Sunday COVID-19 Briefs: WHO Declines Jab Data On Own Staff, Instagram Blocks #naturalimmunity Hashtag ,TMN Clinical Trial On Nigella Sativa L And Honey

Sunday COVID-19 Briefs

 
WHO While Encouraging Vaccination, Refuses To Reveal Vaccination Data Of Its Own Staff
 
WHO, a United Nations' health agency, which has repeatedly urged the world to get vaccinated against COVID-19 and other illnesses, on Friday declined to say how many of its own staffers have followed that advice.
 
Dr Margaret Harris, a World Health Organization spokeswoman told media when asked, "We won't have that because it's confidential."
 
The United Nations Geneva spokeswoman Alessandra Vellucci when asked about U.N staff also answered, "We don't disclose this kind of information. It's something that is said to the medical service. So, no, unfortunately, we won't be able to give you these numbers." However she said that she would look into whether percentages of U.N. staff that had been vaccinated could be provided.
 
Interestingly in November 2020, the WHO indicated 65 of its staffers had tested positive for COVID-19 at the time, confirming information in an internal e-mail obtained by The Associated Press. The U.N. office in Geneva has often indicated how many of its staff tested positive.
 
It is important to note that various Governments are required list how many people are vaccinated against the coronavirus, and the WHO compiles the information and reports on it. Some countries and companies require vaccines for their workers to go to their jobs.
 
WHO and the UN has also not imposed mandates that all its staff must be vaccinated. The refusal to provide vaccination figures by the WHO and the U.N. itself point to legal strictures that many organizations face about privacy, particularly in Europe.
 
Hypocritically, the United Nations and the WHO have repeatedly trumpeted vaccination as part of an array of measures like mask-wearing, proper hygiene, and physical distancing needed to help try to beat the pandemic.
 
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO Director-General has said he's been vaccinated, and he has encouraged others to do so too. His agency and many health authorities worldwide have struggled to beat back a wave of anti-vaccine sentiment in many places. However there are now speculations as to whether he and many other important public figures that have been pushing the vaccine agenda such as Fauci, Biden, Gates, Albert Bourla have ever been truly vaccinated yet instead of being given saline from mock up vials just to placate the media and public as in many of such ‘PR events’, the contents of the ‘vaccine’ vials used or the contents in the syringes were never audited by third parties.
 
Instagram Blocks #naturalimmunity Hashtag
 
It was reported that as of about 12 hours ago, Instagram has blocked the hashtag "natural immunity" over concerns of so called ‘misinformation’.
 
Facebook, the owner of Instagram, has however not removed the hashtag yet.
 
Prior to the ban, uses of #naturalimmunity coincided with notions relating to a scientific study conducted out of Israel. The paper concludes 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." https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.24.21262415v1.full
 
However the study also highlights that "individuals who were both previously infected with SARS-CoV-2 and given a single dose of the vaccine gained additional protection against the Delta variant."
 
Social media agencies are crying foul and saying that it was "counter intuitive to ban certain [hashtags] as it only provides further ammunition for the conspiracy theorists." 
 
As many are saying, "Other than harmful, violent or hateful commentary, [banning hashtags is] damaging to our freedom of speech traditions and a very dangerous place if social media platforms start censoring views, conversations or opinions.”
 
A TMN and Doctor’s Lounge Initiative: Clinical Trial On Prophylactic Potential Of Honey And Nigella Sativa L Against SARS-CoV-2
 
Doctors from Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School-USA, Shaikh Zayed Post-Graduate Medical Institute-Pakistan, Riphah International, and the TMN’s Doctors Lounge Consortium involving numerous doctors and hospitals from Pakistan, USA, Chile, Bahrain, Canada, Saudi Arabia and Taiwan have already registred a clinical trial and have already started recruiting participants for a clinical trial involving the use of honey and Nigella Sativa L.
https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04767087
 
As part of a pre arrangement between TMM, all randomized clinical trials and research involving herbs and phytochemicals for use as prophylactics or as therapeutics for COVID-19 and also Long COVID, will always be covered by journals under the Springer Group as in this case. https://trialsjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13063-021-05510-3
 
Thailand Medical News had already covered an earlier trial involving Honey and Nigella Sativa L as a therapeutic agent in treating moderate and severe COVID-19. https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/covid-19-herbs-multicenter-randomized-controlled-trial-shows-that-nigella-sativa-and-honey-is-able-to-treat-moderate-to-severe-covid-19-patients
 
Also another study on hymoquinone, a major constituent of Nigella sativa to treat inflammatory and infectious diseases was covered. https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/breaking-university-of-technology-sydney-confirms-that-the-phytochemical-thymoquinone-found-in-nigella-sativa-is-able-to-treat-covid-19
 
Nigella Sativa L is also used in our therapeutic teas. https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/new-therapeutic-teas-
 
Delta Plus and Other New Delta Sub-Variants With G142D and D950N Mutations Causing Vaccine Breakthrough Infections In Houton-Texas.
 
A new study has reported that Houston-Texas is facing a huge caseload of breakthrough infections among those that had been previously fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Many cases involved hospitalizations as the vaccines were found to not be able to prevent disease severity nor even mortality in most cases.
 
Genomic sequencings showed that majority of the breakthrough infections were caused by the Delta plus variant and also by new Delta sub-variants possessing G142D and D950N mutations on them.
 
Alarmingly a few cases of the Lambda and also Mu variants were found in Houston. Both these variants are also immune evasive and most cases involving their infections required hospitalization. https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.19.21260808v3.full
 
Despite High Vaccination Numbers, Israel Sees 'Record' COVID Wave
It was reported by local media that Israel continues to struggle under the weight of a crushing SARS-Cov-2 wave, reaching what one health official said is a "record" number of cases even as the country records some of the highest vaccination rates in the world. https://www.timesofisrael.com/health-ministry-chief-says-coronavirus-spread-reaching-record-heights/
 
Israel is recording "an average of 8,000 new infections each day, with occasional peaks over 10,000," the Times of Israel reported this week.
 
The new infection rates represent "a record that did not exist in the previous waves," Israeli Health Ministry Director-General Nachman Ash told the paper. 

The virus replication number had recently declined, he pointed out, before beginning to increase. "I hoped that we would see a clearer drop, but we are still not seeing it," he said.
 
For more Sunday COVID-19 Briefs, keep on logging to Thailand Medical News.