Widespread COVID-19 Infections Among Iowa Deer

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Web MD reported that 80% of white-tailed deer in Iowa may be infected with COVID-19. Scientists are worried that the animals could become a reservoir for variants that could come back to haunt humans. In the new study, samples were collected lymph node samples from hundreds of dead deer across the state from April 2020 through January 2021. The researchers believe it’s likely that the virus is rapidly spreading among the deer, The New York Times reported.

There’s no evidence yet of deer-to-human infection, but the Penn State University authors and Iowa wildlife officials are warning deer hunters and others who have contact with deer to take precautions. The veterinary microbiologists who led the study, which has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal, said they were shocked to find such widespread infection in deer. Hunters in Iowa are being advised to wear masks and gloves and thoroughly cooking the meat, the risk of exposure can be minimized,” she wrote in an email to the Des Moines Register. “To date, there have been no cases of contracting COVID-19 from eating food, including hunted wild meat.”

“Our results suggest that deer have the potential to emerge as a major reservoir host” for the coronavirus, the study says. “If deer can transmit the virus to humans, it’s a game-changer,” Tony Goldberg, a University of Wisconsin-Madison veterinarian who studies the evolution of infectious diseases as they move between animals and people, told the Times.

The paper, which has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal, has been posted online. The findings were verified on Tuesday by federal scientists at the National Veterinary Services Laboratories, according to a spokesperson who spoke to the New York Times.

In the case of farmed mink, Denmark slaughtered its entire population of 17 million farmed mink after scientists discovered they could pass the virus back to people. The virus had also picked up mutations after infecting the mink. If this turns out to be true of deer in America, then all hell could break loose this hunting season.

Is COVID-19 a Satanic Myth?

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The Wall Street Journal reported, that in the African country of Tanzania, President John Maguuli declared that COVID-19 was a “Satanic Myth” propagated by imperialist powers. This country of 61 million remained open throughout the pandemic. Doctors were barred from registering any cause of death from the virus and anyone found wearing a mask was labeled unpatriotic.

Foreign journalists were blocked from entering the country. Any news organizations that reported about COVID-19 were shut down for “Scaremongering” and reporters were threatened with jail time.

The president died in the spring. The cause remains secret, but analysts, diplomats and opposition leaders say he died of COVID-19. It was reported that the president was unconscious on a ventilator for a week before his breathing support was shut off. At the beginning of 2021, six senior government officials died in quick succession of “respiratory illnesses.”

The official death toll of Tanzania is 724. That low number is virtually impossible. The countries national statistics agency reported zero COVID-19 related deaths from May 2020 to June 2021. An Economist study estimated the true death toll to be over 69,000.

Mortuary workers, doctors and senior officials paint a much different picture. Testing in the country is scarce so the true numbers will never be known. Cemetery workers say that they might bury one body a day post pandemic but now they are burring up to 30 a day.

This is just one example among many, of countries who choose to under report about the toll that this virus is having world wide. Since citizens were told by the former president that the virus was a hoax, they have no reason to believe they need to get vaccinated to protect themselves.

Three Students

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For the Crealde’ Urban Sketching Class I teach we focus on daring people by using ourselves as models for one class. I kick things off by posing a few times myself first for 10 minutes and then 5 minutes at a time.

Then have each student pose for 5 minutes. This sketch was a demonstration to show how to use pencil, ink and watercolor to quickly block in forms.

We conducted the call outside so several students chose not to wear masks. I choose to wear a mask at all times. I also try to maintain 4 dead body lengths (about 22 feet) between myself and a student not wearing a mask.

One student posed as if she was walking a dog. In  this class I also gave a rundown on how to draw dogs as well as people. In the second half of the class we went to The Lake Baldwin dog park where there were plenty of models.

The challenge of course is that dogs never stand still. So my lessons on how to draw quadrupeds could help he students get something on the page even if the dogs were running around. An added benefit is that the dogs are always curious about someone drawing so they will come up to the artist hoping for some scratches and pets.

Only the center artist in this sketch wore her mask at all times. She has my deep respect for that choice. Other students are rather clueless, and I keep them on property and outside of the classroom for that reason. The numbers of people being admitted to hospitals for COVID-19 is falling slowly but if everyone is clueless and returns to pre-pandemic lifestyles, there will be another winter surge.

Russian Spike

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In Russia the COVID-19 spike in cases shows no sign of letting up. The daily COVID-19 cases and deaths in Russia remain at their highest numbers of the pandemic as of November 3, 2021 as more regions announced they were extending existing restrictions in an effort to tame the country’s  surge of infections.

Russia’s state coronavirus task force reported 40,443 new confirmed cases from a day earlier. It was the fifth time in seven days that the country reported more than 40,000 infections. The task force also reported a daily record of 1,189 COVID-19 deaths. Some experts believe that those numbers a far under reported.

The United States is reporting over 76,000 daily cases with the downward trend now leveling off and going up again. On November 2, 2021 there were just over 1500 deaths in America. So if this were an arms race of COVID-19 cases and deaths, America is still winning.

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered many Russians to stay off work between Oct. 30 and Nov. 7 2021. He authorized regional governments to extend the number of non-working days, if necessary. “One non-working week is not enough to break the chain of infection,” Tomsk governor Sergei Zhvachkin said. Many other regions are planning to extend the lockdown.

Russia has low vaccination rates, although the Sputnik V vaccine was the first in the world to be distributed. Put simply, Russian citizens do not trust the government since the vaccine did not undergo rigorous testing before it was offered to everyone. Russians also have lax public attitudes toward taking precautions. Less than 35% of Russia’s nearly 146 million people have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) urged Americans to avoid traveling to a new batch of countries, including Russia and Belgium, because of high levels of COVID-19. Russia had the third-highest number of coronaviruses cases in the world over the past 28 days – more than 917,300 cases, according to John Hopkins data.

 

Mu Detected in Local Sewage

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The Mu COVID-19 variant (B.1.621) has been detected in Altamonte Springs, Florida sewage. The virus is shed it in stool or urine. Tests are done on the waste water as a predictor for possible transmissions in a community.

The variant has also been found in 49 other states. As of Oct. 29, 2021 the Mu variant accounts for less than 1 percent of all COVID-19 infections in the U.S., according to the GISAID Initiative, which is an organization that promotes the rapid sharing of data from all influenza viruses and COVID-19. It is still the dominant strain of COVID-19 in Colombia, where it was originally found.

People did not consider Delta to be much of a concern when it came to the United States from India back in June. When a virus takes a foothold it grows at an exponential rate. By the time everyone realized it is a problem it is already too late.

Mu has mutations already in Delta ( B. 1.617. 2) but it also has mutations from Alpha (B.1.1.7), which was also known to be highly transmissible. A lab study pre-print suggests, that Mu is the most immune evasive virus we’ve seen in the pandemic. It could be able to evade the immunity provided by vaccines and prior infections. It has been listed as a a “variant of interest” by the World Health Organization since August 30, 2021.

“Mu looks potentially good at immune evasion,” Danny Altmann, PhD, an immunologist at Imperial College London, told The Telegraph. “For my taste, it’s a stark reminder that this isn’t by any means over. On a planet of 4.4 million-plus new infections per week, there are new variants popping up all the time, and little reason to feel complacent.”

 

COVIDiots

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The Macmillian Dictionary defines “COVIDiot” as “an insulting term for someone who ignores health advice about COVID-19.” Urban Dictionary takes a pretty similar approach, defining “COVIDiot” as “someone who ignores the warnings regarding public health or safety. A person who hoards goods, denying them from their neighbors.”

Basically, a COVIDiot doesn’t take COVID-19 and the risks of the virus seriously, despite what government officials and the global health community say. At the same time, they may also engage in selfish behavior that doesn’t look out for the greater good when it comes to slowing down and stopping the spread of the coronavirus.

A COVIDiot is likely to say COVID-19 is a hoax or overblown, get pissed off when they’re asked to wear a mask, or refer to COVID-19 as “just a flu.”

They are confused and delusional also believing conspiracy theories. Conspiracy theories are often used within a time of heightened anxiety to explain events beyond our control, Geoffrey Dancy, an expert in conspiracy theories, told Insider in March.

Insider reported that a new study has shown that those who believe in COVID-19 conspiracies are more likely to catch the virus, lose their jobs, and face social isolation. The Dutch study, published by Cambridge University Press, found that those who believe in COVID-19 conspiracies are less likely to be tested for COVID-19, but when tested, are more likely to be infected.  They also noted that there is a higher probability of this group violating coronavirus regulations and experiencing social rejection, reduced income, and decreased overall well-being.

Led by first author and social psychologist Jan-Willem van Prooijen, the study’s researchers surveyed 5,745 people to provide a large sample from a cross-section of Netherlands’ society, first in April 2020 and then again in December 2020.

Highwaymen

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This was another demo for an Elite Animation student. I was teaching them digital painting and used a highwaymen painting to demonstrate how to use a variety of brushes for various effects.

The Florida Highwaymen, are a group of 26 African American landscape artists in Florida. Two of the original artists, Harold Newton, and Alfred Hair, received training from Alfred “Beanie” Backus. It is believed they may have created a body of work of over 200,000 paintings. Lore is that these painting were sold on the sides of the highway for pennies on the dollar and they are worth a fortune today.

When I do these demos I sometimes start using brushes I haven’t used before. I used this hemp brush that gives nice thick line work. I used if for the palm fronds and various foliage and now I use the brush often.

This was part of the lesson, to encourage students to simply experiment with the brushes while doing a quick landscape. Too often what stops a students progress is the threat of WHAT to paint. So I give them clear and vibrant painting examples to choose from.

By pushing my students to experiment I often push myself in new directions as well. Since the painted ketch isn’t intended for publication, it can be as rough as I like.

Umm… Lets Change the Name

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Facebook struggles from halting and inconsistent response to rising extremism in the U.S. It a used by the Stop the Steal movement to organize a violent insurrection against the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021. The platform is overrun by conspiracy theories.

When the Stop the Steal group was taken down by Facebook on November 5, 2020 there were already 360,000 members with tens of thousands joining every day. The group simply scattered to the plethora of other hate filled misinformation groups Facebook had nurtured.

Frances Haugen a a product manager in Facebook’s civic integrity team supplied Congress with thousands of internal Facebook documents that showed that the company knew that rubes would best engage with the platform if they were angered by the content. A peaceful exchange of ideas does not garner enough clicks. Facebook is an addiction engine.

Inside Facebook employees were warning that the platform encouraged groups to grow quickly and those groups were getting louder. In its internal report, Facebook acknowledged something striking: It “helped incite the Capitol Insurrection” on Jan. 6, 2021. Haugen noted that the company knows about the problems endemic to its platform, and how resistant it is to make changes that affect the growth it prizes above all else. “The thing I think we should be discussing is, what choices did Facebook make to expose the public to greater risk than was necessary?” Haugen says. “We should ask who gets to resolve these tradeoffs between safety and Facebook’s profits.” Se has claimed that Facebook misled investors and the public about its role in the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot.

Oh, and Facebook is changing its name to Meta, or Maga, something like that. That should make this all better in Zuckerburg’s warped mind.

 

Lake Baldwin Dog Park

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Sketching class at Crealde School of Art branched off to sketch at Lake Baldwin Dog Park. It is only about a mile drive from the campus.

At Crealde I went over dog anatomy and showed them how to quickly sketch dogs from any animal from memory. The hope was that they could use what was learned to get dogs and their owners into a single sketch at the dog park.

After the dogs wrestle in the mud and splash in Lake Baldwin they often get a bath at this grooming station. Hoses are set up to spray the dogs down and owners often bring their own shampoos and lotions. On this day 50% of the owners were masked. Just keeping the dog on the platform is half of the battle.

Pam and I used to take Sprout and Donkey to this park rather often but we haven’t gone since the pandemic set in. On top of being around a bunch of mask less owners we realized that Sprout can not be run over by some larger dog while his leg heals from a knee surgery. He has been in isolation for several legs and he wears an inflatable Victorian collar that keeps him from licking his knee stitches.

This sketch demonstrated the basic principle I try and teach the students. I draw the stage and then add the actors. The setting is more important than the people who come and go while the sketch is in progress.

Elite Rob Ross Digital Demo

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For my Elite Animation Academy online students I sometimes use the painting of Rob Ross to get the students to play with brushes and use quick and loose brushwork to block in a painting. Rob Ross is infamous for doing his half hour paintings live on TV and this low resolution painting was done in a similar time frame.

What is different from a traditional oil painting is that I incorporate layers for each element of the painting. For instance the main mountain is separate from the smaller mountain ranges in front of it  and the foreground happy tree is separated from those as well.

One simple trick I show the students is to copy the mountain and flip it upside down wile making it a bit transparent and blurring it. I also used a smudge tool to hind at ripples in the water.

I don’t have the same soothing voice but my students are able to paint their own happy trees by the end of class.