Death from AstraZenica vaccine in India

 65 Year Old Man In India Dies Just Minutes After Receiving AstraZeneca COVID-19 Vaccine

Great Game India,

11 March, 2021

A 65-year-old man in India collapsed and passed away just five minutes after getting first dose of vaccine against covid-19. This is the first post-vaccination death in Goregaon. He reached Millat Nursing Home, Jogeshwari at 3.30 pm and got vaccinated at 3.37 pm. He was injected with 0.5 ml dose of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine Covishield intramuscularly.

He collapsed in the chair and passed away within a few minutes. He was a Goregaon resident and he received the first dose of vaccine from Millat Nursing Home, Jogeshwari.  

The authorities said we cannot consider it death due to vaccination till an expert committee reviews it and comes to a conclusion.

BMC said in a statement, “He had several comorbidities, including dilated cardiomyopathy, severe left ventricular dysfunction, hypertension and diabetes mellitus”. 

Executive health officer, Dr Mangala Gomare said, the adverse event following AEF will review the case. “We don’t know if it was a case of anaphylactic shock. The committee will opine after looking at all details”.

As per a civic official, the 65-year-old man was administered injection Adrenaline. This injection is mostly used in cases of adverse reactions following vaccination. The man was shifted to ICU for further investigation. He could not survive and died at 5:05 pm.

His body was sent for autopsy at RN Cooper hospital. He was on multiple heart medications as per civic officials.

As per civic officials, more than 4 people got vaccinated in this city and more than 400 people have faced adverse events following vaccination.  These side effects are minor, but few of them were hospitalized. State officials did not comment over it yet.

Total 40 deaths have been reported across India after getting vaccination against COVID. But as per officials, none of them was caused by the vaccine itself. Death of a health worker after getting a second vaccine dose has been reported in Bhiwadi last week. He was 40-year-old.

Recently, Australia’s Health Minister Greg Hunt in charge of rolling out Australia’s coronavirus vaccine program was hospitalized just one day after taking the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.

According to a report by Germany’s Standing Vaccination Commission, the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine is only effective 8% in people over 65.

Three European countries of Sweden, France and Germany have decided not to use AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine for people over 65. This decision was made due to the lack of data available about its effectiveness in elderly people.

India turns down Pfizer

 This might go some way to explaining why the Pfizer vaccine is unexpectedly available to New Zealand  weeks early.

https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/india-panel-turns-down-pfizers-emergency-covid-vaccine-plea/cid/1805859

Pfizer wants India to order Covid-19 vaccine before pursuing approval: Report

Pfizer will request India to approve its coronavirus vaccine if the government commits to buying shots, the US drugmaker told Reuters on Monday.

India Today,

25 January  2021

Pfizer Inc will pursue its request for India to approve its Covid-19 vaccine if the government commits to buying shots, the U.S. drugmaker told Reuters on Monday, even as global supplies tighten.

Pfizer was the first company to seek emergency-use authorisation (EUA) for a Covid-19 vaccine in India, but the government this month approved two much cheaper shots - one from Oxford University/AstraZeneca and another developed at home by Bharat Biotech with the Indian Council of Medical Research.

India's Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) says Pfizer officials failed to turn up to meetings after the company's application was made in early December. The regulator has also declined to accept the company's request for approval without a small local trial on the vaccine's safety and immunogenicity for Indians, Reuters has reported.

Pfizer says its application is supported by data from a global study that shows an overall efficacy rate of 95 per cent with no vaccine-related, serious safety concerns. It also says that, based on the same data, the vaccine developed with German partner BioNTech has been approved in Britain, the United States, the European Union and Canada.

"The data collected has been endorsed by various regulatory agencies (including the most evolved) and they have given EUA [based on] ... that data," the firm said in an emailed response to questions, including on India's demand for a local trial.

"Given our exclusive priority to government supply, we look forward to a confirmation from the government on necessary supplies, [on the] basis [of] which we will take the regulatory process forward, as we have done across the world," it added.

Last week, government officials in some EU countries said Pfizer had slashed in half deliveries to them, causing frustration and hampering vaccination drives.

Indian officials have had discussions with both Pfizer and its U.S. rival Moderna Inc about making their shots in India, given its large pharmaceutical capacity.

However, India, the world's biggest vaccine maker, says it is mainly relying on shots already approved or tested at home to run its massive immunisation campaign that began on Jan. 16.

Pfizer said its current focus was on distributing the vaccine around the world using manufacturing capacity in the United States and Europe.

"Once the pandemic supply phase is over and we enter a phase of regular supplies, Pfizer will evaluate all additional opportunities available," it said.

Asked why it did not attend meetings called by the CDSCO, Pfizer said its officials had not been given enough notice.

"The company representatives have been unable to participate in previous meetings due to extremely short notices of a few hours or less and time-zone limitations," the company said.

"We remain committed to engaging with the Government of India to make this vaccine available for use by the government in the country."

How the media avoids the truth about rapid climate change

 This article from the Times of India illustrates clearly the somersaults of governments and media do to avoid talking directly about the huge elephant in the room. No larger an elephant than in the Indian Himalaya.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/tragedy-could-be-result-of-very-rare-bursting-of-water-pockets-in-glacier/articleshow/80740143.cms

The article does what media all over the world and devotes a lot of space to the proximate causes of the tragedy but almost as an afterthought say "there is no doubt that global warming has resulted in a warming of the region"

This is the extent of it all.  This is the voice of an Indian bureaucrat (and they don't come any more bureaucratic than in India)

But in talking of this they feel obligated to pray before a shrine and intone a mantra

It is all part of a general trend where global warming is talked about. in general but avoided in particular. Why do they not talk about HOW the region has warmed and what the consequences have been.

But that is for specialist articles that no one will see.

Just looking at footage I can see at a glimpse how the climate and the environment has changed since I was last in India in 1993. I don't need any graphs or scholarly articles that leave out of the picture more than they reveal.

***

They do a little better in this article

Despite the article focusing on climate change the closest you get to specifics is this;

And then this:

Leaving aside mantras about reducing CO2 emissions measuring and monitoring the unfolding catastrophe is about all they can do with lots of hand-rubbing and head-scratching along the way

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/climate-change-behind-uttarakhand-glacier-burst-experts-feel/articleshow/80736594.cms

Burst glacier crashes into a dam triggering a huge flood in northern India

I woke this morning to news of this.

This always has resonance for me because I have been there in the late 1980's and early 1990's so it all seems so familiar.

Uttarakhand glacier burst: Dozens missing after India dam collapses

BBC,

7 February, 2021

Dozens of people are missing and feared dead after a Himalayan glacier crashed into a dam and triggered a huge flood in northern India.

As the dam broke open, a deluge of water poured through a valley in the state of Uttarakhand.

Villages have been evacuated, but officials warned more than 125 people may have been caught in the torrent.

Video showed the floodwater barrelling through the area, leaving destruction in its wake.

"It came very fast, there was no time to alert anyone," Sanjay Singh Rana, who lives near to the Dhauli Ganga river, told the Reuters news agency.

"I felt that even we would be swept away"

Uttarakhand police said the avalanche struck at about 11:00 local time (05:30 GMT), destroying a dam known as the Rishiganga Hydroelectric Project.

Police said the impact catapulted water along the Dhauli Ganga river, damaging another power project downstream in the Tapovan area.

One witness compared the flash flood to "a scene from a Bollywood film".

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat said 125 people were confirmed missing so far, but that number could rise.

"Seven bodies have been recovered from the site and rescue operations are going on," Mr Singh Rawat told reporters at a briefing on Sunday.

Most of those missing were workers at the two power projects swept away by the deluge.

More than 50 people working at the Rishiganga Hydroelectric Project were feared dead, Uttarakhand police chief Ashok Kumar said.

But he said some workers had been rescued from the site.

Emergency crew managed to rescue 16 workers who had been trapped inside a tunnel that had been filled with debris.

Indian media said around 30 others were trapped in a second tunnel, with emergency crews prepared to work through the night to rescue them.

Mr Singh Rawat said teams from the police and the army were "doing their best to save the lives of the workers".

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was monitoring the situation. "The nation prays for everyone's safety there," he wrote on Twitter shortly after speaking with the state minister.

Emergency workers evacuated dozens of villages, but authorities later said the main flood danger had passed.

Hundreds of troops along with military helicopters and other aircraft have been sent to the region.

The neighbouring state of Uttar Pradesh has put some riverside areas on high alert for flooding.

Experts are investigating the incident.

What caused the glacial burst?

Navin Singh Khadka, BBC World Service environment correspondent

The remoteness of where this happened means no-one has a definitive answer, so far.

Experts say one possibility is that massive ice blocks broke off the glacier due to a temperature rise, releasing a huge amount of water.

And that could have caused avalanches bringing down rocks and mud.

"This is a strong possibility because there was a huge amount of sediment flowing down," said DP Dobhal, a senior glaciologist formerly with the government's Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology.

Experts say an avalanche could also have hit a glacial lake that then burst.

Another possibility is that an avalanche or landslide may have dammed the river for some time, causing it to burst out after the water level rose.

Uttarakhand, in the western Himalayas, is prone to flash floods and landslides.

Some 6,000 people are believed to have been killed in floods in June 2013 which were triggered by the heaviest monsoon rains in decades.

Sunday's disaster has prompted calls by environment groups for a review of power projects in the ecologically sensitive mountains.

Here is a longer account from Indian TV

Uttarakhand Glacier Burst Live: 3 Bodies Recovered, 150 Feared 

Missing; IAF Joins Rescue Ops

Indian Woman Test COVID-19 Positive 31 Times In 5 Months. Doctors Baffled

WHO Changes PCR Test Criteria To Cover-up False Positives

Great Game India,

23 January, 2021

The World Health Organization (WHO) has changed its PCR test ctiteria to cover-up false positives and cautioned experts not to rely solely on the results of a PCR test to detect the coronavirus.

In updated guidance published on Jan. 20, the WHO said that lab experts and health care practitioners should also consider the patient’s history and epidemiological risk factors alongside the PCR test in diagnosing the coronavirus.

The new guidance could result in significantly fewer daily cases, the false positive cases that created an environment of panic and fear which experts have been warning since last year.

“Most PCR assays are indicated as an aid for diagnosis, therefore, health care providers must consider any result in combination with timing of sampling, specimen type, assay specifics, clinical observations, patient history, confirmed status of any contacts, and epidemiological information,” the guidance says.

It’s unclear why the health agency waited over a year to release the new directive when the medical community already advised against it.

Last year, a Portuguese appeals court had ruled that PCR tests are unreliable and that it is unlawful to quarantine people based solely on a PCR test.

The court stated, the test’s reliability depends on the number of cycles used and the viral load present. Citing Jaafar et al. 2020, the court concludes that:

“if someone is tested by PCR as positive when a threshold of 35 cycles or higher is used (as is the rule in most laboratories in Europe and the US), the probability that said person is infected is less than 3%, and the probability that said result is a false positive is 97%.”

The court further notes that the cycle threshold used for the PCR tests currently being made in Portugal is unknown.

The threshold cycles used in PCR tests in India is between 37 and 40, which makes the reliability of the PCR test less than 3% and the false positive rate as high as 97%.

It is also important to remember PCR was invented as a way to create copies of genetic material. Its was never intended to be a diagnostic tool.

As GreatGameIndia reported earlier, the standard coronavirus tests threw up a huge number of positive cases daily. These tests are done based on faulty WHO protocols which are designed to include false positives cases as well.

This fact about false positives of PCR Tests was first noted in public by Dr. Beda M. Stadler, a Swiss biologist, emeritus professor, and former director of the Institute of Immunology at the University of Bern.

So if we do a PCR corona test on an immune person, it is not a virus that is detected, but a small shattered part of the viral genome. The test comes back positive for as long as there are tiny shattered parts of the virus left. Correct: Even if the infectious viruses are long dead, a corona test can come back positive, because the PCR method multiplies even a tiny fraction of the viral genetic material enough [to be detected].

Earlier, the WHO’s testing protocol was even questioned by Finland’s national health authority. WHO had called on countries to test as many patients as possible for coronavirus.

Finland ran out of testing capacity and began limiting coronavirus tests to the most vulnerable groups and healthcare personnel only. Finland’s national health authority said that testing people with mild symptoms would be a waste of healthcare resources.

In a startling disclosure, Finland’s head of health security, Mika Salminen dismissed WHO advisory saying the WHO doesn’t understand pandemics and that their Coronavirus testing protocol is illogical and doesn’t work.

So, if the WHO’s testing protocols are indeed based on the most reliable, accurate and well sourced technologies and research methodologies available worldwide, shouldn’t they have known about its negligible effectiveness and its impact in causing panic and chaos? Indeed the WHO knows it doesn’t work and moreover this is not the first time such criticisms have been voiced.

In the past in 2010, the WHO was caught faking a pandemic and was forced to admit that its methodology of measuring the virality or the spread of the disease, instead of its severity was incorrect. 

Indian Woman Test COVID-19 Positive 31 Times In 5 Months. Doctors Baffled

An Indian woman from Rajasthan has tested COVID-19 positive 31 times in 5 months baffling doctors. Her results have been contradicting the novel Coronavirus’ incubation cycle that is believed to end in 14 days.

A 35-year-old woman in Rajasthan’s Bharatpur has been posing a unique challenge to all medical theories on Covid-19, after testing positive 31 times in the last five months.

Her results have been contradicting the novel Coronavirus’ incubation cycle that is believed to end in 14 days, officials said.

Each time, she tested corona positive she has left medical practitioners confused.

The patient, Sarada Devi, has been residing in Bharatpur’s Apna Ashram since August last year. Being a new entrant to the ashram, she was tested for Covid as per the regular protocol of the ashram where she came out positive.

“Since then, she has been staying in isolation and has been given all three types of treatment namely allopathic, Homeopathic and Ayurveda. However, despite all treatments, each time, her report comes positive.

“Surprisingly, despite having positive Covid report, she is healthy and has gained around 7-8 kilo,” said Dr B.M. Bhardwaj, from Ashram, adding that she was too weak and fragile when she had come here and could not even stand on her own.

The Chinese air force conducts heavy deployment of missiles and radars

 China Makes "Heavy" Deployment of Military Forces on India Border

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/heavy-chinese-missile-radar-deployment-near-ladakh-but-india-ready-to-handle-situation-air-chief-bhadauria/articleshow/80014047.cms

Hal Turner,

1 January, 2020

The Chinese air force has conducted heavy deployment of missiles and radars in support of the aggression by their army along the eastern Ladakh sector, India's Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria says.

"China has deployed heavily along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in support of their army. They have a large presence of radars, surface to air missiles and surface to surface missiles. Their deployment has been strong," he said.

The Chinese air force has deployed its indigenous fighter jets including J-20 and J-10 along with the Russian-origin SU-30 close to Indian territory in Tibet.

They have also activated their air defense systems including the S-400 acquired from Russia.

The Indian Air Force has deployed its frontline fighters including the Rafale and the MiG-29 in the Ladakh sector at multiple bases and is ready to respond to any misadventure by the Chinese side.

On the counteraction from the Indian side, the IAF chief emphasized, "We have taken all actions required to be taken."

Bhadauria said the evolving uncertainties and instability at the global geopolitical front has provided China with an opportunity to demonstrate its growing power and indirectly it has also brought to fore the inadequate contribution of major powers to global security.

The Air Chief said any serious India-China conflict is not good for China on the global front. "If Chinese aspirations are global then it does not suit their grand plan.

What could be the possible Chinese objectives for their action in the north? It is important that we recognize what they have really achieved," he added.