Last month the U.S. CDC and FDA released a joint statement stating that they had identified a statistical signal of increased strokes after vaccination with Pfizer’s bivalent Covid booster vaccine in those aged 65 and over. This sounds worrying, but the FDA and CDC were quick to reassure the population that they were only being open and transparent in releasing this information, and that they were sure that in reality the vaccines were very very safe and highly effective (and so everyone older than six months of age should get their dose whenever they’re told to by their benevolent Government).
However, I was a bit puzzled by their joint statement – while it was eager with its reassurances, it didn’t actually include any data to support this reassurance. All we were told is that in the three weeks after vaccination there was a higher risk of stroke compared with the four to six week period after vaccination in those aged 65 or older. But there was no quantitative data on this relative risk, no information at all on the risk after this six week period and no statement on whether they’d actually even investigated stroke risk in other age groups.
Given this lack of data I thought I’d head over to the data on NHS hospital consultant activity to see whether that would offer some insight into the incidence of stroke in the U.K. over the last few years.
Hmm. The workload of stroke specialists appears to have suddenly increased in the U.K. by a very large factor just at the point where the vaccines were being rolled out in large numbers. As I recall the Government was very pleased with the speed at which it managed to vaccinate such large numbers of people over such a short period of time, so if there were a significant increased risk of stroke then an extremely rapid rise in stroke incidence would be exactly what you’d expect. Of course, this might just be coincidence, despite this strong temporal association with the vaccines…
In many respects this type of statistical signal is the same as the increase in excess deaths that we’ve seen in the U.K. and many other countries since the vaccines were rolled out – there is that temporal association with the vaccines but there’s little actual scientific evidence that it is due to the vaccines (although that lack of evidence might just be due to a strange reluctance on the part of our authorities to investigate this phenomenon). Various alternative explanations have been rolled out for the excess deaths such as their being due to lockdowns (including lack of NHS care) or due to Covid itself (or eggs, climate change, stress about Ukraine etc.). Strangely though, the one thing that is never said is that it would be fairly easy to exclude the vaccines as being the cause of the excess deaths – simply undertake a retrospective matched cohort study into the number of excess deaths by vaccination status. Given the extraordinarily high excess deaths we’ve been seeing, the lack of such a study is weird.
And the same applies to this statistical signal in increased strokes in the U.K. in the period since the Covid vaccinations started to be given. Surely our Government would love to identify all and any increased risks that our population is under – surely?
I note in particular that there appears to be a somewhat higher rate of consultant activity in the second half of 2020 – perhaps the higher incidence rates aren’t anything to do with the vaccines after all? On the other hand, it might simply be that during autumn 2020, when the NHS started to dial down its hysterical Covid response, the specialists in stroke medicine were starting to treat cases where the initial stroke had occurred during the NHS shutdown earlier in the year. This could explain the higher consultation rates in the second half of 2020. However, it won’t be the case that this same mechanism would persist over longer timescale – strokes aren’t like some other conditions where consultants might see individuals at higher risk or where there is a long waiting list to get treatment. Rather, people typically see a consultant specialising in strokes at their bedside immediately after a stroke and typically the sooner they’re seen the better. There certainly won’t be many people, if any, waiting a over a year for their consultation.
The other interesting aspect of the increase in the NHS consultant activity data is that the increased activity doesn’t seem to be reducing. I note that the CDC/FDA announcement on strokes only found an increased risk in the three weeks after vaccination compared with the following three weeks, so maybe these persistently high stroke incidence data indicate that it isn’t associated with the vaccines. Or, alternatively, the vaccines might induce a sustained increased risk, in which case we would be seeing a new normal of increased stroke risk after vaccination. If this were the case the CDC and FDA should change their methods to look at risks far beyond their six week post vaccination period. Indeed, it is a bit odd that they limit their time period in this way. Didn’t they want to find any evidence of longer term increased stroke risk? Surely the population of the USA would be very keen to have this information. One other note on the consistently high stroke activity in NHS hospitals is that we don’t know how close to capacity they are. Is the seemingly consistently high activity simply reflecting this speciality working at 100%, with some spikes in the data by for each Covid wave or vaccination drive being masked by the inability of the speciality to respond appropriately?
The NHS hospital episodes data appear to have offered an early indication that there might be a problem – after all, even in spring 2021 the number of strokes appears to have been substantially higher than in the pre-Covid period. Can we use other NHS data to explore this risk further? In this and subsequent posts I’ll also be making use of three other datasets that the NHS issues on how drugs are being used in the U.K.:
- Prescriptions written by GPs are collated in the Practice Level Prescribing Data Series – this data series is difficult to use, but fortunately an independent body, Openprescribing, has made these data available in a more user-friendly format. Note that all the datasets have been complicated by Covid – for the GP dataset it is mainly that GP services were significantly curtailed in 2020 and they remain somewhat less accessible compared with the pre-Covid period.
- The issuance of drugs by hospitals is available in the Secondary Care Medicines Dataset. Note that the NHS doesn’t make this an easy dataset to use – it is almost as if it is required to publish the data, but doesn’t really want anyone actually using it. The hospitals prescription dataset is complicated by the fact that hospitals nearly closed down to non-Covid patients in early 2020, and nearly all medicines show a significant decline in hospital use over this period, with many taking some time to recover to the pre-2020 trend.
- Regular hospital prescriptions can only be dispensed in a hospital pharmacy, so there is a separate database for prescriptions written in a hospital setting but intended to be dispensed by a normal pharmacist. Again, this dataset isn’t particularly easy to work with. In my posts on this topic I’ll often describe these particular data as ‘emergency prescriptions’ but note that this category of prescription is broader than merely those prescriptions issued in accident and emergency departments for dispensing in a regular pharmacy. The problem with the data for hospital prescriptions written for dispensing in the community is that over the Covid period people had little choice but to attend A&E for minor problems because it had become relatively difficult to see a GP.
The obvious first drug to investigate is alteplase, a clot-busting drug used in the hours after a stroke to get rid of the clots that are causing the problem. However, there is no strong statistical signal for alteplase – unfortunately, this drug has been in short supply for some time due to unusually high global demand. Strangely, the other emergency clot-busting drug, tenecteplase, is also in short supply for the same reason. There appears to be no explanation given for this global increase in demand.
In normal times, without global shortages, clot-busting drugs are only used for a minority of stroke patients – not only do they need to be used very soon after the stroke occurred, but also they can make things much worse if applied in the wrong types of stroke and it takes time to gather this evidence. On average only about 10% of strokes are treated using these drugs. For most strokes that involve clots the clot-busters can’t be used and thus rapid-acting anti-coagulants become the drug of choice, used in high doses under close medical supervision in a hospital setting. The hospital drug use data do show an increased use of these anti-clotting drugs, such as apixaban.
What’s particularly interesting in the graph above is the short spike in issuance of apixaban around the turn of 2019-2020 – is this a sign of Covid itself being clot-promoting, with something since the start of 2021 increasing this problem? Also, note the timing of that early peak, at the turn of 2019-2020 – do these data support the theory that Covid was endemic in the U.K. in late 2019, with the increased cases of ‘respiratory disease’ being blamed on an unusually early outbreak of influenza?
There has been a similar increase in the use of other anticoagulants, such as enoxaparin and edoxaban in a hospital setting.
The data for prescriptions of general ‘blood-thinning’ drugs are a bit difficult to interpret, however, given the general increase in the use of these drugs in the community. The graph below shows the increase in prescriptions written for apixaban by GPs over the last few years.
It is clearly difficult to untangle changes in risk given this years-long general trend as more and more in our population are introduced to the benefits of the pharmaceutical industry. One thing is fairly clear, however – there doesn’t seem to have been any noticeable decline in the issuance of these (and other) cardiovascular drugs during the Covid lockdowns, despite claims by our authorities that this has been the driving force of the increase in excess deaths seen during 2022.
There is also a strange upwards trend in the prescription of aspirin (300mg) in hospitals for dispensing within normal pharmacies.
Note how the number of tablets dispensed increases markedly from the start of 2021 and how there appears to be a maintained upwards trend. It is important to note that while aspirin is often taken as a mild painkiller, this is generally not the preferred use within a modern medical context. It is likely that these prescriptions will relate to aspirin’s anti-coagulant properties.
An important aspect of the data that I’ve shown here is that they don’t give any indication as to the characteristics of the individuals behind this increase in consultations for stroke. While it is reasonable to assume that this increased risk would be proportionate to the prior risk, this is by no means certain. For example, if the risk of stroke increased to one in 200 per five years for everyone in the population, this increase would be significant for younger individuals, but wouldn’t impact much on stroke risk for those aged 85 years or older. This lack of data on changes in stroke risk by age certainly isn’t helping us understand the changes in risk that our population appears to be experiencing. Still, I very much hope that the increased stroke risk isn’t being seen in younger adults.
The data suggest that something is going on with blood clotting within the population of the U.K., resulting in an increase in strokes and presumably other conditions such as deep-vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism. Although the U.S. FDA and CDC claim (without offering supporting data) that there isn’t really a net increase in strokes associated with the vaccines, the data available from the NHS suggest that there might well be a non-trivial increased risk. Our population deserve a comprehensive study into the risks associated with blood clotting in this post-Covid and post-vaccine age.
I suppose I could stop here – there appears to be an indication of an increased stroke risk in the U.K. population over the past few years, and it is surely time for our Government to look much more seriously into this unhappy change in the health of the nation and into what might have caused it, preferably with analysis beyond the six week point. Fin.
However, the NHS hospitals and drugs datasets appear to offer some insight into the health (or otherwise) of the nation, and I’ll explore some other population morbidities over my next few posts.
Amanuensis is an ex-academic and senior Government scientist. He blogs at Bartram’s Folly – subscribe here.
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It doesn’t seem long ago that it was ‘just a mask’ to ‘reinvigorate the economy’
Good point – and, again, a factual article/time-line detailing the key stages and quotations of the shit-show (and their contradictions) would be extremely useful if anyone was up to it.
Surprised there’s not such a thing on LS
It was baby steps towards authoritarianism.
As masks were introduced just as covids sank to a record low to give the whole shitshow legs so vaccine Passports are being introduced as the ‘pandemic ‘ enters the usual spring/summer nadir of actual cases.
” Got to keep the show on the road folks !”
And to give ‘confidence’ to those who were and still are brainwashed by the Government propoganda machine.
This is why i said that the petition that came out a while ago asking the government to not impose vaccine based discrimination was badly worded. It left a massive loophole for government to say that they don’t plan on doing such a thing and instead rely on private companies to do the discriminating. It should have demanded that government ban vaccine based discrimination for everyone, private or public.
Not that it would have mattered. As we’ve seen, not only does the government like to say they have no plans to do anything, then two weeks later reveal plans for doing that very same thing, but they also have no interest in making it a criminal act for a public official to mislead the people.
These passaports and the way they’re enforced are violations of human rights. No person shall be forced to undergo medical procedures against their will in exchange for their rights.
Enforced vaccinations on employees even if they “consent” under duress, could be regarded as “assault and battery” and against their human rights. Law or fiction are on to this: https://www.laworfiction.com/2021/03/no-jab-no-pay-a-criminal-offence/
Legal action must be used by everyone encountering discrimination.
I don’t think assault and battery applies. No one is physically forcing you to take the vaccine, by assaulting you, tying you up, and forcing the needle in your arm. It would be assault and battery to be phisically stripped of your clothes and forced to wear something else, but office dress codes are pretty normal and accepted everywhere.
Another angle is needed here. Forcing someone to undergo a medical procedure against their will by threathening them with dismissal or pay cuts or with the removal of their rights is a breach of human rights. I don’t think these people realise the consequences of permitting this. If it’s ok to tell your employee “do this medical procedure or I fire you” then what’s next? “Get double D breast implants or I fire you?” “Get a nose job or I fire you?”
I feel like we are all going to have to try and sue our employers so we have enough money to clothe and feed ourselves in the future!
This is really getting me down. The past few weeks have been rough. I’m losing hope. Even my parents are fully onboard with everything, despite having told them repeatedly the manipulation of statistics, the evidence against lockdowns etc. Yet still their latest talking point is about Brazil and how ignorant Bolsonaro is for not locking down, and talking about how everyone there is dropping dead. I’ve literally explained to them dozens of times that places like Sweden or no-lockdown states are fairing as well or better than lockdown areas, and that PCR positive deaths is not a reliable metric etc. I’ve been over and over it with them, and they seem to listen. And then the next day they come out with the same bullshit. I am so sick of this.
Scotty, beam me the fuck up.
Don’t give up – I am hopeful that someone somewhere will put a stop to this madness. One thing is clear, we must never concede!
It’s not someone else’s responsibility to do so, it’s ours.
Had a lot of trouble with my father:
“So you believe these statistics?”
“Yes! Of course!”
“Then you trust the government?”
“No! They’re a bunch of liars and thieves!”
“So whre do you think the statistic are coming from…?”
But he’s coming around after the Romanian government has started beating people in the streets for next to no reason at all.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4AhNuDaKPL0
Other countries have picked up on the behaviour of the British police, and they’re not impressed.
This is nothing new. It’s just on a larger scale. Both the police and the government have been abusing their powers for decades in an effort to remove political dissidents. Tommy Robinson has been in their target for around a decade, being arrested and jailed on numerous occassions for calling out the ignorance of the authorities.
This is the country that the British public has built. A public that prefers a safe cage to freedom. And now that same public is surprised that it found itself in a cage.
Truly appalling but not unexpected. The lack of ‘policing’ of the police is the source of their gestapo actions. See the articles https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/whistleblower-police-priti-patel-protest-b1825386.html
https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/full-review-underway-police-conduct-5258674
https://inews.co.uk/news/uk/met-police-allegations-female-officers-raped-by-colleague-938289?ITO=msn
The incidents are not few and far between they are commonplace and yet the government wish to hand more powers to them. Shameful.
Yet our ‘leaders’ lecture others around the world on human rights, democracy and ignore their own transgressions. Dominic Raab only recently claimed that ‘democracy is in retreat around the world’ whilst forgetting to mention he was well able to prove this by showing the world how people are forced to live and how they are treated in the UK in 2021 under the BoJo despot government.
https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/foreign-secretary-warns-democracy-retreat-across-globe/
Please don’t be distressed, ‘keep calm and carry on’ applies here, our confidence is our strength
you are far from alone, there are like-minded people out there
“Yet still their latest talking point is about Brazil and how ignorant Bolsonaro is for not locking down, and talking about how everyone there is dropping dead. ”
Isn’t that one of the countries where the initial vaccine clinical trials took place??
Plus: do they know if Brazil has a comprehensive social welfare system, or if the government can afford to pay people to stay at home for a year? Or if the people don’t work, they don’t eat?
They can hear you but they’re not listening. It’s effectively the same as explaining quadratic equations to your dog. I’ve had the same experience.
There are many of us who have family members who have had their brains amputated by the propaganda. I too am sick and tired of the bullshite. My husband has continued to work at his place of work throughout this plandemic. He travels on public transport to London and I have managed to convince some at least that it is not the zombie plague. Do not despair. Try getting your parents to listen to Planet Normal or something that strikes a tone between the totally sceptical and the ‘end of the world’. It may help them understand a bit better. Wish I could say more as I too sometimes feel like giving up. Writing on here and reading others comments is a big help. Wish you well.
I know, my husband has tried over and over AND over to patiently explain so much to his parents but it’s like they’re under a spell. They’ve taken nothing on board but they relate in wonder everything their MSM had told them! It’s either they are impervious to thinking outside the frame or they’re in complete denial. It’s actually affecting him now but they don’t seem to be bothered.
I think Carl Sagan has a point.
So I have had my liberty taken away by a ‘source’
Why the constant reportage giving the doom and gloom govt side with no mention of Law or Fictions legal action, the Nuremberg Code, the illegality of coercion to have a mexical procedure etc.
More balanced reporting would be appreciated.
Yes – an article clearly examining the pedigree, saliency and status of international documents, treaties and laws on this critical subject would be very interesting, given the clear attempt to subvert basic ethical standards as the world turns fascist.
Can you send this directly to the LS email, please Rick H – the editorial team said before that they do not generally look at comments unless someone flags one up for an alleged violation of the protocols.
I was thinking the same. Not a good look for LS. Toby please take note.
It sounds like a cop out by this Junta. Washing their hands like Pontius Pilate. If a person was rejected for a job because of their skin colour, there would be outrage Likewise anyone suffering discrimination for non vaxxing should have similar access to the law.
It’s sadly ironic because the West used to endlessly berate various dictators for using states of emergency to nullify all other laws and govern by fiat.
Now Western leaders want in on the fun.
“Vaccination passports could be imposed on the public for less than a year, according to plans being drawn up by Downing Street to head off a Tory revolt.”
Sure. Just like “three weeks to flatten the curve.”
On that basis, these “passports” will be for the best of our lives.
“Ministers are reportedly “resigned” to the fact that some bosses will enforce “no jab, no job” policies. ”
Are they resigned to the court cases on the grounds of discrimination, and the forcing of an experimental, unlicensed vaccine upon employees, against human rights.
We are currently being ‘governed’ by some very weak and inept people who have been handed too much authoritarian power but do not know how to use the power or behave themselves in a fair, honest and proper fashion. By ‘resigning’ themselves to the fact that some bosses will enforce ‘no jab, no job’ they are just emulating the same strategy of no responsibilty no accountability displayed by the furloughed MPs who refuse to vote against them. The message is It’s not their fault if they are able to lay the blame at the door of others. The same strategy applies to their statement of ‘following the science’. Who me? No it’s them. Not my fault.
I wonder if you could sue your employer in the event of vaccine damage under this so-called no jab, no job policy?
Why not. It should be actively encouraged.
Exactly. If people are being forced to vaccinate to get or keep a job, surely employers will have to have insurance in case of harm, which would have to include cover for lifetime severe injury. I wonder how much that would cost, given that the effects are currently unknown? Would it even be offered? Certainly the employer would find that some had to. be exempted. The big cost would be if any embryos were affected and needed life care.
Anyone required to take a jab would do well to write to their employer making it clear that they were only doing so because the employer was making it a condition of employment. And keep the letter,
Pharmaceutical companies are immune from prosecution so insurers will not cover the risk. People need to check their health cover.
Wasn’t all this sort of thing supposedly the reason we went to war in Iraq? To free the people?
Perhaps employees should state in witing to their employer that they’re willing to have the jab provided the employer signs a liability form stating that should they suffer an adverse reaction the employer will compensate them up to the amount of £2,000,000 depending on the severity.
If they aren’t refusing the vaccine presumably they couldn’t be fired?
There are various templates available online for people to use to conditionally ‘accept’ some of these tyrannies, with the conditions being impossible for those insisting on the tyranny to meet since there is no evidence to back up the tyranny. For example, an independent travel agent has templates for mask-wearing, ‘tests’, and ‘vaccines’ in the file section of her facebook page. The more of us who use these the better, to stop the madness! https://www.facebook.com/groups/335393567475949/files
“The source said they would not legally be able to stop companies from demanding them as a condition of employment.”
Um, I thought we had this whole “Brexit” thing, the point of which was to “take back control”?
Now we’re supposed to believe that, although the Government has the power to suspend all our civil liberties, but for some unspecified reason it is unable to prohibit companies from discriminating against people who don’t get the jab.
I agree employment law is pretty draconian these days so the idea that they couldn’t just rule it out as discrimination is laughable.
The companies that are planning to impose the restrictions clearly ignore potential future health problems in the staffers post-experimental procedure. Or is it going to be zero contract furlough or some other similar scheme?
Someone is gaming this clever. If the government made a case to do this, it attracts all the legal forces againt it, one case to fight. Let individual employers do it and there are numerous, thousands potentially of cases to fight. No-one has the ability to do that. So if they lose one or two, unless the wording of the judgement is very specific it will not be something useful in other cases.
So this way the no jab no job is brought in, and of course its impossible to reverse in 12 months even if anyone wanted to.
Its very difficult to believe there is anything benign behind all this. With mRNA jabs given to the majority under 60 yrs including children, the Genetic Passports ( because that will be what they are) can be made to do anything with annual boosters. A little genetic tweak here and all women are made infertile, the regulators have already given a clear pass for all ‘new variant’ boosters.
World domination over everyone. And the majority are cheering it on.
Agreed. The amount of people who think this is the door to freedom is incredible. They are too stupid for words.
Disgusting, but not surprising. I knew from the start that the Govt doesn’t have the balls to actually make vaccinations mandatory, but would make them mandatory by “stealth” – stealth which is as obvious as a blackbird on bedsheet.
I put in a long submission to the “consultation” last week, which was obviously a complete sham.
I’m now going to email my employer and tell them that I would strongly oppose any attempt to impose vaccine passports as a condition of employment or attendance. I suggest that everyone else do this too. To employers, local pubs, other local businesses…
This should be a time of hope and relief, as more and more at-risk people are being offered vaccinations, and the deathrate (yes, I know it’s only a ‘deathrate’) goes down and down. Why does the Govt turn _everything_ into a disgusting power-grab? I feel I’m living in a country which has lost its collective mind.
Come on. This isn’t about a virus. Once vulnerable people, the 95% are vaccinated, it’s over. The rest don’t need it and yet they are pressing on. Because the end goal hasn’t been reached. They don’t trust you to go along with their policies so they must break your resistance. It’s that simple.
No one should be coerced. What next compulsory flu jabs too. All those employers should be sued for discrimination.
I think that’s the plan.
Ironic that the mass flu vaccination is correlated with a massive spike in covid “infections”. What if the covid vax causes a major increase in flu cases? Then they’re home and dry. Double kerching!
The mass flu vaccination programme opened up the vulnerable to ‘Antibody dependant enhancement’ the next time that person encountered any coronavirus, be it flu, a cold, or ‘covid’. Massive overreaction of the immune system leading to a cytokine storm, huge inflammation in any / all major organs, clotting issues – especially in the lungs, and boom – there’s your massive spike. Add an even bigger ‘covid jab’ mass campaign, keep everyone locked up for a few more weeks/months to distance the carnage from the date of the jab, then sit back after we’re ‘released’ and watch as the next ‘wave’ of ADE occurs, no doubt blamed on a new ‘variant’ – and no doubt blamed on the ‘anti-vaxxers’ … so along come the ‘boosters’ and the new ‘flu’ season jabs, and the merry-go-round continues. It’s the perfect business model for profits for pharma companies, with extra power and control for our totalitarian govt. Why have so few people joined the dots yet? Instead they’re falling over themselves to keep us locked up, get us jabbed, carrying identity cards for a virus with a survivability rate of well over 99%! Though that may sadly reduce due to the huge ADE death spikes we can expect to see in the next flu season .
Could the whole populace go on strike? One for all and all for one kinda thing
So if some nasty side affects appear in a few years time those same companies will be compensating those individuals who were forced to get the jab?????
Some of the more immediate side effects can be pretty unpleasant. If companies were forced to shell out a couple of grand each time an employee was hospitalised or laid up for a few days it might make them think again.
This wank goverment love a strap line. ‘Sunset clause’ thats a joke. Once implemented it will never be repealed.
If the government doesn’t like something it can and does change the law. The truth is that the government is happy to allow employers to insist on no-jab no-job so that the policy can be expanded once people have grown used to the idea.
So …. nothing to certify the sane ones amongst us who simply take vitamins C & D, zinc and quercetin, and look after our own immune systems and bodies, thus saving the NHS a fortune? Oh I forgot . . . we don’t bring any money to Big Pharma and their shareholders, do we.
So when is Boris going to start handing out the UKs answer to the free ‘Obama ‘phone’ for the sizeable chunk of the population who does not have a mobile or have one that is not capable of running the app?
Look none of this is acceptable. By not resisting the idea you are condoning their action.
Oh, they are resigned are they? What could they possibly do??? Perhaps they could take a clue from Ron De Santis are outlaw such medical coercion, contrary as it is to treaties that the UK is signatory to?
Remember Apartheid?
How is this different? Jobs for whites, no jobs for blacks, segregated football stadiums, segregated shopping areas, segregated schools, buses segregated, taxis for blacks, taxis for whites.
Remember Apartheid?
How is this different? Jobs for whites, no jobs for blacks, segregated football stadiums, segregated shopping areas, segregated schools, buses segregated, taxis for blacks, taxis for whites.