HERE two of our expert writers react to a report from Yale University conceding that long covid might well be a side-effect of the covid vaccine. Their study of 42 affected individuals and 22 healthy controls published on February 19 at MedRxiv entitled Immunological and Antigenic Signatures Associated with Chronic Illnesses after COVID-19 Vaccination identified a Post Vaccine Syndrome (PVS) or Post-Acute Covid-19 Vaccination Syndrome (PACVS).
Roger Watson writes: WE have long questioned the long covid narrative in these pages. We have disputed its very existence given the elastic nature of the list of potential symptoms, many of which could be filed under the category ‘life’. We have asked if, in fact, there may be simple explanations such as anaemia or early onset menopause for some reports of long covid and we have suggested that, if it does exist, then it may well be a side-effect of the covid mRNA vaccines.
All the above probably contribute to the continued diagnosis of long covid, that and the vested interests of Big Pharma which, the longer both the covid and long covid narratives are perpetuated, the more they stand to gain. But evidence has emerged to support our idea that the vaccines may play a role in those diagnosed with long covid.
A study by 31 authors belonging to the LISTEN project led by Dr Akiko Iwasaki of Yale University titled ‘Immunological and Antigenic Signatures Associated with Chronic Illnesses after COVID-19 Vaccination’ shows that covid spike proteins, induced by the vaccines, can still be found in the blood circulation months after a person was vaccinated. Iwasaki, co-chair of the LISTEN project, is former president of the American Association of Immunologists and had previously dismissed concerns about mRNA vaccines as ‘absurd’.
The study is not yet published but is available as a preprint. It will be interesting to see if, when and where it is eventually published. If it does see the light of day, it may go the way of many previously published articles which have tarnished the covid vaccine legacy by being retracted. However, the authors couch their findings safely within the prevailing narrative by saying that covid vaccines ‘prevented millions of COVID-19 deaths’.
It would be interesting to know how many millions of lives they reckon were saved given the low efficacy of the vaccines. Assuming an absolute risk ratio of around 1 per cent for the covid vaccines, it is possible that 130million lives were saved worldwide. Sounds a lot until you realise that 13billion people had to be vaccinated to achieve that even before you consider the millions who have been injured, some of them killed, by the covid vaccines.
A conservative estimate of the deaths that would have occurred using European Union statistics suggests that around half a million people worldwide may have died as a result of the covid vaccines. Of course, this figure is very likely to be much larger, at least by a single or possibly two orders of magnitude. While deaths unrelated to covid were enthusiastically ascribed to covid during the ‘pandemic’, every excuse under the sun is wheeled out to protect the reputation of the vaccines.
The above digression is justified in the light of the LISTEN study as, despite their pro-covid vaccine stance, they cannot deny the findings of their latest study and the potential consequences. The study is small and compared 42 people with PVS (post-vaccination syndrome) with 22 healthy people.
All the participants had been covid vaccinated but the blood profile of those with PVS differed from the healthy ones. Specifically, in addition to elevated circulating spike protein up to 709 days post-vaccination those with PVS had altered immune profiles with reduced circulating memory and effector CD4 T cells and increased TNFα+ CD8 T cells. This means that they had weakened immune systems and, due to chronic inflammation, the potential for tissue damage and autoimmunity. There were also persistent symptoms such as chronic fatigue and cognitive dysfunction in those with PVS. It is important to note that these were people in whom there was no evidence of covid infection.
Clearly, some people react differently to the covid vaccines, but the LISTEN study shows, potentially, that the vaccines can be counterproductive in some people, lowering immune function and inducing long covid type symptoms. The authors indicate the limitations to their study and that further work is required with larger samples.
Let us hope that they are not hampered by university authorities at the behest of Big Pharma from pursuing what appears to be vital work. Under the present regime, especially with RFK Jr at the helm of health, they probably have the best opportunity of doing so.
Guy Hatchard in New Zealand, writes: THE lead author of the study, Dr Akiko Iwasaki, has been interviewed by the UK Daily Mail. She and her team, known for their rigorous work, are seeking funding for more research. They are fighting against the prejudice among many medical authorities who have so far been parroting the idea that covid vaccines must be safe and effective. For example, Dr Iwasaki emphasised that ‘it is still unclear exactly how common the syndrome is’, but the official publication of the conservative university YaleNews, in covering the Iwasaki discovery, decided to suggest without any evidence (and contrary to relevant VAERS data) that PVS affects only a ‘small number of people’. Yeah, right.
Dr Iwasaki told the Mail: ’For patients who are suffering from post-vaccination syndrome, we want them to know that we see you, we listen, and we will keep on doing more research in this area so that this condition can be recognised, and better medical care can be provided.’ She believes the publication of her work is a paradigm-shifting moment.
The study was limited to individuals who experienced persistent debilitating symptoms of a generalised type following vaccination. It did not examine those developing more serious specific illnesses post vaccination which can be fatal in some cases such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, stroke, blood clots, liver and kidney disease and significant cognitive decline. In August 2022 the Hatchard Report published an article ‘Is there such a thing as ‘mRNA Covid Vaccine Syndrome’?. The Ivy League establishment appears to be just now beginning to catch up, which is good news.
If all is fair in love and war, this should mean that mRNA covid vaccines will disappear off the menu, but worryingly, the Yale team are also studying bat viruses in order to bring us ’safer vaccines’. Sound familiar? The Wuhan Virology Institute (WVI) published a paper last week titled ‘Bat-infecting merbecovirus HKU5-CoV lineage 2 can use human ACE2 as a cell entry receptor’. The HKU5-CoV virus which WVI ‘found’ in bats can apparently infect humans, raising alarm bells. Not to worry, though, whilst most US stocks fell last week, Pfizer and Moderna shares rose following the news from Wuhan.
There is an important point that almost everyone making health decisions for us appears to be missing. There is a common thread to covid vaccines. They are designed to penetrate the cell membrane and alter functions which are fundamental to human health. In this crucial sense they do not fit with any definition of a vaccine used before the pandemic. Given the central cell location of their action, the possibility of a general adverse mRNA and adenovirus vaccine syndrome should have immediately sprung to mind.
The crucial factor that blinded medical authorities to this possibility was their faith in the ‘biotechnology miracle’, a belief that has been carefully curated over years by those profiting from the biotech industry. If the authorities had stuck to their knitting and actually read the results reported in published papers they would have had a different view. They would have realised the risk of immune system destabilisation was known to be both significant and serious. The work coming out of Yale has now fully opened a window into the high-risk nature of gene editing, whether it affects the nuclear genome or the functions of the cytoplasm.
In the light of the results released by the Yale team, the proposal of the New Zealand government to deregulate biotechnology experimentation contained in the Gene Technology Bill currently before Parliament looks absurd and foolhardy.
