You need to burn to develop non-flamability!

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Some seem to think that getting infected is the solution to fighting an infectious disease. No one is exactly sure how long the protection after natural infection will last and how durable that protection will be against a variety of different variants. An infection will protect you from reinfection against only the variant that caused your illness. The virus is mutating very quickly. The next mutation can cause re-infection. Some people think that after you’ve gotten a natural infection, you will be permanently protected against COVID-19 as if this were measles. That is simply not true.

An infection will cause COVID-19 antibodies can stay in the body for months. New evidence suggests that ‘hybrid’ immunity, the result of both vaccination and a bout of COVID-19, can provide partial protection against reinfection for about eight months. However, if a new variant finds ways to escape the existing immune response, then even a recent infection might not guarantee protection. The Omicron variants circuiting now are mutating at an incredibly fast rate. Many of these new variants are finding ways to break through existing immunity.

The virus is evolving so fast, that it is impossible to predict exactly how many months someone might be protected from re-infection if they survive their bout with COVID. One in five people who are infected develop long COVID which can greatly reduce quality of life.

We all have to get burned!

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Public responses to widespread disease have remained mostly unchanged since the Black Death, in the 14th century. Over 3000 COVID related deaths a week in America has become the new normal. Blindly accepting so much death is as American as Sunday football. Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Michigan has a seating capacity of 107,601. What better place for a maskless orgy of denial and disease? If I had any desire to see a Michigan football game I would be perfectly happy to watch on TV.

When people observe others taking risks despite the pandemic they assume those risks are acceptable. Unfortunately from the start of the pandemic, leaders have not been honest and transparent. Contradictory messages are the norm.

Human beings are inherently social, not solitary, creatures. Making that a reality can be accomplished while masking and having some physical distance. Physical distancing is different than social distancing. The human need for connection with other people is probably what fuels a lot of disease transmission. Most people however have abandoned all protective measures. They actively seek to infect others  as they ignore reality and go about life like it was 1999.

Social distancing does not have to equal social isolation. Those are two very different concepts and virtual interaction can make a big difference.

 

We have all the tools we need to deal with a wildfire!

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Tools to fight COVID-19 have been abandoned or are being phased out. Treatments available earlier in the pandemic are becoming useless with the rapidly evolving new variants of the virus. Monoclonal anti-body treatments are no longer effective. “The big problem is that monoclonal antibodies bind to a very small piece of the virus. As the virus changes, we are now in a position in which we lost them all because they don’t bind to the virus anymore,” Johns Hopkins School of Medicine professor Arturo Casadevall, MD, PhD, told NBC News.

In May of 2022 the White House said it would have to wind down it’s COVID relief program since Congress cut  $22.5 billion in COVID relief funding. There will be no more free vaccinations, tests and treatment to the immunocompromised. If more COVID-19 variants emerge, different boosters may be developed to fight them. Without additional funding, the government will not be able to purchase enough boosters for Americans. U.S. doctors will stop accepting claims from uninsured people.

U.S. will no longer be able to invest in more oral antiviral pills or any new promising antiviral treatment. They will also dial back on research into a “next-generation” COVID-19 vaccine that would protect against a wide range of variants. The country “blindsided” to emerging variants. Researchers won’t be able to properly assess any new variants of COVID-19 that could possibly emerge.

You may have a wildfire and you may have water. The water is useless unless you have a way to get the water to the fire.

You just need to catch fire and you will stop worrying!

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According to recently published data from experts at the Dornsife School of Public Health, closing indoor dining during the first two waves of the COVID pandemic was associated with a 61% decline in new COVID-19 cases over a six-week span, preventing an estimated 142 daily cases per city, compared with cities that reopened indoor dining during that period. The team looked at data from March to October 2020 in 11 U.S. cities, including Philadelphia, Atlanta and Dallas. The results were published last month in the journal Epidemiology.

At first researchers believed that  recovering from COVID-19 meant the chances of getting the virus again so soon were low. Scientists thought we were protected for at least six months after the initial infection. This as it turns out is not true. You can be er-infected much sooner. The much raster re-infections are due to relaxed safety precautions such as masking and social distancing, as well as declining antibody levels and additional viral mutations, which can result in immune escape by omicron sub-variants.

Re-infections are common. The antibodies you generate in the face of one infection don’t necessarily protect you against other sub-variants for long.

It’s just a mildfire!

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Denialists and minimizes have been working hard to downplay the corona virus since the start of the pandemic. A favorite talking point for denialists is the “COVID is just like the flu.” This is of course false. The flu does not kill over a million people over 3 years. COVID-19 has a higher severe disease and mortality rate than influenza in all age groups. COVID-19 survivors report many more long-term effects of the infection than influenza survivors. Lingering symptoms like weakness, shortness of breath, trouble focusing and, in some cases, kidney and heart problems are much more common after COVID-19 than after influenza. “Mild” COVID-19 illness has been described as “flu-like.” It’s important to remember that the flu is a pretty debilitating disease so “mild” COVID-19 is still a pretty significant disease.

A large number of COVID-19 patients present with no or very mild symptoms, but those individuals can still transmit the virus to others, some of whom could have a much more serious course of illness. Every person who gets infected keeps the “chains of transmission” going, which can bring COVID-19 to those who are more vulnerable.

Nearly 1 in 5 people  develop Long COVID, with long term conditions including long-term damage to the lungs, heart, kidneys, brain and other organs. “Mild” cases of COVID are associated with tissue damage and brain matter loss. Damage to the brain can result in loss of smell, and a loss in the overall volume of the brain. This brain matter loss may explain the behavior of some of the denialists.

COVID-19 increases risk of heart attack, strokes and other cardiovascular disease. Patients with COVID-19 were four times likelier to develop major cardiovascular disease in the acute phase of infection than those uninfected. Even a mild case of COVID-19 can increase a person’s risk of cardiovascular problems for at least a year after diagnosis. Researchers found that rates of many conditions, such as heart failure and stroke, were substantially higher in people who had recovered from COVID-19 than in similar people who hadn’t had the disease. The risk was elevated even for those who were under 65 years of age and lacked risk factors. There is an unexpected surge in young people dying of heart attacks.

I’m done with wildfires!

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Groundhog Day, derives from the Pennsylvania Dutch superstition that if a groundhog emerges from its burrows on this day and sees its shadow due to clear weather, it will retreat to its den and winter will go on for six more weeks; if it does not see its shadow because of cloudiness, spring will arrive early. This year, Canadian Groundhog, Fred la Marmotte, did not exit his borrow. That is because Fred died while in hibernation.

A dead groundhog is the harbinger of only one this, that the pandemic is not over. It also indicated that the pandemic will continue for much more than 6 weeks. The groundhog day master of ceremonies, Roberto Blondin said, “In life, the only thing that’s certain is that nothing is certain, Well, this year it’s true. It’s sadly true. I announce to you that Fred is dead.”

H5N1  or Avian Flu has killed 58,200,536 birds in the United States since January 2022. 47 states have been affected. Last fall in Spain, an outbreak of bird flu at a mink farm resulted in the death or culling of the entire group of 50,000 minks. This may be the first case of mammal to mammal transmission of the virus. Humans are mammals.

COVID-19 has a mortality rate of about 1%. Bird flu has a mortality rate of over 50%. If the virus begins to spread among humans, there is little chance that a targeted response to stop the outbreak would happen. Bird flu would indeed make the COVID pandemic seem like it was a minor inconvenience.

On the Caspian Sea there was a mass mortality event of Bird Flu that killed 700 seals. This is again evidence that mammals are passing the virus to each other. The virus is found the the droppings and saliva of birds. If a mammal consumes a dead bird, or is exposed to droppings, that is one way to contract the virus.

Human infections with bird flu viruses can happen when virus gets into a person’s eyes, nose or mouth, or is inhaled. The first case of an avian influenza A (H5N1) virus in a person in the U.S. was reported on April 28, 2022. Researchers at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology report that H5N1 Bird Flu closely  resembles the 1918 Spanish Flu virus.  The 1918 virus was an avian strain that managed to adapt to humans without first acquiring any genes from existing human flu viruses. Further, the researchers found that several of the same mutations found in the H5N1 virus are found in the 1918 Spanish Flu virus.

57 seals were found dead in Maine having also died from H5N1. In Montana, three grizzly bears wandered, disoriented and blinded and were found to be infected by H5N1. All three bears died.

Since 2003, there have been 868 cases of human infection with H5N1 reported, of which 457 were fatal—a 53 percent case fatality rate. Ecuador reported its first case on January 9, 2023, in a 9-year-old girl who had contact with backyard poultry. So far, human to human transmission has not been reported. The 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic started when a bird infected a pig who then gave the virus to a farmer who then spread the virus at Camp Funston in Kansas as troops trained for WW I. Infected troops then spread the virus throughout Europe.

Also infected have been foxes, polecats, badgers and foxes. So did the groundhog die of a virus? No cause of death has been noted.

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.

Firefighting equipment makes no difference!

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If your town hired firefighters who sprayed gasoline on the fire, your town would have to hire new firefighters. That is of course if the town were still standing after the blaze. We got to watch clowns in countries around the world pour gasoline on the pandemic blaze.

If those same firefighters said they could not put out the blaze and you should accept that we will all be burnt, you would hire new firefighters. Perhaps they might advise you that only 1% of the houses might burn. Hire new firefighters.

When the 2016 American presidential election rolled around I voted to remove the 45th president precisely because he did nothing to put out the fire. The 46th president unfortunately isn’t any better. He chooses to ignore the conflagration. He and his wife both tested positive for COVID twice and so they are “done: with the pandemic.

Someone shared a magnificent video that outlines the 4 stage strategy for COVID Pandemic response.

In stage 1 Politicians say, “Nothing is going to happen.”

In stage 2 They say, “Something may be about to happen, but we should do nothing about it.”

In stage 3, They say, “Maybe there is something we should do about it, but there is nothing we CAN do.”

In stage 4, They say, “Perhaps there is something we could have done, but it is too late now.”

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.

I Pity the Maskless Fool

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“I Pity the Fool” said Mr T.Masks work. COVID is airborne. Research has shown that acknowledged the efficacy of mask-wearing to some degree at slowing the spread of COVID-19. A February 2021 article published by the Journal of the American Medical Association reviewed data from 10 previous studies conclude mask wearing substantially reduces spread. A cloth mask reduces exhaled droplets by 50 to 70%. So cloth masks are best at source control but not at filtering the virus itself.

Universal mask adoption for people when in public is recommended by the authors of the “An evidence review of face masks against COVID-19,” first published in January by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the U.S. Researchers poured over at least 150 other studies, models and findings to draw their conclusion: “The available evidence suggests that near-universal adoption of non-medical masks when out in public, in combination with complementary public health measures, could successfully reduce virus reproduction levels to below 1, thereby reducing community spread if such measures are sustained.” Additionally, they concluded that mask wearing mandates could add $1 trillion to the U.S. GDP by preventing business closures.

A June 2020 University of Iowa study published in the Health Affairs medical journal estimated over 200,000 COVID-19 cases were prevented in May after masking was mandated in several states. For this experiment, researchers used data analysis and models to measure community spread before and after a mask mandate was enacted. Data found that within 1-5 days after a mandate was issued, daily case rates dropped nearly one percentage point. Within 21 or more days, they dropped two.

Face masks, worn correctly, that’s right chin straps don’t count, combined with other preventive measures, such as getting vaccinated, frequent hand-washing and physical distancing, can help slow the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19. The tools are simple and effective, but Americans are. lets face the facts, ignorant fools.

 

Henry V at the Shakes

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Henry V at the Orlando Shakespeare Theater runs through February 5, 2023. The young Henry V, the King of England is shown to be a fair but stern rules. A french diplomat brings him a gift from the King of France. When the gift is opened, tennis balls drop out and bounce on the court floor boards. This jest ignited the kings fury and he invades France.

In France the tired English army storms a gated city and though outnumbered, the king threatens his way through the gates to take the stronghold. The implication seems to be that solid oratory is stronger than the sword.

Everything lead up to a huge battle at Agincourt. On the evening before the battle Henry walks disguised among his troops to find out how the soldiers view the following battle. His inspiring rally cry to the troops on the morning of battle has every soldier uproariously ready for the fight. The French on the other hand were port-raid as arrogant princes on their fancy ponies. The incredible bloody battle came down to hand to hand combat after Henry forced the French into a funnel and pikes took out the charging knights on horseback. King Arthur’s Archers in the back turned the tide.

Some French managed to get behind the English lines and they killed the young boys who helped with the battle carts. This sparked absolute rage in King Henry and he killed every French prisoner. His ideal of what war should be were now brutal actions. In a strange turn the king then struggles to win the love of the French princess who was part of the peace treaty. All his battle hardened exterior must melt away if he is to win her hand.

 

 

 

One MILLION N-95 Masks

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On Twitter some anti-science conspiracy theorist was offering money for people to stop following Tern, a Twitter user who follows the latest COVID research. People kept writing in to see just how much money was being offered. Of course the anti science nerd had no actual figure in mind.

Then my diabolical mind started spinning, Just how much would it take for me to completely ignore the science and return to life as normal as if the virus didn’t exist? I decided my price would be one MILLION N-95 masks. Even the science deniers might have a turn of mind as people keep dying around them. Of course many science deniers have already died.

A study found that twice as many Republicans have died of COVID than Democrats. A refusal to take a simple vaccine is the major cause of those deaths.e

Of course 1,099,866 masks would have been preferable. One for each person in America who died needlessly from an airborne virus. Their lives are worth an unimaginable fortune.