All Episodes
Previous Next
March 14, 2022 - Epoch Times
20:55
New CDC Study Shows Infection and Hospitalization Gap Narrowing Between Unvaccinated and Vaccinated
| Copy link to current segment

Time Text
This is your daily Facts Matter update, and I'm your host, Roman, from the Epoch Times.
And now let's begin today's discussion by talking about some of the effects that are beginning to develop as a result of the government-enforced COVID measures.
Now, on previous episodes, we have already discussed some of these problems, such as the economic troubles, the spike in the number of depressions, the spike in the number of overdose deaths, and so on.
There are a lot of problems that have resulted from the government mandates.
However, atop all these problems, There's the fact that according to the clinical director of a speech therapy center, she says that she is seeing a 364% spike in the number of babies and toddlers that are being referred to her due to impediments with their speech.
And according to her, the prime culprit is the mask mandate.
She says that young children are developing cognitive problems due to the widespread adoption of masks.
Due to the fact that they can't see people's faces, they cannot speak.
Now, specifically, Ms.
Jacqueline Thieke, who's the clinical director over at the Speech and Learning Institute, she told a local news outlet that prior to the pandemic, only 5% of her patients were babies and toddlers.
But now, that number has soared all the way to about 20%.
Here's specifically what she said.
We have seen a 364% increase in patient referrals of babies and toddlers from pediatricians and parents.
There's no research out there yet to say that this, this meaning mask mandates, could be causing speech and language delays.
But most definitely, I'm sure it's a factor.
Furthermore, she said that this type of a problem can have a cumulative effect in the child's cognitive development.
Here's what she said.
We are seeing a lot of things that look just like autism.
They're not making any word attempts and not communicating at all with their family.
Now, one of the reasons that you might not have ever heard about this fact before is because the connection between cognitive problems and mask wearing Appears to be suppressed by the mainstream outlets in this country.
In fact, just a few months ago, Forbes magazine, they deleted an article that was written by an education expert who made the assertion within his article that forcing school children to wear masks was causing psychological trauma.
Here is specifically what that expert, whose name, by the way, is Zag Riegelstein, he holds a PhD in education from Columbia University, and here's what he wrote in that now-deleted article.
Kids can't see each other's smiles or learn critically important social and verbal skills.
Neurological research demonstrates that kids who experience this kind of fear and trauma at a young age undergo structural and functional restructuring of their brain's prefrontal cortex, resulting in emotional and cognitive processing problems.
Children in masks are also likely to miss out on critical language development, another fundamental area of growth in early years where children from low-income backgrounds already have disproportionate disadvantages.
In that same article, he further went on to note that children who are forced to wear masks in public may develop other problems in their private lives as well.
Here's what he added.
Furthermore, children in masks who are socially distanced are more likely to lead a sanitary lifestyle at school and home, and therefore are also more likely to become both obese and depressed.
Obesity disproportionately affects children from low-income backgrounds and can lead to lifelong health challenges that often result in early death.
Tragically, the prevalence of clinical depression and anxiety have already doubled for children globally since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and will likely worsen with continued restrictions.
Now as bad as those problems are, obviously they are already quite bad, there's something that is potentially even more serious.
And this comes from a study that was done by researchers over at Brown University.
And they found that the average IQ scores for young children who were born during the pandemic are 22 points lower than children born before the pandemic.
While at the same time, these children's verbal, motor, and cognitive performance have all suffered as well.
Here's specifically what that Brown University study said in part, quote, In the decade preceding the pandemic, the mean IQ score on standardized tests for children aged between three months and three years of age hovered around 100.
But for children born during the pandemic, that number tumbled to 78.
Now, as I mentioned earlier, this study was conducted by researchers over at Brown University.
And the way that they actually ran this study was that they selected 672 children who were in the state of Rhode Island.
And these children, they were born both before and after the pandemic.
So before and after March of 2020.
And in terms of what they found, well, here is an analysis of the study in its entirety.
Quote...
Children born over the past year of lockdowns, at a time when the government has prevented babies from seeing elderly relatives and other extended family members, from socializing at parks or with the children of their parents' friends, and from studying the expressions on the faces behind the masks of locals in indoor public spaces, have significantly reduced verbal, motor and overall cognitive performance compared to children born before.
Tests on early learning, verbal development, and nonverbal development all produced results that were far behind those from the years preceding the lockdowns.
If you'd like to read more about these developmental challenges that are facing young kids due to these government policies, I will throw the links to several articles into the description box below this video for you to check out.
And all I ask in return is that you take a super quick moment to smash, smash, smash that like button for the YouTube algorithm.
And now, let's move on over and talk about vaccine efficacy.
According to a new study, which was conducted by researchers over in the state of California, the protection offered by the vaccine has dropped significantly following the emergence of the Omicron virus variant.
And therefore, the gap that existed between vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals in regards to both infections as well as hospitalizations has been narrowing.
Although, it is worth noting that these researchers found that vaccinated individuals still experience less hospitalizations than unvaccinated individuals.
So let's dive into this data for ourselves.
And to start with, this study can actually be found over on the CDC's website.
And the researchers were specifically looking at a cross-section of residents in Los Angeles County who are above the age of 18 and who tested positive for COVID sometime between November 7th of 2021 and January 8th of 2022.
That's a span of about two months.
And what's interesting about this time frame is that it includes the period during when the Omicron variant took over as the primary variant that's spreading in this country.
Before, it was the Delta strain, but here, Omicron took over.
And furthermore, it's also worth noting that LA County is the most populous county in all of America by a fairly wide margin.
They have over 10 million residents, and therefore, even though this data comes from a single county, the sample size is not small by any stretch of the imagination.
And so...
Now let's take a look at the trends that these researchers uncovered after digging through this data.
According to these researchers, while the Delta variant was still the dominant strain in the U.S., vaccinated individuals appear to be much more protected than unvaccinated individuals.
During the Delta period, when they looked at COVID cases as well as COVID hospitalizations, here's what the researchers found.
In regards to COVID cases, unvaccinated people were 3.8 times more likely to be infected than those who were vaccinated.
And then, looking at hospitalizations, The researchers found that those who were unvaccinated were 12.9 times more likely to be hospitalized for COVID symptoms than those who were vaccinated.
Although, just to pause here for a quick moment, it's unclear how exactly they defined the term hospitalized, whether the person was hospitalized with COVID or for COVID. It's not exactly clear.
Regardless, though, let's get back to the data.
These researchers also compared the rates between unvaccinated people and those who had received three shots of the vaccine, meaning people who also got the booster shot as well.
And here's what they found.
Again, during the period when Delta was the predominant strain in regards to COVID cases, unvaccinated people were 12.3 times more likely to be infected than those who received the booster shot.
And then in regards to hospitalizations, the researchers found that those who are unvaccinated were 83 times more likely to be hospitalized for COVID than those who received the booster shot.
However, this gap narrowed significantly when the Omicron variant spread out of South Africa and became the dominant strain here in America.
That's because following the shift, when the researchers compared the unvaccinated individuals against the vaccinated individuals, well, here's what they found.
In terms of infections, the difference between the two groups fell from 3.8 times down to only two times.
And then in terms of hospitalizations, the difference between the two groups fell from 12.9 times to only 5.3 times.
And then likewise, when the researchers compared unvaccinated individuals to those who have received three shots, meaning the booster shot as well, well, here's what they found.
In terms of infections, the difference between the two groups fell from 12.3 times to only 3.6 times.
And then, in terms of hospitalizations, the difference between the two groups went from 83 times down to only 23 times.
Now, we here at the Epoch Times, we reached out to one of the study's lead authors, and here's what she wrote back to us in an email regarding her team's findings.
It seems as though some people were more susceptible, even if they had been vaccinated, with Omicron than they had been with Delta, and even more so with the previous variants.
Although you can still get COVID even if you're vaccinated, as we had hoped, the vaccines are still good for protecting against severe disease.
And in particular, I think there have been some questions about boosting and whether it was necessary, and I think it sort of emphasizes the importance of that.
Now, one thing that this study did not look at is the question of how long the booster protection actually lasts.
Because there had been some data which indicated that with the onset of the Omicron variant, the added protection from the booster shots began waning just weeks or perhaps months after administration.
At this point, here's what Dr.
Peter Gulick, who is an infectious disease expert over at Michigan State University, here's what he told us here at the Epoch Times.
Those are the questions that don't have good answers.
How long that's going to last?
And I know in Israel, they're looking at a fourth, though.
Now, another thing that was completely left out of the study was the role that natural immunity played in regards to protecting people from reinfection.
Judging by the data that they presented in the study, they did not look at that at all.
However, on that front, Dr.
Adam Sifu, who is a professor of medicine over at the University of Chicago, he told us here at the Epoch Times that in his opinion, natural immunity is the factor which is likely playing a large part in narrowing the gap between the vaccinated and unvaccinated.
Here's specifically what he wrote to us here at the Epoch Times via email.
The vaccine remains effective, though to a lesser extent, against Omicron.
The difference between vaccinated people and unvaccinated also declines as the severity of illness caused by that variant declines, and more unvaccinated people gain immunity through exposure to COVID.
If you'd like to read this full study for yourself, I'll throw the link to it.
It'll be down in the description box below this video for you to check out.
And again, all I ask in return is that if you haven't already, take a quick moment to smash, smash, smash that like button for the YouTube algorithm.
And now, let's move on over and discuss how a high school student over in Michigan was suspended for talking to his friends about his Christian beliefs.
What happened there was...
Sorry.
What's this?
Well, that's a great question, Roman.
And it is today's sponsor, which is an awesome messaging and email service provider called Secure.
And it's awesome if you're the type of person that actually cares about their privacy.
Because, I mean, it's no big secret that these big tech companies are mining and remining our data all the time.
In fact, in the year 2020, it was found that over 155 million Americans, likely including you and me, have suffered some form of data breach.
And by the way, that's only what's publicly known.
However, what's happened in the past?
Well, that can stay in the past because with Secure, Your data and your messages can remain private.
And that's because Secure has all of their data centers located over in Switzerland rather than in the U.S. or in China.
And the reason that's so important is that Switzerland has some of the strictest data privacy laws in the entire world, and they are not subject to the Intrusive Cloud Act.
And if you want to know what the Cloud Act is, head on over to Secure.com and watch their video on the homepage or on the video tutorials page, which is under their support section.
Now, the thing that I personally love the most about the Secure app is the privacy aspect of it.
They don't mine my data.
They don't mine my phone number.
They don't mine the phone numbers or data of my friends and family who I chat with.
But best of all is that if your friends and family don't actually use the secure app themselves, it doesn't matter.
Because the way that it works is that when you use their secure send email technology, All of your emails and your messages route to Switzerland and then the recipient can reply using their secure reply technology.
And so everything remains private no matter what.
And the same actually goes for their messaging app as well.
And they're always coming up with new features.
In fact, the most recent one they told me about, they sent me an email here, was that they're coming up with a new feature called text to chat by invite.
So they're an innovative company and they really do care about your privacy.
And so what they're doing doesn't work with your existing big tech email account.
So check them out.
You can head on over to secure.com.
I'll throw the link into the description box below.
And when you use promo code Roman, you can get 25% off.
And the rates are not even that expensive to start with, by the way.
It's only $5 for the messenger and $10 for the email and messenger combo.
And they even offer a 7-day free trial.
So head on over to their website.
Again, it'll be linked in the description box below.
Use promo code Roman to save some money.
And now Roman in the studio, back to you.
Now let's move on over to Michigan.
Where a high school student is now in the process of suing his high school after they suspended him for privately talking about his Christian beliefs.
What happened in this case was that a student by the name of David Stout, who is a junior over at Plainwell High School over in Plainwell, Michigan, and he is a Christian.
And as such, back in October, he expressed his Christian beliefs in a private conversation with a like-minded student on campus, and he also expressed his opinions that are rooted in his faith in private text messages with his friends.
And those text messages were actually sent outside of school.
And in these conversations and these text messages, David put forth the biblical teaching of the love of God through Jesus Christ.
He expressed his own love for his peers, and he shared the Judeo-Christian doctrine that homosexual conduct was sinful, as well as that God created only two biological genders, men and women.
And so, you would imagine, given the fact that he was speaking on campus with like-minded individuals, and given the fact that his text messages were actually sent outside of school, and given the fact that we have the freedom of speech in this country, well, it wouldn't be a big deal.
However, that is not how the school administrator saw it.
That's because David alleges that a school faculty member...
He came to him and he asked David why he wasn't self-reporting the fact that he was sharing his religious beliefs and his political beliefs with fellow students to school officials.
Now, you might ask yourself, why would a student need to self-report to the school what he talks about with other students?
Well, according to David's testimony, the school faculty member, he came to him and he told David that talking about religious or political beliefs was not allowed anywhere on campus for fear of hurting someone else's feelings.
And then furthermore, the faculty member told David that he must stop all religious conversations with other students because if those conversations were overheard, they might make other people feel offended.
And then in what David alleges seemed like a veiled threat, the school administrators warned him that if he continued to say or do anything in school, outside of school, or on social media, that could negatively affect his future employment prospects.
And then several days later, David's parents received a notice telling them that their son had been suspended from school.
However, it appears that his parents took it well.
Here's in fact a statement from David's father.
We have always taught our son to be respectful of everyone's opinion and to be polite to others.
He is entitled to properly express his faith and beliefs without being disciplined and suspended by Plainwell schools.
We trust the court will uphold David's constitutional rights and his school record will be cleared.
And indeed, just like that statement referenced, the family filed a lawsuit against the Plainwell School District, arguing that they violated David's First and Fourteenth Amendment rights, as well as his civil rights under the Michigan Constitution.
Here's in fact what David's lawyer released as a part of a statement about the case.
David was suspended for three days last fall for stating his Christian beliefs in a private text conversation and in a hallway at school.
He is also being punished for not policing and reporting the inappropriate jokes of fellow students.
He was instructed to stop posting his religious comments on all his social media platforms and was disciplined for the offensive behavior of some other students, something he was unaware of and did not participate in.
David is a good student with a clean record.
Nothing he did caused a disruption or any problem at the school.
He has the right to express his opinion in accordance with his religious beliefs without vilification or punishment from the government.
The family is asking for David's suspension to be expunged from his school record as well as for nominal damages, including attorney fees.
Now, We here at the Epoch Times, we did reach out to the superintendent of the school for comment, but we have yet to hear back.
However, if all of this sounds dystopian to you, well, that might be because you might have read 1984, which is George Orwell's classic book.
And while you might have enjoyed that book, you might have learned a lot about things like thought police, new speak, double think, thought crime, and so on, well, what you might have not realized is that you were likely triggered while reading 1984.
But have no fear, because schools are now looking to change that.
That's right, in an Orwellian turn of events, the University of Northampton has put a trigger warning on 1984, citing the fact that the novel contains explicit material that some students may find offensive or upsetting.
A university over in England, meaning a place where theoretically the students are all full-grown adults, is now placing trigger warnings on George Orwell's 1984.
And this fact is revealed by the UK's Daily Mail newspaper, which filed a Freedom of Information request in order to get confirmation from the university.
And after it was confirmed, here's what a spokesperson for that university said regarding this warning.
While it is not university policy, we may warn students of content in relation to violence, sexual violence, domestic abuse, and suicide.
In these circumstances, we explain to applicants, as part of the recruitment process, that their course will include some challenging texts.
We are aware some texts might be challenging for some students and have accounted for this when developing our courses.
Now, furthermore, after this trigger warning was brought to light, Mr.
Andrew Bridgen, who is an English Member of Parliament, well, he described the irony of this move, as well as the fact that it's a continuation of a trend of universities pumping out homogenized group thinkers.
Here's specifically what he said.
There's a certain irony that students are now being issued trigger warnings before reading 1984.
Our university campuses are fast becoming dystopian Big Brother zones where newspeak is practiced to diminish the range of intellectual thought and cancel speakers who don't conform to it.
To many of us, and nowhere is it more evident than our universities, have freely given up our rights to instead conform to a homogenized society governed by a liberal elite, quote-unquote, protecting us from ideas that they believe are too extreme for our sensibilities.
And if you thought that adding a trigger warning was not enough, well, then you would actually be in agreement with George Orwell's estate.
That's because about two months ago, the estate of George Orwell approved a feminist retelling of 1984, which will retell the entire story from the perspective of Julia, who is Winston Smith's love interest in the original novel.
And so, just for a moment, let's consider the irony of how, in the original book, in 1984, the main character's job was to edit historical publications in order to have them retroactively conform to the party line.
Yeah.
And now it appears that that is exactly what is happening to the book itself, which appears to be a process that George Orwell himself predicted.
Here's, in fact, a quote from the original 1984, which rings ever more true today.
Every record has been destroyed or falsified.
Every book rewritten.
Every picture has been repainted.
Every statue and street building has been renamed.
Every date has been altered.
And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute.
History has stopped.
Nothing exists except an endless present in which the party is always right.
And it's also worth noting that if you stop and listen very closely, you can hear a little rustling, which is likely the sound of George Orwell rolling in his grave, which is ironically located just about an hour's drive south of the University of Northampton.
Regardless, if you'd like to read more about the high school student over in Michigan who was suspended for talking about Christianity or about all these 1984-related developments, I'll throw all that into the description box below this video for you to check out.
And again, all I ask in return is that if you haven't already, take a quick moment to smash, smash, smash that like button for the YouTube algorithm.
And now, since you've completed this episode of Facts Matter, I would highly recommend that, if you haven't already, go on over to Epic TV and check out a phenomenal interview with President Trump and Kash Patel where President Trump goes into his thoughts about everything that is happening in America right now.
Now, here's a trailer for that interview. - They're making us a different country.
We're becoming like a socialist or a communist state.
We no longer have a press.
The press is absolutely the enemy of the people.
I know three years is a long time away.
It's a long time.
But if you were back in and, you know, what was the first thing you'd say to say?
Oh, back in?
If I were back in and...
The wall.
First of all, the wall.
You would tell the American people now.
The whole concept of children with the children going through all of this, masks and vaccinated, what they're doing is just absolutely crazy.
Why would they want to have a weak military?
Why would they want to have high interest rates and higher taxes?
Why would they want to have no border?
Where's John Durham?
Do you have faith in it?
What he's doing is one of the most important jobs being done right now in America.
How do you give them a little faith?
Again, if you haven't already, I would highly recommend that you head on over and check out that interview, as well as all the other phenomenal content over on Epic TV. The link will be right there at the very top of the description box.
I hope you click on it.
I hope you check it out.
I hope you subscribe.
And I hope that you join us on this journey of exploring this beautiful, beautiful world through honest journalism that is based in truth and tradition.
Now lastly, if you haven't already, smash that like button for the YouTube algorithm.
Subscribe to this YouTube channel if you haven't already in order to get this type of honest news content delivered directly into your YouTube feed while YouTube still allows it.
Also, if you happen to have a Telegram account, consider following us at FactsMatter underscore Roman.
We'll publish the links to all of our episodes there, so if anything ever does happen here on YouTube, you can always find us on Telegram.
And then, until next time, I'm your host, Roman from the Epoch Times.
▲
Export Selection