Covid-19

Covid ICU numbers fall; fully vaxxed can transmit Covid, Levine says

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By Guy Page

As Vermont health and hospital officials, worried about a coming spike in Omicron-variant cases, chastise unvaccinated Vermonters for filling up hospital and ICU beds, data from last week shows a decrease in Covid-19 impact on Vermont critical care beds.

The number of Vermont ICU beds in use for Covid-19 patient care is down – below 20 – even as total ICU bed availability has increased 64%, according to VT Dept. of Health statistics presented at Gov. Phil Scott’s press conference yesterday. 

The entire ‘modeling data’ slide presentation provided to the media may be seen here.

A slide entitled Vermont Hospital Metrics shows that ICU bed availability has about tripled since a low point in early December, when only seven beds reportedly were available. Data for Dec. 21 shows an estimated 21 ICU beds open. 

Meanwhile, Covid-19 care ICU bed usage has dropped 16% during the last week – dipping below 20, according to a slide titled “Statewide Covid-19 Critical Care Usage.”

Hospital and Scott administration officials, however, worry the onset of Omicron will send those numbers climbing again. Yesterday, University of Vermont Medical Center President Dr. John Brumstead issued a public letter, explaining in a cover letter to employees that “we need those who are unvaccinated to know that their choices put everyone at risk.” It reads as follows:

“We are working hard to do our part. Please, do yours.

“Across the UVM Health Network, we are doing everything we can to respond to the ever-changing challenges of COVID-19. Today, nearly two years into this pandemic, we continue to fight the impact of this virus. Our emergency rooms are packed. Our Intensive Care Units are nearing capacity. All of our people, providing all types of care throughout our health system, are being pushed to the brink.

“If you have not received your COVID-19 vaccines, you are putting yourself, your loved ones, your friends, your neighbors and your health care workers at risk.

“The battle is far from over. Roughly 75% of the patients we treat in our ICUs for COVID-19-related illness are unvaccinated. In some cases, that number is much higher, and the outcomes are not always good. Similar trends prevail across Vermont and Northern New York.

“What’s frustrating to all of us is that we know our best hope of ending this crisis is vaccination. The vast majority of eligible people living in Vermont (80%) and in New York (75%) have been vaccinated. Yet, if you’ve chosen not to get vaccinated, you’re keeping the virus alive and putting everyone at risk.

We know vaccination isn’t a silver bullet against COVID-19 infection, especially with what we are learning about variants. But vaccination is the best protection we have against a severe case, and it’s the best way for you to stay out of the hospital or the ICU. Keeping you out of the hospital means we have more beds available if someone else has a heart attack, gets into a major car accident, or needs emergency surgery.

Brumstead continues:

There’s a lot of misinformation out there about COVID-19 vaccines. It’s time to set all of that aside and focus squarely on the real-life, hard-earned lessons we’ve learned through the pandemic. With those lessons in mind,” he urges the unvaxxed to vax, the unboosted to boost, and 

“If you know someone who is not vaccinated — Help them get a vaccine. And regardless of your vaccination status, continue to do the things we know make a difference: Wear a mask. Clean your hands. Get tested when necessary. Distance when you are around others. Do not socialize when you feel ill.”

Brumstead does not address what is perhaps the main concern of Vermont’s unvaxxed: the potential danger of vaccination. A Children’s Health Defense review of Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System data shows 643,957 adverse events, including 8,456 deaths and 53,780 serious injuries, were reported in the U.S. between Dec. 14, 2020, and Nov. 5, 2021. Vermont Dept. of Health Commissioner Mark Levine pooh-poohs conclusions drawn from VAERS data, saying it is a reporting device only. 

Nevertheless, VAERS is difficult for laypeople to read, much less use. Most incident reports are filed by medical professionals. It is also claimed that only a fraction of actual adverse events are reported to VAERS. 

So rather than vaccinate, many unvaccinated Vermonters choose instead what they consider a less risky path, including following the other common-sense suggestions made by Brumstead: mask when desired, socially distance, self-quarantine when sick. Many also boost their immune systems with diet, exercise, and supplements, and practice proactive nasal and oral care with an iodine solution recommended by virologist Dr. Peter McCullough and others.

Fully vaxxed DO transmit Covid, Levine says – With Brumstead, Scott, Agency of Human Services chief Mike Smith and others forcefully blaming the unvaccinated for outbreaks, listeners to yesterday’s press conference were surprised to hear yesterday Levine conceding that the vaccinated also transmit Covid-19.

VPR’s Howard Weiss-Tisman put the question directly to Levine: “If someone is fully boosted and not feeling sick, and not showing signs, isn’t it somewhat dangerous that folks walking around not  knowing they have it and possibly passing it on?” Levine answered (78:50 mark):

“More than any variant before, this variant has the capability of infecting people who are fully vaccinated and even boosted. Most of them, if not all of them, are going to have a mild illness and not have a serious outcome from that. They will, just like with delta, be capable of transmitting the virus at a point in time in their illness.  

“However, if delta is a good example for us, it will be a very brief time period where they are infectious where they have a sufficiently high load of virus in their nasal secretions to be able to transmit it actively to somebody else. But that is part of the evolution of this virus that will occur. So they could potentially walk around asymptomatic as well and be able to transmit the virus.”

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34 replies »

  1. This site will explain what’s going on scientifically with the virus and why the vaccine is intrinsically harmful mistake reminiscent of thalidomide. No one should take the vaccine. It will help a little in the beginning until it infects all of the immune cells and wipes them out at which point the person will go downhill at a rate depending on the metabolic abuse. Fat creates vulnerability https://canna-sapiens.com/ras-metabolism-and-metaboli.html

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  2. I have a good friend that I’ve been trying to convince not to take this thing. He recently revealed to me that he is tripled jabbed and has oddly lost 20 pounds over the past few months. He believes he has cancer. I also personally know 3 other people who have had bad reactions to the poke.

    When will people speak up?

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  4. JOHN, WHY ARE THERE SO MANY NON COVID HOSPITALIZATIONS IN YOUR HOSPITAL? WHY IS ALL CAUSE MORTALITY HIGHER THAN EVER GLOBALLY, ESPECIALLY IN HIGHLY VACCINATED AREAS? IS THEIR ANY RESEARCH BEING DONE TO POSSIBLY CORRELATE INFLATED NON COVID HOSPITALIZATIONS AND DEATHS AND MRNA INJECTIONS?

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  5. If 80% of Vermonters have gotten the shot and I read yesterday that 100% over 62 has gotten it which I know for a fact is a lie, then why in heck are there so many cases now? All summer long when there was no mask mandates and people were out and about almost normal then the counts were down. In Sept the mandates came back and the boosters came out and the hospitalizations and deaths peaked. The numbers just don’t add up to me. Also read that those vaxxed can get and spread the virus. Why are they forcing people to get it except to continue the fear mongering and control How many of those deaths were caused by the shots themselves? I know of 1 that died last week in Burlington’s hospital that I know was double vaxxed and died of massive blot clots. Bet he was listed as a victim also. Victim of the shots thus a covid diagnosis. God help our state and God help our country. Why are there few homeless people dying? Must be they are immune. What are the stats on the NEW residents being brought to our state? How many have had or refuse the shots and the masks? I would like to see those stats.

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    • How long had he been double vaxxed? If less than two weeks his death may have added to the count of the unvaccinated deaths.

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  6. How long do they think we will believe that this shot stops the spread of covid? At this point in the game, anyone promoting masks and vaccinations, is either lacking scientific knowledge or a liar like Brumstead.

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      • “Peer Reviewed” is a meaningless term if none of the studies are Randomized Controlled Trials (RCT). I challenge you to find one RCT in the list of “studies” provided in the article cited. As a matter of fact, the following quote comes from the second peer reviewed article in the list:

        https://www.pnas.org/content/118/4/e2014564118
        FTA: Cochrane (7) and the World Health Organization (8) both point out that, for population health measures, we should not generally expect to be able to find controlled trials, due to logistical and ethical reasons, and should therefore instead seek a wider evidence base. This issue has been identified for studying community use of masks for COVID-19 in particular (9). Therefore, we should not be surprised to find that there is no RCT for the impact of masks on community transmission of any respiratory infection in a pandemic. 🙀

      • Any intellectually honest person would understand that it is very hard to do a Randomized Control Trial in the middle of a pandemic without creating an equitable amount of exposure to the virus amongst the trial participants.

        This article explains it:

        https://www.politifact.com/article/2021/mar/12/why-randomized-controlled-trials-mask-wearing-and-/

        From article:

        “ To conduct a randomized controlled trial on the efficacy of masks, researchers would have to randomly assign some members of a community not to wear a face mask for a long period of time to see whether they got sick at higher rates than a control group.

        Practically there is no way that scientists could run a study like this during a global pandemic without endangering trial participants and other people they encountered out in the world.

        “Randomized controlled trials are pretty much the gold standard, but they’re not always ethical,” said Mary Kathryn Grabowski, an assistant professor in epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University. “We can’t just send people out without masks in the middle of a pandemic in the same way we can’t randomize people to not use a parachute when they jump out of a plane.”

        ——————-

        But if only RCT studies hold any weight, here’s some Randomized Control Trials on masks and the spread of coronaviruses and other transmissible viruses from before the pandemic:

        https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7191274/

      • Your study: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7191274/

        FTA: “In the community, masks appeared to be effective with and without hand hygiene, and both together are more protective. Randomised controlled trials in health care workers showed that respirators, if worn continually during a shift, were effective but not if worn intermittently. Medical masks were not effective, and cloth masks even less effective. When used by sick patients randomised controlled trials suggested protection of well contacts.”

        So, in the community, masks “appeared” to be effective. Yet when considering health care workers, medical (surgical) masks were not effective and cloth masks were even less effective. How can you have it both ways?

        An alternative study using RCTs: https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26/5/19-0994_article

        FTA: “We did not find evidence that surgical-type face masks are effective in reducing laboratory-confirmed influenza transmission, either when worn by infected persons (source control) or by persons in the general community to reduce their susceptibility (Figure 2).”

      • The video shows why it is so important for EVERYBODY to wear masks.

        There is an argument that the virus is too small and will still get through which has partial truth.

        But the “breath” that you can see in the video are droplets that can contain an extremely high load of virus.

        Masks (with N95 being the best) can help to slow the viral load being passed around and reduce the chances of whoever gets infected of having a rough sickness as the viral load will be smaller.

        I’m not looking to win an argument.

        I’m trying to get out of this pandemic and reduce the sicknesses and deaths that ARE happening all over the world.

        And at a high rate in the US.

        Vermont has been lucky because the spread stayed so slow because of the masks and the care taken by the citizens in 2020.

        In 2021 everyone was lied to and told the vaccines would stop the spread and masks weren’t needed.

        The vaccines have been a failure.

        Masks work to slow the spread.

        But they only work if everybody buys in.

        My mask protects you and yours protects me.

        Masks and keeping distance are the only tools Vermonters (and humanity) has to slow the spread that we have with this disease.

      • Tim T. You are functionally insane.

        Why do we need masks in a state with 95% vaxx rate? Also the majority of ‘deaths’ have been in nursing homes.

        Please just admit the vaccines are a failure.

        Folks. Let’s just put this grifter/shill on ignore. That’s what I’m doing from now on.

      • I’m insane?

        What was that rant you just went on?

        Contradictions left and right.

        Let the readers decide.

        Who do you think you are to be leading the “folks” around here?

        On what to think or do?

        I’m not looking to win an argument but I will.

      • Because I’m linking ACTUAL SCIENTIFIC STUDIES, and because they go against your false “beliefs”, you think you can rally the “folks” against me?

        You’re pathetic.

        Do I not have the right to share info I think is important to counter people like yours blanket statements?

        Who do you think you are?

      • Where in anything I have ever written have I said anything in support of vaccines?

        You continue to make a fool of yourself.

        How can anybody who reads this exchange honestly ever put any weight into anything further you may have to say.
        ————-

        “It’s better to keep your mouth closed and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.”

        -Unknown
        ————-

        To Alex A. Leader of the discussion board at “Vermont Daily Chronicle”

      • I don’t know what the holdup is moderator, but you can’t allow Alex A. to post:

        “Yawn. Go get a test and another booster. Leave the world to the real men,”

        Without allowing me my rebuttals.

        Alex A. has defamed me as a supporter of the vaccines, which I am not.

        I’m okay with the “I’d change names if I were you” disappearing.

        I meant as he’d lost his credibility, not as a threat.

        But I would really like to defend myself from his other paltry at the bar don’t have time to think about all you said response.

      • Where in anything I have ever written have I spoke support for the vaccines?

        You continue to show yourself a fool.

        With real men like you, who needs women?

      • But I realize the tough job a moderator has.

        I’ll try not to cross the line in the future.

        Well handled tonight.

        With me.

      • I would like to apologize to the real women I may have offended.

        You’re much more valuable than real men like Alex A.

      • Here’s who I am:

        Anti experimental now proven very unsafe very ineffective vaccine.

        Pro-mask and distance in regular everyday interaction.
        As much as absolutely possible.

        The virus is real.

        If I don’t get banned it is very high probability most likely a man-altered virus.

        That isn’t just going to disappear if we stick our head in the sand and plug our ears.

        Masks at least have SOME benefit if used correctly.

        The virus seems to be like HIV or Epstein Barr or Herpes int he way that it’s effects are LIFELONG.

        Long Covid is making millions of peoples lives miserable FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIVES.

        THIS IS SERIOUS.

        Push back from the bar (not that I’m against a drink, nor do I think it’s good) and wake up.

        Stop with the personal attacks.

        Let’s talk about REALITY.

      • I’ll defend my stand against all comers.

        But get ready to get your head out of the sand and defend your ears against blaring reality.

  8. I know of several people over 65 who are NOT VAXED. If you’ll lie about the little things, you’ll lie about the big things too! That’s the real scary part!
    Unvaxed are harassed enough as it is. I can’t imagine how they are being treated by their vaxed co-workers now that you have emboldened them to discriminate against and shame them. Great for the morale of an already taxed workforce.

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