COVID Caught a Cold

Posted on by Thor

A gene sequence from the common cold virus has worked its way into the Omicron variant of COVID-19. This gene sequence was not in any of the previous mutations of the virus (Alpha, Beta, Delta).

This happened through a process known as switching. The COVID virus invaded a cell and at the same time a common cold virus invaded the same cell. The genes of the two viruses then get mixed up together. This new combination makes the virus more competitive and virulent.

The virus became far more transmissible but perhaps less pathogenic. Patients in South Africa are nor requiring as much oxygen as was needed for patients suffering from Delta.

Omicron is evading vaccines and people who have been infected in the past are being re-infected. Pfizer-BioNTech,  has announced that three doses of vaccine are needed to combat Omicron. Research has shown that a third vaccine shot increases antibodies by 25%. They did not say how long those antibodies last. The company is rushing to develop an Omicron specific version of the vaccine which should be available by March 2022.

Omicron is the most transmissible of all the variants of COVID-19 to date. It is 4 times more transmissible than Delta. It has now been detected in 57 countries. Those numbers change by the hour. It will dominate the world stage in several weeks time. We will all be exposed to this variant. Symptoms include, Body aches and pains, muscle pain, headache, tiredness (1 to 2 days), and a slight sore throat. People are not getting a severe cough, or runny nose. These symptoms are consistent with my everyday existence for the past 20 months. A loss of smell or taste is no longer a symptom with Omicron. The fact is that many people will not realize that they have COVID-19 with these symptoms. Most will not go to hospitals and will recover at home. It is important to note however that there has been an slight increase in hospitalizations in South Africa, but it has not been a huge spike consistent with the amazing exponential growth in infections.

Though Omicron looms in the near future, the fact is that Delta is causing a huge spike in hospitalizations and death in states like Michigan and Minnesota. Despite these rising cases and deaths, most Americans are done with the pandemic and have returned to pre-pandemic life styles. Thanksgiving travel rivaled pre-pandemic travel and cases that resulted from all that mingling are just now reaching their peak. People have let their guard down and the virus will take full advantage of that weakness.

Children are the new victims of the virus. 132,000 children have been reported with infections in the last week across the country. Children will be infected by the Omicron variant at an increased rate. Children need to be vaccinated and even boosted if they are eligible. In South Africa 80% of the patients admitted to hospitals and diagnosed with COVID were under the age of 50. This is a younger age profile than existed with the Delta surge.

COVID-19 Psychic

Posted on by Thor

In America the surge of Delta COVID-19 cases is trailing off, but what will happen as we head into the winter months? Americans vaccinations have come to a virtual stand still and many people prefer to believe that the pandemic is over.

The virus will return and it will once again peak. Scientists are baffled to explain it’s continuing prevalence around the world. The best weapon against continued hospitalizations and deaths is to get vaccinated.

The New York Times reported that cases are rising in five northern states, Vermont, New Hampshire, Colorado, Michigan and Minnesota. This like the 2020 surge as the weather got colder.

There are about 80,000 cases a day in the United States. The U.S. is also not doing a great job of testing and contact tracing so those numbers are likely low. We are averaging 1,560 deaths a day. In the US over 50,000 people have died since that start of the Delta surge which began in June 2021. They did not need to die. A simple vaccine could have saved most if not all of those lives.

We can learn much about what might happen in the United States by watching trends around the world. Around the world there is declining activity. Europe however is seeing the highest number of cases and deaths in more than five months. Eastern Europe is particularly bad. Vaccine acceptance is particularly low in these countries. In Russia only 33% of residents are vaccinated. They don’t trust the government. Does that sound familiar? The death toll is likely under reported in Russia. The virus is not done with humanity. There are plenty of people that it can continue to burn through.

 

College Football Super Spreaders

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College football stadiums across America have been packed this Labor day weekend. The number in attendance at some of the country’s biggest stadiums was staggering. The University of Michigan hosted Western Michigan with close to 110,000 spectators standing shoulder to shoulder. The University of Texas defeated Louisiana on September 4, 2021, cheered by more than 91,000 screaming and cheering fans. And the list could go on and on as more than 80 games were played during the long weekend.

“I don’t think it’s smart,” said Dr Anthony Fauci of the huge college football crowds, amid a surge of Covid-19 cases in the US.

“Outdoors is always better than indoors, but even when you have such a congregate setting of people close together – first, you should be vaccinated. And when you do have congregate settings, particularly indoors, you should be wearing a mask,” the president’s leading infectious diseases expert told CNN on Tuesday.

Penn State, the University of Wisconsin, and the University of Alabama are planning for full-capacity crowds and are not asking for vaccination records. Iowa fan and critical care pharmacist at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Alyssa Sykuta, commented on her team’s fans waving to the Children’s Hospital behind the stadium before the game on September4, 2021. “As an Iowa fan this is one of my favorite college football traditions, but in the context of the past 18 months, it is cringe worthy,” she wrote on Twitter. “Maybe a moment of silence to honor kids at @UIchildrens who have been impacted by Covid instead? And for the love of God mask up and get vaxxed.” “ICUs are full, children are being hospitalized as schools reopen. College football stadiums full of mask less fans. I don’t understand,” said a retired hospital employee Rick Green on Twitter.

Experts have pointed out that being outdoors is less likely to spread the virus but if you are sitting shoulder to shoulder with thousands of other shouting fans the doesn’t just disappear. On top of that people gather in the bathrooms and then in bars after the game further heightening the chance of spread.

The 2021 NFL season begins on September 9, 2021 when defending Super Bowl champions Tampa Bay host the Dallas Cowboys with a capacity of more than 65,000 people. Masks are not required but recommend for the game.

5 States: 44% of Cases

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CNN reported that five states account for 44% of the COVID-19 cases in the past week according to data from Johns Hopkins University. New York, Michigan, Florida, Pennsylvania and New Jersey had more than 196,400 of the country’s 453,360 cases reported in the last week, according to data available the morning of April 7. 2021.

Michigan has been hit especially hard with 6,600 cases a day over a week as opposed to 1,350 daily cases five weeks ago. The highly contagious and deadly B.1.1.7 variant of the COVID virus has helped cause the spike in cases. People are also experiencing pandemic fatigue and are taking fewer precautions giving the virus plenty of opportunity to spread.

The B.1.1.7, first identified in the UK, is now the most common strain of coronavirus in the United States, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said April 7, 2021.

With more-transmissible variants adding up, surges like Michigan’s may soon be seen more widely, even though vaccination rates have increased nationally, epidemiologist Dr. Michael Osterholm said. The CDC says more than 16,200 cases of the B.1.1.7 variant have been confirmed in surveillance testing in the US, and B.1.1.7 has been found in every state. This number does not represent the total number of such cases circulating in the United States, but rather only those found by analyzing samples. Florida has more that 3000 confirmed cases of the B.1.1.7 UK variant, more than any other state.

The US has averaged 774 Covid-19 deaths a day over the last week. According to the latest CDC data, 19.4% of the total US population was fully vaccinated as of the morning of April 7, 2021; and 57.4% of people age 65 and older are fully vaccinated. But the US has a long way to go before reaching herd immunity. Dr. Anthony Fauci has estimated 70%-85% of the population needs to become immune.

Zombie Mink

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17 million mink were killed in Denmark in November after COVID-19 spread from mink farmers to the mink they were raising and then a mutated strain of the virus passed back to humans.

The Denmark Food and Agriculture Minister Morgens Jensen resigned when it was decided that the order to kill the animals was illegal. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen visited a mink farm after the mass killing.

Mass graves were dug at a military area in western Denmark for the 17 million mink and they were buried under six feet of dirt. Hundreds of bloated mink have started rising from the grave. It is believed that the CO2 gas used to kill the animals caused the decomposing bodies to rise to the surface. The local media has started referring to them as zombie mink.

Jensen’s replacement, Rasmus Prehn, said Friday November 28, 2020 that he supported the idea of digging up the animals and incinerating them. He said he had asked the environmental protection agency look into whether it could be done. Parliament was to be briefed on the issue on Monday November 30, 2020.

The American Mink Farming industry as been on high alert since the mass killings in Denmark. Thousands of mink have died at fur farms in Utah (8,000) and Wisconsin (2,000) after a series of COVID-19 outbreaks. In Oregon, least 10 minks and an undisclosed number of human farm workers tested positive for the COVID-19, the U.S. Agriculture Department confirmed Friday November 27, 2020. The infected animals were ordered isolated, so far sparing them from the grim fate of the Denmark mink. So far, no mutation has been detected in U.S. minks. The United States produces roughly 3 million mink pelts a year compared to Denmark’s 17 million. There are about 275 mink farms spread among 23 states; to date, 16 mink farms have had COVID-19 outbreaks in Utah, Wisconsin, Michigan and Oregon, according to figures provided to The Post by the USDA. The number of farm workers infected from the outbreaks is being withheld  by the Department of Agriculture, citing privacy concerns. Animal and environmental advocates, believe the privacy concerns are a smokescreen to protect thee American mink industry. The lack of transparency from the mink farming industry now poses a public health risk.

Colosseum

Posted on by Thor

I  keep trying to find a way to illustrate the toll that Covid-19 has taken here in America. As of this writing, June 1, 2020, according to World O Meter, 106,878 people have died in the United States from the virus. I decided to find out which football stadium has the highest seating capacity and found that Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, can seat 107,420 people. By the time this painting posts, that seating capacity may have been surpassed, or soon will be surpassed, by the number of people who have died from Covid-19. I then started thinking about how the protests across the country are playing out in real time on social media platforms. It is as if Twitter and Facebook have become the modern day equivalents of the Roman Colosseum. What if the dead are watching the violence unfold from their stadium seating?

Many are watching events unfold from the safety of their home isolation while others are being shot at by police with rubber bullets and tear gas. President Trump was hidden away in a White House basement bunker as protests in Washington D.C. resulted in fires burning all around the White House. The nation wide protests will certainly result in a spike in Covid-19 infections.

Police are also shooting at, macing, and arresting reporters who the president dubs “the enemy of the people.” A young African American couple are tazered and dragged out of their car on live TV. A family watched as police marched past their home and then police shouted “Light Um Up” and they shot rubber bullets at the family when they did not get back inside fast enough. It is a dystopian nightmare. Police violence has erupted nationwide. At least two have been killed in the Nation wide protests. a 21 year old journalist had his eye ruptured by a tear gas canister in Indiana

Meanwhile 106,878 ghosts watch from their stadium seating as police cars burn. Close up and violent details can be seen on the jumbo tron and in every social media post. Racism has existed for hundreds of years but today the injustice is captured by cell phones which everyone has in hand.

An independent autopsy found that George Floyd‘s death was a homicide. He died of “asphyxiation from sustained pressure. ” That that is plain to see if you watch the cell phone footage of officer Derek Chauvin as he keeled on Floyd’s neck as Floyd begged him saying, “I can’t breath.” The officer had his knee on Floyd’s neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds in total and two minutes and 53 seconds after Floyd was unresponsive. Dr. Michael Baden said, “Police have this false impression that if you can talk, you can breathe. That’s not true,” Baden said. George died because he needed a breath. He needed a breath of air.