The British Medical Journal;

Whether Pfizer’s maternal respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine candidate increases the risk of preterm birth dominated discussions at a meeting last week of the committee advising the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).1 While all members of the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) voted positively on efficacy, four out of 14 voted that the data were not adequate to support safety.

As The BMJ revealed earlier this month,2 Pfizer’s clinical trials showed increased levels of preterm births among vaccinated women, and GSK, which was working on a similar vaccine, halted vaccination in its phase 3 trials after observing an increase in neonatal deaths and preterm births.34

Paul Offit, professor of paediatrics at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and VRBPAC member who voted “no” on safety, said at the meeting that he had “no problem” with efficacy. On safety, however, “the GSK experience” troubled him.5 “If preterm births are in any way a consequence of this vaccine it would be tragic.”

In Pfizer’s phase 2 trial, there were three preterm births (2.6%) in the placebo group v six (5.3%) in the vaccine group. In the phase 3 trial, which studied preterm births as an “adverse event of special interest,” 5.7% of babies were born preterm among vaccinated women v 4.7% in the placebo group. There was also an imbalance in babies with low birth weight (5.1% in the vaccine group v 4.4% in the placebo group).6 None of the differences were statistically significant.

It’s insignificant that the statistically insignificant differences all go in the same direction.

Doubled risk: This study by Taiwanese and Stanford researchers on the US vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals shows an alarming statistical increase in the retinal vascular occlusion.

Abstract:

We aimed to investigate the risk of retinal vascular occlusion after COVID-19 vaccination. This retrospective cohort study used the TriNetX global network and included individuals vaccinated with COVID-19 vaccines between January 2020 and December 2022. We excluded individuals with a history of retinal vascular occlusion or those who used any systemic medication that could potentially affect blood coagulation prior to vaccination. To compare the risk of retinal vascular occlusion, we employed multivariable-adjusted Cox proportional hazards models after performing a 1:1 propensity score matching between the vaccinated and unvaccinated cohorts. Individuals with COVID-19 vaccination had a higher risk of all forms of retinal vascular occlusion in 2 years after vaccination, with an overall hazard ratio of 2.19 (95% confidence interval 2.00–2.39). The cumulative incidence of retinal vascular occlusion was significantly higher in the vaccinated cohort compared to the unvaccinated cohort, 2 years and 12 weeks after vaccination

Guy Gin- How to get Japanese kids to unmask?

When the Japanese academic year started last month, students were no longer required to wear masks at school. But when 1328 Japanese kids were asked whether they’d still keep masking from the beginning of the new school year, they inevitably gave depressing responses.

In the Province of Alberta, the leading cause of death was Unexplained Cause of Death in 2022. Sherry Strong of @children_canada describes speaking to a hospital administrator, who was seemingly unaware of this. Several days later, the administrator #DiedSuddenly #NCI… pic.twitter.com/WqXqLuC7su

— Sigrun, Warrior Princess (@althingprincess) April 27, 2023

h/t Scott

Preprint.

Due to the health crisis caused by SARS-CoV-2, the creation of a new vaccine platform based on mRNA was implemented. Globally, around 13.32 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses of diverse platforms have been given, and up to this date, 69.7% of the total population received at least one injection of a COVID-19 vaccine. Although these vaccines prevent hospitalization and severe forms of the disease, increasing evidence has shown they do not produce sterilizing immunity, allowing people to suffer frequent re-infections. Recent research has also raised concerns that mRNA vaccines could induce immune tolerance, which, added to that caused by the virus itself, could complicate the clinical course of a COVID-19 infection. Furthermore, recent investigations have found high IgG4 levels in people who were administered two or more injections of mRNA vaccines. It has been suggested that an increase in IgG4 levels could have a protecting role by preventing immune over-activation, similar to that occurring during successful allergen-specific immunotherapy by inhibiting IgE-induced effects. Altogether, evidence suggests that the reported increase in the IgG4 levels detected after repeated vaccination with the mRNA vaccines is not a protective mechanism; rather, it may be a part of the immune tolerance mechanism to the spike protein that could promote unopposed SARS-CoV2 infection and replication by suppressing natural antiviral responses. IgG4-induced suppression of the immune system due to repeated vaccination can also cause autoimmune diseases, promotes cancer growth, and autoimmune myocarditis in susceptible individuals.

German pathology: Spike protein in many organs

Sources here.

A strange and puzzling trend…

Study authors from the New York University Grossman School of Medicine analyzed data from the CDC, the 2020 U.S. Census, and 2021 population estimates from the University of Virginia, and calculated fertility rates after each COVID-19 wave.

They found that the severity of the wave in some states appeared to have little impact on fertility rates in 2020.

While New York experienced a massive drop in fertility rates following the first wave – plunging to roughly 76 fewer monthly births per 100,000 women compared to pre-pandemic rates – states like Idaho, Montana and Utah experienced a boost of up to 56 additional birth each month per 100,000 women.

Maybe it’s the cleaner air.

Vancouver Sun- B.C. lifts health-care mask rules as province emerges from pandemic, Dr. Bonnie Henry says