May 5, 2021 “A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.” ~ credited to Max Planck, foundational physicist.
Scientists see "concerning constellations of mutations," calling it "highly mutated beyond C.1 and all other" variants of concern. • related to the C.1 variant that hit South Africa earlier in the year
4/19/2022 How to Judge COVID Risks and When to Wear a Mask ~ Devabhaktuni Srikrishna / Scientific American Scientific American asks experts in medicine, risk assessment and other fields how to balance the risks of COVID with the benefits of visiting public indoor spaces
8/5/2021 – Found: 4/18/2022 Why Swiss cheese model may be the key to keeping you safe from COVID-19 ~ UIowa.edu - UI Health / the loop Why Swiss cheese? The key is layers. While there are holes in slices of Swiss cheese, by combining the slices, we get a layered approach that leads to fewer holes. The same is true for COVID-19 prevention strategies.
3/31/2022 “Endemic” Covid Doesn’t Mean Mild ~ Kiera Butler, Senior Edit / MotherJones How the scientific phrase masks political choices.
3/29/2022 UPDATED Tuesday Pundit Roundup: Will BA.2 Be Horrible or Not? 2ND BOOSTER APPROVED BY FDA! ~ bilboteach / Daily Kos Community Welcome to the inaugural Tuesday COVID Roundup. In this issue, BA.2 is starting to take the USA by storm, yet it seems like the nation isn’t willing to take collective action to stop it before it potentially gets bad. But will it be a terrible wave or not? This is what COVID twitter has been debating for the past 2-3 WEEKS. That’s how long we’ve known that BA.2 could produce a potential wave here!
2/18/2022 Comparing the COVID-19 Vaccines: How Are They Different? ~ Kathy Katella / Yale Medicine • • • The Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines are messenger RNA vaccines also called mRNA vaccines. They are a new type of vaccine.
After the 1918 flu pandemic, whole new waves of symptoms appeared in flu survivors years after the immediate threat was past. One of the first sequela to be noticed in the United States was a big increase in miscarriages, stillbirths, premature delivery, and maternal mortality that peaked a year after the flu was gone. More mysteriously, the years after the 1918 flu saw a wave of fatigue and depression that spread around the world. Sometimes, the symptoms were easy to miss—after all, this was a society just moving on from World War I—and there was a tendency to connect the cases that appeared afterward with similar symptoms that had happened years before.
1/26/2022 ‘Stealth Omicron’ Has Arrived in the US ~ Arden Dier, Newser Staff / newser BA.2, now in 40 nations, may be more contagious than original omicron, though data is limited • Meanwhile, the California Department of Public Health is continuing to urge people to get vaccinated as “new variants will continue to evolve as long as there are large pockets of unvaccinated people,” per the Mercury News.
1/11/2022 Yet Another Grim COVID Record Is Here ~ Evann Gastaldo, Newser Staff / Newser Hospitalizations in US break record set almost a year ago • As of Sunday, 142,388 people in US hospitals had COVID, breaking the previous record of 142,315 set on Jan. 14, 2021 • New cases in the US have been over 500,000 for six consecutive days, Reuters reports, with the seven-day average for new cases doubling in 10 days to hit 704,000.
11/27/2021 Thanks to COVID-19, the future could be full of fire, explosions, and really, really bad food ~ Mark Sumner / Daily Kos Staff From the earliest days of the global pandemic, one of the most common symptoms of a COVID-19 infection has also been on of the oddest: a loss of the sense of smell, more technically known as olfactory dysfunction. (and "proprioception", look it up)
8/30/2021 New Variant Surfaces in South Africa ~ Bob Cronin / Newser Staff C.1.2 - Researchers can’t tell much yet, but WHO labels this version ‘of concern’
6/28/2021 Transient pacemaker harmlessly dissolves in body ~ Amanda Morris, Northwestern University / sciencedaily.com Wireless, fully implantable device gives temporary pacing without requiring removal
6/28/2021 Pfizer, Moderna vaccines may stand guard against COVID for years ~ Ernie Mundell and Robin Foster / MedicalXpress.com The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines trigger an immune system response that could fend off the coronavirus for years to come, new research reveals.
6/17/2021 Why Is America the Only Developed Nation With No Right To Healthcare? ~ Thom Hartmann / The Hartmann Report Daily Rant: The for-profit health insurance industry has attached itself to us like a giant, bloodsucking tick and “Scientific Racism” is part of the reason why.
6/1/2021
‣‣‣10K+ Breakthrough COVID Cases in Vaccinated Americans. ~ mettle fatigue for ‘Pain Patient Empowerment’ / Daily Kos Community It ain't over till it's over — — and it might not ever "be over" b/c "idiots" (you know who you are, Republicans!)
5/30/2021 Fired Florida employee receives whistleblower status ~ Associated Press Rebekah Jones, a former Florida Department of Health employee has received whistleblower status a year after being fired for .... communicating with the media.
5/6/2021 How Do We Stop Corporations From Shoving Fascism Down Our Throats? ~ Thom Hartmann / “Daily Rant” @ hartmannreport.com America has a serious fascism problem, but it goes way beyond the kinds of authoritarianism displayed by people like Donald Trump. It goes deep, now, into the very structure of corporate America.
4/26/2021 US Decides There Are Now 9 Major Food Allergens ~ John Johnson / Newser Staff Sesame must be specified on labels starting in 2023 Along with: milk, eggs, fish, peanuts, shellfish, soybeans, tree nuts, and wheat.
4/15/2021 The GOP-Big Business Divorce Goes Deeper Than You Think ~ Zack Stanton / Politico Magazine. It’s not just about voting rights; it’s that businesses and the Republican Party increasingly care about incompatible things, says Jeffrey Sonnenfeld.
4/6/2021 McConnell declares free enterprise dead to the GOP ~ Kerry Eleveld / Daily Kos Staff “My warning to corporate America is to stay out of politics,” McConnell said, calling the stated opposition of entities like the MLB, Coke, and Delta “stupid.” • Oh, but just to clarify, “I’m not talking about political contributions,” McConnell added.
April 01, 2021 Here’s the truth about ‘vaccine passports’ — and the ‘dangerous game’ the right wing is playing ~ Thom Hartmann and Independent Media Institute / Alternet How is it that anybody can say with a straight face that person “A” should have the “freedom” to refuse a vaccine or wear a mask and spread a deadly disease in the direction of person “B,” but that person “B” shouldn’t have the freedom to remain free of illness?
3/30/2021 Here’s the twisted logic Trump supporters are using to defend their open embrace of fascism ~ Amanda Marcotte, Salon / via AlterNet • The more "intellectual" version of this argument was rolled out by Glenn Ellmers at the American Mind blog of the Claremont Institute, a fairly prestigious conservative think tank that is oriented around the task of putting an intellectualized gloss on the reactionary impulses of the right. In the piece, Ellmers argues openly that “most people living in the United States today” — by which he clearly and explicitly means Democratic voters — “are not Americans in any meaningful sense of the term.” — [save local!]
What is herd immunity? — Published: 21 October 2020 — Found: 3/2/2021 The false promise of herd immunity for COVID-19 ~ Christie Aschwanden / Nature Why proposals to largely let the virus run its course — embraced by Donald Trump’s administration and others — could bring “untold death and suffering”.
1/2/2021 Health Care Workers flee small towns that need them the most due to GOP masking denial. ~ Pakalolo / Daily Kos Community The Trump crazies are now, metaphorically speaking, slitting their own throats as uncontrolled Covid infections rage through their communities. These simpletons have turned their very lives over to an incompetent, impotent, and illegitimate buffoon and his administration along with Fox News, Sinclair Broadcasting, and the GOP.
11/30/2021