Wednesday, April 28, 2021
Can You Have Alcohol After the Covid Vaccine?
By Anahad O’Connor
Moderate drinking is unlikely to impair the immune response to the Covid vaccine, but heavy drinking might. After a long year and a lot of anticipation, getting the Covid-19 vaccine can be cause for celebration, which for some might mean pouring a drink and toasting to their new immunity. But can alcohol interfere with your immune response? The short answer is that it depends on how much you drink. There is no evidence that having a drink or two can render any of the current Covid vaccines less effective. Some studies have even found that over the longer term, small or moderate amounts of alcohol might actually benefit the immune system by reducing inflammation. Heavy alcohol consumption, on the other hand, particularly over the long term, can suppress the immune system and potentially interfere with your vaccine response, experts say. Since it can take weeks after a Covid shot for the body to generate protective levels of antibodies against the novel coronavirus, anything that interferes with the immune response would be cause for concern. “If you are truly a moderate drinker, then there’s no risk of having a drink around the time of your vaccine,” said Ilhem Messaoudi, director of the Center for Virus Research at the University of California, Irvine, who has conducted research on the effects of alcohol on the immune response. “But be very cognizant of what moderate drinking really means. It’s dangerous to drink large amounts of alcohol because the effects on all biological systems, including the immune system, are pretty severe and they occur pretty quickly after you get out of that moderate zone.” Moderate drinking is generally defined as no more than two drinks a day for men and a maximum of one drink a day for women, whereas heavy drinking is defined as four or more drinks on any day for men and three or more drinks for women. Keep in mind that one “standard” drink is considered five ounces of wine, 1.5 ounces of distilled spirits, or 12 ounces of beer. Some of the first concerns about alcohol and Covid vaccination began circulating after a Russian health official warned in December that people should avoid alcohol for two weeks before getting vaccinated and then abstain for another 42 days afterward. According to a Reuters report, the official claimed that alcohol could hamper the body’s ability to develop immunity against the novel coronavirus. Her warning sparked a fierce backlash in Russia, which has one of the world’s highest drinking rates. In the United States, some experts say they have heard similar concerns about whether it is safe to drink around the time of vaccination. “We’ve been getting a lot of questions from our patients about this,” said Dr. Angela Hewlett, an associate professor of infectious diseases who directs the Covid infectious diseases team at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. “Understandably, people who are receiving these vaccines want to make sure they’re doing all the right things to maximize their immune response.” Clinical trials of the Covid vaccines that are currently approved for use by the Food and Drug Administration did not specifically look at whether alcohol had any impact on the effectiveness of the vaccines, Dr. Hewlett said. It’s possible that there will be more information on that in the future. But for now, most of what is known comes from previous research, including studies that examined how alcohol affects the immune system in humans and whether it hinders the immune response in animals that received other vaccines. One thing that is clear from studies is that heavy alcohol consumption impairs the immune response and increases your susceptibility to bacterial and viral infections. It prevents immune cells from traveling to sites of infection and carrying out their duties, like destroying viruses, bacteria and infected cells; makes it easier for pathogens to invade your cells, and causes a host of other problems. In contrast, moderate drinking does not seem to have this effect. In one study, scientists exposed 391 people to five different respiratory viruses and found that moderate drinkers were less likely to develop colds, but not if they were smokers. In another study, Dr. Messaoudi and colleagues provided rhesus monkeys access to alcoholic beverages for seven months and then looked at how their bodies responded to a vaccine against poxvirus. Much like humans, some rhesus monkeys enjoy alcohol and will drink a lot, while others show less interest and will limit themselves to small amounts. The researchers found that the animals that were chronically heavy drinkers had a weak response to the vaccine. “They had almost a nonexistent immune response,” Dr. Messaoudi said. The animals that consumed only moderate amounts of alcohol, however, generated the strongest response to the vaccine, even compared to the teetotalers that consumed no alcohol at all. Studies in rats have found a similar pattern: Those consuming large amounts of alcohol have only a weak immune response to infections compared to animals given moderate amounts of alcohol or none at all. Other studies have found that when people drink moderately, it seems to lower inflammatory markers in their blood. Another reason to moderate your alcohol intake is that heavy drinking — along with the hangover that can ensue — can potentially amplify any side effects you might have from the Covid vaccine, including fever, malaise or body aches, and make you feel worse, said Dr. Hewlett of the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Dr. Hewlett chose not to drink after getting the Covid vaccine. But she said that people should feel free to imbibe so long as they drink within reason. “Having a glass of champagne probably won’t inhibit any immune response,” she said. “I think having a celebratory beverage in moderation is fine.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/27/well/eat/alcohol-covid-vaccine.html?action=click&module=At%20Home&pgtype=Homepage
Who is Qazi Isa, judge Pakistan SC gave relief to, the case against him and why it matters
Who is Qazi Isa
The Supreme Court of Pakistan Monday offered relief to Justice Qazi Faez Isa, who was accused of misconduct for allegedly failing to disclose information about his family’s foreign assets.
The SC allowed review petitions against the court’s earlier order that had directed an inquiry into the allegations made in a presidential reference against the top court judge in 2020. Justice Isa had been accused of not disclosing information about foreign properties owned by his family members in his wealth statement.
In June 2020, the court had asked the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) — a federal agency that investigates tax crimes in Pakistan — to probe the allegations against 61-year-old Justice Isa, who is in line to become the country’s Chief Justice in September 2023.
However, in a short order, a 10-judge bench vindicated the judge of all allegations Monday with a six-four majority verdict.
The allegations
Pakistan President Arif Alvi had filed a presidential reference against Justice Isa on May 2019 for allegedly concealing information about his properties in the UK.The reference noted that he had acquired three properties in London, between 2011 and 2015, on lease in the names of his wife and children but did not reveal this information in his wealth returns.The president had asked the Supreme Judicial Council (judicial body that hears cases against judges) to probe the judge on the matter.
However, Justice Isa contested the allegation and said that he was not a beneficial owner of the flats, either directly or indirectly.
2019 Faizabad judgment
According to Justice Isa, the Imran Khan government was conspiring to remove him from the Supreme Court for his controversial 2019 judgment on the Faizabad protests, which Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party had supported.
He had made the claim while presenting his arguments before the SC and had also said that he would fight “till the last drop of blood”.
This was echoed by several opposition leaders and lawyers as well.
The Opposition Pakistan People’s Party, in its official statement, said the PTI government’s attempt to “blackmail, intimidate and harass an honorable judge of the Supreme Court has failed”. It was an assault on the entire judiciary, said PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.
Furthermore, Sindh High Court Bar (SHCB) Association President Salahuddin Ahmed said, “We had argued that the entire case against Justice Isa was a mala fide conspiracy to punish him for the Faizabad dharna judgment in which he exposed elements of the deep state and designed to intimidate and subjugate the judiciary”.
In February 2019, the Supreme Court and Isa in particular, had come under fire for passing a verdict that warned the military and intelligence agencies not to exceed their mandate by meddling in politics.
The Supreme Court was investigating the 2017 sit-in protests in Islamabad’s Faizabad, led by the Tehreek-e-Labbaik, a hardline Islamist group, which had paralysed the capital.
The protest had started after Tehreek-e-Labbaik chief Khadim Hussain Rizvi and his followers accused then law minister Zahid Hamid of blasphemy for changing the words of an oath taken by lawmakers. The minister later apologised for the same.
“The involvement of ISI and of the members of the Armed Forces in politics, media and other ‘unlawful activities’ should have stopped,” Justice Isa along with Justice Mushir Alam, had said in their verdict.
Justice Isa is the son of the late Qazi Muhammad Isa of Pishin, who was at the forefront of the Pakistan Movement and a close associate of the country’s founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah, and also helped establish the All India Muslim League in Balochistan.
Justice Isa took oath as a judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan in 2014, after serving as the chief justice of the Balochistan High Court for five years.
https://theprint.in/go-to-pakistan/who-is-qazi-isa-the-judge-granted-relief-by-pakistan-sc-the-case-against-him/647621/
#Pakistan #PPP - Bilawal concerned over virus spread
PPP ‘s government is synonymous with food security
The prices of everything from fertilizers, seeds and pesticides to agricultural machinery, electricity have gone up by 150 per cent and an increase in wheat subsidy of Rs 1,800 is an injustice to farmers. Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari also said that the federal government wanted the purchasing price of wheat to be Rs. 1600 but when the PPP fought for the farmers, the federal government increased the price a little. He reminded the people that the federal government created two wheat crises in three years.
Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari sharply criticized Imran Khan’s government and said that it is a result of the poor plan of the PTI government that today only two to two and a half weeks of wheat stock is left in the country. If the crisis is not dealt with, the country may once again face a shortage of flour, he said, adding that the wheat crop landed in Punjab in May last year and more than 10 million tonnes of wheat disappeared in July in Punjab. Imran Khan should ask his friends how the artificial crisis was created by smuggling wheat to Afghanistan. Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that it is a shame that Pakistan, a wheat producing country, is importing wheat from abroad today.
Chairman PPP said that one of the reasons for the devastation of the economy is that the ruler of the agricultural country of Pakistan is unfortunately not even familiar with the alphabets of the word ‘agriculture’. Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari referring to the self-sufficiency of wheat in the PPP government (2008-13), said that the PPP federal government had made the country a wheat exporting country in just one year. The PPP government had increased relief price by 47% in the first year and 52% in the second year.
https://www.ppp.org.pk/pr/24698/
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