Omicron Shrinkage

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Gizmodo reported that a man claimed that his dick shrank after a bout with COVID-19. Sexual dysfunction may be another added bonus in the long list of unexpected and unpleasant effects of the coronavirus.

The Slate-run sex advice podcast How to Do It discussed the harrowing tale of an anonymous letter writer who was suffering from what’s come to be known as “COVID dick.” The writer, who identified as a heterosexual man in his 30s, said that he had gotten very sick and was hospitalized from covid-19 last July. After he was discharged, he began experiencing erectile dysfunction (ED). He described himself as above average in penis size before covid-19, but his penis had shrunk about 1.5 inches and that he had “become decidedly less than average” after his bout with COVID.

A study from November 2021, for instance, found that men with COVID-19 were about three times as likely to develop a new case of ED than those who didn’t catch COVID-19. Some research has suggested that the risk may be nearly six times higher, yet other estimates are smaller, suggesting around a 20% increased risk. A small percentage of people with long COVID, including women, have also reported sexual dysfunction as one of their symptoms. And sometimes, ED can indeed lead to shrinkage, especially if it’s caused by physical damage and scarring that causes the penis to stop becoming regularly erect.

The November study, found that slightly less than 5% of men in the sample were diagnosed with ED after COVID-19.

 

Insurrectionists Retreat

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753 people have been charges in the Capitol Hill Insurrection so far. The first indictments of sedition have now been leveled against members of the the Oath Keepers. This is a defining moment in the year long investigation by the Justice Department.

On January 6, 2021 members of the Oath Keepers, in their paramilitary gear, walked up the capitol steps single file with their hands on each others shoulders to work their way through the crowd. Many of these military wanna bees were already facing charges for storming the US Capitol building.

To deny they stormed the capitol will be hard to deny since this is the most photographed crime in history.

FBI investigators and DC federal prosecutors have worked diligently building the case, with the help of cooperators and the benefit of internal communications among the Oath Keepers. Federal prosecutors have been criticized by legal experts, Democratic lawmakers, Donald Trump critics, and media pundits for going easy on many of the the rioters.

These charges mute the the talking point from those downplaying the events of January 6, 2021, that the attack on the Capitol wasn’t an insurrection because nobody has been charged with sedition. The sedition case against the Oath Keepers highlights that there were hardened groups of alleged criminals within the mob that essentially planned for war. The Oath Keepers’ leader, who by the way shot his own eye out, is quoted as telling his supporters that they should prepare for a “bloody” operation and that they would need to “fight” in a “war.” Prosecutors added more details of how the Oath Keepers allegedly stockpiled weapons at a nearby hotel in Virginia, just in case they needed to deploy a “quick reaction force” into DC. Prosecutors say, that the Oath Keepers wanted to stop the transfer of presidential power from Trump to Joe Biden.

This band of miscreants lead by the sore looser of a former president. lost the battle on January 6, 2021 and will be tried for sedition.

Sedition is defined as follows… If two or more persons in any State or Territory, or in any place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States, or to levy war against them, or to oppose by force the authority thereof, or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States, or by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the United States contrary to the authority thereof, they shall each be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both.

Marijuana Cure?

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In a study published in study published in the Journal of Nature Products, Oregon State researchers found two cannabis compounds, cannabigerolic acid and cannabidiolic acid, could prevent SARS-CoV-2 from infecting human cells.

The study found that two compounds found in commonly found in hemp, cannabigerolic acid (CBGA) and cannabidiolic acid (CBDA), prevent coronavirus from entering cells that typically line internal organs and skin in a lab setting.

In the study, these acids were able to bind to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, the same target used in COVID-19 vaccines and antibody therapy. Once bound, this step could block a critical step in the pathogen process used to infect the cell.

“That means cell entry inhibitors, like the acids from hemp, could be used to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection and also to shorten infections by preventing virus particles from infecting human cells” said Richard van Breemen, a scientist with Oregon State’s Global Hemp Innovation Center, College of Pharmacy, and Linus Pauling Institute.

Both cannabis compounds were found equally effective against the SARS-CoV-2 alpha and beta variants. Van Breemen hopes this trend seen in his findings will apply to other existing and future COVID-19 variants.

Van Breemen states these compounds can be taken orally. To him, they have the potential to prevent and treat infection by SARS-CoV-2. The researchers did not study THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, due to campus rules prohibiting research using controlled substances. Van Breeman sought to temper public perception that recreational marijuana would have the same effect on preventing a COVID-19 infection as ingesting an oral supplement, noting in an interview with Vice News published Thursday that, when heated, the chemical profile and properties of the compound change.

The bottom line is that smoking weed will not cure COVID-19.

Gallery 4 Secure Enclosure

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Democratic Represantative Katherine Clark is asking the House sergeant at arms to require maskless members of Congress to cast their votes from “isolation boxes” in the House gallery above the main floor, citing the rapid spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant.

In a January 11, 2022 letter, Assistant House Speaker Katherine Clark said “fines have proven insufficient to prevent some Members from repeatedly violating” the House’s mask-wearing rules, which include a $500 fine for the first offense and $2,500 for each offense after that.

“This commonsense step will not only protect our dedicated House staff from Members who refuse to follow House rules, but it will also allow those members to continue to fulfill their constitutional duty to vote on matters before the House.”

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican who has repeatedly ignored the masking rules, was dismissive of the idea. The congresswoman, who has said she’s unvaccinated, was recently barred from Twitter for spreading misinformation about COVID-19 and the efficacy of the disease’s vaccines.

The fines for failing to wear a mask are deducted from members’ paychecks. Greene and a fellow Georgia Republican, Rep. Andrew Clyde, have together lost over $100,000 from their salaries over violations of the rule, which Clark noted in her letter.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer is also advising members to wear N95 or KN95 masks on the House floor, regardless of vaccination status, and is strongly discouraging congregating during votes. The isolation boxes were initially created to allow members of Congress who had tested positive for the coronavirus to attend votes, which was important as Nancy Pelosi sought to whip votes for the speakership in 2021.

Lawmakers Who Tested Positive, Isolating: January 2022

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12/19/21 Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) tested positive. isolation until 1/2/22.

12/19/21 Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) tested positive. isolation until 1/2/22

12/19/21 Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO) tested positive. isolation until 1/2/21

12/18/21 Rep. Matt Cartwright (D-PA) tested positive. isolation until 1/1/22

12/21/21 Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) tested positive. isolation until 1/4/22

12/21/21 Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) tested positive. isolation until 1/4/22

12/21/21 Rep. Antonio Delgado (D-NY) tested positive. isolation until 1/4/22

12/22/21 Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC) tested positive. isolation until 1/5/22

12/22/21 Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) tested positive. isolation until 1/5/22

12/22/21 Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) tested positive. isolation until 1/5/22

12/26/21 Rep. Kaialiʻi Kahele (D-HI) tested positive. isolation until 1/5/22

12/27/21 Rep. Bobby Rush (D-IL) tested positive. isolation until 1/6/22

1/4/22 Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) tested positive. isolation until 1/9/22

1/4/22 Rep. Jim Hagedorn (R-MN) tested positive. isolation until 1/18/22

1/5/22 Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-CA) tested positive. isolation until 1/10/22

1/7/22 Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) tested positive. isolation until 1/12/22

1/8/22 Rep. Young Kim (R-CA) tested positive. isolation until 1/13/22

1/8/22 Rep. Sean Casten (D-IL) tested positive. isolation until 1/13/22

1/8/22 Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN) tested positive.. isolation until 1/13/22

1/9/22 Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) tested positive .isolation until 1/14/22

1/10/22 Rep. John Katko (R-NY) tested positive. isolation until 1/15/22

1/10/22 Rep. Ben Cline (R-VA) tested positive. isolation until 1/15/22

1/10/22 Rep. Rick Crawford (R-AR) tested positive. isolation until 1/15/22

1/10/22 Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) tested positive for a second time, but first as a member of Congress. isolation until 1/15/22

1//10/22 Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD) tested positive. isolation until 1/15/22

1/11/22 Rep. Daniel Webster (R-Fl) tested positive. isolation until 1/16/22

1/11/22 Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY) tested positive. isolation until 1/16/22

1/13/22 Sen. Brian  Schatz (D-HI) tested positive. isolation until 1/18/22

All Cruise Lines Infected With COVID-19

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As of January 6, 2022, Coronavirus cases have been reported on every cruise ship sailing with passengers in U.S. waters.

All 92 ships have at least .1% of passengers testing positive, according to the CDC, which has either started an investigation or has already investigated and is observing each ship. The number of ships under investigation has increased rapidly, The Washington Post reported.

In the last week of 2021, the CDC warned all travelers, including vaccinated people, to avoid cruise ships after COVID-19 cases on cruise ships jumped from 162 during the first 2 weeks of December to more than 5,000 cases during the last 2 weeks of December. The CDC moved cruise ship travel to Level 4, the highest level of risk. “The virus that causes COVID-19 spreads easily between people in close quarters on board ships, and the chance of getting COVID-19 on cruise ships is very high, even if you are fully vaccinated and have received a COVID-19 vaccine booster dose,” the CDC said in updated guidance.

The CDC issued a conditional sail order in October of 2021 for the cruise ships which intends to help keep passengers and crew alive and healthy.  That sail order is set to expire on January 15 2022 at the height of the Omicron surge.

Cruise ship companies have been ignoring the CDC’s  warnings and conducting business as usual. Disney’s Wonder cruise ship and Carnival’s Vista are set to sail out of Galveston this month with thousands of passengers on board. Social distancing does not exist on a cruise ship.

Cruise lines are requiring all crew and most, if not all, passengers to be fully vaccinated to board. Passengers also need proof of a recent negative test. Norwegian Cruise line and Royal Caribbean  have reported cases on their ships and have updated masking requirements as a response. People on board simply ignore the masking requirements.

Several cruise ships have been turned away from ports since late December 2021 due to passengers or crew members testing positive. Most continued their trips but skipped the stops where they were turned away.

The CDC will “consider multiple factors” and work with the cruise lines before moving ships from the current “yellow” status to the more serious “red” status that requires ships to return to port or delay sailing, Caitlin Shockey, a CDC spokeswoman told the Post. To reach the red status, a ship must have ongoing COVID-19 transmission and the potential for cases to overwhelm medical resources on the ship.

Far greater than the COVID-19 pandemic is the pandemic of stupidity.

Military Cases Triple

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COVID-19 cases in the United States have surged almost three-fold in the military since just before Christmas of 2021 according to defense department statistics. The Defense Department reported just under 5,300 cases among service members December 22, 2021. By January 5, 2022 that number reached more than 13,900.

As of September 1, 2021 there were 40 military member deaths due to COVID-19. By January 5, 2022 the total was 86. In response, the military is increasing health protection protocols on many bases and at the pentagon.

Wright Patterson Air Force Base has moved to the highest level of health protection measures which includes now allowing only 15% of the workforce in the office at a time.

One base that has seen a post holiday surge is Fort Bragg, North Carolina, which currently has an estimated 50% positivity rate among those being tested. The base hospital, Womack Army Medical Center, was at 100% capacity at the end of last week, a military official there told CNN.

The jump reflects, to some extent, what is happening in civilian society as the Omicron variant has taken hold and case rates have risen in many communities across the country, defense officials say. The Defense Department does not test specifically for the Omicron variant but officials say there is every reason to believe the highly contagious variant has hit the military force.

Deltacron

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Leonidos Kostrikis, A scientist in Cypress claims to have found a new variant of COVID-19 that he calls deltacron, which combines characteristics of both the delta and omicron variants. He is the University of Cyprus professor who runs the Laboratory of Biotechnology and Molecular Virology. He claims multiple tests show what’s called a recombinant form of the virus, something that happens when there are several variants of a virus.

Kostrikis said deltacron infections are higher among patients hospitalized for COVID than among non-hospitalized patients. He also said samples were processed for genetic sequencing in more than one country, including in Israel.

Of course if this is true it is very bad news since the super transmissible Omicron variants could be combined with the more deadly Delta variant.

However, other scientists think lab contamination is the more likely explanation for this new phenomenon, though one scientist interviewed by Bloomberg said a deltacron variant would not be completely surprising. Cypress’ health minister said more details would be given at a news conference this week, but as of right now deltacron was not of concern as recognized by the World Health Organization.

Of Mice and Omicron

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Where did Omicron come from? Researchers created a sort of family tree which shows how the Alpha, Beta and Delta variants branched off of the original Wuhan strain of the virus (B1.1).

The Omicron variant seemed to appear out of nowhere with 45 mutations to the spike proteins. It has mutations that are not found in all prior variants. It is on a completely different lineage of the tree with a long line of mysterious unknown development.

It was first identified in South Africa on November 24, 2021. It is believed to have diverged from the B1.1 line in mid 2020. Where has it been since then? Mutations to the virus normally happen at about 0.5 per month. Omicron had 45 mutations in the spike protein. Over 18 months when Omicron was hidden from view, it developed mutations 3,5 times faster than other variants.

So where was Omicron during these 18 months and why were the mutations happening so fast?

  • It might have spread in a population with low levels of testing and not been found. This is unlikely.
  • It might have developed in a person who was chronically infected. One theory was that it might have developed in someone with HIV.
  • It might have developed mutations in a non-human host and then jumped back to humans. We don’t test animals for COVID, so could have gone undetected.

A pier reviewed paper out of China explored this third possibility. The likely culprit is mice. The mutations that developed were significantly different that those that developed in humans. The mutations that develop in mice are similar to the mutations that developed in Omicron. The mutations allow the virus to fit well into mice cell receptors.

The idea is that airborne Omicron jumped from a humans into mice, the virus developed mutations that allowed it to better infect mice, then the virus jumped back into humans. This would be an inter-species evolutionary trajectory of the outbreak. This could explain why this virus can cause so many breakthrough infections in humans. Thankfully the Omicron virus causes an increased infection in the airways and not as much infection in human lungs. This may result in milder cases of disease. It will spread wildly throughout humanity with hopefully less death while offering some increased immunity for anyone infected. It could be a blessing in disguise by acting like a vaccine for the unvaccinated.

However we need to vaccinate as many people as possible around the world to avoid future mutations. We can not “boost” out way out of the pandemic. We might not be as lucky next time around.

DeathSantis Hoards a Million COVID Tests

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Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried accused Florida Governor Ron DeathSantis of stockpiling COVID-19 rapid tests while residents across the state are waiting for multiple hours for the opportunity to get tested in the Omicron Surge.

Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie confessed the state did have a warehouse full of one million COVID-19 rapid test kits that have since expired. Guthrie said the tests expired between Dec. 26 and Dec. 30 after being granted a three-month extension.

Guthrie’s remarks confirm what Fried, the lone Democrat in the Florida Cabinet who is challenging DeathSantis for governor, has alleged since Christmastime.

“It’s bad enough that Governor DeSantis has de-prioritized testing with Omicron exploding across Florida, but it’s an absolute disgrace for the governor and his communications team to have lied and covered up the massive failure of a million unused tests while Floridians wait in hours-long lines for local tests that are running out,” Fried said January 6, 2022 in a statement shared on her social media pages. “Now the governor has to beg President (Joe) Biden for another waiver to even use these expired tests — should they still be safe and effective. The governor’s executive failure during this pandemic continues to hurt Floridians. This is why I speak up.”

“Worst off, during this time period, they lied about it, they tried to cover it, they said that my accusations were unfounded, called me a liar, and the reality is this governor is not fit to serve,” Fried said. “He should have known that this stockpile of tests could have been distributed all throughout the state. This is not only a derelict of responsibility, but this is a complete failure of this governor.”

Fried said new leadership is needed and questioned why DeSantis didn’t contact local health departments, hospitals, nursing homes and pharmacies about a possible exchange program.