ROLL TIDE! Alabama Does It Again!

Only thing is, this “First Place award” is nothing to be proud of.

According to figures collected by the Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH), in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), public health officials found that in 2020, for the FIRST TIME IN RECORDED HISTORY, more people DIED in Alabama of COVID-19, than were born in Alabama that same year.

Dr. Scott Harris, MD, State Health Officer made the announcement at a press conference September 17, 2021, and said in part, that “Our state literally shrunk.”

Dr. Harris pointed to preliminary statistics which show that 64,714 died last year in the Yellowhammer State, while only 57,641 were born there.

The practically exclusive culprit?

COVID-19.

The disease has ravaged the nation, particularly among politically conservative, and rural hold-outs, many who have steadfastly refused — for whatever false, or malign reason — to receive any of the the THREE FREE vaccines. Furthermore, those same individuals similarly steadfastly refuse to don nose/mouth coverings to protect themselves from others, or others from themselves, falsely claiming that their “freedoms” are at risk if they “take the jab,” or don the mask.

Nobody makes them wear condoms, either. Yet we know that condom use benefits public health by lowering rates of infection with sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV, among those whom are sexually active without benefit of a mutually monogamous partner.

Parents have “raised cane,” and pitched “hissy fits” in public places, threatening public officials — school board officials, and others — at public meetings of the schools boards. Some officials have required police protection from the fearsome crowds, some of whom have brandished weapons, including firearms, in their threats. The events have been verging upon being riotous, and not in a good way, which in some cases have become more than mere “civil disturbances.”

The excuses people conjure up to not get a FREE LIFE-SAVING VACCINE are as varied as people themselves. And ALL of them — WITHOUT EXCEPTION — are lies. ALL. OF. THEM.

It’s purely nonsense, and one of the worst public displays of ignorance that one could possibly imagine. And yet, the more ignorant they are, the louder they holler. It certainly seems to be

Another One Bites The Dust: Healthy 36yo Alabama Man Didn’t Last 30 Days Against COVID-19

COVID-19 wins again!

On July 20, Josh Tidmore, an otherwise healthy 36-year-old Alabama man, came home from work with “a slight cough” and at the time, thought it was just “sinus trouble.”

By August 11 — a mere 23 days later — he was dead.

He leaves behind a 35-year old widow, Christina, and 3 orphaned children.

Josh Tidmore, an otherwise heathy 30-year old Alabama man didn’t last 30 days against COVID-19

Josh believed the lies he read on Facebook about the coronavirus, and unwisely thought he was “healthy enough” to overcome it. Christina said that neither one of them “knew anyone who got real sick from COVID, and figured we would be ‘OK.'”

Was she ever wrong.

Deadly wrong.

Christina explained their reluctance to get vaccinated, in part, by saying,“It wasn’t a political thing, we didn’t want to because we didn’t want to; and the information is such a fight right now, and we thought we were young and healthy it will be okay, and we will wait to see if there is better information.”

There wasn’t.

Christina, who was neither vaccinated, had earlier contracted COVID and recovered. Josh wasn’t so lucky.

Christina and Josh both tested positive for COVID-19 on July 26, and then quarantined for two weeks.

A few days later, Josh was admitted to Marshall Medical Centers South, in Marshall County, AL, and from there, he only got worse.

Christina’s traumatic “wake-up call” came at the hospital when she witnessed Josh die from cardiac arrest, directly caused by the deterioration of his lungs from the COVID-19 infection.

Christina saw and heard Dr. Jenna Carpenter, MD, a Critical Care Pulmonologist who, with her team was caring for Josh, “run a ‘code'” on Josh — medical parlance for ‘his heart stopped beating, so we’re going to pound on his chest until his ribs break, inject strong chemicals into his veins to irritate his heart, and then shock the beejeebers out of him… all in the hope that his heart will decide to start beating once again.’

It didn’t.

Birth of a Myth: How Ivermectin Got Mixed Up With COVID-19

Dr. Carlos Chaccour, PhD

Dr. Carlos Chaccour, PhD, Assistant Research Professor, Barcelona Institute for Global Health, and Chief Scientific Officer of the Unitaid-funded BOHEMIA consortium project in Barcelona, Spain, is a scientist and researcher whose primary area of scientific interest is with Emerging Viruses, Malaria, and Coronavirus.

For the last 10 years, his most intense professional focus has been upon “the development of mosquito-killing drugs (endectocides) as complementary vector control strategy for malaria control and elimination.” In fact, the specific area in which he “obtained his PhD in 2015, was working with slow-release ivermectin formulations for that purpose.”

Dr. Joe Brew, PhD

In May 2020, he, along with fellow researchers  Dr. Joe Brew, PhD, a Data Scientist, Epidemiologist, and Economist; and Dr. Alberto García-Basteiro, MD, Assistant Research Professor at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health, ISGlobal in Barcelona, Spain, and physician at the International Health Service of Hospital Clínic, authored “Ivermectin and COVID-19: How a Flawed Database Shaped the Pandemic Response of Several Latin-American Countries.”

Dr. Alberto Garcia-Basteiro, MD

Their critical examination was in response to efforts by healthcare professionals and officials in the nations of Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Colombia who suddenly began taking an unusual interest in ivermectin, and using it on COVID-19 patients in their respective nations. Those nations’ officials were motivated, in large part by a since-retracted, and debunked manuscript initially placed on a “preprint server,” a website which publishes online, a full draft of research which has not yet been validated by the peer-review process. The respected healthcare/medical science journal Lancet, which has been continually published since 1823 with the objective to improve people’s lives, states that “a preprint is a version of a scientific manuscript posted on a public server prior to any formal peer review.”

Specifically, Dr. Chaccour and colleagues examined antiviral research published June 2020 in Science Direct entitled “The FDA-approved drug ivermectin inhibits the replication of SARS-CoV-2 in vitro,” i.e., in glass, such as test tube, beaker, or Petri dish, which was performed early in April by Australian researchers Leon Caly, Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory, Royal Melbourne Hospital, At the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, Victoria, Australia, Julian D. Druce, Senior Medical Scientist in the Virus Identification Laboratory of the Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory, et al, which “used concentrations that are not readily achieved in the human body” but raised enough interesting questions that further investigation was warranted, and because of “the drug’s excellent safety profile and lack of effective treatment for COVID-19.”

In response to their critical examination, and genuine questions about the techniques and methods, they wrote a guest editorial entitled “Ivermectin and COVID-19: Keeping Rigor in Times of Urgency” which was

“Kill All The Republicans.”

If coronavirus disease could talk, that’s what it would say.

Because right now, those whom have resisted getting vaccinated are largely conservative White Republican men.

A recent poll conducted by Monmouth University’s Polling Insitute found that 73% of self-identified Republicans oppose face mask and social distancing guidelines in their state, while 16% of those who remain vehemently opposed to getting the vaccine “believe Covid is a hoax or they are unlikely to get infected. Which means there may be very little that can be done at this point to change their minds,” said Patrick D. Murray, Founding Director of Monmouth University’s independent Polling Institute. Among those who admit they will not get the vaccine if they can avoid it, 70% either identify with or lean toward the Republican Party, and only 29% of Republicans blame vaccine opposition for most of the recent rise in COVID-19 infection cases.

Ron DeSantis (b.1978), Republican Governor of Florida since January 8, 2019, barely defeated Andrew Gillum, the Democratic Mayor of Tallahassee by a margin of 0.4%. At age 42, he is the nation’s youngest governor.

And they’re dying like flies in places like Florida, where Republican Governor Ron DeSantis — who himself is vaccinated with the Johnson & Johnson/Janssen single-dose viral vector-type vaccine — has steadfastly refused to do anything to protect his state’s citizens from the ravages of coronavirus disease infection, and has staunchly refused mandating face/nose covering use in public spaces, and even recently signed an executive order PROHIBITING school districts from requiring staff and students to wear protective masks.

That, as news of findings published by the CDC of an outbreak in Provincetown, Barnstable County, Massachusetts – a resort town and summertime getaway location on the tip of Cape Cod – occurring among fully-inoculated individuals after participating in summer events and large public gatherings between July 3 and July 17, in which 469 cases of COVID-19 infection were identified among Massachusetts residents who had traveled there, of which 346 (74%) occurred in fully vaccinated persons. Testing identified the Delta variant in 90% of specimens from 133 patients.

The “great unknown” — even among researchers — throughout development, testing, and emergency approval of the Moderna and Pfizer/BioNtech mRNA type vaccines, and the Johnson & Johnson/Janssen viral vector type vaccine has been:

COVID-19 Vaccination Resistance: Let Them Die — So Close Yet So Far Away

Let them die.

I’m sick and goddamn tired of their INSANE conspiratorial bullshit.

LET THEM DIE.

“Actions have consequences,” they’re frequently fond of saying, and then perversely take some sense of pride in portraying themselves as “victim” — a role which they have gleefully derided and mocked over the years as they attempt to justify their various perverse positions.

Now, they want to assume that very role.

LET THEM DIE.

They mistakenly think that they’ll be some kind of pretend political “hero” for their imaginary “lost cause.” Heroes almost always end up dead.

LET THEM DIE.

Everyone has a proverbial and practical expiration date, and just like milk and other dairy products, which can be soured relatively quickly or ruined prematurely if not properly cared for by refrigeration, so can the human body be ruined if improperly cared for by smoking, excessive consumption of food and/or beverage alcohol intake, sedentary lifestyle, lopsided dietary intake, regular consumption of nutritionally deficient foods, and other forms of improper and inadequate care, including deliberate neglect, and wanton failure to prevent malfunction and disease.

LET THEM DIE.

Physicians cannot, and will not, treat patients who refuse to cooperate with the course of treatment.

LET THEM DIE.

Engrave upon their headstones “s/he wanted, and chose to die from a preventable disease.”

LET THEM DIE.

LET THEM DIE.

---

In The Last Mile Of Our Battle Against COVID, The Enemy Is Us

Time may have come for more aggressive tactics on vaccinations.

In a scene from the movie “The Matrix,” revered by conspiracy theorists, the hero is offered a choice between the blue pill of comforting illusions and the red pill that offers nothing more than the truth.

The correct answer, of course, is the red pill that reveals the hidden forces that control the world.

These days, Americans are being offered an even more fateful binary choice.

Do you maintain the comforting illusion that

Smart Phones and Dumb People

Recently, I got to wondering about why some folks haven’t fully embraced the COVID-19 vaccines available in the United States. “Fully embraced” as in a significant majority of folks who have received it nationwide. That includes the naysayers, most folks in the South, certain Republicans, and some others… including — believe it, or else — some healthcare professionals. Anti-vaxxers are excluded, of course, because they’re against every vaccine. Idiots.

Would that there were one for stupidity. It should be mandatory at birth, and for everyone. Maybe if it were called a “smart pill,” that’d help. We have “smart phones,” and plenty of dumb people. It just isn’t right.

But I digress.

Some folks have said that they don’t “trust” the vaccines, for one reason, or another. So far, no one’s been abducted by aliens after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine, and that I’m aware, no one’s hair has tried to call Bill Gates after they received a COVID-19 vaccine. But Congress and the Department of Defense have released videos of what we once called “UFOs” – Unidentified Flying Objects. Now they’re called UAPs — Unidentified Aerial Phenomena. But I still like UFO. Still, no one knows what they are. Hence, the name. And quite fortunately, there’ve been no reports of folks growing tails and swinging from trees afterward, either. But doubtless, some have eaten bananas. Point for lower primates: 15 – love.

So we’ve moved from the known (stupid folks who don’t get vaccinated), to the unknown (mysterious video imagery of UFOs making some very impressive maneuvers).

But what is it that we don’t know? And how do we know what we know? As the late Donald Rumsfeld, then Secretary of Defense once said

COVID-19 Update: More Need To Die

Update Sunday, 04 July 2021: Martha Raddatz, co-host of ABC’s “This Week” news program, interviewed Democrat-turned-Republican West Virginia Governor Jim Justice about his state’s low vaccination compliance rate which aired today. The following dialogue occurred:

Raddatz: “Do you really think those people who aren’t vaccinated — who as you said may be more conservative, may not want anybody in their business — are really ever going to get vaccinated? What could actually put them over the edge to want it at this point?”

Justice: “Well, Martha, I hate to say this, is what would put them over the edge, is an awful lot of people die. The only way that’s going to happen is a catastrophe that none of us want.”

Raddatz: “Let’s go back to who’s not getting vaccinated. The statistics will show it’s poverty, race and you just look at the map — it’s a lot of red states.”

Justice: “Well, I mean, there’s some truth to that and everything. Because, you know, the red states probably have a lot of people that, you know, are very, very conservative in their thinking. And they think, ‘Well, I don’t have to do that.’ But they’re not thinking right.

“When it really boils right down to it, they’re in a lottery to themselves. We have a lottery, you know, that basically says, ‘If you’re vaccinated, we’re going to give you stuff.’ Well you’ve got another lottery going on, and it’s the death lottery.”

---

The “Angel of Death” has much more work to do
—
with children, teens, and adults.

With at least 33,677,411 confirmed cases – the most in all the world – at least 605,010 known U.S. deaths – again, the most in all the world – untold numbers of hospitalizations, and the perilously close collapse of the U.S. healthcare system, human suffering from the novel Coronavirus Disease-2019 (SARS-CoV-2) has not nearly reached its apex in the United States.

MORE people – particularly, and especially children – need to suffer and die.

It’s difficult to feel any scintilla of sorrow, or even scant sympathy for stupid people wantonly negligent and abusive parents who willingly expose their children and themselves to diseases and other preventable dangers.

That big ol’ knot at the end of your neck is supposed to be used for something else other than a hat rack. And for those who claim faith, especially the so-called “Evangelical” community, you dishonor your Maker when you refuse to exercise any brainpower – which is a gift to you, to Creation, and all of humanity, even though you don’t act like it, and wastefully squander it.

And, your fatalistic fait accompli that your “God will provide,” or surreptitious claims that infection and/or resultant death “is God’s will” is not merely baneful, pernicious, and malignant, it is wholly, fully, and entirely contrary to good and common sense, and orthodox theology.

In other words, you’re AFU – All Fucked Up. Soon enough, you’ll be FUBAR’d – Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition.

So-called “American exceptionalism” isn’t so “exceptional” – especially among Republicans, Trump voters, and other such idiots morons.

So, please…whatever you ilk decide to do, PLEASE, DO NOT GET VACCINATED – not yourself, not your children, and BY ALL MEANS, NOT just against COVID-19, but against ANY disease.

“Actions have consequences,” I believe is the saying.

Yet so do inactions.

And “tough love” to you.

Thoughts and prayers…

Thoughts and prayers.

---

Nearly 100 Teens & Adults COVID-19 Positive At Illinois Church Summer Camp

Crossing Camp, a Christian summer camp operated for children and teens in west central Illinois near Rushville, in rural Schuyler County, has been forced to close prematurely this year following a COVID-19 “outbreak” which has so far infected very nearly 100 children, teens, and adults across 3 states.

Crossing Camp is owned and operated by an independent Protestant, Evangelical multi-campus church called “The Crossing” which main campus is in Quincy, IL, and has attendance of approximately 10,000 members weekly on several campuses in Illinois, Missouri and Iowa.

The entire camp, their staff, and all guests are now considered “super spreaders” after at least 50 COVID-19 cases were first confirmed June 23 by Pike County Public Health officials with the Health Department after camp members’ traveled to a nearby conference, which became the super spreader event.

The day prior, Tuesday, June 22, 2021, the Schuyler County Health Department notified the public about a super spreader exposure event to the COVID-19 virus at the camp which occurred from June 13 through June 17.

Two days later, on June 24, the Adams County Health Department was alerted to a COVID-19 super spreader exposure event in Adams County where a conference sponsored by The Crossing church was held on June 18th and 19th. It was the second such public health warning directly associated with The Crossing church.

USA Today was among the first to report the massive infection that spread among children and has left one teen hospitalized so far, news which has since “gone viral” and been reported by numerous news outlets.

The Schuyler County Health Department told CNN that their Public Health officials had worked with camp staffers “to provide guidance and mitigate the situation.”

The Illinois Department of Health (IDPH) first found that 85 attendees and volunteers at Crossing Camp tested positive for COVID-19, and that only a “handful” of campers and volunteers had received any vaccine against the disease. Since the first report, the number of infected people has since increased to 96, and public health officials expect an untold number more.

State Public Health records indicate that Indiana’s Schuyler and Adams counties, where Crossing Camp and The Crossing conference are located, only have a 40% COVID-19 vaccination rate, while statewide in Illinois, only 46.1% of the population is fully vaccinated.

IDPH Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike, MD, issued a Public Health statement addressing the spread of Coronavirus Disease among children and teens which stated in part that,

Houston, TX Hospital System To Fire Employees Who Refuse COVID-19 Vaccination

Houston Methodist Hospital, a not-for-profit 8-hospital system – 4 of which are ANCC Nursing Magnet status accredited – and academic medical center, with over 2502 beds in the Houston, Texas metro area, has publicly announced that they will fire any employee who refuses to get a COVID-19 vaccination.

The Houston Press and Houston Chronicle reported today, Thursday, 22 April 2021, that Bob Nevens, the hospital chain’s Director of Corporate Risk and Insurance, and Jennifer Bridges, a Houston Methodist Registered Nurse at the system’s Baytown facility, are on schedule to be fired soon if they don’t comply by obtaining a COVID-19 vaccine within the hospital system’s deadline of June 7, 2021.

Dr. Marc L. Boom, MD, the hospital system’s CEO, had the idea to require all employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19 in order to keep their jobs, and offered $500 incentive bonuses to any employee who demonstrated proof of vaccination. Houston Methodist was the first hospital system nationally to make COVID-19 vaccination mandatory for employees.

Houston Methodist Hospital

And to this point, a clear majority – 84% – of the hospital system’s 26,000 employees have received at least 1 COVID-19 vaccine dose as of Tuesday this week, according to Houston Methodist’s Director of Public Relations Stefanie Asin.

Houston Methodist’s Human Resources Department has stated that the hospital system will consider requests from employees who don’t want to be vaccinated for medical or for religious reasons.

However, neither Mr. Nevens nor Nurse Bridges are refusing COVID vaccination on those grounds. And neither Mr. Nevens, who is a 10-year hospital system employee, nor Nurse Bridges, who is a 7-year employee, consider themselves “anti-vaxxers,” and both have for many years received the annual influenza vaccine.

Mr. Nevens and Nurse Bridges have both said that their reluctance to receive COVID-19 vaccinations arises fromtheir concerns with the vaccines’ emergency approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, rather than the more well-known and much lengthier standard, traditional, and much more well-known approval process.

Nurse Bridges said that as a Registered Nurse, “I’ve taken every vaccine you’re ever supposed to take. We just want more

Republican Anti-Maskers Behaving Badly

Yes, we all know that they’re jerkwads.

They also believe that the moon is made of green cheese, and that POS45 won re-election. That’s why he’s not in the White House – he’s on permanent vacation pooping into one of his golden toilets at his Palm Beach, FL resort, and playing golf. Because that’s what winners do, right?

And lie about practically everything. He’s a liar, so that almost goes without saying.

He deceived the American public – or, at least attempted to deceive the American public – about getting a vaccination against COVID-19 before leaving the White House.

• Trump Received COVID Vaccine at White House in January
by Alayna Treene, March 1, 2021

• Trump Privately Received The Coronavirus Vaccine While He Was President In January
by Oma Seddiq, March 1, 2021, 3:30 PM

• Trump Vaccinated In January After Claiming He Was ‘Immune’ To COVID-19
by Jemima McEvoy, March 1, 2021, 03:34pm EST

• Donald And Melania Trump Received COVID Vaccine At The White House In January
by Jim Acosta and Caroline Kelly, Updated 5:04 PM ET, Mon March 1, 2021

• Trump Received COVID-19 Vaccine at White House in January, Sources Say
by Weijia Jiang, Arden Farhi, March 2, 2021 / 7:08 AM /

• Trump Got Vaccinated Secretly, Because Otherwise He Might Have Helped the Country
by Ryan Bort, March 1, 2021, 7:19PM ET

• Trumps Received COVID-19 Vaccines at White House in January
by Brooke Singman, March 2, 2021

• Trump Received COVID Vaccine at White House in January
by Alayna Treene, Updated March 1, 2021

• Donald & Melania Trump Face Backlash For Getting COVID Vaccine After Claiming Virus‘Isn’t That Bad’
by Jason Brow, March 2, 2021 9:30AM EST

That’s what true leadership looks like, eh?

But about the a-holes who spread disease in America…

They’re selfish SOBs.

And besides that, they’re stupid.

That’s all there is to it.

Period.

End of conversation.

Read these two latest articles about the morons who sadly, are our neighbors.

Kelly Yamanouchi, of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution wrote this recent story about the fiends who attempt to fly the friendly skies without wearing face protection:

The Federal Aviation Administration is

CORONAVIRUS may NEVER “Go Away”

Welcome to the “new” reality.

But, just for a moment, let’s play “What if?”

What if the United States’ failed response (because of the inactions and deliberate failures of the previous administration) was the primary cause of the mutated, more virulent variants?

It’s entirely plausible.

Otherwise, how to explain that the United States, with the world’s 3rd most populous nation – China and India each have WELL OVER 1 BILLION MORE – has ABSOLUTELY THE WORLD’S WORST COVID-19 INFECTION RATE?

Other nations, most notably New Zealand, have had phenomenal success in keeping the disease at bay, relatively speaking, as have a few other nations, including China, India, Greenland, Australia, other Scandinavian nations, and… well, you get the picture.

Perhaps there should’ve been a sign:

Choose One: Your Life, or Your Freedom.

---

“When Will It End?” : How A Changing Virus Is Reshaping Scientists’ Views On COVID-19

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-variants-insight/when-will-it-end-how-a-changing-virus-is-reshaping-scientists-views-on-covid-19-idUSKBN2AV1T1

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Chris Murray, a University of Washington disease expert whose projections on COVID-19 infections and deaths are closely followed worldwide, is changing his assumptions about the course of the pandemic.

Murray had until recently been hopeful that

How To Quickly Vaccinate Everyone

This morning, bright and early around 0300 (that was the timestamp upon it, I was blissfully asleep then), I received an email from a friend and his better half whom are expats in Kitahiroshima on the island prefecture of Hokkaido, in northernmost Japan, near where her parents reside.

He wrote in part that “Vaccinations for coronavirus have started here but only for those with the highest priority (which makes sense).”

In that message, he also included a copy of an email communique from the United States Department of State which read in part, “The United States Government does not plan to provide COVID-19 vaccinations to private U.S. citizens overseas.”

In my reply, I wrote in part,

Outgoing CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield, MD is a FAILURE as a leader.

Dr. Robert R. Redfield, MD – 18th Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

But allow me to be more explicit.

Dr. Robert R. Redfield, MD is a goddamn moron for whom I have no professional respect.

Why do I write that?

Like his soon-to-be former boss – the outgoing 45th President – he is, and remains, an ineffectual (mis)leader, under whose oversight the agency, like America, has languished, and suffered significant loss. Furthermore, also like his soon-to-be former boss – the outgoing 45th President – he refuses to accept responsibility for any of it.

The outgoing President, himself an utterly incompetent goddamn know-it-all moron, has a knack and penchant for identifying and naming the most utterly incompetent boobs to important positions within the administration.

Does that mean Redfield is a “most utterly incompetent boob”?

Not necessarily.

Of course, if you’ve been paying the least bit of attention for the past year, or so, you’d know the moronic and utterly idiotic things he’s done, and the equally moronic and contradictory things he’s said to justify, in response to the coronavirus pandemic in the United States.

But here below, read what he said recently in an interview with NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly on All Things Considered. • [Commentary in italics, within brackets, preceded with a •, following Redfield’s remarks.]

Outgoing CDC Director Warns Of Pandemic’s Peak:
“We’re About To Be In The Worst Of It”

January 15, 20216:07 PM ET
Heard on All Things Considered
by Mary Louise Kelly

Mary Louise Kelly: “Why has the U.S. done so much worse than the rest of the world?”

Robert Redfield: “I think this virus has a unique ability to have differential pathogenesis in different people. And what it really does is it exploits the underlying health condition of the individual it infects. And so, I would argue one of the reasons we’re having more significant death in this country than, say, Sweden is because unfortunately, the underlying health conditions — with obesity, diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease and the significant health disparities that we have in these illnesses in our nation — haven’t been effectively addressed.”
• [Pass the buck, please. There is EXACTLY ONE research paper in the entire National Library of Medicine with the subject “differential pathogenesis” in its title which is about COVID-19: Molecular Aspects of COVID-19 Differential Pathogenesis. The gist of the paper’s findings is that a type of the female hormone estradiol increases the levels of Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme 2 (ACE2), and that ACE2 apparently has some role in preventing severity of symptoms associated with COVID-19 infection, although, “ACE2 expression is dramatically reduced with aging in both genders. The levels of ACE2 expression, which could be sex- and age-dependent, have a protective role against lung and kidney injuries that could impact the severity of COVID-19 illness in male vs. females and old vs. young individuals.” As well, TMPRSS2, a cellular transmembrane protease, has a role in the severity of the disease, insofar as the “expression levels of TMPRSS2 protein are regulated by levels of androgen and androgen receptors … women and children have a lower level of androgen and androgen receptors than men, and therefore, TMPRSS2 could play a potential role in the severity of COVID-19 pathogenesis in men.” The study’s authors also write that, “it could be possible that the expression levels of ACE2 and TMPRSS2 impact virus infectivity and pathogenesis among different groups of individuals, considering the variation in the expression levels in older men compared to the women and children.” It is well known that individuals with comorbidities of hypertension, diabetes mellitus, heart diseases, and cerebrovascular disease, are at increased risk for poor outcomes, and increased risk of mortality, if infected with COVID-19, and the authors specifically state that the treatments for such conditions may very well place such individuals at increased risk for poor outcomes by writing that they “could be linked to the ACE2 function during SARS-CoV-2 infection and the cardio-metabolic treatments that may interfere withACE2–virus interaction.” The study’s authors conclude that, “variations in the expression levels of SARS-CoV-2 receptors and co-receptors, due to physiological and co-morbidity conditions, could impact the differential pathogenesis of COVID-19.” Contrary to what Dr. Redfield says, the virus does NOT have “a unique ability to have differential pathogenesis in different people.”]

Kelly: “But in terms of how the U.S. has responded, in terms of how the CDC has responded … are you able to defend the Trump administration’s record on this as anything other than a catastrophic failure?”

Redfield: “Well, I’m actually very proud of the response that CDC has done. I think if I have one criticism that

Trump Death Count Wednesday, January 13, 2021

380,821

Bet you never thought you’d be seeing this, did you?

And yet, here we are.

Because of the Loser in Chief/Liar in Chief, America is f**ked.

India, which has over 1 BILLION MORE people than the United States (which has 330 Million+), has 10,495,147 cases of COVID-19 while America has OVER TWICE as many – 22,849,962.

Let that sink in for a moment.

India, which has 300% MORE people than the United States, has LESS THAN HALF the number of cases America does.

America has OVER 117% MORE cases than India.

Because of his, and his administration’s utter ineptitude and incompetence, our nation is closing in on 400,000 Americans who have died from COVID-19… all unnecessarily.

When ebola popped up on the global public health radar, the Obama administration didn’t allow it to spread globally. And yet, what did the Loser in Chief/Liar in Chief do when faced with a possible Public Health crisis?

He cut practically ALL monies allocated for biological terrorism, and pandemic response, and eliminated practically ALL the offices, agencies and departments charged with protecting the American people.

And then, what else did he do?

Banana Republican Newt Gingrich Announces Move To La-La Land

Newt Gingrich, Georgia’s original nutty buddy, all-around hypocrite, liar, and one of the original Banana Republicans, recently used his quill to conjure up an OpEd to the right-wing newspaper Washington Times in which he falsely claimed in part that, “The entire elite liberal media lied about the timeline of the COVID-19 vaccine. They blamed President Trump for the global pandemic even as he did literally everything top scientists instructed. In multiple debates, the moderators outright stated that he was lying about the U.S. having a vaccine before the end of the year (note Vice President Mike Pence received it this week). If Americans had known the pandemic was almost over, that too was likely the difference in the election.”

FACT: Regarding “the timeline of the COVID-19 vaccine,” Moderna had a coronavirus vaccine designed January 13, 2020, TWO DAYS after the genome was published internationally online.

Moderna developed their vaccine only two days after the genetic sequence had been publicized internationally by Chinese researcher Professor Dr. Yong-Zhen Zhangm Ph.D. His humanitarian act of scientific generosity resulted in him being temporarily forced out of his lab.

Moderna’s vaccine design only took one weekend to develop at their Massachusetts facilities.

In fact, Moderna had completed development of their COVID-19 vaccine mRNA-1273 before the Chinese government had acknowledged the disease was transmitted by human-to-human means, and more than a week before the first confirmed coronavirus case in the United States – January 21.

And by the time the first American coronavirus death was reported a month later, on February 29, Moderna’s mRNA-1273 coronavirus vaccine had already been manufactured and shipped to the National Institutes of Health to begin its Phase I clinical trial.

All of that was long before the President had made any announcement about his “Operation Warp Speed,” the public-private partnership to develop a coronavirus vaccine, and yet even 2 months before Bloomberg News reported on April 29 that such a plan was in the works.

Gingrich then falsely claims that,

Can you survive on $4.50/day? The Banana Republicans think you can.

$600?

Really?

For 9 months?

The POTUS has suddenly come out of his hidey hole and said that The People need more, and that

What We Don’t Know About COVID-19 CAN Hurt Us… And Probably Will

If you think healthcare is expensive now, wait until ALL those with COVID-19 start getting sick as they age, after the Banana Republicans trash the “preexisting condition” healthcare provision in the PPACA, and insurance companies return to “cherry picking” and denials.

Won’t that be more fun than a barrelful of monkeys?!

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COVID-19’s Long-Term Harms: What We Don’t Know Yet Could Hurt Us

Infectious diseases have afflicted humans for hundreds of thousands of years, shaping communities and cultures. The ways pathogens affect human health have been studied extensively for decades. We have learned that any given microorganism can be protean, or capable of changing, in its manifestations — from patients who experience no symptoms at all, to those who become acutely ill yet recover fully, to those who suffer chronic infection and live with the ever-present threat of deteriorating health.

In stark contrast, we have coexisted only one year with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), and are still learning the diverse ways this novel virus affects human health. During the first week of December, the National Institutes of Health convened a two-day workshop involving public health officials, medical researchers, and patients dedicated to discussing the post-acute health consequences of COVID-19. One of the primary goals of the meeting — to provide a definition for the long-term sequelae, or health consequences and symptoms, following acute COVID-19 — proved elusive. Variably termed “chronic COVID,” “long haulers” and “long COVID” by physicians, patients and the media, whatever you call it, the protracted symptom complex following COVID-19, seemingly affecting all organ systems, has emerged as an unanticipated, devastating outcome of the pandemic.

The earliest data out of Europe and the United States painted a concerning picture: The majority of hospitalized patients remained symptomatic weeks or months after their acute illness, the most common symptoms being fatigue and shortness of breath in approximately half of patients studied. Even patients who were never hospitalized had persistent symptoms several weeks later. Over ensuing months, the full gamut of persistent symptoms emerged, ranging from chronic fatigue, sleep disturbance, cognitive impairment, fast heart rates and exercise intolerance. The exact incidence of these symptoms and their time-course

Stupidity Reigns on Day 1 of Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccination

This is a PRIME EXAMPLE of STUPIDITY in the FDA, which should be ELIMINATED.

It’s also a prime example of stupid people.

You wouldn’t think stupid people would be in healthcare, would you?

And yet…

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StatNews.com
Labeling Confusion Led To Wasted Doses Of Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine
By Olivia Goldhill @OliviaGoldhill
December 16, 2020

With the COVID-19 vaccine in short supply, hospital pharmacists found themselves in the unexpected position of throwing away one in every six doses of the first Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines distributed this week in the United States.

The confusion came over labeling: The vaccine comes in vials labeled as containing enough for five doses. But pharmacists discovered that, after thawing and mixing the contents with a dilutent, each vial contained enough vaccine for six doses. Without explicit approval from the manufacturer, that final dose had to be discarded.

“It was overtly clear early on there’s some extra volume,” said Russell Findlay, Pharmacy Manager at University of Utah Health. His colleagues called Pfizer on Tuesday to ask if they could use the extra dose, said Findlay, but the company wouldn’t give a definitive answer.

Pharmacists and executives at several health care systems said

Cherokee Nation Winning War On COVID-19

Ah-yoh-gah (aka Little Foot) – Cherokee – 1875

The Cherokees are original residents of the American southeast region, particularly Georgia, North and South Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee.

Nearly half of Oklahoma rests on land of five tribes whose members were forced west along the Trail of Tears in the 1800s — an expanse with nearly 2 million residents. Eastern Oklahoma’s other tribes are the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Seminole and Cherokee nations.

The Cherokee Nation is a sovereign tribal government. Upon settling in Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma) after the Indian Removal Act, the Cherokee people established a new government in what is now the city of Tahlequah, Oklahoma. A constitution was adopted on September 6, 1839, 68 years prior to Oklahoma’s statehood.

Today, the Cherokee Nation is the largest tribe in the United States with more than 380,000 tribal citizens worldwide. More than 141,000 Cherokee Nation citizens reside within the tribe’s reservation boundaries in

Cherokee group preparing for a Stickball Game at Qualla Reservation in North Carolina – 1888

northeastern Oklahoma. Services provided include health and human services, education, employment, housing, economic and infrastructure development, environmental protection and more. With approximately 11,000 employees, Cherokee Nation and its subsidiaries are one of the largest employers in northeastern Oklahoma. The tribe had a more than $2.16 billion economic impact on the Oklahoma economy in fiscal year 2018.

The federally recognized tribes include the Cherokee Nation and the United Keetoowah Band, both in Oklahoma, and the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nation in North Carolina. The Cherokee were one of the five “Civilized Tribes” of the east who were removed in the 1830s to land in the Indian Territory of Oklahoma.

The federally recognized Cherokee Nation has a 7,000 square mile jurisdictional area in fourteen counties of Northeastern Oklahoma. It is not a reservation. The Eastern Band of Cherokee, also recognized by the federal government, holds 56,000 acres within the Qualla Boundary of western North Carolina.

Headquartered in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, the Cherokee Nation has a tribal jurisdictional area spanning 14 counties in the northeastern corner of Oklahoma.

The Cherokee Nation is the federally recognized government of the Cherokee people and has inherent sovereign status recognized by treaty and law. The seat of tribal government is the W.W. Keeler Complex near Tahlequah, Oklahoma, the capital of the Cherokee Nation. With more than 300,000 citizens, 9,000 employees and a variety of tribal enterprises ranging from aerospace and defense contracts to entertainment venues, Cherokee Nation is one of the largest employers in northeastern Oklahoma and the largest tribal nation in the United States.

To learn more, please visit: https://www.cherokee.org.
For additional information, see also: The Treaty That Forced the Cherokee People from Their Homelands Goes on View, by Dennis Zotigh; April 24th, 2019, 11:00AM – https://www.smithsonianmag.com/blogs/national-museum-american-indian/2019/04/24/treaty-new-echota/

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“They’ve been following the science”: How the Covid-19 pandemic has been curtailed in Cherokee Nation

While the United States flounders in its response to the coronavirus, another nation — one within our own borders — is faring much better.

With a mask mandate in place since spring, free drive-through testing, hospitals well-stocked with PPE, and a small army of public health officers fully supported by their chief, the Cherokee Nation has been able to curtail its Covid-19 case and death rates even as those numbers surge in surrounding Oklahoma, where the White House coronavirus task force says spread is unyielding.

Elsewhere in the U.S., tribal areas have been hit hard by the virus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that American Indian and Alaskan Native populations have case rates 3.5 times higher than that of white individuals. The Navajo Nation, where Covid testing, PPE, and sometimes even running water are in short supply, has seen nearly 13,000 cases and 602 deaths among its roughly 170,000 citizens. The Cherokee Nation, with about 140,000 citizens on its reservation in northeastern Oklahoma, has reported just over 4,000 cases and 33 deaths.

“It’s dire, but what in the world would it look like if we weren’t doing this work?’” said Lisa Pivec, senior director of public health for Cherokee Nation Health Services. Pivec leads a team that jumped into action in late February, holding coronavirus task force meetings twice a day, instituting procedures to screen thousands of employees, stockpiling PPE, protecting elders, ensuring food security, and educating residents in both English and Cherokee language. With no guidance on contact tracing available from the CDC early in the pandemic, Pivec researched the World Health Organization’s Ebola response to set up tracing protocols; after the first case appeared on the reservation March 24, she made many of the contact tracing calls herself.

She said the Cherokee Nation has seen no cases of workplace transmission; Sequoyah High School, with rapid testing and masks, reopened for in-person learning this fall; and elective medical and dental procedures have been widely restored.

The tribe’s Covid response meets the approval of global health leaders. “It’s very impressive. It’s a reminder of how much leadership matters and how even under difficult circumstances, with limited resources, you can make a huge difference,” said Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health. “It fits with what I’ve seen in the world. You see countries like Vietnam. They’re not a wealthy country, but they’ve been following the science and doing a great job.”

If the U.S. had acted as the Cherokee Nation did, “we would be doing so much better,” Jha added, “with tens of thousands of fewer deaths, and probably a much more robust economy.”

The Cherokee Nation mounted an earlier and more aggressive response than neighboring states that have waited months — and are still waiting — for a national response. Pivec and other Cherokee leaders remain incredulous at the continued lack of federal leadership.

“It’s as if Russia had invaded the U.S. and the federal government said, ‘Every county should fend for itself,’” Pivec said.

A citizen of the Cherokee Nation, Pivec has stewarded the tribe’s public health program for nearly 30 years; in 2016, she helped the tribe become the first to be

Free To Drive Drunk? Are Mask Refuseniks Any Different From Drunk Drivers

Laws punishing drunk, or impaired driving are based upon principles of public health and public safety. That is to say, laws forbidding and punishing drunk driving are based historically upon the damages, injuries, and deaths caused by those who have driven while intoxicated.

At some point, The People refused to be abused and victimized any longer, stood up, and resoundingly said ‘NO MORE!‘, and passed legislation making such behavior and associated acts a serious crime. In some states, it’s not uncommon to read of individuals charged with DUI, who are also charged with the felonies of either murder, or criminally negligent homicide in cases where their actions resulted in the death of another.

Have laws against DUI stopped the offense or eliminated the injuries, damages, and deaths associated with the same?

No, but they have so significantly reduced them to the extent that such offenses and their associated damages are now the exception, rather than the rule.

The same principle applies to tobacco use, and smoking. It is a known carcinogen, and its consumption and use is a well-documented cause of numerous types of cancers, associated diseases, suffering, and early death – most notably recently, renown guitarist Eddie Van Halen, who died of metastatic oral cancer contracted from smoking aged 65.

Consequently, taxes upon tobacco have been increased in many areas, and places where its consumption is permitted is severely limited.

And so, now, we have COVID to deal with. Fundamentally, as far as the net effect – death, damage, and destruction – how is that any different? Seriously. Well over 250,000 lives unnecessarily lost in LESS THAN THE SPACE OF A YEAR, and with well over 13,000,000 cases, the good ol’ USA is the world’s NUMBER 1 repository of COVID-19… by far!

Yaay!
Thanks (for nothing) Trump!

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COVID-19, Masks and the Freedom to Drive Drunk

By Andrew Koppelman, Opinion Contributor
11/29/20 03:00 PM EST

Does freedom mean the right to refuse to wear a mask during the COVID-19 pandemic?  Many Americans think so. It is President Trump’s most important legacy. Here’s one implication that is too little noticed: If that is what freedom means, then we owe drunk drivers an apology.

The idea is shaping our world. Ignoring urgent expert advice, an Idaho health board recently rescinded its mask mandate, while 100 new cases were reported in one day and the local hospital was running out of beds. (A couple of weeks later, it reversed itself and imposed the mandate.) The board member who led the change explained, “I agree we have a problem with this virus, but at the same time I object to the mandate the board passed because it restricts people’s right of choice and ability to comply or not comply under penalty of law.” Another member said, “I personally do not care whether anybody wears a mask or not. If they want to be dumb enough to walk out there and expose themselves or others to it, they can.” The story was reported in the Daily Beast under the headline, “This really happened.”

This is a new and unfamiliar conception of freedom. Some people, notably New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, have blamed libertarianism for this stuff, but the standard libertarian story is that people have the right to do what they want as long as they don’t hurt anyone else. Now we are told that they have a right of choice even if they do hurt other people.

Drunk drivers were once casually tolerated. After Mothers Against Drunk Driving was founded in 1980 by a woman whose 13-year-old daughter was killed by one, attitudes and laws both became harsher. The proportion of fatal crashes involving drunk drivers plunged, from 53 percent in 1982 to 34 percent in 1997. There were over 26,000 drunk driving deaths in 1982, and fewer than 11,000 in 2018. I believe universal mask-wearing would have had a comparable effect. An estimated 100,000 or more lives would have been saved.

But, if you’re concerned about masks’ infringement on individual liberty, then why endure DWI (driving while intoxicated) laws? Masks are a lot cheaper than the cabfare home from the tavern, and then there’s the

Papa Francesco Writes

Pope Francis: A Crisis Reveals What Is in Our Hearts

To come out of this pandemic better than we went in, we must let ourselves be touched by others’ pain.

By Pope Francis
Pope Francis is the head of the Catholic Church and the bishop of Rome.

November 26, 2020
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/26/opinion/pope-francis-covid.html

In this past year of change, my mind and heart have overflowed with people. People I think of and pray for, and sometimes cry with, people with names and faces, people who died without saying goodbye to those they loved, families in difficulty, even going hungry, because there’s no work.

Sometimes, when you think globally, you can be paralyzed: There are so many places of apparently ceaseless conflict; there’s so much suffering and need. I find it helps to focus on concrete situations: You see faces looking for life and love in the reality of each person, of each people. You see hope written in the story of every nation, glorious because it’s a story of daily struggle, of lives broken in self-sacrifice. So rather than overwhelm you, it invites you to ponder and to respond with hope.

Papa Francesco (It.), Pope Francis

These are moments in life that can be ripe for change and conversion. Each of us has had our own “stoppage,” or if we haven’t yet, we will someday: illness, the failure of a marriage or a business, some great disappointment or betrayal. As in the Covid-19 lockdown, those moments generate a tension, a crisis that reveals what is in our hearts.

In every personal “Covid,” so to speak, in every “stoppage,” what is revealed is what needs to change: our lack of internal freedom, the idols we have been serving, the ideologies we have tried to live by, the relationships we have neglected.

When I got really sick at the age of 21, I had my first experience of limit, of pain and loneliness. It changed the way I saw life. For months, I didn’t know who I was or whether I would live or die. The doctors had no idea whether I’d make it either. I remember hugging my mother and saying, “Just tell me if I’m going to die.” I was in the second year of training for the priesthood in the diocesan seminary of Buenos Aires.

I remember the date: Aug. 13, 1957. I got taken to a hospital by

We Can Do Better

Dorothea Lange. “Nipomo, Calif. March 1936. Migrant agricultural worker’s family.
Seven hungry children and their mother, aged 32. The father is a native Californian.” Gelatin silver print, 7 3/8 × 9 5/16″ (18.8 × 23.6cm). Farm Security Administration–Office of War Information Photograph Collection, Library of Congress

Hourly Wages
Dollar General: $8
Kroger: $10
Walmart: $11
CVS: $11
Home Depot: $11
Lowe’s: $12

2020 Profits
Dollar General: $1.4 billion
Kroger: $2 billion
Walmart: $15.6 billion
CVS: $6.2 billion
Home Depot: $10 billion
Lowe’s: $4.9 billion

U.S. workers need at least $15/hr and a union.

Per capita health care spending:
Norway: $6,647
United States: $11,072

Number of uninsured/under-insured:
Norway: 0
United States: 92 million

COVID-19 deaths:
Norway (population 5.3 million): 306
Louisiana (population 4.6 million): 6,260

Yes. It is time for Medicare for All.

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https://www.WashingtonPost.com/business/2020/11/18/food-stamps-medicaid-mcdonalds-walmart-bernie-sanders/

Federal Study: Millions of Full-Time Workers Rely on Federal Health Care and Food Assistance Programs – Walmart’s and McDonald’s Employees Lead the Way

by Eli Rosenberg
November 18, 2020 at 5:02 p.m. CST

Some of the biggest and most profitable companies in the United States, including Walmart and McDonald’s, pay their employees such low wages that significant numbers of them must turn to Federal food and medical assistance.

According to a new report from the Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan Congressional watchdog agency, made at the behest of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) there is a direct relationship between employers paying low wages and employees receiving the Federal assistance. The report examined February data from agencies in 11 states that administer the Federal programs Medicaid, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

Walmart was one of the top four employers of SNAP and Medicaid beneficiaries in every state. McDonald’s was in the top 5 of employers with employees receiving federal benefits in at least 9 states.

The GAO research found that in the 9 states that responded about SNAP benefits — Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Nebraska, North Carolina, Tennessee and Washington — Walmart was found to have employed about 14,500 people who were receiving benefits, followed by McDonald’s with 8,780. In six states that reported Medicaid enrollees, Walmart again topped the list, with 10,350 employees, followed by McDonald’s with 4,600.

In Georgia, for example, Walmart employed an estimated 3,959 workers who were on Medicaid — comprising an estimated 2.1% of the total of non-elderly, non-disabled people in the state who were receiving the benefit. McDonald’s was next on the list, employing 1,480 who received Medicaid, or 0.8% of the total of non-elderly, non-disabled people on the program.

In Oklahoma, 1,059 Walmart workers on Medicaid made up 2.8% of the state’s total, and McDonald’s was next, with 536 workers, or 1.4%.

In Arkansas, where Walmart was founded and maintains its global headquarters, 1,318 employees were receiving SNAP benefits — comprising 3.1% of the state’s total. McDonald’s was next on the list with 865 workers, which made for 2% of the state’s total.  And in Georgia, another 3% of SNAP recipients worked for Walmart.

The GAO report found that the next companies with large numbers of workers receiving federal benefits included Dollar Tree, Dollar General, Amazon, Burger King and FedEx. (Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)

In a statement by McDonald’s spokeswoman Morgan O’Marra, the company claimed

America, Steve Bannon Punk’d You

The article should instead be headlined:

“Former Hong Kong University Post-Doctoral Student And Chinese YouTuber Start False Coronavirus Rumor, Steven Bannon And Fugitive Chinese Billionaire Amplify Message”

-or-
perhaps the more succinct:

“America, Steve Bannon Punk’d You.”

 

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news.yahoo.com

How Steve Bannon and a Chinese Billionaire Created a Right-Wing Coronavirus Media Sensation

by Amy Qin, Vivian Wang and Danny Hakim
Friday, November 20, 2020, 7:10 AM CST

Dr. Li-Meng Yan wanted to remain anonymous. It was mid-January, and Yan, a researcher in Hong Kong, had been hearing rumors about a dangerous new virus in mainland China that the government was playing down. Terrified for her personal safety and career, she reached out to her favorite Chinese YouTube host, known for criticizing the Chinese government.

Within days, the host was telling his 100,000 followers that the coronavirus had been deliberately released by the Chinese Communist Party. He wouldn’t name the whistleblower, he said, because officials could make the person “disappear.”

By September, Yan had abandoned caution. She appeared in the United States on Fox News, making the unsubstantiated claim to millions that the coronavirus was a bioweapon manufactured by China.

Overnight, Yan became a right-wing media sensation, with top advisers to President Donald Trump and conservative pundits hailing her as a hero. Nearly as quickly, her interview was labeled on social media as containing “false information,” while scientists rejected her research as a polemic dressed up in jargon.

Her evolution was the product of a collaboration between two separate but increasingly allied groups that peddle misinformation: a small but active corner of the Chinese diaspora and the highly influential far right in the United States.

Each saw an opportunity in the pandemic to push its agenda. For the diaspora, Yan and her unfounded claims provided a cudgel for those intent on bringing down China’s government. For American conservatives, they played to rising anti-Chinese sentiment and distracted from the Trump administration’s bungled handling of the outbreak.

Both sides took advantage of the dearth of information coming out of China, where the government has refused to share samples of the virus and has resisted a transparent, independent investigation. Its initial cover-up of the outbreak has further fueled suspicion about the origins of the virus.

An overwhelming body of evidence shows that

Trumpvirus Death Count – Monday, October 19, 2020

As we draw in toward the close of the day, Monday, October 19, 2020, today’s Trumpvirus Daily Death Count is 220,095 220,110 at 2335 CST.

So… let’s put this in perspective, shall we?

ALL Deaths are Battle Deaths + In Theater Deaths, unless otherwise noted
Source: U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs

Deaths
Vietnam (1964-1975) = 58,220

World War I (1917-1918) = 53,402

Korean War (1950-1953) = 36,574

Mexican War (1846-1848) = 13,283

American Revolution (1775-1783) = 4435

War of 1812 (1812-1815) = 2260

Indian Wars (~1817-1898) = 1000

Spanish-American War (1898-1902) = 385

Desert Shield/Desert Storm (1990-1991) = 383

TOTAL = 168,942

Trumpvirus has KILLED 30.2784% MORE than ALL the COMBINED Battle and In Theater Deaths in 8 Major Wars in which America was involved.

FYI
Deaths
Civil War (1861-1865)
Union =

Wrongful Death Lawsuit Awaits Alabama

Scottie Alton Johnson, a 45-year old Alabama resident, and ward of the state’s prison system, died from complications from COVID-19 on August 1, 2020, according to autopsy results.

Records show that on July 31, authorities took him to a hospital nearest the Bullock Correctional Facility which is located in Union Springs, in Bullock County. Though authorities did not specify, Bullock County Hospital at 104 Bullock Drive, Union Springs, Alabama is less than 3 miles straight down the road, West from the prison.

He died August 1.

At the time of his admission to hospital, he was not thought to be infected with the novel coronavirus, and a COVID-19 test conducted upon his admission resulted negative.

A full autopsy was performed, and the Alabama Department of Corrections stated

Biden’s ABC Town Hall Ratings Trumps Trump’s NBC Town Hall

Trump Lost.

Joe Biden and ABC were the BIG WINNERS in Thursday night’s “split screen America” debate.

Biden’s Q & A Town Hall meeting Thursday, October 15, 2020 with voters was held in Philadelphia’s National Constitution Center with George Stephanopoulos moderating. Both men, and all attendees were more than adequately distanced for public health reasons.

Meanwhile, Trump’s Town Hall was conducted outdoors at the Perez Art Museum in Miami, and was moderated by NBC’s Savannah Guthrie, a Georgetown Law graduate who was distanced at least 12 feet from the President.

But it turns out NBC was played for a fool by the Manipulator in Chief.

Trump lost.

NBC lost.

After initially rejecting the Commission on Presidential Debates offer to conduct a “virtual” town hall, Trump reached out to NBC to hold the town hall style meeting on the same day and time slot as Joe Biden’s appearance in Philadelphia in a direct head-to-head viewership challenge to feed his fragile ego.

Yashar Ali, a contributor to New York Magazine and HuffPost wrote that several NBC employees were angered, and that “over a dozen NBC, MSNBC, and CNBC sources (talent and staff) and the frustration with and anger toward their employer for scheduling a town hall against Biden is palpable.”

Trump lost.

NBC lost.

NBC News agreed to put Trump before voters in a town hall style event on Thursday, October 15 – the same day as Biden’s scheduled town hall in Philadelphia – stipulating that beforehand, he must have submitted to an independent coronavirus test with the results reviewed by Dr. Anthony Fauci.

NBC said that Trump was administered a coronavirus test Tuesday by the National Institutes of Health, the results of which were reviewed by NIH Clinical Director Dr. Clifford Lane and Dr. Anthony Fauci, both who stated after reviewing the President’s medical records, that they had a high degree of confidence that the president was “not shedding infectious virus.”

But Trump’s COVID-19 test wasn’t the only thing reviewed.

AdWeek magazine reported that “Nielsen data released this afternoon

Trump’s 4-Stage Coronavirus Plan

Here is the Trump administration’s detailed plan for their response in the event of a widespread outbreak of coronavirus:

Stage I: We say,

Trumpvirus Death Count Saturday, 10 October 2020

This death count brought to you by:
The once Grand Old Party, who reminds you, Vote for Biden!

The GOP reminds you:
VOTE FOR BIDEN!

There are at least 214, 367 reasons to NOT vote for Trump.
Those are dead reasons.
There are 7,717,392 living reasons to NOT vote for the Liar in Chief.

Trump Move Guarantees American Economic Devastation

Alternate headline:
Trump Fucks Over America

“I have instructed my representatives to stop negotiating until after the election when, immediately after I win, we will pass a major Stimulus Bill that focuses on hardworking Americans and Small Business,” Tweeted his highness, the Twitterer in Chief, and Chief Twidiot on Twitter the day after returning from a weekend hospital stay at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center where he was treated for COVID-19.

His hypocrisy marks a 180° reversal from the weekend when Trump pushed for negotiators to reach an agreement, telling them to “GET IT DONE.”

The SOB in Chief just cut his own throat -and- that of every other GOPer in every down-ballot race in America.

He CONTINUES to shoot himself in the feet, and America in the head and back – execution style.

Expect a🌊BLUE🌊TSUNAMI🌊in November!!

By his intransigence, he has now set America on a guaranteed one-way course to GREAT DEPRESSION II.

And that EVEN AFTER Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell warned of PERMANENT economic damage if additional support was not forthcoming.

Trump in the Presidential office of Walter Reed

The move marks a risky gamble

Walking Into The Promised Land With COVID-19

I have maintained from Day One of the emergence of this pandemic back in late December 2019, early January 2020, that there will be a “golden thread” running through it all, and that being, is that we are unwittingly marching into the veritable “promised land” of health, which is longevity, through improved well-being. The lessons learned in this coronavirus pandemic are teaching us, by experience, what we need to know to improve human health, and by extension, longevity.

Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, MD, Director, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland

It will, of course, emerge as a secondary by-product of treatment, and prevention, at the tertiary level. And for that, we can all be grateful.

So, while at present, we (at least the wise ones) are taking every conceivable precaution to prevent contracting the disease, there remain stubbornly stupid individuals whom insist on ignoring science (like the President and many Republicans) and the expert recommendations of those whose life work has revolved around studying infectious disease, the most notable among which is Dr. Anthony Fauci, MD, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, in Bethesda, Maryland.

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Why Do Some People Weather Coronavirus Infection Unscathed?

August 24, 2020 by Emily Laber-Warren

One of the reasons Covid-19 has spread so swiftly around the globe is that for the first days after infection, people feel healthy. Instead of staying home in bed, they may be out and about, unknowingly passing the virus along. But in addition to these pre-symptomatic patients, the relentless silent spread of this pandemic is also facilitated by a more mysterious group of people: the so-called asymptomatics.

According to various estimates, between 20 and 45 percent of the people who get Covid-19 — and possibly more, according to a recent study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — sail through a coronavirus infection without realizing they ever had it. No fever or chills. No loss of smell or taste. No breathing difficulties. They don’t feel a thing.

Asymptomatic cases are not unique to Covid-19. They occur with the regular flu, and probably also featured in the 1918 pandemic, according to epidemiologist Neil Ferguson of Imperial College London. But scientists aren’t sure why certain people weather Covid-19 unscathed. “That is a tremendous mystery at this point,” says Donald Thea, an infectious disease expert at Boston University’s School of Public Health.

The prevailing theory is that

POTUS & FLOTUS Test POSITIVE For COVID-19

🎯BULLSEYE!!🦠☠️

The “October Surprise” is right on time!

Not to worry… a cup of bleach oughta’ clear it right up!🤣
Or some hydroxychloroquine.🏴‍☠️
Sarcasm purposely intended.

Why does this NOT surprise anyone – not even one iota?

When it comes to the matter of the eventuality of his infection, for quite some time numerous individuals have maintained that “the booms are getting closer,” a colloquialism meaning that sooner, or later, the “booms” will find their target.

It’s disturbing that

Trump-Biden Debate Number 1 Is Over

It’s OVER!

Thank goodness!

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“The angriest Presidential debate in American history.”

“A relentless attack on Joe Biden…”

“In the end, Biden ignored the rules as well.”

“What we got was a dogfight.”

“Mr Trump was far less honest than Mr. Biden.”

–– characterizations by the BBC on the First Trump v Biden Presidential Debate

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Despite the absence of fawning sycophants to which

Tragically Ironic, Poetic Justice Serves You Right

I hate to admit this, but I am practically at the point of saying, when it comes to so-called “anti-maskers” (who are most often Trump supporters and GOP types), and others who proudly flout and steadfastly refuse to wear any type of face mask thereby endangering the lives of others, and who deny that COVID-19 is a pernicious health threat to our nation’s people, and by extension to our national security, I am just about ready to say to them all – FUCK YOU. I hope you get it, and die. It would serve you right.

Their maliciously malignant behavior is not merely stupid, it is cruel, and inhumane.

Michael L. Parson is the 57th Governor of Missouri.

Yet, there comes a time when good will is exhausted, and there is nothing remaining for those who would otherwise need it the most. The dregs having been long drained from the bottom of the barrel of the milk of human kindness, it has become bone dry, and utterly bereft of anything but empty space – a yawning void, a catastrophic chasm of unimaginable vacuousness. Yet it was them who gleefully rejected all sound advice, and threw caution to the wind.

They might as well die.

It’s the classical Darwin theory – the survival of the fittest – at work.

That’s how utterly FED UP I am with the ignorance-promoting, anti-science nut jobs who loudly bray their ignorance like a donkey does its presence. Perhaps even more so.

And just yesterday, when I read the news that Missouri’s Republican Governor Mike Parson, a virulent anti-masker, along with his wife Teresa, tested POSITIVE for COVID-19, I thought that it serves him right. There is poetic justice in this world, and it’s often tragically ironic.

However, I hasten to add this:

The sowing of confusion and chaos in this matter is the work of America’s enemies, most notably, Russia.

And sadly, the American president (yes, like it, or not, he’s America’s President), has long played friendly with totalitarian regimes, again, most notably, Russia, long before he became the Misleader of the Free World, and Liar in Chief.

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Springfield News-Leader (Missouri)
https://www.news-leader.com/story/news/politics/2020/09/18/white-house-covid-19-advisors-urged-texas-style-mask-rule-missouri/5824275002/
Despite Parson’s Rejection, White House COVID Group Urged Texas-Style Mask Mandate Here
September 18, 2020 by Austin Huguelet
Gov. Mike Parson publicly rejected the idea of implementing a mask mandate in Missouri

WE DID IT!

Thanks… for nothing, Trump – you piece of shit.

Congratulations, Murka!

You did it!

You’ve
SURPASSED
the
200,000
Trumpvirus Death Count!

In a mere 8 months and 2 days, Trump’s

Trumpvirus Daily Death Count – 9/20/20 PM

199,474 – TOTAL U.S.A. COVID-19 Deaths

197,544 – TOTAL number of casualties – deaths, injuries, POWs, MIAs – from the Top Ten Major Civil War Battles of:

Gettyburg
Chickamauga
Spotsylvania Courthouse
Shiloh
Stones River
Antietam
First Battle of Bull Run
Second Battle of Bull Run
Fredricksburg
Cold Harbor

Civil War Battlefield Deaths – 204,100

Only 4,626 to go.

196,103 deaths on 9/16/20.

199,474 deaths on 9/20/20.

That’s an average of 843/day.

At that rate, we’ll surpass that figure in 5.48 days – by September 26.

At the current rate, Trumpvirus Deaths will ECLIPSE Civil War Battlefield Deaths

959,059 – TOTAL Global COVID-19 Deaths

Current as of Last Updated at (M/D/YYYY) 9/20/2020, 7:22 PM
via

We’re Getting Closer: Perspective On Trump’s COVID-19 Death Count

Let history be our guide.

It’s worse than the infamous Bataan Death March, a Japanese war crime of World War II in which an estimated 22,000 POWs at least, were killed or died.

Much worse.

Worse than the total casualties of the Battle of Stones River during the Civil War, with 24,000 injuries, deaths, and POWs/MIAs.

Worse also than casualties in the Battle of Shiloh, also during the Civil War, with 24,000, where blood flowed like water.

Worse even than casualties in the Civil War’s Battle of Spotsylvania Court House in 1864, which involved 30,000 lives.

Photo of the Chickamauga Battlefield from the Mathew Brady Photographs series, The Battle of Chickamauga, September 19 – 20, 1863, National Achives; https://catalog.archives.gov/id/524418 Confederate General Braxton Bragg’s Army of the Tennessee defeated forces from the Union’s Army of the Cumberland under Major General William Rosecrans in the Battle of Chickamauga in Georgia on September 19-20, 1863. However, Rosecrans’ forces were able to slip away to Chattanooga, and later relieved by forces under Ulysses S. Grant.

Worse than the Battle of Chickamauga, with 34,000 casualties in the Civil War in 1863.

And even much worse than the Battle of Gettysburg, with 51,000 casualties in 3 days of fighting.

And the Iraq War, with only 4576 deaths is but a mere pittance.

And the War in Afghanistan, where 2216 lives were lost, is exceedingly eclipsed.

• FIVE major Civil War Battles
• A Notorious World War II war crime
• Two modern wars

ALL COMBINED, it’s only 191,792.

And Trump has beat ’em all.

That’s because he always does the most in everything he’s ever done – so he says.

196,103.

That’s the cumulative total number of COVID-19 related deaths in the United States, as reported by Johns Hopkins University, as of 1023, Wednesday, 16 September 2020 .

3000.

That’s the number of people who died in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center twin towers, and the Pentagon.

6436.76% more have died under Trump’s watch,
than under Bush’s.

And only 16,832 more to go before we eclipse the total deaths in World War I (116,516), Vietnam War (58,209), and Korean War (36,574) combined – 211,299.

Here’s another number:

197,544.

The TOTAL number of casualties – deaths, injuries, POWs, MIAs – from the Top Ten Major Civil War Battles of:

Gettyburg
Chickamauga
Spotsylvania Courthouse
Shiloh
Stones River
Antietam
First Battle of Bull Run
Second Battle of Bull Run
Fredricksburg
Cold Harbor

196,103 is today’s Trump Death Count – Wednesday, 16 September 2020,
as of the 1023 update.

Only 1441 to go.

The next macabre marker for the Trump virus is Civil War Battlefield Deaths – 204,100.

That’s just 7,997 away.

We’re getting closer.

“And – we’re – we have it totally under control. It’s

Click here for our coronavirus response.

This now-iconic image of late country music legend Johnny Cash was made at his San Quentin Prison, California concert in 1969 by photographer Jim Marshall, who had said, “John, let’s do a shot for the warden.” The photo was relatively obscure until 1998 when Cash began working with legendary producer Rick Rubin to create Cash’s American Recordings album series, which revitalized his career shortly before his death, and introduced him to a new generation of fans in several musical genres. Rubin, who produced acts such as The Beastie Boys, Slayer, Metallica, and Tom Petty, had never produced a country artist, and quickly called it a “trendy scene” after being snubbed by Nashville. So he paid $20,000 for a full page ad in Billboard magazine which featured this image, and sarcastically read “American Recordings and Johnny Cash would like to acknowledge the Nashville music establishment and country radio for your support.”

Part of the tragic irony of this coronavirus ordeal is that in addition to the modest bailouts that have been given to Americans, and small businesses, they were also to the corporate community.

The need was tremendously underestimated, and much of the benefits, such as a boost to the unemployment compensation, concluded at the end of July… but the needs and the bills just kept coming. There was no reprieve for them, including the rent, and mortgage payments.

Banksters, you know… they love to tell you how much they love mama, babies, apple pie, and the girl next door, but when it comes time for the rubber to meet the road, suddenly, they’re the enemy who’d rather give you a shiv, than the time of day. After all, they have the money – and LOTS OF IT – and you don’t, so they call the tunes. So, pull yourself up by your bootstraps.

Now, if you think about it, that’s just a bizarre, and nonsensical maxim, because well… you’re standing in your boots, and pulling on the straps is a totally useless exercise. It’s like looking for a mythological sky hook, or a snuffleupagus.

But grit, and determination, you know. That’s the American way – and all sung to Frank Sinatra’s version of “(I did it) My Way.”

The reader should infer significant sarcasm in the remarks above.

However, there is no sarcasm in the following commentary.

In this present situation in which we find ourselves, BIG BUSINESS has, once again, made out like a bandit with the handouts given to them by Congress.

In their earnest desire to make things good for the American people, Congress has seen fit to include families and individuals this go ’round in the latest state-funded bailout of the failed economic system. And, that’s a good thing.

I purposely use the word “failed,” precisely because had it not failed, it would not have exposed the weaknesses inherent in it the way it was. But now that masses of people have “suddenly” discovered that they’re just a paycheck, or two, away from total financial ruin, and homelessness, it signifies that

Russia Announces WORLD’S FIRST COVID-19 Vaccine!

Well… they did it!

Russian coronavirus vaccine – A coronavirus vaccine developed in Russia shows safety, nad causes an antibody response in small human trials, according to research published in Lancet Friday, September 4, 2020.

Sputnik V has won!

So much for Trump’s “Operation Warp Speed.”

Russia has just handed Trump’s hat to him.

Twice.

They have developed TWO different versions of the vaccine.

Here are pertinent excerpts from the research published in The Lancet, the world’s leading, and among the oldest, scientific and medical journal.

“We developed a heterologous COVID-19 vaccine consisting of two components, a recombinant adenovirus type 26 (rAd26) vector and a recombinant adenovirus type 5 (rAd5) vector, both carrying the gene for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) spike glycoprotein (rAd26-S and rAd5-S). We aimed to assess the safety and immunogenicity of two formulations (frozen and lyophilised) of this vaccine.”

Note the first two words – “We developed.”

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)31866-3/fulltext#seccestitle10

“In conclusion, these data collectively show that the heterologous vaccine based on rAd26-S and rAd5-S is safe, well tolerated, and does not cause serious adverse events in healthy adult volunteers. The vaccine is highly immunogenic and induces strong humoral and cellular immune responses in 100% of healthy adult volunteers, with antibody titres in vaccinated participants higher than those in convalescent plasma. Unprecedented measures have been taken to develop a COVID-19 vaccine in Russia. Based on our own experience in developing vaccines against Ebola virus disease and MERS, the COVID-19 vaccine has been developed in a short time. Preclinical and clinical studies have been done, which has made it possible to provisionally approve the vaccine under the current

If Coronavirus Were Ebola, How Many Would Trump Have Killed?

Would You Trust Trump To Handle Ebola?

Why Trust SOCIAL SECURITY To Him?

“I just dropped in to see what condition my condition was in.”

So sang Kenny Rogers, in “Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)” in 1968 when he was part of the group Kenny Rogers and The First Edition.

It’s good to occasionally get a check up on oneself, or to perform – as much as possible – a self-checkup, or as some call it, “a check-up from the neck up.”

Today, the Congressional Budget Office released a report entitled “The Outlook for Major Federal Trust Funds: 2020 to 2030.”

The report may be downloaded free from this site, or from the CBO website.
On this site here:
Congressional Budget Office Report September 2020 – Major Federal Trust Funds Outlook 2020-2030

Or, from the CBO website here:
https://www.cbo.gov/system/files/2020-09/56523-Trust-Funds.pdf

The picture they paint is concerning.

Yet, it’s not as if we didn’t know it was coming… sooner, or later.

Kind of like the COVID-19 pandemic.

We’d been warned for years about the very real, and distinct possibilities of an outbreak of disease, and this POS45 President and his henchmen administration unwisely decided to heed bad advice given to them (most likely, issued at his heavy-handed, micromanaging god-like “expert-in-all-things” direction) and dismantled the offices and organizations, and their budgets, that were designed specifically to effectively mange such problems.

Remember: Unlike the novel coronavirus pademic, the SARS-CoV-2 which causes COVID-19, Ebola was NOT a problem in this nation, nor in the world at large, and its outbreak was contained to the immediate area precisely because of the wise actions of the previous administration. That’d be the Obama administration, in case you’ve developed amnesia, early-onset Alzheimer’s, or old-age dementia in the last 4 years… take your pick.

Just imagine if the coronavirus had been Ebola.

On second thought, don’t.

Be thankful it’s not worse… though it will likely get worse before it gets better.

The CBO report first methodically laid out an explanation about Federal Trust Funds, and then, began to discuss them one-by-one.

Fortunately, the report is easy to read, and to understand.

The report states that

Donald’s Daily Death Count

AT LEAST

183,068

KNOWN DEAD

FROM

COVID-19

BECAUSE OF

DONALD “DJ” TRUMP.

 

VERY NEARLY 6 MILLION INFECTED.

 

ALL BECAUSE OF TRUMP.

A Thoughtful Response To An Anonymous COVID-19 Post

A friend seeking my opinion had sent to me an anonymous post which I rather suspect is “making the rounds” on social media, which most likely is FaceBook. The following is my reply.

---

NOTE TO THE READER: For ease of reading, and for convenience sake, the anonymous author’s remarks are found in red, and my response is found [emboldened in black within brackets].

 

—//—

 

I did not write this but it’s exactly what i’ve been questioning.  This is what i want answers too.  We need to push “leaders” to give answers and make decisions that make sense long  term.    When does quality of life out weights the risk of a disease you have a 99.97% of getting?

Thank you to whoever wrote this.

******

What is the end game with the ‘rona? Anyone? 🦠

[NOTE: The basis for the practical entirely of the argument made in the author’s “rant” is hopelessness, helplessness, quitting in exasperation, and not even trying.] 

 

What is the magic formula that is going to allow us to sound the “all clear?” [There is NO “magic formula.”] Is it zero cases? For a while, the goal was to simply “flatten the curve,” but now that we are disconnecting utilities for gatherings in California, setting up check points in New York, and recommending goggles (what’s next?), it seems as if there is, in fact, no end game. And, truthfully, the only way that we will see numbers drop is if we cease testing and stop reporting. [That is a blatantly asinine, and ignorant remark. It’s like telling people if we stop testing for pregnancies, and counting births, the population will decline.] Keep in mind that hundreds of thousands have shown up to be tested, registered, left due to long waits, and still come up positive when they received their results.🤷🏼‍♀️[That remark suggests that tests are fabricated then falsified – that the results are fraudulent – and that a wholesale deceptive criminal enterprise exists throughout the entire testing chain, everywhere in all locations nationwide.]

 

This young girl in Bangladesh was infected with smallpox in 1973. Freedom from smallpox was declared in Bangladesh in December, 1977 when a WHO International Commission officially certified that smallpox had been eradicated from that country.

Is it a vaccine💉? It took 25 years for a chicken pox vaccine to be developed. [It seems as if the writer is beginning to understand the complexity and magnitude of the problem of vaccine development. The first varicella zoster vaccine was tested in Japan in 1974, and approved by the Japanese government in 1986 – a span of 12 years. The FDA approved a varicella vaccine in 1995, and in 1996 the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) voted to formally approve the vaccine for widespread use.] The smallpox inoculation was discovered in 1776 [Dr. Edward Jenner, MD, developed the first smallpox vaccine (using cowpox) in 1796.] and the last known natural case was in 1977. [SEE EXTENDED COMMENTS FOLLOWING THIS PARAGRAPH] We have a flu vaccine that is only 40 to 60% effective (that’s generous- the last two years it was more like 20-25%) [Influenza vaccines are developed in advance of the annual “flu season” using statistical inferences (prediction), and from 2004/2005 to 2018/2019 vaccine effectiveness (VE) estimates have ranged on average from 10% to 60%. For the 2018/2019 season, the overall VE rate was 29%.], less than half of the US population chooses to get one [The remark presumes that all people would get an influenza vaccine if they could – however, many cannot, typically either for reasons of lack of access, availability, or cost. In the Armed Services, vaccines are mandatory. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) analyzed data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) to estimate flu vaccination coverage for the U.S. population of adults aged ≥18 years during the 2017–18 flu season. Flu vaccination coverage among adults was 37.1%, a decrease of 6.2 percentage points from the previous flu season.], and roughly 20,000 Americans still die annually due to flu or flu complications. [From 2010/2011 through 2018/2019 influenza-related deaths have ranged from 12,000 to 61,000. The 2017/2018 year saw 61,000 influenza-related deaths, while the 2018/2019 year saw 34,157.] [EXTENDED COMMENTS: In late 1975, Rahima Banu, a three-year-old girl from Bangladesh, was the last person in the world to have naturally acquired variola major and the last person in Asia to have active smallpox. She was

What Happens When Trump’s Corona Virus Disease-19 Meets Influenza-2020?

Remember: It’ll “miraculously disappear” when the weather gets warmer, and “we totally have it under control.”

Of course, none of this is real.

It’s all just “fake news,” folks.

Nothing to see here.

Move along.

And what if, and when, it mutates?

When folks get COVID-19 -and- the seasonal influenza?

Because IT WILL HAPPEN.

There’s not just a HIGH likelihood that it will.

IT WILL HAPPEN.

Then what?

Remember ebola?

What if SARS-CoV, aka coronavirus or COVID-19, had been Ebola?

We and the world would’ve REALLY been fucked.

Given that the Current White House Occupant POS45 obliterated and practically eliminated the entire organizational infrastructure for biological terrorism and other biothreats to national security, it could happen.

It’s poised and ready to happen.

---

NOTE:

On July 20, 2017 Reuters reported that White House Homeland Security Adviser Thomas Bossert told the annual Aspen Security Forum that “We have not had as a country a comprehensive bio-defense strategy ever. It’s high time we had a bio-defense strategy,” and noted that retired Navy Rear Admiral Tim Ziemer was contributing to the development of the strategy as Senior Director for Global Health Security and Biothreats, National Security Council, and served in office April 2017 – May 8, 2018.

Tom Bossert, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism January 20, 2017 – April 10, 2018

Bossert noted that the Bush and Obama administrations took steps to address biological threats to National Security after

Trump Confirms He’s Interfering With 2020 Election

This is about the 2nd, or 3rd time POTUS has stated that he is specifically denying funding for the Constitutionally-mandated United States Postal Service in order to delay the tallying of ballots sent through the USPS.

This is blatantly – as he has so stated this time, and others – an attempt to thwart the will of The People by interfering with the election.

Furthermore, it would make perfectly good, and logical sense for the USPS to have the money they need to resolve any problems, just as much as it would for states and municipalities to have the money they need in the matter of balloting.

Frankly, it’s nonsensical to assert that a problem exists and to refuse to provide the resources, financial, or otherwise, necessary to remedy the problem.

---

https://video.foxbusiness.com/v/6180774889001/?playlist_id=3166411554001

Trump calls in on Maria Bartiromo’s “Maria in the Morning” show on Fox Business News

Thursday, 13 August 2020

Trump: Coronavirus stimulus negotiations sticking point is mail-in voting

Aug. 13, 2020 – 40:46 – President Trump speaks exclusively to FOX Business’ Maria Bartiromo in a wide-ranging interview on Kamala Harris, what the economy will do if Joe Biden wins the presidential election,

Poll: Americans Think Wall Keeps Out Coronavirus

Today’s NPR leading headline “Americans Back Trump On Immigration — But Only To Stop COVID-19, Poll Finds” took me by surprise.

Why?

Because frankly, it’s practically too late for any of that.

That is to say, it’s too late for any effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19 by limiting travel, or immigration.

We’ve had our opportunity, and like many other opportunities, it was handed to us on a proverbial silver platter.

Now, we’ve the POTUS and his minions have squandered it.

Consider that as much as President Trump blows his own horn on the matter (as he does on almost everything, which according to him, he’s the best, the smartest, the greatest, the _insert_your_superlative_of_choice_here_ on anything and everything), claiming that his actions to limit its spread to the United States by limiting travelers from certain nations were effective, and helped prevent further spread of the infection, in light of what has happened in the days since as we all watched in horror at what unfolded.

They were not!

On January 22, while attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, POTUS was asked by CNBC Squawk Box host Joe Kernan if he was worried about a pandemic. Here’s the pertinent exchange.

JOE KERNEN: It was a couple of years ago. Before we get started– with- we’re going talk about the economy and a lot of other things–the CDC– has identified a case of coronavirus– in Washington state. The Wuhan strain of this. If you remember SARS, that affected GDP. Travel-related effects. Do you– have you been briefed by the CDC? And–

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I have, and–

JOE KERNEN: –are there worries about a pandemic at this point?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: No. Not at all. And– we’re– we have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China, and we have it under control. It’s—going to be just fine.
ref: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/22/davos-2020-cnbcs-full-interview-with-president-trump.html

But let’s go back even further, to November 2019.

In a secret intelligence report prepared (yet denied) by the Army’s National Center for Medical Intelligence (NCMI) located on Fort Detrick, in Frederick, Maryland, which was based upon analysis of wire and computer intercepts, and satellite images, concerns that

Herman Cain Died Today from COVID-19

Herman Cain, former Godfather’s Pizza CEO & GOP presidential candidate, has died from COVID-19.

So in memory of him, let’s pause from our pizzas for a moment to remember and reflect upon what he said shortly before he died — “famous last words,” if you will.

Things Will Get Worse

With a little over 330 million people, America has about 4.3% of the world’s population.

And yet, with 26.1346% of the world’s cases, we’re the undisputed leader as the world’s repository for COVID-19.

And with 146,934 lives claimed so far, the United States has

The COVID-19 Civil War

As of this date today, July 20, 2020, 183 days have passed since January 20, 2020 – when COVID-19 was discovered in the United States.

As of this date at 09:35:04 have been 140,563 (and counting) deaths attributed to the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, aka COVID-19, in the United States. (Death totals in the US include confirmed and probable, in accordance with CDC guidelines as of April 14.)

Before proceeding further, we need to obtain some history for clarity, and perspective – because, you know… it’s all in how you look at things.

• January 20

First U.S. case of COVID-19 reported, a 35-year-old man in Snohomish County, Washington, who had traveled with his family to Wuhan, capital city of the Hubei Province, China.

• January 30

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports the first person-to-person transmission of COVID-19 in the United States from a woman who had traveled to Wuhan, China, and returned to the USA on 13 January, whose spouse became the 6th known positive case of COVID-19 in the United States, and 1st case in Chicago, and the 2nd case in IL. Dr. Ngozi O. Ezike, MD, Director of the Illinois Department of Public Health made the announcement.
(https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/chicago-coronavirus-patient-infected-spouse-in-1st-human-to-human-case-in-us-cdc/2210301/)

• February 6

Following autopsy results in mid-to-late April, the Santa Clara County California Medical Examiner’s office reported on April 21 that the first known COVID-19 related death occurred in the United States, previously thought to have occurred in Kirkland, Washington on February 29. The NYT reported that, “The virus has an incubation period of 14 days and people who die of it are often sick for at least three weeks, so the individual who died on Feb. 6 could have been infected — and transmitting the infection to others — in early January, experts said.”
(https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/22/us/coronavirus-updates.html)
(https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-04-21/autopsies-reveal-first-confirmed-u-s-coronavirus-deaths-occurred-in-bay-area-in-early-february)

• February 17

The second known COVID-19 related death occurred in Santa Clara County California. Following autopsy results in mid-to-late April, the Santa Clara County California Medical Examiner’s office reported on April 21 that the second known COVID-19 related death occurred in United States, the first COVID-19 related death was previously thought to have occurred in Kirkland, Washington on February 29. The NYT reported that, “The virus has an incubation period of 14 days and people who die of it are often sick for at least three weeks, so the individual who died on Feb. 6 could have been infected — and transmitting the infection to others — in early January, experts said.”
(https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/22/us/coronavirus-updates.html)
(https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-04-21/autopsies-reveal-first-confirmed-u-s-coronavirus-deaths-occurred-in-bay-area-in-early-february)

• April 22

News emerged that the first COVID-19 death did not occur in at EvergreenHealth Medical Center in Kirkland, Washington as previously thought. The Santa Clara County California Medical Examiner reported on the 21st that autopsies revealed 2 coronavirus-infected deaths occurred in Santa Clara County on February 6 and February 17. The NYT reported that, “The virus has an incubation period of 14 days and people who die of it are often sick for at least three weeks, so the individual who died on Feb. 6 could have been infected — and transmitting the infection to others — in early January, experts said.”
(https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/22/us/coronavirus-updates.html)
(https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-04-21/autopsies-reveal-first-confirmed-u-s-coronavirus-deaths-occurred-in-bay-area-in-early-february)

To obtain an average figure of deaths per day, divide the number of deaths – 140,563 (and counting) – by a number of days since (some point in time).

So, let’s pick a day.

COVID-19 is MUCH MORE HARMFUL than we imagined.

Based upon the peculiarities which we were observing – a high rate of asymptomatic infected carriers, loss of senses of taste and smell, etc. – I STRONGLY suspected that this virus was a VERY BAD “player,” and NOT one to be trifled with.

Turns out, my suspicions were warranted.

I have ALSO said that, when we find a treatment and/or cure and/or vaccination, and have emerged on the “other side” of this universal, global health crisis, we will have unknowingly embarked upon a journey into healthcare’s “holy grail” and begun to journey into the “promised land” of longevity and a greater understanding of life itself – at the “granular” molecular level.

Yesterday also, I was considering the peculiar, and characteristic, identifying hallmark of the associated phenomenon of loss of senses of taste and smell.

Where does that occur?

On Old Olympus’ Towering Tops A Finn And German Viewed Some Hops

Remind me again, please…

Where do viruses reside?

Varicella, herpes (zoster, etc.), and other select viruses – including HIV – DO NOT “go away.” They’re the gifts that keep on giving… REGARDLESS of the ability to detect viral load, or not.

It’s in the nerve root.

Chicken pox, when it “goes away” really doesn’t “go away.”
It just takes up residence in the nerve root.
And, when it decides to show up again (express itself), we call it “shingles,” for which we also have a vaccination.

I’m putting money on this one, that it’s much the same way. That it’s a permanent “gift.”

There’s no other rational explanation for WHY the loss of senses of taste and smell occur, is there?

Why not?

Is it not self-evident?

Senses occur though nerves.

---

https://www.latimes.com/science/story/2020-06-26/inside-the-body-the-coronavirus-is-even-more-sinister-than-scientists-had-realized

Inside the body, the coronavirus is even more sinister than scientists had realized

An electron microscopy image of a cell infected by the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. (UC San Francisco)

By Melissa Healy, Staff Writer
Friday, June 26, 2020

---

The new coronavirus’ reputation for messing with scientists’ assumptions has taken a truly creepy turn.

Researchers exploring the interaction between the coronavirus and its hosts have discovered that when the SARS-CoV-2 virus infects a human cell, it sets off a ghoulish transformation. Obeying instructions from the virus, the newly infected cell sprouts multi-pronged tentacles studded with viral particles.

These disfigured zombie cells appear to be using those streaming filaments, or filopodia, to reach still-healthy neighboring cells. The protuberances appear to bore into the cells’ bodies and inject their viral venom directly into those cells’ genetic command centers — thus creating another zombie.

The authors of the new study, an international team led by researchers at UC San Francisco, say the coronavirus appears to be using these newly sprouted dendrites to boost its efficiency in capturing new cells and establishing infection in its human victims.

Their research was published Friday in the journal Cell.

The scientists also

Stupid White Republicans

U.S. Sets Daily Record For New COVID-19 Cases : Coronavirus Live Updates – https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/06/26/883799638/u-s-sets-daily-record-for-new-covid-19-cases

Stupid Republicans.

Seriously stupid.

Stupid White people.

And seriously, White people.

Does it come with the territory?

Republican Whiteness, and Stupidity, that is.

It sure as hell seems like it.

If not stupidity, then selfishness.

Or maybe it’s both – stupid –and– selfish.

It’s obviously Republican.

I’ve not yet seen any images – still, or video – of Black folks out protesting that their (or any) barbershops oughta’ be forced to reopen, that their (or any) restaurants oughta’ be forced to reopen, that their (or any) favorite (_fill_in_the_blank_) ought to be forced to reopen, etc.

But I’ve sure seen a whole lotta’ images of White folks doing stupid stuff like that… and very publicly making general asses of themselves in the process – including openly brandishing loaded assault rifles and other dangerous weapons in state’s capitols and in other headquarters of civil governance.

I mean, there SERIOUSLY doesn’t seem to be any Democrats, or Independent voters doing stuff like that.

Of course, ALL of that is done while utterly refusing to

America now has MORE COVID-19 Deaths than World War I Deaths.

Today, as of the report made 6/8/2020, 10:35:04 AM, we have 116,933 COVID-19 deaths in America.

During World War I, America had 116,516 deaths.

The Dance of Death (1493) by Michael Wolgemut (1434-1519), from the Nuremberg Chronicle of Hartmann Schedel (1440-1514).

YOU DID IT!

Way to go Trump!

We all knew you could do it!

We knew you could pull a rabbit out of a hat!

America is GREAT AGAIN!

And you did it alone!

You alone!

That’s because you know more than the Generals do!

Keep America great!

America is NUMBER #1!

We’re Number #1!

You’re doing a GREAT JOB, TRUMP!

AMERICA
NOW HAS
MORE DEATHS
FROM
COVID-19
THAN FROM
ALL AMERICAN
DEATHS
IN
WORLD WAR I.

Last night, we closed out the day with 110,514 COVID-19 deaths in America, and using that emerging figure as a trend, I calculated that we would equal, or surpass 116,516 – the TOTAL number of American deaths in World War I – in a matter of a few short days.

Much to my surprise, IT HAPPENED OVERNIGHT!

This is genuinely sad day in America.

Nay… a tragic day.

And it all can be laid at the feet of

BLS On Unemployment Figures: We Know We Were Wrong – We Were Just Kidding… Just Kidding!

If the workers who
were recorded
as
employed
but
absent from work
due to
“other reasons”
(over and above the number absent for other reasons in a typical May)
had been classified
as
unemployed on temporary layoff,
the overall unemployment rate
would have been
about
3 percentage points higher than reported
(on a not seasonally adjusted basis).
However,
according to usual practice,
the data from the household survey
are
accepted as recorded.
To maintain data integrity,
no ad hoc actions are taken
to reclassify survey responses.

Below is the full image of their addendum on the report “THE EMPLOYMENT SITUATION — MAY 2020,” which may be found on the BLS website as linked here.

The pertinent part is the final paragraph, which is pasted above, and appears in red.There you have it.

The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics has OFFICIALLY STATED that the Present Unemployment Rate is THREE POINTS HIGHER than officially stated.

They noted also that in the three preceding months of March, April, and May 2020, that responses to the monthly survey were down -9.5%, -12.6%, and -15.1% correspondingly to the month, from last year for the preceding 12 months, and averaged.

Th agency noted also that “BLS and our partners at the Census Bureau take the misclassification error very seriously, and we’re taking additional steps to address the problem.”

Part of the problem, as they note, is with classification.

In a lengthy explainer, the agency wrote that, “In May, 8.4 million workers were classified as employed with a job but not at work during the survey reference week (not seasonally adjusted). Although lower than the 11.5 million not at work in April, this measure remains about twice the typical level at this time of the year. This likely reflects the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.”

Their explanation of “with a job but not at work” is apparently integrated into the idea of going to a central, or common location to work (such as at an office building, or factory site), and of that they wrote in part that, “BLS tabulates data on