Tag Archives: Long COVID

Did Chris Cuomo Contract VAIDS From COVID-19 Vaccine?!

Did Chris Cuomo contract VAIDS from the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine?! Take a look at the viral claim, and find out what the facts really are!

Claim : Chris Cuomo Contracted VAIDS From COVID-19 Vaccine!

People are sharing an article (archive) by The People’s Voice (formerly NewsPunch), which claimed or suggested that Chris Cuomo contracted VAIDS from the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine!

Here is an excerpt of the long and (intentionally?) confusing article. Feel free to skip to the next section for the facts!

Chris Cuomo Says He Now Has Full-Blown VAIDS Following COVID Shot

Former CNN host Chris Cuomo has revealed that he contracted Vaccine Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (VAIDS) as a direct result of taking the mRNA Covid jab.

Cuomo was once a high-profile advocate of the Big Pharma shots during the pandemic, and berated guests on his show for encouraging “vaccine hesitancy.”

Cuomo admitted that his immune system had been destroyed during in an interview with nurse-practitioner Sean Barcavage, on Cuomo’s show for NewsNation.

The sharp decrease in immunity following vaccination is caused by “altered cytokine responses”. Cytokines are small proteins that are produced by our immune system in response to infection. The more jabs a person receives, the more depleted the immune system becomes, resulting in VAIDS.

“We know that vaccines can have unintended consequences, a.k.a. side effects,” said Cuomo. “But nobody’s really talking about it because they’re too afraid of blame, and they just want it to go away.”

“But the problem is people like Sean and me and millions of others who still have weird stuff with their bloodwork and their lives and their feelings physically are not going away.”

Later in the interview, Cuomo told Barcavage, “I’m sick myself.”.

Barcavage was featured in a recent New York Times article on people who have been harmed by the COVID-19 vaccines. In the interview with Cuomo, he described how the negative effects of the COVID vaccine were almost immediately apparent to him.

“As soon as I was injured—15, 20 minutes into my first dose—I experienced numbness and tingling up and down my injected arm, which spread over the day to my face and my eyes,” he explained.

“I consulted a neurologist who ran some tests and remarked, ‘Well, this is all new. We don’t know much about it, but the hospital is going to mandate it. You should get a second dose.’ Everything in my medical mind and in my bones was telling me, ‘No, if you have a reaction to something, don’t do it again.’”
Despite knowing that the first dose had caused him harm, Barcavage felt he had to take a second.

“However, the pressure was immense. Then, three weeks later, I received a second dose, and after that, everything blew up. I went from being a healthy, 100% healthy, fully functioning nurse to a complete downward spiral of health. I developed a myriad of symptoms,” he added.

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Truth : Chris Cuomo Did Not Contract VAIDS From COVID-19 Vaccine!

This is yet another example of fake news created / promoted by The People’s Voice, and here are the reasons why…

Fact #1 : Vaccine AIDS Does Not Exist!

Let me start by pointing out that there is no medical disease called Vaccine AIDS or VAIDS – Vaccine-Induced Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. It appears to be a nonsense term made-up by anti-vaccination activists to scare people.

AIDS is caused by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). Nothing else causes AIDS. Certainly no vaccine, not even the COVID-19 vaccine, causes AIDS.

Robert Charles Gallo – one of the two scientists who independently discovered that the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) was responsible for AIDS, said in response to the 2021 claim by Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro that COVID-19 vaccines cause AIDS:

[I]t’s hard to believe anyone would claim that the covid-19 vaccine causes AIDS. We know what causes AIDS.

I don’t know what your president said. So I don’t want to be too critical. But it is obvious that neither the covid-19 vaccine nor any other vaccine causes AIDS.

Fact #2 : No One Mentioned VAIDS In The Video!

According to The People’s Voice article, Chris Cuomo revealed that “he contracted Vaccine Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (VAIDS) as a direct result of taking the mRNA Covid jab“???

That’s utter nonsense. Chris Cuomo and Sean Barcavage never mentioned vaccine AIDS or VAIDS in the video!

To be clear – Chris Cuomo never said that he contracted VAIDS from the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine. In the video, he only said that he has long COVID, which he blamed on the COVID-19 vaccine.

Fact #3 : Vaccines Protect Against Long COVID

While Chris Cuomo suggested that his long COVID could be due to the COVID-19 vaccines he received as he was never infected, that is not the case. After all, long COVID is broadly defined as signs, symptoms, and conditions that continue or develop after someone is infected with COVID-19.

Even though Chris Cuomo claimed that he was never infected with COVID-19, that’s impossible to know, as vaccinated people who get infected with COVID-19 are often asymptomatic or have mild symptoms, and may not be aware they were even infected.

More importantly, COVID-19 vaccines have been shown to be protective against long COVID. A large study of almost 1.2 million people in Hong Kong, that was published in February 2024, has shown that the more vaccine doses people receive, the less likely they are to experience long COVID.

Fact #4 : No Evidence mRNA Vaccines Cause Altered Cytokine Response

The People’s Voice article referred to another study which supposedly showed that a “sharp decrease in immunity following vaccination is caused by altered cytokine response“. That is not true either.

I actually wrote about that study, and what anti-vaccine activists have been writing about it in a separate article, Did Study Show COVID Vaccines Cause VAIDS In Children?!

Here’s the gist – the study also did not mention anything about VAIDS, and was only conducted on blood samples. The children participating in that study did not report any side effect or disease from their COVID-19 vaccinations.

Fact #5 : Vaccine Side Effects Were Acknowledged

Although Barcavage appears to suggest that the government did not acknowledge that there will be side effects or reactions to the COVID-19 vaccines, that’s not true.

The COVID-19 vaccines underwent large clinical trials, where the most common side effects were identified and announced. After mass deployment, rarer side effects like anaphylaxis, and myocarditis, were identified and publicly announced.

On top of that, both health authorities and vaccine manufacturers continued their surveillance of vaccine side effects through vaccine surveillance systems like VAERS and the British Yellow Card system.

Fact #6 : COVID-19 Vaccines Are Covered By CICP

Although Barcavage appears to suggest that there is no fund to handle COVID-19 vaccine side effects, that’s not exactly true either.

Serious side effects from COVID-19 vaccines are compensated through the Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP) in the United States.

Fact #7 : The People’s Voice Is Known For Fake News

The People’s Voice is the current name for NewsPunch, which possibly changed its name because its brand has been so thoroughly discredited after posting numerous shocking but fake stories.

Founded as Your News Wire in 2014, it was rebranded as NewsPunch in November 2018, before becoming The People’s Voice. A 2017 BuzzFeed report identified NewsPunch as the second-largest source of popular fake news on Facebook that year.

Its articles have been regularly debunked as fake news, so you should never share anything from NewsPunch / The People’s Voice. Here are some of its fake stories that I fact checked earlier:

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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

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Did study find Long COVID patients all received mRNA vaccine?!

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Did a new study find that Long COVID patients all received the mRNA vaccine for COVID-19?! Take a look at the viral claim, and find out what the facts really are!

Claim : Study Found Long COVID Patients All Received mRNA Vaccine!

People are sharing an article (archive) by The People’s Voice (formerly NewsPunch), which claimed or suggested that a new study found that Long COVID patients all received the mRNA vaccine for COVID-19!

Official Study Finds All Patients With Long COVID Had Received mRNA Vaccine

A new study has found that the majority of patients who experienced so-called ‘long COVID’ were actually suffering side-effects from the harmful vaccine.

“Despite the extensive distribution of vaccines and antiviral therapies, the prevalence of long COVID remains high,” the authors of the paper wrote.

Although definitions of long COVID differ, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) broadly defines long COVID as “signs, symptoms, and conditions that continue to develop after acute COVID-19 infection” that can last for “weeks, months, or years.” The term “long COVID” also includes post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection, long-haul COVID, and post-acute COVID-19.

Studies Link Long COVID to Vaccination

A February report published by the CDC found that more than 8 percent of participants in seven U.S. states reported having experienced long COVID symptoms. In West Virginia, almost 11 percent of survey participants reported long COVID symptoms. However, the agency did not disclose whether survey respondents were vaccinated.

Some research suggests long COVID may be caused by an immune overreaction to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein that COVID-19 vaccines use to induce antibodies and that vaccination causes some people to generate a second round of antibodies that target the first.

In a February 2023 study published in the Journal of Medical Virology, researchers analyzed the levels of spike protein and viral RNA in patients hospitalized for COVID-19 with and without long COVID. They found that spike protein and viral RNA were more likely to be present in patients with long COVID.

In an August 2023 study published in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases, researchers found the risk of long COVID was lower in those who had previous SARS-CoV-2 infection, and the risk of getting long COVID did not differ by vaccination status. Researchers found that unvaccinated people infected with omicron had the lowest risk of long COVID.

In a 2023 study in the European Review for Medical and Pharmacological Sciences, researchers studied the serum of 81 individuals with long COVID. They found viral spike protein in one patient after the infection had cleared despite having a negative COVID-19 test, and vaccine spike protein in two patients two months after vaccination.

In a December 2022 study published in PLoS One, researchers found patients were more likely to experience long COVID if they had preexisting medical conditions, a higher number of symptoms during the acute phase of COVID-19 illness, if their infection was more severe or resulted in hospitalization, or if they had received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine.

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Truth : Study Did Not Find Long COVID Patients All Received mRNA Vaccine!

This is yet another example of fake news created / promoted by The People’s Voice, and here are the reasons why…

Fact #1 : mRNA Vaccines Were Not Mentioned In Study

Let me start by pointing out that the study in question never even mentioned mRNA vaccines. In fact, the word “mRNA” does not appear in the paper at all!

You can read the paper in full, and look for yourself – Long-COVID Prevalence and Its Association with Health Outcomes in the Post-Vaccine and Antiviral-Availability Era by Ramida Jangnin et. al.

So why would anyone claim that this study showed that all patients with Long COVID received the mRNA vaccine???

Fact #2 : Thailand Used A Mix Of Vaccines

On top of that, Thailand uses a mix of COVID-19 vaccines – a majority of which were the Oxford-AstraZeneca, and CoronaVac vaccines, both of which are not mRNA vaccines.

So it is more likely that not that the majority of patients in that study did not receive the mRNA vaccine.

Fact #3 : It Was An Observational Study By Telephone

I should also point out that it was an observational study. Observational studies like this cannot prove causality. Perhaps that’s why the study authors themselves pointed out that further prospective research is needed to establish any causality.

However, given the observational nature of our study, further prospective research is needed to establish causal relationships, and longitudinal studies are advised to track the evolution of long-COVID symptoms over time.

To be clear – you cannot use observational studies like this as evidence of causality. This study does not show that COVID-19 vaccines cannot prevent Long COVID. Neither does it show that COVID-19 vaccines increase the risk of Long COVID.

You can read more about this in my earlier fact checking of The Epoch Health’s article on the same study.

Fact #4 : Study Did Not Look At Vaccine Effect On Long COVID

I should also point out that this Thai study was not actually designed to look at the effect of mRNA COVID-19 vaccination on Long COVID.

Not only did it not have a control group of unvaccinated people, almost all of its participants received both COVID-19 vaccinations and antiviral treatment!

In fact, the study did not mention whether anyone was unvaccinated. So it is highly likely that all its participants were at least either fully-vaccinated, or had antiviral treatment!

The cohort consisted of 390 participants… Among them, 96.7% (n = 377) were vaccinated, and 98.2% (n = 383) underwent antiviral treatment.

So how do we know if the Long COVID was caused by the COVID-19 infection itself, the COVID-19 vaccines, or the antiviral treatment? We don’t, because this observational study was never designed to elicit such information in the first place!

Fact #5 : Almost All Study Participants Were Vaccinated!

I should stress yet again, that almost all of the participants (94.8%) in this Thai study were fully vaccinated:

40.5% received two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, while
54.3% received two doses, and a booster dose.

This is important because such a study would inevitably show that people who were vaccinated can suffer from Long COVID. That doesn’t mean that the vaccines cause Long COVID.

If the same study was conducted on only male patients, it would show that only men had Long COVID. Would that mean that only men get Long COVID? Of course, not. That is only the perception that you may get if the study was conducted on only men.

Fact #6 : Studies Do Not Link Long COVID To Vaccines

The People’s Voice article included a list of studies it claimed or suggested show a link between Long COVID and mRNA (or other types of COVID-19) vaccines. That’s not accurate:

The February 2024 report by the CDC did not link Long COVID to vaccination. In fact, the CDC report pointed out that “information about COVID-19 vaccination … is not included in this report“.

The February 2023 study published in the Journal of Medical Virology only looked at levels of spike proteins and viral RNA in COVID-19 patients. It did not mention anything about vaccines, or link Long COVID to vaccination.

The August 2023 study published in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases only showed that that the risk of Long COVID was higher with the wild-type SARS-CoV-2, compared to the Alpha, Delta and Omicron variants. It did not show a link between COVID-19 vaccines and Long COVID.

The 2023 study in the European Review for Medical and Pharmacological Sciences only identified viral spike protein in one COVID-19 patient, and vaccine spike protein in two patients after COVID-19 vaccination, out of 81 Long COVID patients. It did not show a link between the Long COVID and vaccination.

The December 2022 study in PLoS One did not conclude that receiving COVID-19 vaccines was a predictor of long COVID, calling it “an observational paradox” and a “collider bias” due to their study only looking at patients who received hospital care. I wrote an extensive article on this earlier, after The Epoch Times (again?!) covered it as “a new study“.

Fact #7 : Studies Have Shown Vaccines Reduce Long COVID Risk

Many prior studies, involving millions of people – both vaccinated and unvaccinated, have concluded that COVID-19 vaccines reduce the risk of Long COVID.

A March 2024 study published in The Lancet, involving over 20 million people in the UK, Spain and Estonia, concluded that “vaccination against COVID-19 consistently reduced the risk of long COVID symptoms, which highlights the importance of vaccination to prevent persistent COVID-19 symptoms, particularly in adults“.

A February 2024 study published in Nature Communications, involving 1.1 million patients in Hong Kong, provided “real-world evidence supporting the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines in reducing the risk of long-term health consequences of SARS-CoV-2 infection and its persistence following infection“.

A March 2023 meta-analysis of 17 different studies on the effects of vaccines on Long COVID concluded that:

The evidence presented herein recommends SARS-CoV-2 vaccination for the prevention of long COVID in breakthrough cases. Furthermore, evidence does not support that SARS-CoV-2 vaccination exacerbates long COVID symptoms. Thus, most patients with long COVID should be vaccinated for SARS-CoV-2.

As you can see – much larger studies have already shown that COVID-19 vaccines not only do not increase the risk of Long COVID, getting vaccinated will actually reduce your risk of getting Long COVID should you get infected.

Hence, it is no surprise that the US CDC has pointed out that “Vaccination offers protection against the prolonged effects of #COVID19“.

Fact #8 : The People’s Voice Is Known For Fake News

The People’s Voice is the current name for NewsPunch, which possibly changed its name because its brand has been so thoroughly discredited after posting numerous shocking but fake stories.

Please help us FIGHT FAKE NEWS by sharing this fact check article out, and please SUPPORT our work!

Please Support My Work!

Support my work through a bank transfer / PayPal / credit card!

Name : Adrian Wong
Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
Credit Card / Paypal : https://paypal.me/techarp

Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

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Were Majority Of Long COVID Patients Vaccinated?!

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Did a new study just show that majority of Long COVID patients were vaccinated?! Take a look at the viral claim, and find out what the facts really are!

Claim : Majority Of Long COVID Patients Were Vaccinated!

People are sharing an Epoch Times article, which claims that a study just found that majority of Long COVID patients were vaccinated!

Here is an excerpt from the Epoch Times article, which people are using to suggest or imply that the COVID-19 vaccines are either useless, or increase the risk of developing Long COVID.

Study Finds Majority of Patients With Long COVID Were Vaccinated

Mass vaccination and available antiviral treatments have not prevented vaccinated individuals from experiencing lingering COVID-19 symptoms.

A recent study found that the majority of patients who suffered from long COVID during a time when vaccines and antiviral treatments were widely available were vaccinated.

The observational study published in the Journal of Clinical Medicine, researchers interviewed 390 people in Thailand who contracted COVID-19 during the “fifth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic” when the omicron variant was dominant. Patients were followed by phone from three months after their diagnosis for a year to monitor their physical condition, mental health, sleep disturbances, and quality of life.

Out of 390 people with COVID-19, 377 (97 percent) were vaccinated, 383 (98 percent) underwent antiviral treatment, and 330 (78 percent) developed long COVID syndrome. The most frequently reported symptoms were fatigue and cough. Other reported symptoms included depression, anxiety, and poor sleep quality. The study found that patients under age 60 with a cough as an initial symptom were more likely to develop the condition. In a subset of patients with long COVID, researchers found a notable correlation in females with headaches, dizziness, and brain fog.

Studies Link Long COVID to Vaccination

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Truth : Vaccines Reduce Risk Of Long COVID!

Let’s take a look at the claims made in the Epoch Times article, and find out what the facts really are!

Fact #1 : It Was An Observational Study By Telephone

Let me start by pointing out that the study in question was an observational study that was conducted by telephone. You can read the paper in full – Long-COVID Prevalence and Its Association with Health Outcomes in the Post-Vaccine and Antiviral-Availability Era by Ramida Jangnin et. al.

This is important because it appears that the 390 patients were not clinically diagnosed with Long COVID. Rather, they were diagnosed with COVID-19, and the researchers interviewed them by “telephone every three months for a period of one year“.

In short – the reliability of the Long COVID diagnosis is highly dependent on what the patients reported, or are willing to tell the researchers. In addition, the list of physical and mental symptoms the researchers looked at are not exclusive to Long COVID, and may be manifestations of pre-existing or unrelated ailments:

physical : fatigue, cough, sore throat, rhinorrhea (runny nose)
mental : attention deficit, sleep disturbance, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder

Observational studies like this cannot prove causality. Perhaps that’s why the study authors themselves pointed out that further prospective research is needed to establish any causality.

Fact #2 : Study Did Not Look At Vaccine Effect On Long COVID

I should also point out that this Thai study was not actually designed to look at the effect of COVID-19 vaccination alone on Long COVID.

Not only did it not have a control group of unvaccinated people, almost all of its participants received both COVID-19 vaccinations and antiviral treatment!

In fact, the study did not mention whether anyone was unvaccinated. So it is highly likely that all its participants were at least either fully-vaccinated, or had antiviral treatment!

The cohort consisted of 390 participants… Among them, 96.7% (n = 377) were vaccinated, and 98.2% (n = 383) underwent antiviral treatment.

Fact #3 : Almost All Study Participants Were Vaccinated!

I should stress yet again, that almost all of the participants (94.8%) in this Thai study were fully vaccinated:

40.5% received two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, while
54.3% received two doses, and a booster dose.

This is important because such a study would inevitably show that people who were vaccinated can suffer from Long COVID. That doesn’t mean that the vaccines cause Long COVID.

Fact #4 : Studies Do Not Link Long COVID To Vaccines

The Epoch Times article included a list of studies it claimed or suggested show a link between Long COVID and vaccination. That’s not accurate:

The February 2024 report by the CDC did not link Long COVID to vaccination. In fact, the CDC report pointed out that “information about COVID-19 vaccination … is not included in this report“.

Fact #5 : Studies Have Shown Vaccines Reduce Long COVID Risk

Many prior studies, involving millions of people – both vaccinated and unvaccinated, have concluded that COVID-19 vaccines reduce the risk of Long COVID.

A March 2023 meta-analysis of 17 different studies on the effects of vaccines on Long COVID concluded that:

Hence, it is no surprise that the US CDC has pointed out that “Vaccination offers protection against the prolonged effects of #COVID19“.

Fact #6 : The Epoch Times Is Known For Misinformation

The Epoch Times, a media company associated with the Falun Gong religious movement, is known for promoting conspiracy theories and misinformation. Here are some Epoch Times articles that I have fact checked in the past:

I would highly recommend that you do not believe, or share, any articles published or promoted by The Epoch Times, without first verifying their accuracy and the facts.

Please help us FIGHT FAKE NEWS by sharing this fact check article out, and please SUPPORT our work!

Don’t forget to protect yourself, and your family, by vaccinating against COVID-19!

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Support my work through a bank transfer / PayPal / credit card!

Name : Adrian Wong
Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

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Did New Study Show Vaccines Causes Long COVID?!

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Did a new study just show that COVID-19 vaccines dramatically increase the risk of getting long COVID?!

Take a look at the viral claim, and find out what the facts really are!

Claim : Vaccines Greatly Increase Risk Of Long COVID!

People are sharing a video by The Epoch Times which claims or suggests that a new study just showed that COVID-19 vaccines dramatically increase the risk of getting long COVID!

The Epoch Times : COVID vaccines linked to “Long Covid”.

According to a new study just published on the NIH website: being vaccinated with 2 shots of the Covid vaccine dramatically increases a person’s chance of getting Long Covid.

Epoch TV : According to the CDC, Long Covid arises in people following a Covid-19 infection. And they claim that g getting vaccinated is a good method of preventing Long Covid. However, according to a new study just published on the NIH website: being vaccinated with 2 shots of the Covid vaccine, actually dramatically increases a person’s chance of getting Long Covid.

The Vigilant Fox : Here’s something you won’t hear from the TV.

The CDC told you that the COVID-19 “vaccine” would reduce the risk of so-called long COVID, but a study has found the exact opposite to be true.

When you crunch all the numbers, the study showed that a person who received two doses of the COVID-19 “vaccine” prior to actually getting infected with COVID was 2.32 times more likely to develop long COVID than an unvaccinated individual.

Is anyone surprised?

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Truth : Vaccines Do Not Increase Risk Of Long COVID!

This is yet another example of FAKE NEWS created or promoted by anti-vaccine activists, and here are the reasons why…

Fact #1 : Arjun et. al. Study Was Published In 2022

Let me start by pointing out that the M. C. Arjun et. al. study mentioned in the Epoch Times videos is not new, as alleged.

The Arjun et. al. study is actually more than a year old, being published in PLOS ONE on 20 December 2022. You can read it in full here, and verify the date of publication.

Why would The Epoch Times dig up this study from 2022, when several newer studies showed that COVID-19 vaccines significantly reduced the risk of developing long COVID?

Fact #2 : Study Did Not Conclude Vaccines Increase Long COVID Risk

While the Arjun et. al. study results show that receiving two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine was a predictor of long COVID, the authors did not reach the conclusion, calling it “an observational paradox” that might be explained by vaccination patients more likely to survive COVID-19 infections.

This collider bias, they pointed out, was to be expected since their sample only included patients with access to hospital care. In fact, their study showed that patients who received hospital care were associated with a higher risk of developing long COVID symptoms!

An observational paradox in our study was that the participants who took two doses of COVID-19 vaccination had higher odds of developing Long COVID. It could be due to better survival in vaccinated individuals who may continue to exhibit symptoms of COVID-19 disease.

We could not find any interaction effect of COVID-19 vaccination and acute COVID-19 severity on causing Long COVID.

This association might have also arisen due to Collider bias [40]. The Collider bias might have operated in this case since the sample included only COVID-19 positive tested patients who accessed the hospital (healthcare workers included) making the sample inherently biased to derive such conclusions.

They also pointed out that other studies have shown that COVID-19 vaccination reduced long COVID risks. So why would anyone use their paper to draw a completely different conclusion?

Fact #3 : Other Factors Were Far More Significant

If you read the Arjun et. al. study, you will notice (see results) that it actually found that other factors were more strongly associated with a higher risk of developing long COVID:

suffering from 1 to 4 symptoms of COVID-19
suffering from 5 or more symptoms of COVID-19
developing severe or critical COVID-19
being admitted to a hospital

In other words – you are more likely to get long COVID, if you experience moderate or severe COVID-19. Which means the benefits of vaccination still outweighs the risks.

Fact #4 : Newer Studies Show Vaccines Greatly Reduce Long COVID Risk

Curiously, this sudden interest in the old the Arjun et. al. study came just after Scientific American posted its article on how several new studies show how getting multiple COVID-19 vaccine doses “dramatically lowers long COVID risk“.

A growing consensus is emerging that receiving multiple doses of the COVID vaccine before an initial infection can dramatically reduce the risk of long-term symptoms. Although the studies disagree on the exact amount of protection, they show a clear trend: the more shots in your arm before your first bout with COVID, the less likely you are to get long COVID.

One meta-analysis of 24 studies published in October, for example, found that people who’d had three doses of the COVID vaccine were 68.7 percent less likely to develop long COVID compared with those who were unvaccinated.

It is also a welcome departure from earlier studies, which suggested that vaccines provided only a modest defense against long COVID. In 2022 Marra’s team published a meta-analysis of six studies that found that a single dose of the COVID vaccine reduced the likelihood of long COVID by 30 percent. Now, that protection appears to be much greater.

A study published in November in the BMJ found that a single COVID vaccine dose reduced the risk of long COVID by 21 percent, two doses reduced it by 59 percent and three or more doses reduced it by 73 percent. Vaccine effectiveness clearly climbed with each successive dose.

That lines up with the findings of several new studies, which similarly show this ladderlike benefit. Marra’s October 2023 meta-analysis found that two doses reduced long COVID likelihood by 36.9 percent and three doses reduced it by 68.7 percent. And in a study published last year in the Journal of the American Medical Association, other researchers found that the prevalence of long COVID in health care workers dropped from 41.8 percent in unvaccinated participants to 30 percent in those with a single dose, 17.4 percent with two doses and 16 percent with three doses.

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In short – newer studies show that COVID-19 vaccines not only protect against long COVID, the protection increases with each additional dose!

Therefore, if you are worried about long COVID, you should definitely be up-to-date on your COVID-19 vaccinations!

Fact #5 : Long COVID More Common In Unvaccinated People

According to Scientific American, the prevalence of long COVID is significantly greater in unvaccinated people, compared to people who had two or more doses of the COVID-19 vaccines.

Unvaccinated : 11%
Fully-vaccinated : 5%

Again, it clearly shows that COVID-19 vaccines have a significant protective effect against long COVID.

Please help us FIGHT FAKE NEWS by sharing this fact check article out, and please SUPPORT our work!

Don’t forget to protect yourself, and your family, by vaccinating against COVID-19!

Please Support My Work!

Support my work through a bank transfer / PayPal / credit card!

Name : Adrian Wong
Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
Credit Card / Paypal : https://paypal.me/techarp

Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

Recommended Reading

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Do COVID-19 Vaccines Increase Risk Of Long COVID?!

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Do COVID-19 vaccines really increase the risk of long COVID symptoms?!

Take a look at the viral claim, and find out what the facts really are!

Claim : COVID-19 Vaccines Increase Risk Of Long COVID!

The Children’s Health Defense (CHD) activist group, which is chaired by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., just posted an article suggesting that a study has shown that people who received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine may be more likely to get long COVID symptoms than people who received one or no dose at all.

Here is an excerpt from the CHD article (archive). Please feel free to skip to the next section for the facts!

Two Doses of COVID Vaccine May Increase Risk of Long COVID Symptoms

People who received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine may be more likely to get long COVID symptoms compared with those who received one or no dose, a peer-reviewed study showed.

The study authors — who published their report on Dec. 20, 2022, in PLoS One — looked at what factors predicted whether or not 487 adults who had a COVID-19 infection later developed long COVID symptoms.

They also looked at what symptoms those with long COVID reported experiencing.

The authors found five statistically significant predictors of developing long COVID: pre-existing medical conditions, having a higher number of symptoms during the acute phase of COVID-19, two doses of COVID-19 vaccination, the severity of illness, and admission to a hospital.

In other words, these five factors were “independently associated” with a heightened risk of long COVID, Dr. Peter McCullough noted in a Substack post about the study.

Long COVID symptoms experienced by the study participants included fatigue, cough, difficulty breathing, chest pain, loss of taste or smell, brain fog, heart palpitations and anxiety.

When it came to discussing the link between two doses of COVID-19 vaccination and the development of long COVID symptoms, the study authors called it an “observational paradox” and cited research that contradicted what their data showed.

Dr. Pierre Kory told The Defender he wasn’t surprised the researchers found a link between two vaccine doses and long COVID — and he also wasn’t surprised the authors downplayed the finding.

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Truth : COVID-19 Vaccines Do Not Increase Risk Of Long COVID!

Let’s take a closer look at the various claims in the article, and find out what the facts really are!

Fact #1 : Arjun et. al. Study Was Published In 2022

Let me start by pointing out that the Arjun et. al. study mentioned in the CHD article is more than a year old, being published in PLOS ONE in December 2022. You can read it in full here.

Why would the Children’s Health Defense dig up this study from 2022, when several newer studies showed that COVID-19 vaccines significantly reduced the risk of long COVID?

Fact #2 : Study Did Not Conclude Vaccines Increase Long COVID Risk

We could not find any interaction effect of COVID-19 vaccination and acute COVID-19 severity on causing Long COVID.

They also pointed out that other studies have shown that COVID-19 vaccination reduced long COVID risks. So why would anyone use their paper to draw a completely different conclusion?

Fact #3 : Other Factors Were Far More Significant

If you read the Arjun et. al. study, you will notice (see results) that it actually found that other factors were more strongly associated with a higher risk of long COVID symptoms:

suffering from 1 to 4 symptoms of COVID-19
suffering from 5 or more symptoms of COVID-19
developing severe or critical COVID-19
being admitted to a hospital

In other words – you are more likely to get long COVID, if you experience moderate or severe COVID-19. Which means the benefits of vaccination still outweighs the risks.

Fact #4 : Newer Studies Show Vaccines Greatly Reduce Long COVID Risk

Interestingly, this CHD article came just after Scientific American posted its article on how several new studies show how getting multiple COVID-19 vaccine doses “dramatically lowers long COVID risk“.

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In short – newer studies show that COVID-19 vaccines not only protect against long COVID, the protection increases with each additional dose!

Therefore, if you are worried about long COVID, you should definitely be up-to-date on your COVID-19 vaccinations!

Fact #5 : Long COVID More Common In Unvaccinated People

According to Scientific American, the prevalence of long COVID is significantly greater in unvaccinated people, compared to people who had two or more doses of the COVID-19 vaccines.

Unvaccinated : 11%
Fully-vaccinated : 5%

Again, it clearly shows that COVID-19 vaccines have a significant protective effect against long COVID.

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Don’t forget to protect yourself, and your family, by vaccinating against COVID-19!

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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

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Did fully-vaxxed George Monbiot get Covid 23 times?!

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Did Guardian columnist George Monbiot get COVID-19 for the 23rd time, despite being fully-vaccinated, with dozens of booster doses?!

Take a look at the viral claims, and find out what the facts really are!

Claim : Fully-Vaxxed George Monbiot Got COVID For 23rd Time!

Anti-vaccination activists are gleefully sharing a screenshot of an article from The Guardian as evidence that the COVID-19 vaccines are useless.

The screenshot purportedly shows columnist George Monbiot complain about getting infected with COVID-19 for the 23rd time, despite being fully-vaccinated and receiving dozens of booster doses.

George Monbiot : I’ve caught Covid for the 23rd time despite having had dozens of boosters (I’ve lost count). Thank heavens for the vaccine.

Literally billions of kids are dying from long Covid every day, but evil anti-vaxxers – e.g. the hated Bridgen – don’t care.

Truth : George Monbiot Did Not Get COVID-19 For 23rd Time!

This is yet another example of FAKE NEWS shared and propagated by anti-vaccination activists on social media, and here are the reasons why…

Fact #1 : The Viral Screenshot Is Fake

First, let me just point out right away that the viral screenshot is fake. There is no such article in The Guardian. Neither did George Monbiot publish any article in The Guardian on 11 May 2023.

This is easily proven by checking George Monbiot’s article listing in The Guardian. He posted on England’s dying rivers on 3 May, and then the draconian new police powers on 12 May, with nothing in between.

But it looks like people who shared it did not even bother to look for the article; if not to verify, then to look for other juicy quotes to use… Too much work, I guess.

Fact #2 : Only 2 Booster Doses Were Approved In UK

In the United Kingdom, people are currently only allowed to receive up to two booster doses. Even then, the second booster dose was limited to front line health and social care workers, older people, or people who are immunocompromised.

For certain, no one would be able to received “dozens of boosters” as the fake screenshot claimed. As the first booster dose was approved in September 2021, Monbiot would have to take one booster dose every 3-4 weeks for that to be remotely true.

Fact #3 : There Are Only 2.2 Billion Children In The World

As of end 2022, there are roughly 2.2 billion children in the world. Obviously, it is impossible for billions of children to die from long Covid every day.

If even just one billion children die from long Covid every day, all the children in the world would be dead in two days.

Fact #4 : It Was Parody By Sir Lefty Farr-Wright

I traced the origin of this viral screenshot to a parody account on Twitter, called Sir Lefty Farr-Wright, Hard-Right Parody Account (@GiveUsAQuid).

The Twitter account name left no doubt that the post was a parody, a joke. But it looks like either people who shared it are blind, or intentionally copied and posted it on their own accounts to mislead people.

Fact #5 : Right Said Fred Made It Go Viral

While Sir Lefty Farr-Wright has quite a following, with almost 20K followers, that George Monbiot screenshot was only shared like 50 times.

It appears that the fake screenshot only went viral after one-hit-wonder band from the 90s, Right Said Fred, posted it on their Twitter account the same day. After that, George Monbiot got bombarded with abuse by their followers.

After Right Said Fred realised that they were taken for a ride / trolled, they deleted the tweet, claiming that it was “clearly a joke”.

Actually it’s clearly a joke and my tweet reflected that, other people thought it was real so I deleted it. There, fixed it for you.

However, a screenshot taken by George Monbiot showed that they believed it was genuine. When someone pointed out that it was a parody, they responded, “Are you sure? The link is to his blog.”

Fact #6 : Andrew Bridgen Was Expelled For Anti-Vax Comments

In case you are wondering about “the hated Bridgen” part, it is a reference to Andrew Bridgen, the Member of Parliament for North West Leicestershire.

Andrew Bridgen is a vocal critic of the COVID-19 vaccines, and was expelled from the Conservative Party on 12 April 2023, after he compared the vaccines to the Holocaust.

Please help us FIGHT FAKE NEWS by sharing this fact check article out, and please support our work!

And please protect yourself, and your family, by vaccinating against COVID-19!

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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

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Did Bob Saget Die From COVID-19 Vaccine Booster Dose?

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Did beloved actor and comic Bob Saget die from his COVID-19 vaccine booster dose?

Take a look at the viral claims, and find out what the facts really are!

Updated @ 2022-07-17 : Added details of his death incident report.
Updated @ 2022-03-25 : Added details of his Long COVID symptoms.
Updated @ 2022-02-12 : Added more details of Bob Saget’s autopsy report.
Updated @ 2022-02-11 : Added Bob Saget’s autopsy report
Originally posted @ 2022-01-11

Claim : Bob Saget Died From COVID-19 Vaccine Booster Dose!

Antivaxxers are claiming that beloved actor and comic Bob Saget died from his COVID-19 vaccine booster dose!

Bob Saget died from vaccine complications in his hotel room, on the first night of his fully vaccinated comedy tour.

He just received his COVID booster a few weeks ago.

Another victim of the jab.

To make those claims more credible, they often include a link to an article about Bob Saget’s death.

Truth : Bob Saget Did NOT Die From COVID-19 Vaccine Booster Dose!

This is yet another example of FAKE NEWS created by antivaxxers to scare people from protecting themselves with the COVID-19 vaccines.

The truth is – like Betty White, Bob Saget did NOT die from the COVID-19 booster dose, and here are the reasons why…

Fact #1 : No Evidence Bob Saget Died From COVID-19 Vaccine

While antivaxxers are claiming that Bob Saget died from the COVID-19 vaccine, they offer absolutely NO EVIDENCE for their claim.

The articles they shared as “evidence” do not mention that Saget died from the COVID-19 vaccine, only that he was found dead in his Orlando hotel room on 9 January 2022.

They only added those article links to mislead you into thinking that they are evidence that he died from the COVID-19 vaccine.

After all, most people don’t bother to click on the links to actually read the articles. That’s the same reason some people believe that Betty White died from the COVID-19 booster dose…

Fact #2 : Bob Saget Was Infected With COVID-19

Bob Saget was once infected with COVID-19, and he spoke about how bad it was on a podcast – A Corporate Time with Tom & Dan, just 4 days before his death.

It is not good, it does not feel good. I don’t know if I had Delta or … I might have had a combo.

Maybe at one point they [Delta and Omicron] were working together.

It should be noted that Saget only spoke about the pain of his COVID-19 infection, and never complained about vaccine side effects.

In fact, he joked about the vaccine and called for people to get vaccinated:

I get vaccinated five to six times a day and I feel great!!

Please people, I don’t wanna preach, but please get your visine today. Sorry, auto-correct— I meant vaccine… Help save eyes…Sorry, damn this auto-correct! I meant save lives.

According to his autopsy report, Saget was COVID-19 positive at the time of his death. However, that may not mean he had an active infection, as a PCR test can detect COVID-19 weeks after an infection.

Fact #3 : Bob Saget Had His Booster Dose A Month Earlier

Bob Saget was fully-vaccinated against COVID-19, and mentioned in his December 13, 2021 podcast, that he got his booster dose a day or two earlier :

I try not to preach you know about — I got my booster shot, I’m 65, so I got it yesterday — day before — and I was hurting… I’ve been telling people I got it in my ass.

If he suffered any adverse effects from the booster dose, they not only would have happened earlier, they would have prevented him from going on a tour.

Yet, Saget not only kicked off his standup comedy tour, he also went on the podcast with Tom & Dan just 4 days before his death.

Loving beyond words being on tour —And doing an all new show of standup and music. Hope to see you out there. More dates being added continually as we go further into 2022… For tickets, go to: https://t.co/nqJyTi0Dbk pic.twitter.com/ECSOpGt1K0

— bob saget (@bobsaget) December 9, 2021

Saget also tweeted about how great he felt, right after his Jacksonville show and just hours before his death…

Loved tonight’s show @PV_ConcertHall in Jacksonville. Appreciative audience. Thanks again to @RealTimWilkins for opening. I had no idea I did a 2 hr set tonight. I’m happily addicted again to this shit. Check https://t.co/nqJyTiiezU for my dates in 2022. pic.twitter.com/pEgFuXxLd3

— bob saget (@bobsaget) January 9, 2022

Fact #4 : Bob Saget Died From Blunt Head Trauma

All deaths in Orange County (where Orlando is located) are investigated by the homicide unit, and so, an autopsy was performed on his body.

Bob Saget’s official cause of death has been revealed by his family and the Orange County government on 10 February 2022.

His family issued a statement announcing that (with my emphasis in bold) :

The authorities have determined that Bob passed from head trauma. They have concluded that he accidentally hit the back of his head on something, thought nothing of it and went to sleep. No drugs or alcohol were involved.

As we continue to mourn together, we ask everyone to remember the love and laughter that Bob brought to this world, and the lessons he taught us all: to be kind to everyone, to let the people you love know you love them, and to face difficult times with hugs and laughter.

Joshua Stephany MD, the Chief Medical Examiner for the Orange and Osceola Counties issued this statement (my emphasis in bold) :

An autopsy was performed on Robert Lane Saget, a 65-year-old male. Mr. Saget was found unresponsive in his hotel room, on January 10, 2022. All testing and further studies have now been completed.

In consideration of the circumstances surrounding the death and after examination of the body, toxicology analysis, histology, and a respiratory pathogen panel, it is my opinion that the death of Mr. Saget, was the result of blunt head trauma. His injuries were most likely incurred from an unwitnessed fall. A toxicology analysis did not reveal any illicit drugs or toxins. The manner of death is accident.

Our condolences go out to Mr. Saget’s loved ones during this difficult time.

The autopsy report also revealed other details of the injury, and Bob Saget’s health at the time of death :

there was an abrasion on his scalp
there was a fracture at the base of his skull
there were fractures around his eye sockets
there was bleeding in the space between his brain and skull
there were bruises to his brain
he had Clonazepam (a tranquilliser taken for seizure and anxiety) as well as Trazodone (an anti-depressant) in his system
he had an enlarged heart, which was 95% blocked on one side, and
he tested positive for COVID-19, but there was no inflammation in his respiratory system

Joshua Stephany MD

On March 15, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office in Orlando released an incident report, which stated that :

There were fractures around Bob Saget’s eye sockets, and bleeding around this brain.
The injury was caused by Bob Saget hitting “something hard, covered by something soft”, such as a carpeted floor.
The impact causing those fractures “would have stunned Mr. Saget”, and he would have experienced dizziness.
If there was people present, they would have noticed his “confusion, [lack of] balance and/or slurred speech”.
There were also no signs of blood on the hotel bed’s sheets or bedspread.
The countertops, tables and nightstands were ruled out, but the floor and bed headboard were lightly padded and are thus the “possible mechanisms of injury”.

A toxicology report showed that Bob Saget did not have any illicit drugs or toxins in his body when he died.

Fact #5 : He May Have Been Suffering From Long COVID

On 24 March 2022, it was revealed that Rosalie Cocci – the lead producer of Saget’s show at the Ponte Vedra Concert Hall – told Orange County police that Saget was having a hard time recovering from Long COVID-19.

I did hear him say, ‘I don’t feel good but I’m ready to do the show. This is what I do this for.’ He kinda seemed like he was talking himself up.

He stated himself that… it was taking his body a long time to get over [COVID]. He said that his hearing had been off and that was the case that night. He was asking the sound guys to turn everything up.

He said he had been sick the night before, he said he had a sore throat, that he was happy he had lozenges for the stage.

Despite that, Cocci told the police that Saget “seemed okay” and he was able to complete his set without any issues :

He wasn’t sweating, he didn’t miss a beat, nothing slurred. He seemed okay. He really did and it was very surprising the next day… He came out very energetic, and in the half-an-hour, I saw him, he was very much entertaining the crowd.

Bob Saget Won’t Be Last Celebrity To Be Abused By Antivaxxers

Now that Bob Saget’s autopsy report has been finalised and confirmed, there can be no doubt that he died from a blunt head trauma, not his COVID-19 vaccine booster dose.

He died after hitting the back of his head in an unwitnessed fall – the blunt head trauma causing significant brain bleeding that he may not have been aware of.

Sadly, his death has been further abused by antivaxxers to drive the fear of COVID-19 vaccines. He now joins Betty White as yet another celebrity whose death was falsely and maliciously attributed to the booster dose.

Will these antivaxxers apologise? Correct themselves? Nope. They will just move on to the next celebrity death.

Please SHARE this fact check with your family and friends, and help us FIGHT FAKE NEWS!

And please protect yourself and your family by vaccinating against COVID-19!

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Support my work through a bank transfer / PayPal / credit card!

Name : Adrian Wong
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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

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