No one’s getting burnt anymore!

Posted on by Thor

The elite love to minimize COVID. They were among the first to flout COVID restrictions when they existed. That is in part because any precautions might cut into corporate profits. Investing in clean air for workers would be an investment. They also feel secure knowing they would have the best treatments should they become infected.

If you look at Hollywood elites or government elites you will not see a mask insight. The inequalities put on display when the rich and powerful flout the rules only add to public discontent. People are less likely to take even the simplest precautions like wearing a mask when elites act as if the pandemic is over.

By focusing on violations, the media helped undermine compliance by creating false norms, by implying, ‘if everyone else is going out, if everyone else if breaking the rules, why don’t we? Leaders should lead by example and the only person I noted doing that this week was Bernie Sanders who wore his mask in a crowded maskless presidential state of the union address.

A study found that the United States and United Kingdom were the only two countries of the 14 polled where a minority of people said the government had handled Covid-19 well. Not surprisingly those two countries have the highest death rates from COVID in the world. of the 6,782,716 deaths in the world, America is number 1 with  1,140,017 deaths. The UK comes in at number 9 with 205,540 deaths.

 

I’ve got a strong natural defense against bursting into flames!

Posted on by Thor

Does keeping children safe, endanger them? Some scientific “experts” fear that lockdowns could have left children with life-long immunity problems. The fact is that repeat COVID infections are creating life long immunity problems in children. Children are indeed becoming infected with RSV, flu and COVID more often than ever before. This “expert” seems to feel that COVID infections are an education for a child’s immune system.

Data in the UK from the Office for National Statistics suggests about 71,000 children in the UK are suffering from long Covid, which includes symptoms such as debilitating fatigue, brain fog, sleep problems and muscle pain.

On a personal note, I developed scarlet fever as an infant and was not expected to live. Scarlet fever, has had  more than ten times the average number of cases this winter season. COVID-19 reduces the numbers and functional ability of certain types of immune cells in the blood, say researchers. This could affect responses to secondary infections.  96 % of children have already been infected with COVID. Repeat COVID infections are resulting in children being more prone to other infections as well.

Toasy Studio

Posted on by Thor

One assignment I have with my virtual Urban Sketching students is to sketch the studio they happen to be working from.I always sketch and paint along with them and explain in this case, one point perspective and how to block in a scene. In this case the foreground has all warm colors while the mid–ground is more neutral and greyed down. I emphasized how things in the foreground will have fewer horizontal lines while object further away might be home horizontal.

You can see how disorganized I am with rags and folders stored in egg carts. Larger sketches are rolled up on the table and stacks of sketchbooks wait to be filled with sketches. Entry to the studio is blocked with a short stack of plastic containers. That is so the dog doesn’t come in and make even more of a mess. When the dogs have to go outside, they sit at the entrance to the studio and stare at me until I stop painting and let them outside. They are a bit spoiled since they can go out at any time since I am always painting.

Another goal of the painting was to make sure anything outside the windows was painted lighter than anything inside. If I had more time I would erase lines and focus on hard and soft edges of objects.

On July 1, 2022 The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) told COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers that updated booster shots for the fall season will need to have added protections against the latest omicron sub-variants. By this time people were becoming keenly aware that breakthrough infections would shift from a statistical anomaly to a regular occurrence.

This is a wildfire of the unburnt!

Posted on by Thor

Ignoring COVID does not make it go away. The World Health Organization (WHO) pointed out that, although everyone is tired of hearing about COVID-19 and its restrictions, “we need to face an undeniable fact…the virus is still very much present among us”. Engaging in risky behavior sends the message that COVID isn’t really their problem, that they don’t see a reason to modify their behavior to mitigate risk. To see this behavior just watch the State of the Union Address in which the only member of Congress to wear a mask was Bernie Sanders. The president giving his speech kept coughing.

People feel helpless and out of control. Their only coping mechanism is to pretest the pandemic does not exist. Complacency, denial and ignorance take over for rational thought. People do not want to live in fear, so they ignore the source of the feat rather than facing the fear. The risk has not magically disappeared, they have chosen to ignore the risk. Ignorance is bliss. Ignorance is also death.

 

Wen Misinformation Genie

Posted on by Thor

The pandemic is not over. Yet certain talking heads are placating the public and pretending it is over. Almost 4,000 Americans continue to die every week, about 1,000 more that the number of people who died on 9-11. The death numbers are rising. July 4th of last year president Biden claimed the pandemic was over, and a year later despite all the needless death inbetween, he once again proclaimed the same.

Leana Wen is a research professor of health policy and management. She has been a favored host on CNN. At one point in 2021 she said that people should not be allowed out in public unless they are vaccinated. Far right anti-vaxers were furious. Lately however she seems to be on the far right anti-vax pay roll.

Wen claimed that getting infected should be perceived as the new normal going forward. So 4,000 deaths a week is “the new normal.” In a recent column in the Washington Post, Wen claimed, “We are over counting COVID deaths and hospitalizations.” She didn’t reference any research or data to back up her claim but she did talk to several friends.  The anecdotal opinions of these two friends seemed to be the entire basis for her crazy headline. One said that of the patients he treats in Massachusetts,  just 30% are treated with a steroid for patients suffering from low oxygen. He went on to state that he felt hospitalizations are over counted. Strangely, Wen referenced the 30% number and attributed it to deaths rather than hospitalizations, or treatments with steroids which she earlier referenced. Does she not know the difference between death and hospitalization? The article is misleading at best.

Dr. Jeremy Faust, an emergency physician at Bringham and Women’s Hospital, who teaches at Harvard, and consults with the White House. He said on Twitter, “I can’t say for sure if we are over counting hospitalizations, it is certainly possible, although it is not black and white. But I can say with confidence that we are not over counting COVID deaths right now, including Massachusetts, the state highlighted in the Post, because this is literally what I study.”

Excess deaths (orange) in America follow the same trajectory as COVID deaths (black), with excess deaths often being rather higher. These deaths are compared to what would have been expected given the five year averages of deaths prior to the pandemic. If anything, this makes it seem that COVID deaths are likely being under counted. Dr. Faust went on to say, “If we were truly over counting COVID deaths, an important piece of evidence to support that would be if COVID deaths…were exceeding all cause deaths.” So to state the obvious, simply, COVID deaths are not being over counted. It is very likely that COVID deaths are being under counted.

The misinformation Wen is now peddling is dangerous because it ignited the conspiratorial far right anti-vax, Q-Anon crowd. In the early days of the pandemic I used to respect Wen’s opinions and guidance but now she is quite simply encouraging death and denying the facts all around her as the pandemic continues to rage. Wen’s stance is offensive to all the millions of families who lost a love one because of COVID.

Can someone please cork the bottle of this genie of death.

Wildfires only burn vulnerable trees.

Posted on by Thor

COVID -19 has become the eighth most common cause of death among children in the United States. Covid-19 has been the third leading cause of death in the broader population. Since Covid is the most severe in the elderly and immunocompromised, parents have decided it is a good idea to have their children get infected multiple times in poorly ventilated classrooms. They have been told multiple times that children do not get infected and do not die from COVID.

Researchers’ analysis of data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that there were 821 Covid-19 deaths in children between the ages of 0 to 19, during a 12-month period from August 2021 to July 2022. That death rate – about 1 for every 100,000 children – ranks eighth compared with the 2019 data. It ranks fifth among adolescents ages 15 to 19. Children are less vaccinated against Covid-19 than any other age group in the US. Less than 10% of eligible children have gotten their updated booster shot, and more than 90% of children under 5 are completely unvaccinated.

A CDC survey of blood samples suggest that more than 90% of children have already had Covid-19 at least once.

COVID-19 deaths in America as of January 4, 2023 are as follows.

0-17                                   1,414 dead

18-29                               6,749 dead

30-39                             19,255 dead

40-49                            45,092 dead

50-64                           197,247 dead

65-74                           246,021 dead

75-84                           282,430 dead

85 years and older,   288,990 dead.

Total American deaths due to COVID as of Jan 4, 2023 … One million eighty seven thousand, one hundred ninety eight.

On February 2, 2023 that number rose to 1,134,259.

World wide there have been well over 6 million deaths.

This wildfire series is inspired by @1goodtern on Twitter. Since the media has gone silent on pandemic coverage, I have turned to Twitter to stay informed.

The wildfire won’t get us, its burning on the other side of the valley!

Posted on by Thor

In its selfish isolationist wisdom, the United States has hoarded vaccines allowing the virus to burn through other societies around the world. What politicians don’t think to understand is that if the virus is allowed to burn anywhere in the world, it will burn everywhere in the world. All it takes is one plane flight with an infected passenger for the wildfire to ignite in another country.

January 24, 2020 the 45th president said, “We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China. We have it under control. It’s going to be just fine.”

January 30, 2020, “We think we have it very well under control. We have very little problem in this country at this moment — five — and those people are all recuperating successfully. But we’re working very closely with China and other countries, and we think it’s going to have a very good ending for us … that I can assure you,”

February 9, 2020,  “The flu, in our country, kills from 25,000 people to 69,000 people a year,” suggesting that it dwarfed the 15 cases of COVID-19 that had been reported in the U.S. at the time. He then predicted, the number would soon be near “zero.”

February 10, 2020, “By April or during the month of April, the heat, generally speaking, kills this kind of virus,”

February 27, 2020, “It’s going to disappear. One day it’s like a miracle, it will disappear,”

March 10, 2020, “Well, this was unexpected. This was something that came out of China, and it hit us and many other countries. You look at the numbers; I see the numbers with just by watching you folks. I see it — it’s over 100 different countries. And it hit the world. And we’re prepared, and we’re doing a great job with it. And it will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away,”

March 11, 2020, “To keep new cases from entering our shores, we will be suspending all travel from Europe to the United States for the next 30 days. The new rules will go into effect Friday at midnight. These restrictions will be adjusted subject to conditions on the ground.”

Containing the virus in China was the one chance to eradicate the world widespread of the virus. That chance was lost in the first months. By the time any travel restriction took effect the virus had already spread world wide. All it takes is one infected passenger to step off a plane and a new wildfire will ignite in another country.

This wildfire series is inspired by @1goodtern on Twitter. Since the media has gone silent on pandemic coverage, I have turned to Twitter to stay informed.

Wildfires won’t get us, we’ve splashed ourselves with water!

Posted on by Thor

COVID-19 vaccines do NOT contain ingredients like preservatives, tissues (like aborted fetal cells), antibiotics, food proteins, medicines, latex, or metals.

Getting a COVID-19 vaccination IS a safer and more dependable way to build immunity to COVID-19 than getting sick with COVID-19. Neither will stop a re-infection.

COVID-19 vaccines do NOT create or cause variants of the virus that causes COVID-19. Instead, COVID-19 vaccines can help prevent new variants from emerging.

mRNA vaccines, such as Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, work differently than other types of vaccines, but they still trigger an immune response inside your body. Immunity wanes over time.

COVID-19 vaccines do NOT contain microchips. Vaccines are developed to fight against disease and are not administered to track your movement.

COVID-19 vaccines do NOT change or interact with your DNA in any way.

Because none of the authorized COVID-19 vaccines in the United States contain the live virus that causes COVID-19, the vaccine CANNOT make you sick with COVID-19.

Immunity only lasts for the COVID variant of the day. Variants are mutating monthly and daily.

Thought America has hoarded a biblical excess of vaccines they are not going into many arms. COVID re-infections are common and they are not harmless.

This is the start of the wildfire series inspired by @1goodtern on Twitter. Since the media has gone silent on pandemic coverage, I have turned to Twitter to stay informed.

I slept with COVID

Posted on by Thor

I slept with COVID-19. On the morning of January 25, 2023 I woke up and as I got dressed, I was surprised that Pam was sleeping in. She usually gets up before me. I got my day started by working on a painting. Later in the morning I got a call from Pam letting me know that she had tested positive for COVID-19. Before our call was over I already had my N-95 mask on. I don’t wear a mask to bed however, so I had to have been exposed.

My plan is to self isolate for 10 days. Unfortunately that means staying isolated from Pam as well. Since the bedroom was already exposed to the virus she would stay in that room. I would make each meal and leave hers in a bathroom where she would pick it up. She ordered some easy to make foods which I have been preparing for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

The first evening after the positive test I had to decide where to sleep. There was a guest bedroom right across from where Pam was sleeping but I had read an article about a quarantine hotel where the person across the hall had managed to become exposed just from the opening and closing of doors as food was delivered. I decided instead to sleep on a couch which is down a long hallway.

Pam and I had just recently ordered N-95 masks and a HEPA air filter. I moved the HEPA filter to my studio while I painted and kept my N-95 on all day. The N-95 is amazingly breathable, I honestly often forget I have it on. When I went to bed I moved the HEPA filter next to the couch. The dogs curled up next to me.

The first night was horrible for Pam, she had a fever, body aches, soar throat, chills, hot sweats, fatigue, headache, congestion and a runny nose. She said it was the sickest she has ever been. I could hear her cough from down the hall. She has had every vaccine shot and the booster. Several times she considered the idea of having me bring her to the hospital but I only found this out later. At one point she sent me a zombie emoji.

She thinks she probably got infected at one of the Weddings or Bat Mitzvahs that she played hostess at. She was the only person among the several hundred at these events who was masked. She complained about her eye lids feeling like magma the first evening she had symptoms. This leads me to think she may have been infected through her eyes. Since the N–95 is just 95% effective, she may have also breathed in the virus at the event. We will never know for sure. Contact tracing is a thing of the past. Another of her co-workers was also infected.

After several days her symptoms trailed off. She made a rather quick recovery. All the while she kept working from home, doing spreadsheets, grants, and summer camp plans. Right now she is having a zoom meeting on the back porch. She probably got more work done while in isolation since there were no interruptions except for my occasional text to see if she was hungry or needed anything.

On the morning of January 30, 2023 I woke up with a horrible sour throat that made my ears ache. I hadn’t felt that painful of a soar throat since I had my tonsils out when I was 9 years old. Naturally my thought was that I had COVID. I had made one tactical mistake in trying to avoid the airborne virus. I couldn’t sleep with my N-95 mask on. I took it off an hoped the HEPA filter would be enough to remove any virus before I breathed it in. I kept the HEPA as close to my head as I could.

We have several COVID at home tests in the closet. Any time the government makes them available, I let Pam know, and she orders some. I took a test, and the ten minute wait was agonizing. I tested negative. Now I wonder if I pressed the swab up my nose far enough. I tickled my brain enough so that I had to sneeze repeatedly.

We are now on day 6 of our lockdown. Pam seems good as new and my soar throat only lasted the one morning. I have not developed any other symptoms. We have remained separated and communicate through a long thread of texts. We started watching movies by setting up a zoom meeting. I would sit in the living room and she would watch the TV from her bedroom on zoom. I had to put a dining room chair on the coffee table to raise the computer camera high enough for her to see the TV. The jury rigged system worked pretty good. We could talk to each other as the program played.

I will take another test at the end of the isolation period just to be sure, but the only symptom was a short lived soar throat. Amazingly I may have dodged the bullet again.

Return to Normal

Posted on by Thor

The pandemic is not over. We need to stop buying into the denial that we are “back to normal.” The Aztec culture of human sacrifice used to be considered brutal and horrific. However it does not compare to the over 500 deaths a day as officials placate the public to help them feel that it is fine to go back to everyday life with no face masks, social distancing or any improved ventilation of indoor spaces. The elite keep themselves safe and convince the lower classes to return to normal, and infect one another. 

COVID kills ten times more people than the flu. COVID kills more people than car accidents, strokes, respiratory disease, diabetes, pneumonia and Alzheimer’s. Nine  months ago when the public was told that Covid-19 patients retain elevated risk of infection for at least nine months after being infected, now that risk assessment was extended to 18 months. Getting infected does not build up you immune system, it destroys it.

In 2022 there was a 30% increase in heart attacks among 25-44 year olds. Excess deaths have been on the rise since the start of the pandemic and many of these are likely due to prior COVID infections. This number will keep rising with repeat COVID infections. Each month, more than a million people have called out sick for the past three years. About 7% of Americans currently have long Covid, which can affect productivity and ability to work, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

White House COVID Czar, “Ashish Jha almost gleefully explained that vaccines, tests, and treatments for Covid are heading to the private sector, “My hope is that in 2023, you’re going to see the commercialization of almost all of these products.” Cha-ching! Big money to be made on palatine remedies that do not stop the spread of the virus. Soon drug store shelves will be jam packed. But pharmacists at CVS and Walgreens are dropping off like flies, so pharmacy hours are being cut back. Testing centers are a thing of the past as people test at home. All those at home tests go unrecorded so who knows how much virus is actually out there.