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That's more than a 3-to-1 difference in risk of getting COVID-19 in Tennessee than in Vermont. That means that one in six people in Tennessee is a case.
I'm getting sick and tired of seeing an ever-rising death toll for COVID-19, especially when so many of those deaths are preventable by simply getting vaccinated. Do people have a death wish? 684,839... This weak alone the death toll has surpassed in turn the populations of Boston (24th largest city in the USA), El Paso (23rd), and Oklahoma City (22nd). Nashville is 21st at 689,447 and Washington DC is 20th at 689,545. I'm not saying that being crushed or incinerated in the 9/11 attack and the collapse of the buildings, or dying by jumping out the windows rather than being incinerated or crushed is any more pleasant, but still it is pointless death. We do our damnedest to reduce deaths from vehicle collisions... and I don't feel any sympathy for people whom the State Police bust near the state line for 78 on a 70 mph rural freeway due to some enhanced enforcement. .
That's roughly 230 incidences of the 9/11 horror, and four in the past week. I don't like making that comparison, but just remember that one President organized a gangland-style hit on the architect of the 9/11 attack... and my response was to sing The Battle Hymn of the Republic and put the lyrics onto a website that day. We have had days of death tolls larger than 9/11.
To those who so far refuse to get inoculated: people will miss you if you die. Gasping for breath on a ventilator at which you are a prisoner in all but name is not a good way to go.
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(09-16-2021, 11:07 AM)pbrower2a Wrote: That's more than a 3-to-1 difference in risk of getting COVID-19 in Tennessee than in Vermont. That means that one in six people in Tennessee is a case.
I'm getting sick and tired of seeing an ever-rising death toll for COVID-19, especially when so many of those deaths are preventable by simply getting vaccinated. Do people have a death wish? 684,839... This weak alone the death toll has surpassed in turn the populations of Boston (24th largest city in the USA), El Paso (23rd), and Oklahoma City (22nd). Nashville is 21st at 689,447 and Washington DC is 20th at 689,545. I'm not saying that being crushed or incinerated in the 9/11 attack and the collapse of the buildings, or dying by jumping out the windows rather than being incinerated or crushed is any more pleasant, but still it is pointless death. We do our damnedest to reduce deaths from vehicle collisions... and I don't feel any sympathy for people whom the State Police bust near the state line for 78 on a 70 mph rural freeway due to some enhanced enforcement. .
That's roughly 230 incidences of the 9/11 horror, and four in the past week. I don't like making that comparison, but just remember that one President organized a gangland-style hit on the architect of the 9/11 attack... and my response was to sing The Battle Hymn of the Republic and put the lyrics onto a website that day. We have had days of death tolls larger than 9/11.
To those who so far refuse to get inoculated: people will miss you if you die. Gasping for breath on a ventilator at which you are a prisoner in all but name is not a good way to go.
One source has the total death total just under 700,000. In our own grim way we have surpassed Washington, DC (20th-largest city in the USA) and are closing in on Denver (19th).
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Scientist Complained Trump ‘Election Stuff’ Overrode COVID Concerns In His White House
Virologist Steven Hatfill was traveling to Arizona and Nevada to challenge Donald Trump election losses instead of fighting COVID, according to his emails.
![[Image: 5c53f909360000000b68109e.jpg?ops=100_100]](https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/5c53f909360000000b68109e.jpg?ops=100_100)
By Mary Papenfuss
A scientist working for the Trump administration repeatedly complained in emails that “election stuff” was taking dangerous precedence over developing an effective response to the deadly COVID-19 crisis, The Washington Post reported.
Donald Trump’s focus on the election persisted, according to the emails, even as COVID-19 cases in the U.S. soared to some 250,000 a day in January, the Post noted.
Emails by Steven Hatfill, a virologist who advised White House trade director Peter Navarro, were obtained by the House select committee investigating the White House response to the COVID-19 crisis.
“Now with the elections so close, COVID is taking a back-seat, yet the disease is rearing it[s] ugly head again,” Hatfill wrote to a colleague outside the White House in October 2020 in an email seen by the Post.
After the election, which was challenged by Trump, Hatfill revealed in another email that he personally “shifted over to the election fraud investigation in November.”
Instead of focusing on the pandemic, Hatfill traveled to Arizona after the close presidential vote there. He also reportedly emailed information to White House officials concerning a Dominion Voting Systems conspiracy theory, and forwarded Navarro an email regarding a “Plan B for Trump Legal Fight” intended “For Rudy,” possibly referring to Trump’s former personal attorney Rudy Giuliani.
“The election thing got out of control. I go where my team goes,” Hatfill told another colleague in an email, referring to more work challenging the outcome of the presidential election in Nevada, the Post reported.
James Clyburn, chairman of the COVID-19 House Select Subcommittee, wrote in a Sept. 23 memorandum that “throughout the months of November and December 2020, the pandemic continued to worsen in the United States — with more than 11 million new cases and 132,770 deaths in those two months alone.” Nearly 200,000 Americans lost their lives to COVID between Election Day and Inauguration Day, Clyburn added.
Hatfill defended his election work to the Post. He said in response to questions from the newspaper: “I was, and continue to be, frustrated with public health being treated as a political football. Moreover, I was disgusted with the destruction of the National Pandemic Plan at the hands of conflicted petty bureaucrats.”
Hatfill accurately predicted in February 2020 that problems with tests provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would seriously hamstring early efforts to bring COVID under control, according to the Post.
The former Army bio-defense researcher was named as a person of interest by then-Attorney General John Ashcroft in the anthrax attacks of 2001 when the poison was sent in the mail. He was cleared of any wrongdoing and won a $5.85 million settlement from the Justice Department in 2008.
“‘ Person of Interest’ to WH advisor in 20-years,” Hatfill wrote in a February 2020 email exchange, the Post reported, adding that he “helped draft a memo for big D last night.”
“Only in America LOL,” he added.
Read the entire Washington Post story here.
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The Herman Cain Awards, "honoring" those who trivialize or deny the reality of COVID-19 and end up wrong. Dead wrong!
It's modeled after the Darwin Awards, recognizing the demise of businessman and politician Herman Cain. It's dark humor involving death, but if one had to dwell on the tragedy that results from foolishness involving COVID-19, one could only cry. It's a Twitter feed.
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![[Image: 0eb31178f11b300e214f815953f26db7f48ef88e...=800&h=310]](https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0eb31178f11b300e214f815953f26db7f48ef88ed4680bcc3bb46977a70ccb5f.jpg?w=800&h=310)
Keep out of the reach of children...
...and people gullible enough to fall for medical quackery.
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In view of the death of Colin Powell...
He did have myeloma and Parkinsonism. If one of these didn't end up killing him, then the other would have. COVID-19 finished him off.
He did have both inoculations, but still, the response to COVID-19 is rough, too. Inoculation can make that easier, but not easy enough for some.
It is the responsibility of us all to wear masks in the presence of anyone whose immune system is compromised. I am back to wearing masks in public places again.
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In some areas, blacks are under-inoculated. Statistically, blacks are more likely to be religious than whites, so if religion is the culprit we might see such in the patterns of faith.
![[Image: FT_2021.10.15_religionandvaccines_01a.pn...ze=768,491]](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/FT_2021.10.15_religionandvaccines_01a.png?resize=768,491)
People attending churches that disparage the inoculation would seem to be more likely white. With a distinction between small percentages one notices that "white" churches are more likely to preach opposition to inoculation than "black" churches.
Historically black Protestant churches have strongly promoted inoculation. Because churches are the most likely organizations for membership and participation by African-Americans, it is clear that such churches are doing a better job of promoting inoculation than other churches.
Oddly, the Catholic Church is one of the most fervent supporters of inoculation.
![[Image: FT_2021.10.15_religionandvaccines_02a.png?w=640]](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/FT_2021.10.15_religionandvaccines_02a.png?w=640)
The distinction between people who attend church services at least once a month and those who don't, but who have affiliation in getting vaccinated is generally low -- except among members of historically-black Protestant churches. Catholic and Mainline Protestants do better than the average among adults in getting inoculated, and African-American members of historically-black Protestant churches do extremely well in getting inoculated. But -- African-American members of historically-black churches who do not attend church services at least once a month do worse than the American average.
So if you see below-average inoculation of African-Americans, then don't blame their churches.
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Actor Kristy Swanson, Who Spread Virus Misinformation, Is Hospitalized With COVID-19
The pro-Trump actor, best known for her titular role in "Buffy The Vampire Slayer," said she's developed pneumonia.
[/url]
Actor [url=https://www.huffpost.com/topic/kristy-swanson]Kristy Swanson, the original “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” said Monday she has been hospitalized in New Jersey after contracting COVID-19.
“Prayers for me please. Yesterday I took an ambulance ride to the hospital. I’m still here with pneumonia, I’m on oxygen etc, all covid related of course. I’m in good spirits and in great hands,” she tweeted.
Swanson said she was “at the tail end” of her COVID-19 infection when it “jumped into my lungs.” She said she was being treated at Virtua Memorial Hospital in Mount Holly with blood thinners and baricitinib, a rheumatoid arthritis drug authorized by the FDA for emergency use to treat COVID-19.
Swanson, a vocal supporter of former President Donald Trump, frequently shares misinformation about coronavirus on Twitter, where she has close to 390,000 followers. Recently she promoted debunked conspiracy theories that the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, “ murders puppies.” She has also shared anti-mask and anti-vaccine content, including a tweet last month in which she suggested the government implemented vaccine mandates to make money.
In response to a New York Post report Monday characterizing her as anti-vaccine, Swanson tweeted, “I have NEVER said I am anti-vax.”
“What do you know about my medical or Covid history?” she replied to another tweet from a critic who hoped that she would “get well enough to apologize to the people taking care of you for adding to their burden by not getting vaccinated” and that she would spread the word to others about her mistake.
Both vaccinated and unvaccinated people can contract COVID-19, however, those who have received the vaccine are far less likely to get infected, become seriously ill or die. Vaccinated people are also less likely to infect others.
It’s not clear if Swanson is vaccinated against COVID-19. HuffPost has reached out to a representative for comment.
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11-02-2021, 02:07 AM
(This post was last modified: 11-02-2021, 02:22 AM by pbrower2a.)
5. Breathalyzers can help screen for COVID
Quote:Getting a COVID test typically requires a nasal swab, whether you’re going for a rapid antigen test or the “gold standard” PCR.
But researchers at Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center published findings in October that show a breathalyzer test can be used to rapidly check patients for COVID-19 — and it’s highly accurate, they say.
The study was small, tracking 46 patients in the intensive care unit with respiratory failure. Some had COVID and others did not, which was verified with PCR tests. The breathalyzer test, which gave results within seconds, accurately identified who had COVID 88% of the time.
While the researchers say future studies are needed to see whether the breath test is as effective in patients who have less severe infections, they’re hoping to make it more broadly available soon. They have applied to the FDA for emergency use authorization of the breathalyzer test.
“The gold standard for diagnosis of COVID-19 is a PCR test that requires an uncomfortable nasal swab and time in a lab to process the sample and obtain the results,” Matthew Exline, lead researcher and director of critical care at Ohio State Wexner Medical Center University Hospital, said in a statement. “The breathalyzer test used in our study can detect COVID-19 within seconds.”
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/new-thing...7357484453
Having been stopped for the police for suspected DUI, I can assure you that getting stopped is incredibly easy. In my case my breath had no sign of alcohol and all that had befuddled me was a sign (no turn on red) without saying that that did not apply to a blinking red, and a car with its lights off in a lane into which I should have been expected to turn. It turns out that the car with its lights off was a vehicle of the Michigan State Police on DUI patrol. I was concerned that someone might rear-end me and stage an accident. Obviously the State Troopers don't do that.
Michigan had public service ads telling people to "Drive sober or get pulled over". I can say this -- you can drive sober and still be pulled over!"
I did curse drunk drivers and told the Troopers to "bust one for me". It was about 2 AM, which is prime time for drunk driving. I had just left the hospital where I had taken my father for medical treatment.
I expect that people who test positive for COVID-19 will be escorted to medical treatment. Do not pass go and do not collect $200.
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Wow, only 72% of USA Americans have even received one dose. And people wonder why the pandemic continues?
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(11-02-2021, 04:17 AM)Eric the Green Wrote: Wow, only 72% of USA Americans have even received one dose. And people wonder why the pandemic continues?
If COVID-19 can be detec4ed with a breathalyzer, then people with COVID-19 can be identified for quick referral to medical treatment and separated from those that they can infect. Figure that giving a Breathalyzer test is typically at the discretion of police, cops can use all sorts of pretexts for using it. So if someone stopped for driving while impaired (I have been stopped twice, the other time for driving while drowsy) I could have been given a Breathalyzer test.
Is it too much of an imposition for law enforcement to ask about immunization for COVID-19? I carry my card along with my driver's license.
Anyone can be stopped for DUI. If so one will be asked for a driver's license and vehicle registration. Why not also certificate of inoculation? Like DUI, COVID-19 is similarly dangerous.
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(11-02-2021, 04:17 AM)Eric the Green Wrote: Wow, only 72% of USA Americans have even received one dose. And people wonder why the pandemic continues?
This fits with a prior comment I made on another thread. Dems need to quit wimping out and put vaccine mandates in place that have real teeth, then enforce them to the letter. There will be howls until they actually work, then the howlers will either shut-up or move on to another whine. Being weak is a guarantee of failiure, and the Dems have had failure imprinted on their DNA for decades. Time to grow a spine!
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(11-02-2021, 10:26 AM)David Horn Wrote: (11-02-2021, 04:17 AM)Eric the Green Wrote: Wow, only 72% of USA Americans have even received one dose. And people wonder why the pandemic continues?
This fits with a prior comment I made on another thread. Dems need to quit wimping out and put vaccine mandates in place that have real teeth, then enforce them to the letter. There will be howls until they actually work, then the howlers will either shut-up or move on to another whine. Being weak is a guarantee of failiure, and the Dems have had failure imprinted on their DNA for decades. Time to grow a spine!
Yes indeed. DeBlazio is showing spine on this, although not so much on some other things.
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I expect to get a booster tomorrow.
I'm usually behind the times on trends -- but not on COVID-19!
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(11-02-2021, 12:21 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: (11-02-2021, 10:26 AM)David Horn Wrote: (11-02-2021, 04:17 AM)Eric the Green Wrote: Wow, only 72% of USA Americans have even received one dose. And people wonder why the pandemic continues?
This fits with a prior comment I made on another thread. Dems need to quit wimping out and put vaccine mandates in place that have real teeth, then enforce them to the letter. There will be howls until they actually work, then the howlers will either shut-up or move on to another whine. Being weak is a guarantee of failiure, and the Dems have had failure imprinted on their DNA for decades. Time to grow a spine!
Yes indeed. DeBlazio is showing spine on this, although not so much on some other things.
It may be that Dems are simply incapable of being authoritarian enough when needed to prevent disasters, allowing the Reps to run the board. It's a large part of my contention that the 4T won't be successful, making the next 2T into a barnburner. It's not my preference, but it seems to be how the game is going.
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Republicans can offer nostalgia without having the means of achieving it, but they can muck things up badly in an effort to achieve the dream. We may be stuck with lower wages and higher rents whoever is in charge, and Republicans stand for those who can profiteer off mass suffering. Solutions always begin avant-garde, and Democrats get stuck with those. They may be all that can work, but the Republicans can always create some scary phantom like "death panels", "critical race theory", or "defund the police" and compel Democrats to defend or downplay those.
I look at the sort of life that the Hard Right offers us and I see little more than "suffer but be sure to smile". To be non-rich in such a life one needs be a masochist.
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11-03-2021, 01:06 PM
(This post was last modified: 11-04-2021, 12:59 AM by pbrower2a.)
Guess what is getting COVID-19 in America?
![[Image: 220px-White-tailed_deer.jpg]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b7/White-tailed_deer.jpg/220px-White-tailed_deer.jpg)
Something to think about in deer season.
Abstract
Many animal species are susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 and could potentially act as reservoirs, yet transmission in non-human free-living animals has not been documented. White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), the predominant cervid in North America, are susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection, and experimentally infected fawns transmit the virus to other captive deer. To test the hypothesis that SARS-CoV-2 may be circulating in deer, we evaluated 283 retropharyngeal lymph node (RPLN) samples collected from 151 free-living and 132 captive deer in Iowa from April 2020 through December of 2020 for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA. Ninety-four of the 283 deer (33.2%; 95% CI: 28, 38.9) samples were positive for SARS-CoV-2 RNA as assessed by RT-PCR. Notably, between Nov 23, 2020, and January 10, 2021, 80 of 97 (82.5%; 95% CI 73.7, 88.8) RPLN samples had detectable SARS-CoV-2 RNA by RT-PCR. Whole genome sequencing of the 94 positive RPLN samples identified 12 SARS-CoV-2 lineages, with B.1.2 (n = 51; 54.5%), and B.1.311 (n = 19; 20%) accounting for ~75% of all samples. The geographic distribution and nesting of clusters of deer and human lineages strongly suggest multiple zooanthroponotic spillover events and deer-to-deer transmission. The discovery of sylvatic and enzootic SARS-CoV-2 transmission in deer has important implications for the ecology and long-term persistence, as well as the potential for spillover to other animals and spillback into humans.
These findings highlight an urgent need for a robust and proactive One Health approach to obtaining a better understanding of the ecology and evolution of SARS-CoV-2.
Competing Interest Statement
The authors have declared no competing interest.
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/...1.466677v1
To put it into much simpler terms:
Even the deer are getting sick. With all the hunters, tigers (OK, dogs have the same malign intentions toward deer as do tigers, if not the size and stripes), and cars, deer face another menace this year. It's COVID-19.
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Well. I just got my booster.
Death to COVID-19!
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And unfortunately we will now likely see more covid spreading in Virginia.
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(11-03-2021, 10:05 AM)David Horn Wrote: (11-02-2021, 12:21 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: (11-02-2021, 10:26 AM)David Horn Wrote: (11-02-2021, 04:17 AM)Eric the Green Wrote: Wow, only 72% of USA Americans have even received one dose. And people wonder why the pandemic continues?
This fits with a prior comment I made on another thread. Dems need to quit wimping out and put vaccine mandates in place that have real teeth, then enforce them to the letter. There will be howls until they actually work, then the howlers will either shut-up or move on to another whine. Being weak is a guarantee of failiure, and the Dems have had failure imprinted on their DNA for decades. Time to grow a spine!
Yes indeed. DeBlazio is showing spine on this, although not so much on some other things.
It may be that Dems are simply incapable of being authoritarian enough when needed to prevent disasters, allowing the Reps to run the board. It's a large part of my contention that the 4T won't be successful, making the next 2T into a barnburner. It's not my preference, but it seems to be how the game is going.
It's hard to say about this 4T. Usually it looks bad while we are in it. As you know, I don't see any basis for hope for the next 2T, if this 4T fails. Failed societies don't have 2Ts, unless rescued by other societies during their 4T. If our 4T fails, it is because our nation has become different from that of the past 500 years; more evil, more ignorant, more deceived, more stubborn, more complacent, more decadent, more greedy, more unmanagable by any human agency. So if that is the case about our current 4T society, then the 2T will just be further chaos and also end badly. It could be argued that our previous 2T ended more badly too than previous ones. If a nation is just in decline, then it doesn't really matter which turning it is in. It will just decline faster, or slower, depending on which turning it is in.
Even this is hard to believe, given how evil our society has always been. But in our saeculum it has reached its peak of power and prosperity, and so decline in every way, which has already well begun, may be the only thing we can expect from now on. Yet, as I said, with 7 or 8 years left to run for SURE, we can't know just how our 4T will turn out. Whatever victory is achieved, if it happens, (and a blue victory is the only outcome that's a victory), it will be partial, not perfect, and only then we can expect further change and progress in the next 2T, with a renewed spiritual discovery or revival along with it that is mostly missing today, but has always happened in past 2Ts.
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