CDC Muzzled

Posted on by Thor

The New York Times recently published an article with the headline: “We were helpless.” It wasn’t news that the 45th president has muzzled The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) but there were new insights into the mood in the agency as their research and advice was ignored and silenced. The article is supported by interviews with 11 current and former agency employees, as well as a review of text messages and other documents. Which showed the agency under the thumb of the former president.

In February 2020, Dr. Nancy Messonnier, a senior CDC official, warned Americans to prepare for a pandemic. When The former president learned of the announcement he was furious and severely reprimanded her. With her silenced the entire agency was put under political pressure to downplay the pandemic. Vice President Mike Pence, with no epidemiology experience was put in charge of the coronavirus task force. It was his job to silence and spin communications from the CDC.

CDC officers were sent to airports around the country to screen passengers flying into the United States from China. They were told however that they could not wear medical masks because the politicians did not want to alarm the general public. Passengers from China were wearing masks but the medical professionals were forced to go mask less. It soon became clear that the virus was spreading not just from people who showed visible symptoms, but also asymptotically.  Just screening for visible symptoms was pointless. The public needed to be warned but the CDC was silenced.

Privately, CDC  officers were calling friends and family asking them to cancel weddings and planned vacations, to stay home, and to wear masks and even goggles when they venturing outside. The general public was not told. Those who shared their thoughts on social media were told to stop or be fired.

A month later the CDC director finally announced the asymptomatic spread of the virus. Finally after two months, the white house begrudgingly advised the public to wear masks. Had the CDC been allowed to advise the public when they wanted, 36,000 lives could have been saved. Considering the ongoing mass hypnosis and denial that number is a drop in the bucket in the ever escalating preventable COVID death toll.

So is the CDC being muzzled in 2023? It would appear so.

COVID Hairy Tongue

Posted on by Thor

The New York Times reported that There might be some COVID symptoms you have not heard about. Pandemic minimizes love to claim that the virus is no worse than a cold of flu. They are mistaken. COVID can manifest in strange and unexpected ways, such as pins and needles, purple toes and hairy tongue syndrome. These symptoms are less common but very real.

A loss of taste and smell was a confusing symptom from early in the pandemic. Other unexpected symptoms have included, ringing in their ears, sore eyes, rashes, red welts on their faces or lips, hair loss and unusual joint pains. So why do some people develop these rare symptoms? She short answer is that no one really knows. It is thought that the virus may get into the blood stream of some people and then harm other organs other than the lungs. Some think that simple stress of a COVID infection may result in such symptoms as hair loss.

Tongue cells are supposed to replace themselves often. In rare cases older cells linger forming a thick fuzzy growth across the tongues surface. The growth may be accompanied by a burning sensation in the mouth. A tongue scraper is then needed to trim back the growth on the tongue’s surface. The condition, with proper oral hygiene it believed to be temporary.

 

OMA Director Fired after FBI Raid

Posted on by Thor

Orlando Museum of Art (OMA) director Aaron De Groft was apparently missing in action as FBI agents raided his museum. He has been on the lamb ever since. In a bold move of incompetence or malicious greed, he mounded an exhibit of 25 works that were claimed to be by Jean-Michel Basquiat. The authenticity of that work quickly came into question.

The New York Times reported on the shady provenance of the works with one painting done on Fed Ex cardboard with the company logo being done in a typeface created nine years after the artist’s death.

De Groft did nothing but defend the work citing the flimsy excuse of a poem as proof of authenticity. The misguided OMA board also defended the work noting OMA gift store sales had gone up.

In an email, De Groft threatened an academic (subsequently identified as University of Maryland art historian Jordana Moore Saggese) who was seeking to distance herself from a report she was commissioned to write assessing the authenticity of the works in Heroes & Monsters: Jean-Michel Basquiat, The Thaddeus Mumford, Jr. Venice Collection. Saggese, who was reportedly paid $60,000 for her report, requested that her name not be tied to the exhibition, De Groft wrote, “You want us to put out there you got $60 grand to write this? Ok then. Shut up. You took the money. Stop being holier than thou.” He added, “Do your academic thing and stay in your limited lane.”

The clueless board in an effort to protect their own asses fired De Groft on 28 June 2022. No one seems to be able to admit they dropped the ball and failed with this misguided show. The work had never been clearly authenticated. The board’s  clear incompetence and complicity in what could be a criminal attempt to raise the value of fake art works means that if they have any morals, they will resign from the board. Orlando is now the laughing stock 0f the art world, internationally. More heads need to roll if this crippled institution is ever to recover. In a press release the board said that the museum is not under investigation, but the FBI is still investigating. The museum very well might face criminal liability.

On 24 June 2022, the FBI swooped in before the work could be shipped over seas. As the FBI investigation plays out we will get to see just how clueless or greedy OMA’s board and director were. Besides seizing the cardboard scribbles, they also seized “any and all” communications between the museum’s employees and the owners of the artworks “purported to be by artist Jean-Michel Basquiat,” including correspondence with experts regarding the artwork.

Did the Orlando Museum of Art commit fraud in an attempt to raise the value of forgeries? The work was slated to go on exhibit in Italy next. A week ago one of the owners of the work walked into the museum lobby hoping to walk away with five of the works on cardboard. You would have to think he hoped to sell the fakes for millions before the gauntlet fell.

The OMA Board:

Chair of the Board
Cynthia Brumback

Officers
Ted R. Brown
Carolyn Fennell
Patrick J. Knipe
Francine Newberg
Sibille Hart Pritchard
Winifred Sharp
Andrew Snyder
Robert Summers
Lance Walker Jr.
Michael Winn
Nancy Wolf

Trustees
Leslie Andreae (Ex Officio)
Shari Bartz
Dustin Becker
Caroline Blydenburgh
Jeffrey Blydenburgh (Ex Officio)
Kathy Cardwell
Allison Choate
Earl Crittenden Jr.
William Deuchler
Mark Elliott (Ex Officio)
Elizabeth Francetic (Ex Officio)
Chase Heavener
Joan Kennedy (Ex Officio)
Amelia McLeod
John Martinez
Zakir Odhwani
Jennifer O’Mara
Paul Perkins Jr.
Valeria Robinson-Baker
Daisy Staniszkis

OMA Debacle

Posted on by Thor

Orlando Museum of Art (OMA) has put Orlando on the art scene map by having a blockbuster showing of 25 potentially fake Jean Michel Basquiat paintings on cardboard. The New York Times investigated and now Orlando is a laughing stock in the international arts scene.

At the exhibit opening, the museum in it’s wisdom had an artist named Naderson Saint – Piere, in the lobby creating a painting in Basquiat’s style, thus demonstrating how easy it would be to forge the famous artists work.

OMA has a new and ambitious director named, Aaron De Groft, who learned all he knows about art by getting a PHD from Florida State University. He should be expert enough to spot a forgery. “Dammit Jim I am a doctor not an art expert.” At the opening of Heros and Monsters: Jean – Michel Basquiat, De Groft claimed the work on exhibit was worth $200 million dollars.

The “story” is that these were created in 1982 while Basquiat, working out of a studio space beneath Larry Gagosian’s home in Venice, California, preparing for a show at the art dealer’s Los Angeles gallery. The cardboard works are said to have been sold by Basquiat directly to the television screenwriter Thad Mumford, a producer and writer for the top-rated M*A*S*H. for $5,000 in cash without Gagosian’s knowledge.

Mumford threw the work in a storage locker and it stayed there for 30 years until he failed to pay a bill for the storage locker in 2012. Thad Mumford died on September 6, 2018. William Force, a “picker,” and his financial backer Lee Mangin, snagged the lot for $15,000.  This story of forgotten treasure in a storage locker is too good to be true. Gargosian told a reporter that he “finds the scenario of the story highly unlikely.” Gagosian, lived just one floor above Basquiat and kept close tabs on his studio progress. The provenance of the artwork is in question. Force and Mangin have not been able to find a buyer since the works legitimacy has been in question. If they could get a museum too exhibit the work it might become easier to sell.

In 2017 one of Basquiat’s paintings sold for $110.5 million at Sotheby’s which is the current auction high for an American artwork. One “proof” that the work was  created by Basquiat is a poem in which 25 paintings were mentioned. Now what rhymes with 25 paintings? The treasure hunting pickers claim it as a form of receipt. It wasn’t in the storage locker but was apparently retrieved by them from Mumford. It was signed in oil stick, JMB.

To confirm the authenticity of the artwork experts turned to the cardboard it as painted on. It is hard to differentiate cardboard of 1980s from that of today. However on the back of one of the works was a company imprint that said, “Align top of FedEx Shipping Label here.” According to Lindon Leader, an independent brand expert consulted by The Times, who was shown a photo of the cardboard, the typeface in the imprint was not used by Federal Express before 1994. He should know: that was the year he personally redesigned the company’s logo and its typefaces while working as senior design director at the Landor Associates advertising firm. “It appears to be set in the Univers 67 Bold Condensed,” Leader said of the label’s distinctive purplish font. In 1982, “They were not using Univers at that time.”

BOOM so these were created 6 years AFTER the artist’s death from an overdose on August 12, 1988.

The Orlando Weekly reported that a tipster claimed a gag order had been handed down to OMA staff by museum higher-ups and that computers had been seized from the museum by the FBI. This has not been confirmed. De Groft is doing what he can to, deny, deflect and distract as pompously as possible. This morning 18 February 2022 his story was that he was absolutely no doubt that works were genuine. By this afternoon his story changed when he told the Orlando Sentinel‘s Matt Palm, “Our job is not to authenticate art. Our job is to bring the best art to the people of Orlando and Orange County.” Ha. Yes the best Orlando can do is exhibit fake art.

Welcome Back

Posted on by Thor

Florida Governor Ron DeathSantis has vowed that schools will remain open through the Omicron blizzard. Mask mandates for students are a thing of the past since DeathSantis created a law making mask mandates illegal to protect students.

The Governor has been at war with local school districts that wanted to mask mandates to protect students during surges of COVID. The  administration’s policy was to deny school boards, the right to choose whether their children attend school masked or unmasked.

The State Board of Education docked pay from school boards that issued mask mandates in defiance of the governor’s policy. The Federal Government stepped in to cover School Board salaries. However, it is now illegal to protect the lives of students. The Governor wants students to get infected in the  hope that it will foster herd immunity with what he considers an acceptable amount of death. COVID is not benign in in kids and it is not inconsequential.

So students are returning to classrooms mask free if they like, to spread this highly transmissible virus at will. Governor DeathSantis said, while speaking in Fort Lauderdale, children “do not need to be doing any crazy mitigation” such as testing or wearing masks, unless their parents want them to. He is also making moved to cut back testing just as the demand for more testing has grown in this wave of the pandemic. Tests  will only be for “High Value” individuals, whatever that means. An example given was of an elderly grandmother given more testing consideration over an 8-year-old third grader. Clearly he feels that allowing children to get sick will held his re-election plans

According to The New York Times, “Large city school systems in Cleveland, Detroit, Milwaukee and Newark have joined a growing list of public schools across the country that have postponed reopening after the holiday break, switched to remote instruction, or have taken both steps because of COVID-19 outbreaks and staffing shortages.”

Florida reported 85,000 new COVID-19 cases on January 4th 2022. 61 people died that same day. Hospitalizations have spiked suddenly high above the peak of the Delta wave. It will get worse before it gets better. As of 6Pm on January 3, 2022 over 3,000 schools nationwide had closed for the week, according to Burbio, which tracks school calendars. Many schools are pivoting to virtual learning.  School districts in and around  Detroit, Atlanta, Newark, New Jersey, and Milwaukee, as well as individual schools elsewhere, have reverted to virtual learning for days or weeks, mostly because of staff shortages resulting from illness or quarantine.

Vendetta

Posted on by Thor

Kyle Rittenhouse who killed three protestors in Kenosha, Wisconsin with a borrowed AK 47 assault rifle cried in court.The judge then coddled the crying NRA poster child, offering a break.

White supremacists are encouraged to take justice into their own hands in this county. The judge in Rittenhouse’s trial insisted that those who were gunned down could not be called victims by prosecutors.  They could however be called arsonists, and rioters by the defense.

The case will test the distinction between self-defense and vigilante killings.

The Western United states is seeing a spike in COVID-19 cases as the south’s numbers drop. States such as Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico have seen a massive jump in cases per 100,000 people. California, Utah and Nevada are seeing a slight increase in case numbers, too.

The West is in a battle with COVID-19 just ahead of the winter months. Colorado has been fighting its worst coronavirus wave in a year, leading to overwhelmed hospitals that are turning away patients, according to The New York Times.

Widespread COVID-19 Infections Among Iowa Deer

Posted on by Thor

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.

62% of Police Die from COVID-19

Posted on by Thor

The Hill reported that COVID-19 accounted for more than 66 percent of all law enforcement deaths in the line of duty in 2020 and 2021, according to newly compiled statistics. The report from the Officer Down Memorial Page found that more law enforcement officers died from COVID-19 than from every other cause combined since the pandemic began in early 2020.

In 2020, 245 officers died from COVID-19, more than from gunfire, automobile crashes and other illnesses. So far in 2021, 228 law enforcement deaths have been recorded as a result of COVID-19 related illness, out of 356 deaths total.

2020’s death toll was the highest in 50 years, adding that the “silent killer” of COVID-19 was still on the offensive. “It’s climbing at a time when it should be decreasing with the knowledge, the expertise, the amount of training and education,” said, Patrick Montuore, the executive director of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial, according to Bay News 9.

124 officers died in Texas, 53 died in California and 44 died in New York. Over 500 officers died due to COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic. Despite these sobering numbers, The New York Times reported that police unions are fighting vaccine mandates. The head of Chicago’s police union, John Catanzarra, on October 12, 2021 encouraged officers to defy the city’s vaccine reporting mandate and risk being sent home.

 

Flat Earth Mentality

Posted on by Thor

Flat Earthers, Anti-Makers, and Anti Vaxers have been around for centuries.

In past pandemics, as today, strong anti-science movements hindered public health and the waning of disease.

The New York Times pointed out that, as soon as Edward Jenner introduced the first smallpox vaccine in 1798, posters appeared in England showing humans who had been vaccinated “sprouting horns and hooves,” Dr. Snowden said.

“In 19th-century Britain, the largest single movement was the anti-vaccine movement,” he added. And with vaccine resisters holding out, diseases that should have been tamed persisted.

Today the science deniers have the platform of social media to spread misinformation far and wide. We are now experiencing a social media fueled pandemic.

In July 2021 Joe Biden declared that July 4th would be a celebration of freedom from the virus. However that weekend resulted in a cluster of breakthrough cases among fully vaccinated individuals who had let their guard down. This had been happening for the past 20 months or so. There is a huge spike in cases followed by a decline in cases. As the numbers decline everyone thinks the pandemic is over and they stop wearing masks and social distancing. Holidays hit and people gather despite any warnings and then there is once again another steep incline in cases.

October 2021  has resulted in a series of amazing scientific developments that could help curb the pandemic. Vaccines are being approved for children and a new anti viral pill may reduce hospitalizations for the vaccinated. The problem of course is that the unvaccinated will refuse any science that may save their life. They would rather sail their schooner off the edge of their flat earth in the name of their politics. Death is preferable to reason and has been through out human history.

Red Menace

Posted on by Thor

CNN reporter Chris Cillizza reported that Red Covid is killing Americans. This menace was perpetuated by the former president who made basic health measures a political talking point he hoped would get him re-elected.

States that voted Democratic for Joe Biden  in the last election are showing much higher vaccination rates that states that voted Republican. The spread is startling when seen on a graph. Not getting vaccinated has become a point of pride among the Republican base right up until they are gasping their last breaths with a tube down their throats.

More than 9 in 10 self-identified Democrats (92%) report that they have had at least one dose of one of the three vaccines for Covid-19. That number among Republicans? Just 56%.

Republican governors were slower to adopt both stay-at-home orders and mandates to wear face masks. “Governors’ party affiliation may have contributed to a range of policy decisions that, together, influenced the spread of the virus,” the study’s senior author, Dr. Sara Benjamin-Neelon the Bloomberg School’s Department of Health, Behavior and Society, said in a statement. “These findings underscore the need for state policy actions that are guided by public health considerations rather than by partisan politics,” she added.

Dubbing it “Red Covid,” The New York Times‘ David Leonhardt wrote: “The political divide over vaccinations is so large that almost every reliably blue state now has a higher vaccination rate than almost every reliably red state.  Because the vaccines are so effective at preventing serious illness, Covid deaths are also showing a partisan pattern. Covid is still a national crisis, but the worst forms of it are increasingly concentrated in red America.”
There are two Americas right now. The one that is intelligent enough to take safety precautions kike wearing masks  and got vaccinated and the other who is ignorantly willing to go to slaughter to make a political point. Choose wisely.