenced the failure of the Covid-19 vaccines to prevent transmission of the virus the first basic tenet upon which vaccination was boldly promoted. In this article, first published on The Defender, an astute review of observational data derived from statistics reported in the UK clearly shows that, in every age group over age 18, the Covid-19 case rate in the unvaccinated is less than the rate in the fully vaccinated and boosted. In addition, graphs documenting the relative infection rates plotted in each age group over the last six months that this data was reported (October 2021-March 2022), illustrate how the infection rate in the vaccinated/boosted is not only greater than in the unvaccinated in every age group, but actually increasing with the passage of time. Nadya Swart

When so many cases of infection occur in vaccinated people and they occur immediately after the therapy should these really be called breakthrough infections?

By Madhava Setty, M.D.*

James Lyons-Weiler, Ph.D., recently posed an interesting question to his Substack readers about the Jynneos monkeypox vaccine.

Based on some rough estimates, Lyons-Weiler calculated that the risk of monkeypox after vaccination, based on a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), is about 50 times greater than in the unvaccinated population of similar at-risk people.

So he asked his readers, What (respectfully) do you think is going on?

Lyons-Weiler is (respectfully) pointing out the obvious: If a therapy results in more disease in those who are treated, couldnt the therapy be causing the disease?

Medpage Today also covered the results of the JAMA study in this article: Breakthrough Monkeypox Cases Seen Weeks After Second Jynneos Dose, with the subhead, However, most post-vaccination cases in at-risk group occurred within 14 days of first dose.

When so many cases occur and they occur immediately after the therapy should these really be called breakthrough infections?

The term breakthrough infection is a euphemism for vaccine failure.

The word breakthrough connotes an excusable lapse in protection, an inevitable one-off when a wily and ubiquitous virus manages to penetrate a formidable wall of vaccine-mediated protection.

But is it really a wall of protection if the incidence of disease is greater in those who stand behind the wall compared to those who face the attack head on?

In the case of the JAMA study, vaccination wasnt a wall of protection it was actually a magnet for disease.

We are speaking of vaccine efficacy. If the incidence of disease is greater in the vaccinated, vaccine efficacy is negative meaning, there is a benefit in avoiding the vaccine.

Results of the Jynneos monkeypox vaccine trial are difficult to swallow for those who accept that all vaccines are safe and effective as axiom.

The public has slowly come to accept that the protection of vaccines can wane, but when vaccine effectiveness creeps into negative territory, the vaccines can no longer be considered safe, either.

In that sense, negative vaccine effectiveness is also a euphemism. Why dont we call it what it really is harm?

COVID vaccine breakthrough infections

With regard to COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness against infection, observational data from the U.K. shows an increasing level of harm from inoculation.

As of March 2022, the risk of getting COVID-19 was 2.5 to 5 times higher in people over age 18 (see Table 14 below).

Unfortunately, U.K. health officials unceremoniously announced these statistics would no longer be reported, stating:

From 1 April 2022, the UK Government will no longer provide free universal COVID-19 testing for the general public in England, as set out in the plan for living with COVID-19.

Such changes in testing policies affect the ability to robustly monitor COVID-19 cases by vaccination status, therefore, from the week 14 report onwards this section of the report will no longer be published.

It is unclear how the elimination of free COVID-19 testing will affect the U.K.s ability to robustly monitor COVID-19 cases by vaccination status.

If anything, it will decrease the amount of indiscriminate testing of asymptomatic individuals a practice that will (and has) exaggerated the incidence of the disease in everyone tested. One could argue that this change in policy will actually increase the ability to robustly monitor COVID-19 cases.

Nevertheless, here are the last numbers reported by the U.K.:

The first two columns compare rates of infection between fully vaccinated and boosted individuals with the unvaccinated. In every age group over 18, the COVID-19 infection rate is significantly higher.

The authors of this report caution the reader to not jump to any conclusions. They explain:

The case rates in the vaccinated and unvaccinated populations are unadjusted crude rates that do not take into account underlying statistical biases in the data and there are likely to be systematic differences between these 2 population groups. For example:

The first three points are valid concerns when examining two groups of unmatched populations in any observational study. These factors may skew vaccine effectiveness in either direction.

Without any randomised, placebo-controlled, matched cohorts we are left only with large observational data sets like this one from which to draw conclusions. Why wouldnt they continue to report these numbers if thats all we can do?

The fourth point is puzzling. The authors suggest that the unvaccinated have some natural immunity because they are more likely to have caught COVID-19 prior to this period of comparison.

Though the authors minimise the protective benefit of natural immunity in their wording, their argument necessitates that natural immunity is superior to vaccination. How else can they use their argument to explain the significantly lower incidence of disease in the unvaccinated?

At the very least, this is a subtle nod to the superiority of natural immunity. However, the authors assumption that the unvaccinated were more likely to have caught COVID-19 in the weeks or months prior to the period covered in the report flies in the face of their own data.

Were the unvaccinated more likely to have caught COVID-19 prior to this reporting period? No.

Heres what the previous report showed:

Once again, in every age group over age 18, the case rate in the unvaccinated is less than the rate in the fully vaccinated and boosted. If the unvaccinated are succumbing to COVID-19 less frequently in February, how can they be better protected in March?

According to the authors hypothesis, a higher infection rate among the vaccinated in February should have led to a lower infection rate in March. Not only did this not happen, the difference between vaccinated and unvaccinated infection rates were even larger than they were before.

Not only are the vaccinated obtaining a smaller level of future protection from infection compared to the unvaccinated, they are becoming more vulnerable as time passes.

Trend of growing harm

In fact, if we look further back in time we can see that the protective benefit of being unvaccinated is growing month over month. To put it less euphemistically, as time goes on it is becoming clearer that the vaccinated in the U.K. are being harmed.

To better illustrate the growing harm, below are the relative infection rates plotted in each age group over the last six months that this data was reported (October 2021-March 2022).

The infection rate in the unvaccinated is in green, and the infection rate in the boosted/vaxxed is in blue.

The ratio of the infection rates is plotted separately in black. A ratio greater than 1 means the infection rate in the boosted/vaxxed is bigger than in the unvaxxed.

Notice that the infection rate in the vaxxed/boosted is not only greater than in the unvaccinated in every age group, but it is increasing with the passage of time. This means that with respect to SARS-CoV-2 infection, the vaccinated/boosted population is doing progressively worse.

In every age category, the COVID-19 infection rate in the boosted is proportionately larger and larger with subsequent months. By March 2022, boosted individuals between the ages of 30 to 79 have approximately a 4 times greater chance of getting COVID-19 than their unvaccinated counterparts.

COVID-19 infection should protect against subsequent infections. However, what we see in the U.K. is that despite having higher infection rates, the vaccinated continue to become infected at even higher rates in subsequent months.

Lets be clear. The incidence of the disease the vaccine was designed to protect against is several times higherand growingin those who got the vaccine. Is the virus breaking through? Or is it being encouraged to enter?

Finally, they offer this mystifying caveat in footnote 1 of Table 14:

Comparing case rates among vaccinated and unvaccinated populations should not be used to estimate vaccine effectiveness against COVID-19 infection.

Really? How exactly should vaccine effectiveness be estimated? Is there a better way?

Lets refer to page 4 of the same report, where they explain how it should be done correctly:

Vaccine effectiveness is estimated by comparing rates of disease in vaccinated individuals to rates in unvaccinated individuals.

No harm in the U.S.?

Despite the disturbing trends in the U.K., Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data continue to demonstrate a benefit with regard to infection rates in the vaccinated.

The most recent data from the U.S. (August 2022) indicates that unvaccinated individuals have a 2.4 times greater risk of contracting COVID-19 than those who are jabbed.

However, CDC data from March 2022 (the period covered in the last U.K. report), show that unvaccinated people under the age of 50 had a lower incidence of disease than those who were fully vaccinated and boosted.

When will the CDC update its datasets? Will the CDC continue to report vaccine effectiveness against infection if it goes negative? Or will it follow the U.K.s lead and leave us to wonder?

What (respectfully) do you think is going on?

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Childrens Health Defense.

[10/18/22] Childrens Health Defense, Inc. This work is reproduced and distributed with the permission of Childrens Health Defense, Inc. Want to learn more from Childrens Health Defense? Sign up for free news and updates from Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and the Childrens Health Defense. Your donation will help to support us in our efforts.

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A growing trend of Covid-19 vaccination harm: Is the virus breaking through? Or is it being encouraged to enter? - BizNews

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