#Covid-19 News: Live Updates

[thelocalreport8]

Covid JN.1 LIVE: 63 cases of new variant reported in 24 hours, Karnataka Cabinet sub-committee meeting today

COVID-19 JN.1 Variant News Live Updates: Amid growing concerns over rising cases of COVID-19 sub-variant JN.1, a total of 63 cases of the sub-variant have been detected in India as of Sunday. Citing Health Ministry sources, ANI on Monday reported that Goa is the biggest contributor to the cases, where 34 cases were reported in a single day. Apart from Goa, nine are from Maharashtra, eight from…

[covid-safer-hotties]

Also preserved in our archive (Daily updates!)

At a Glance ~Researchers found that current COVID-19 vaccines fail to generate mature and durable antibody-producing cells in the bone marrow. ~The findings could help explain why protection tends to decline over time. ~Better understanding of long-term immune responses could lead to improved vaccines that provide enduring protection.

Some vaccines offer long-lasting protection. For instance, the tetanus vaccine provides protection for at least 10 years. With other vaccines, protection may begin to decline within a few months. To provide enduring immunity, a vaccine must elicit production of long-lived plasma cells, a type of immune cell that matures over time in the bone marrow and can rapidly trigger production of disease-fighting antibodies.

The mRNA vaccines developed for the SARS-CoV-2 virus have proven effective at preventing severe COVID-19 and reducing hospitalizations. These vaccines trigger production of antibodies that home in on the virus’s spike protein. But protective antibodies can begin to fade as soon as three months later and lead to breakthrough infections. Researchers have been puzzled by this waning protection, since SARS-CoV-2-specific immune cells can often be found in the bone marrow.

To better understand why protection against SARS-CoV-2 dwindles months after vaccination, a research team led by Dr. F. Eun-Hyung Lee of Emory University took a closer look at immune cells in the bone marrow of 19 healthy adults. Participants ranged in age from 20 to 65. All had previously received between two and five doses of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines. Samples of their bone marrow were evaluated within 33 months after receiving their initial COVID-19 vaccine shot.

The participants had also received an influenza vaccine within a year of giving their bone marrow samples. And all had previously received tetanus shots and boosters. Their responses to these previous vaccines were used for comparison.

The researchers used a cell-sorting technique called flow cytometry to separate each participant’s bone marrow immune cells into different groupings. These included short-lived antibody-secreting cells and long-lived plasma cells that confer lasting protection. Results appeared in Nature Medicine on September 27, 2024.

The scientists found that they could readily detect long-lived plasma cells that target tetanus and influenza. In contrast, while shorter-lived antibody-secreting cells specific to SARS-CoV-2 were abundant, long-lived ones were mostly absent. Even among five participants who had recent SARS-CoV-2 infections and vaccinations, long-lived plasma cells against the virus were scarce in the bone marrow samples.

The findings hint that newly created antibody-secreting cells against SARS-CoV-2 are unable to become fully mature and long-lasting once they reach and settle into the bone marrow. In contrast, vaccines against tetanus and influenza prompt antibody-producing cells to mature within bone marrow and become long-lived plasma cells. Future studies will need to investigate how to generate long-lived plasma cells against SARS-CoV-2.

“The holy grail of vaccine researchers is the generation of long-lived plasma cells,” Lee says. “Our findings demonstrate that current SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines do not provide such long-lasting protection within bone marrow. Further research is needed to determine if updated vaccines, new delivery schedules, or other factors might provide such protection.”

—by Vicki Contie

[thebookishwallflower]

I want to make a post to inform people about the current situation with the bird flu (/avian flu/H5N1) outbreaks.

I don't want to cause panic but do want to spread information.

This is especially important if you live in an area that has a news system you don't trust to give accurate, timely, or honest news about something like a possible new pandemic, use your own judgement.

If that applies it is going to be very important to make sure you stay informed and follow these H5N1 outbreaks yourself and know how to best protect yourself.

I am no expert, but I do know a good bit about disease and influenza in particular, and have been following the H5N1 outbreaks as they've been happening, so under the cut I'm going to do my best to inform everyone I can.

Please stay safe, stay informed, and spread information, not germs.

What's bird flu and why do I care? (What's bird flu and why do I care?)

Avian flu and bird flu mean the same thing, an influenza virus that (primarily) infects birds. H5N1 denotes a specific strain of avian influenza. H5N1 can spillover (when a pathogen spreads from it's normal host organism to a new host organism) from animals to humans.

How could I get H5N1? (How could I get H5N1?)

Human to human transmission has not been observed yet (12/1/24) during this current outbreak. You can get this from contact with wild birds, especially water fowl, domestic birds, cattle, pigs, horses, dogs, and bats. It is also possible to get from raw (unpasteurized) milk and undercooked meat from infected animals.

What's the big deal then? (What's the big deal then?)

The common flu is not very pathogenic. How pathogenic something is determines how sick something makes the host, something that is highly pathogenic can cause severe disease. H5N1 is considered a HPAI, Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza.

H5N1 is also a Type A influenza virus, most known Type A influenza viruses can infect birds. There is one Type A human flu in circulation at the moment, however it isn't very prevalent.

"IAV poses a significant risk of zoonotic infection, host switch, and the generation of pandemic viruses. IAVs can infect humans and a variety of animals, such as pigs, horses, marine mammals, cats, dogs, and birds (S1)."

IAV - Influenza A Viruses | Zoonotic infection - when an infectious disease of a non-human host infects a human host | Host switch - when a cross-species transmission of a pathogen can lead to successful, stable, and continuous infections

Every species the flu infects, the more strains that pop up under a sub-type IAV, the possibility for recombination increases. "Recombination occurs when at least two viral genomes [or strains] co-infect the same host cell and exchange genetic segments (S2)."

The flu is pretty good at recombination, when given the chance. It is also really good at mutating, and fast. If there were to be a recombination event and a new strain evolved (this would be called an antigenic shift) that was highly pathogenic, highly infectious (good at spreading, which H5N1 is), that could then infect humans and cause human-to-human transmission we might have a pandemic on our hands. This has not shown signs of happening during this outbreak*, this is what to look out for.

This (a recombination event) is what caused the 1918 pandemic during WW1. This pandemic killed an estimated 50 to 100 million people in 1918, in a world with a population of around 2 billion. 7.1 million died of COVID 19, as of 11/9/24 (S3), from a population of around 8 billion.

We know more, we are prepared, it's not guaranteed to happen, and it's not guaranteed to be as bad. But the possibilities are endless and it's extremely important to be prepared and stay informed.

So what do I do? (So what do I do?)

Again, stay informed, and that might mean checking independent news sources, the CDC website, and more, to keep yourself updated, especially if you know your local news won't do it for you. You should also familiarize yourself with the symptoms of influenza, if you have it, stay home.

Keep yourself safe, we had a pandemic already, you know the drill. Cover your nose and mouth when sneezing/coughing, wash your hands, sanitize your hands, and get your flu shot. And, in addition, avoid contact with wild birds, poultry, pigs, and cattle if you can.

In the event that this gets worse, social distancing is very important, being outdoors, wearing a mask, and all the stuff above, you can shed the virus for around a week before you start feeling bad. Keep yourself safe and don't infect anyone else.

If that doesn't sound like it'll do much, I promise you it does. Those are all classified NPI's (non-pharmaceutical interventions) and even epidemiologists were shocked at their impact and importance during the COVID-19 pandemic. They did work, and they were incredibly effective—as long as they were carried out.

I don't want to cause panic or worry anyone, but that is how information ends of suppressed. I want to make everyone aware of what we might face so that we can fight it and be strong and stay safe.

If anyone has any questions, wants any clarification, any corrections, or wants to know some good places to learn more about this stuff please don't hesitate to contact me (@'s, dm's, or asks), I will answer as best I can.

Here's the CDC's page covering the H5 bird flu current situation.

S1 - https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5578040/

S2 - https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7106159/

S3 - https://data.who.int/dashboards/covid19/deaths?n=c

*with the exception of this coverage (as a possibility): https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/nov/19/bird-flu-cases-mutation-canada

[myalgicencephalomyelitiscfstom]

Dismissed and Disbelieved, Some Long COVID Patients Are Pushed Into Psychiatric Wards

There is some discussion of ME/CFS also

Some extracts:

"Such experiences fit into a long, troubling tradition in medicine. Because there often aren’t conclusive tests for these types of complex chronic conditions, and because many patients do not outwardly appear unwell, they’re frequently told that they aren’t physically sick at all—that symptoms are all in their heads. “Mainstream medicine really isn’t geared toward treating conditions and diseases that it cannot see under a microscope,” says Larry Au, an assistant professor of sociology at the City College of New York who has studied one of the consequences of that disconnect: medical gaslighting of Long COVID patients." -- "The experience made things worse. She was given numerous medications to which she had bad reactions and went through electroconvulsive therapy, which she says damaged her memory to the point that she had to relearn how to talk and navigate her hometown. “Nobody was listening to me, and people were not informed enough to make a correct diagnosis,” she says. “I was being misdiagnosed and treated for something that I didn’t have.”" -- Without the backing of a doctor or diagnosis, patients often find that other people in their lives don’t believe them, either. Doug Gross, chair of the department of physical therapy at the University of Alberta, has studied how hard it is for Long COVID patients to find medical care. He says patients often talk about “disbelief from not only the health care system...but more broadly in their social sphere: family members, employers, supervisors at work.”

--

Rivka Solomon, a longtime ME/CFS patient advocate, says she hears this story a couple times a year: a patient, like Knights, has been wrongly admitted to or threatened with inpatient psychiatric care. And those are just the instances she learns about. “I worry about who is, right now, lying in a bed in a psych ward, too sick to function, left with no one to properly care for them, left with no one to advocate for them,” she says.

--

Some clinicians, however, fail to differentiate between side effects and root causes, or use screening techniques that aren’t well suited for people with chronic conditions, Verduzco-Gutierrez says. For example, asking someone whether they struggle to get out of bed in the morning—a common question when screening for depression—isn’t all that useful if the clinician doesn’t differentiate between physical and mental exhaustion. “The only way to solve this is more education,” Putrino says, “so the next generation of clinicians are not looking at these patients and saying, ‘A couple of antidepressants and a day off will fix you.’” --

Science for ME update describes it as: “Good article on the negative outcomes for patients when Long Covid and ME are psychologised. Comments from among others researcher/clinician David Putrino and patient advocate Rivka Solomon.”

[counterintuitivecomics]

"Wear it and stay healthy," a comic about masking in solidarity with Palestinians. I made it for Steel Transplant's digital release COVID CAUTIOUS QUEERS ZINE 2 ($0+).

It's a collage of transparent printed text from news/science articles, magazine scraps, and marker drawings of posts Muhammad Smiry & Omar Hamad made from Palestine in 2024. The title is a quote from Hala, a Palestinian girl who sold masks in Gaza until she was killed by Israel last June.

Omar's words make up most of this comic - he is a poet, writer, and a tailor for Gaza's children with his Needle of Hope project, and also has a family survival fund. Support him, Muhammad, Care for Gaza, and all Palestinians in every way you can, and MASK UP against all genocides.

(Alt text in post, all sources under the cut:)

PAGE 1

White graph paper: "Her name is Ghazal, she sells masks everyday to make a living | Gaza" - Orig @MuhammadSmiry post (2/28/24):

Transparent text:

"white phosphorous" - Youmina Boukara et al, Gaza, armed conflict and child health, BMJ Pediatrics Open (2/12/24)

"two million Palestine refugees" - Masako Horino et al, Understanding coverage of antenatal care in Palestine: Cross-sectional analysis of Palestinian Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey, 2019–2020, PLOS ONE (2/2/24)

"severe COVID" - Hatem A Hejaz, Palestinian strategies, guidelines, and challenges in the treatment and management of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19), Avicenna J Med, (10/13/2020)

"60 times more likely" - “In Israel, you’re 60 times more likely to have a COVID vaccine than in Palestine” - Matthias Kennes for MFS (2/22/24)

PAGE 2:

White graph paper: "A little girl named Hala stopped me today and gave me this mask." - Post by @OmarHamadD (5/21/2024)

Transparent text: "In this necroeconomy, lives are rendered and disposed of" - Nadia Naser-Najjab's book, "Covid-19 In Palestine: The Settler Colonial Context" (1/11/24). Asma'a Adjerid's summary of the same book, MEDIA WATCH: BOOK (May 2024)

PAGE 3

White graph paper: "Didn't you know? She went to heaven three days ago." - Omar Hamad's 6/4/24 thread updating his post about Hala.

Transparent text: "abduction of children" - Youmina Boukara et al, Gaza, armed conflict and child health, BMJ Pediatrics Open (2/12/24)

"long list of banned items" - ‘Long List of Banned Items’ – From Maternity Kits to Wheelchairs, Israel Blocks Gaza Aid (4/12/24)

"the implications are excruciating" - Tamara Qiblawi et al, Anesthetics, crutches, dates: Inside Israel's ghost list of items arbitrarily denied entry into Gaza, CNN (3/2/24)

PAGE 4

@OmarHamadD's thread about Rimas (8/12/24): https://x.com/OmarHamadD/status/1792981447889801725

Transparent text: "US spends a record $17.9 billion on military aid to Israel since last Oct. 7" - Ellen Kickmeyer, CNN, (10/7/24)

The other small scraps are from the previously cited scientific papers & news articles.

PAGE 5

Brown paper: "Wear it and stay healthy." - Hala, as quoted by @OmarHamadD (5/21/24)

Transparent paper: Map of Palestine, with 2024 borders for Gaza and the West Bank.

"...freedom and justice...my true priority" - quote from Naser-Najjab, "COVID-19 in Palestine" (2024).

[verycleverboy]

The Health Consequences of Being Led By The Stupidest Man Who Ever Lived

An old bacterial foe has been making itself very cozy in Kansas. Local health officials reported this month that the state is in the midst of a large outbreak of tuberculosis—reportedly now the largest outbreak of the disease ever documented in the United States. Ashley Goss, a deputy secretary at the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE), gave an update on the state’s TB outbreak to the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee last week. Dozens of active and latent TB cases have been linked to the outbreak dating back to last year. And the danger has not yet passed. “The current KCK Metro TB outbreak is the largest documented outbreak in U.S. history, presently,” Jill Bronaugh, a spokesperson for KDHE, told local media outlet The Topeka Capital-Journal Friday. “This is mainly due to the rapid number of cases in the short amount of time. This outbreak is still ongoing, which means that there could be more cases.”[...] Globally, experts have blamed the pressures of the pandemic for the recent uptick in TB, particularly in weakening screening and prevention programs for the disease. At this point, however, there appears to be no clear explanation for the outsized number of cases in this local outbreak. And given the ongoing pause in communication from federal health agencies like the CDC, it’s unknown whether the CDC will even weigh in publicly anytime soon.

(full article)

If you've been paying attention, you already know what's coming next.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is going dark, along with other federal agencies within the umbrella of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. This week, the returning Trump administration told these agencies to stop talking to the public—for how long, no one knows. The Washington Post first broke news of Trump’s sweeping directive late Tuesday evening. Staff at these agencies have been reportedly ordered to cease external communication for the time being. The move is the latest to unnerve outside experts about the direction of the country’s public health infrastructure under Trump.[...] Halting communication from federal health agencies like the CDC, NIH, and FDA during an administration transition is highly problematic, especially with active public health threats like the H5N1 outbreak in the U.S. and the Marburg outbreak in Tanzania, according to Krutika Kuppalli, an infectious disease physician in Dallas with experience in global health and pandemic preparedness. “A blanket suspension of external communication from health agencies is unusual and potentially harmful,” Kuppalli told Gizmodo. “Trust in institutions like the CDC is built on transparency and reliability. A lack of communication could lead to skepticism or distrust, making it harder to re-establish credibility when communication resumes.” There’s also past history to consider, as the Trump-led White House has a track record of muzzling its federal agencies and scientists. In the early days of Trump’s first term, the administration similarly ordered several agencies, including the United States Department of Agriculture, to temporarily stay quiet (much of this directive was quickly revised, however). More worryingly, the Trump administration prevented health officials from communicating with the press and public in the early months of the covid-19 pandemic, while his staff reportedly later tried to alter reports from the CDC concerning covid-19—allegedly with the goal of downplaying the harms of the pandemic.

(full article)

We were so busy wringing our hands about the latest strain of bird flu that the tuberculosis comeback tour is a genuine surprise. Guidance from the top might come in handy right now. Damn shame that King Baby muzzled the part of the government tasked with doing that. He's probably still sucking his thumb about Fauci.

[scopophobia-polaris]

Time to ruin the ocarina of time shipping scene, because in an interview with Nintendo power, Fujibayashi confirmed that he will be the scenario writer for the remake of OoT and confirmed that they will be adding new areas and scenes that were originally planned for the game in 1996. Like that there is a way to fail the Lon Lon side quest and have the ranch catch on fire like Miyamoto planned to do originally.

On top of that, Fujibayashi as scenario writer wanted to "Update the game in a new and exciting way" by "making the world feel more lived in" when asked to elaborate he said " the software for the N64 couldn't allow for more towns and villages besides Kakariko, so it was being added in for the remake along with advanced NPC scheduling, new sidequests and chracters." they will also be adding "Familiar faces from the Zelda series" apprently to end up tying it into the new lore, I'm assuming this is about Hylia since she was not an established God in the original games.

Chris Hoffman was then shown new character art for, and I quote "a fun little guy with an in depth side quest" who apprently is gonna "rectify the fact that nintendo didn't add any young men around Link's age originally" because they were afraid what the fujoshis would do to this man on pixiv " yeah so this fruitcake is named Arnold and we wanted the player to realize link was a queer" when forced to talk further Aonuma confirmed he made Link's appreance the way that it is because " he's one of the el gee bee tees"

Here is the new art for said npc

" so we made him wear purple because it's on the bisexual pride flag, and Link is also bisexual, their sidequest is a romance and will be the first time in Nintendo history that Link canonically kisses a man on the mouth freak style"

Apprently Link will also be kissing Sheik on the mouth too, but because of covid 19 restrictions it cannot be done freak style like Arnold, since Sheik will be wearing a mask. Fujibayashi profusely apologized for this

There also is no way to Romance Sheik after he turns back into Zelda because girls have cooties

[tigerandbunnyftw]

An update on the live action adaptation project for TIGER & BUNNY, which is currently on hold. This has been confirmed by series’ producer, Masayuki Ozaki (who is no longer with Bandai Namco Pictures as of the end of August 2024 and has established his own original animation company, Creadom8), as he explains that previously established negotiations had expired after the global COVID-19 pandemic.

He hopes to push the project forward and establish new partnerships.

Sources:

[darkmaga-returns]

Dear readers: Please welcome this sponsored educational piece from Above Phone. This company is at the forefront of the fight against constant surveillance, empowering individuals to “take back our tech” and reclaim control over their digital lives.

“As we embrace our new normal, MassNotify is a voluntary, free tool to provide additional peace of mind to residents as they return to doing the things they love.”

—MA Governor Charlie Baker

In the summer of 2021, Massachusetts residents saw a notification on their phones prompting them to update a COVID-19 contact tracing application. Only one problem - they had never installed one. How did the app get on their phone without them knowing and without their consent?

[hauntedparaclassics]

‘Ghost Adventures’ Star Aaron Goodwin Files for Divorce From Wife Victoria After Alleged Hitman Attempt (Exclusive)

By Erin Carlson, Meredith Nardino and Kaitlin Simpson 

March 13, 2025

Ghost Adventures star Aaron Goodwin has filed for divorce from wife Victoria Goodwin amid allegations that she hired a hitman to kill him.

Aaron, 48, filed for divorce in Clark County, Nevada, on Wednesday, March 12, per records viewed by Us Weekly exclusively. In the filing, Aaron seeks to maintain his separate property and have their community assets divided equally. However, he does want to have the costs of the community assets reimbursed. He is also seeking to have his single status restored.

“The views, tastes, likes and dislikes of husband and wife have become incompatible to the extent that it has become impossible for them to live together … in marital harmony,” the docs read. “There is no possibility of reconciliation.”

Aaron is also requesting that alimony not be rewarded to either him or Victoria, 32.

In the docs, Aaron listed the pair’s wedding date as May 4, 2020 — the day the pair were initially scheduled to walk down the aisle which was then postponed for two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, per his Instagram post that day.

When contacted by Us Weekly, Aaron’s attorney said he could not comment on pending litigation.

The filing came six days after Victoria’s March 6 arrest on charges of soliciting to commit murder and conspiring to commit murder. Victoria, 32, was held on $100,000 bail.

According to police reports obtained by Us, Victoria had been communicating with a Florida prison inmate named Grant Amato about wanting to leave her marriage. One of her alleged text messages read, “Am I a bad person? Because I chose to end his existence. Not divorce.” (TMZ was the first to report the news on Monday, March 10.)

An arrest report claimed that Victoria, who has been married to Aaron for nearly three years, shared information about his whereabouts while filming Ghost Adventures in California. She allegedly allotted $11,515 to pay Amato in October 2024 and had spoken about a $2,500 upfront payment.

“He’s asleep right now in the hotel room … I need to know what’s going on. Can I get an update. Was it done?” another alleged text read.

The police caught wind of the alleged murder plot after corrections officers found and seized the inmate’s phone at the Florida prison. Per the arrest report, Victoria denied wanting to have her husband killed and claimed that she didn’t remember sending those messages.

When  questioned by the police about her correspondences and the funds, Victoria allegedly admitted that she and Aaron were struggling in their marriage and said she believed the money would be traded for cell phones.

According to TMZ, Aaron was reportedly blindsided by the news and thought that he and Victoria had a solid marriage. One week before her arrest, Victoria shared a cozy photo of the couple cuddling with their cat.

Aaron and Victoria exchanged vows at Disneyland in August 2022 after delaying their ceremony, which was initially set for May 2020. “It finally happened 💍 we got married,” Aaron wrote via Instagram at the time. “After postponing many times due to Covid we got our day. I couldn’t be happier ❤️.”

Source: US Weekly

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Brian Stelter at CNN:

CNN — In the Trump administration’s latest assertion of power over the press corps, the White House intends to take over the seating assignments in the press briefing room, according to a senior official. The plan may cause a tug-of-war with the White House Correspondents’ Association, the independent group that currently assigns seats and manages the relationship between the White House and the press corps. When Axios reported on the potential seating chart changes on Sunday morning, some Trump allies cheered the news as yet another way to constrict the mainstream media establishment and elevate explicitly pro-Trump opinion outlets. “Yes to this – keep it going @PressSec,” the first press secretary from Trump’s first term, Sean Spicer, wrote on X to his counterpart Karoline Leavitt. A senior White House official confirmed the plan to CNN but did not add any details. Several correspondents said a shakeup to the seating chart has been expected since the changes would be full of symbolism and would be celebrated by pro-Trump media outlets. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized by their employers to speak publicly. “It doesn’t really matter where people sit,” a White House correspondent said. “But it does matter when the White House tries to impact what questions are asked, and how stories are covered, by taking control away from an elected group.” That group is the correspondents’ association, which is governed by a rotating group of journalists who are elected by their peers. The current president of the group, Eugene Daniels, did not respond to a request for comment about the status of the seating chart. The association is said to be considering a range of possible responses.

One big unknown is whether the administration intends to remove some big news outlets from assigned seats or merely rearrange who sits where. Even a seemingly minor reordering, though, could change the dynamic during Leavitt’s briefings. Right now, under the association’s seating chart, journalists from the country’s biggest TV networks, newswires, newspapers, and radio networks sit toward the front. A wide range of other well-established news outlets also have assigned seats, with some taking turns in order to fit more than 60 outlets into 49 seats. Every few years the association updates the seating chart to reflect changes across the media landscape. It also assigns “all booths and desks” in the news media’s White House workspace, its website notes.

[...] A Trump-controlled seating chart at briefings would likely add right-wing podcasters and online content creators, though the White House may run into some practical constraints. Many of the pro-Trump personalities who command big online audiences with conservative opinion shows don’t live in Washington, DC, and have little desire to drop in for press briefings. During the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, when briefing room capacity was reduced for health reasons, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins was told to move out of her first-row seat and switch with a reporter in the back row. Both reporters refused, and the White House backed down.

The White House under 47 is planning to shake up the press briefing room seating chart to make it more favorable to MAGA-friendly propagandist outlets.

[covid-safer-hotties]

Also Preserved in our archive (Daily updates!)

What if the pandemic safety net cobbled together in 2020 had been a new beginning?

What if when Joe Biden came into office in 2021, the Covid-19 safety net he was handed had become a new floor?

What if that was his baseline—and the newly elected Democratic president, sold by his most ardent supporters as FDR 2.0, had used our Covid-19 response as the bare minimum of a new social contract with Americans?

What if the caring nature of the best aspects of the US Covid response became the map for international relations—leading not just to international cooperation on infectious disease, but on matters of war, climate and genocide?

What if, instead of dismantling the vaccine-delivery infrastructure—which, at its height, delivered some four million shots in a single day—the Biden administration built upon and made some version of it permanent, so that everyone could easily get annual Covid boosters, annual flu vaccines, or get specialty vaccinations during outbreaks of unusual viruses (such as for mpox during the 2022 summer outbreak among queer men) whenever they needed it?

What if the viral surveillance and communication mechanisms utilized for learning about SARS-CoV-2, treating it and telling the public about it were being used to address H5N1—a virus which has been moving from birds to farm mammals to humans with so little notice that dead cows were killed by the “avian flu” and left on the side of a road in California’s Central Valley, as “Thick swarms of black flies hummed and knocked against the windows of an idling car, while crows and vultures waited nearby—eyeballing the taut and bloated carcasses roasting in the October heat”?What if the leaders of the Democratic party had used Covid as a blueprint to make a national platform based on care?

What if all the ways Covid had made clear how farmers, industrial butchers, kitchen staff and other food workers are the most at risk people amongst us to viral infection led to meaningful, permanent protections, such that they were much less likely to contract not just SARS-CoV-2 but H1N1, H5N1, influenza, or any other existing or novel pathogens?

What if all the all the ways Covid exposed how unsafe industrial food production is (for the workers who make it and the people who eat it alike) had triggered safety reforms, instead of having these warnings ignored and leading towards record numbers of safety recalls for e-coli, Salmonella, and Listeria?

What if an airborne pandemic had led to indoor air being as filtered, treated and regulated as drinking water?

What if everyone with a child was still getting a $300 check from the US treasury, so that having a child was not a gambling-style risk, but a responsibility shared with all of society?

What if the paused-for-years student debts were forgiven, so that young people could actually begin their lives?

What if Biden built on Americans’ experience of just showing up somewhere to get the medical care they needed to create a universal healthcare system?

(What if Kamala Harris built upon Americans’ taste of not getting charged at the point of such service—and campaigned on Medicare for All?)

What if once the link between Covid and homelessness was established, the Democrats had pushed infectious disease as just one reason for an end to evictions and a robust, public-health-backed campaign to end homelessness and stop the United States from having more people living on the streets than any other country?

What if after the link between Covid and incarceration was established, the Democrats had pursued decarceration as a public health measure and—instead of throwing weed and cryptocurrency at us—had made reducing incarceration a centerpiece of the Harris campaign to earn the votes of Black men?

(What if after 100,000 Californians died of Covid and the links between Covid, homelessness and incarceration were clear, residents of the Golden State chose to allow rent control and to abolish legal slavery in prisons—instead of voting to ban rent control and to continue prison slavery?)

What if the leaders of the Democratic party had used Covid as a blueprint to make a national platform based on care?

Would we be in the lethal position we are now—with a genocide raging abroad, Covid deaths in the hundreds every week at home, a poisoned food supply, $17 trillion in household debt, oligarch goons ready to dismantle government regulations, and a sociopath heading back into the White House—if Covid had been the floor?

[yougotnothingtolose]

Masterlist

Hi everyone! 

This is my first time posting on Tumblr, so I hope everything works smoothly! But just in case the links don’t work, you can always find my fanfictions on Ao3 under my username: you_got_nothing_you_got_nothing_to_lose 😊💕 

I mostly write JJ and Luke-centered stories, but other characters make appearances too! For example, in “The Maybank Brothers” and “Lockdown”, JJ has a little sibling, so if that’s something you enjoy, you might want to check them out. 

I update as much as I can and would love to hear what you think! Hope you enjoy! 💙✨

The Maybank Brothers

Follows 12-year-old JJ Maybank and his 6-year-old little brother, Zack, as they try to get through the tough realities of their daily life.

Into The Lion's Den

An alternative storyline that picks up at the fight between JJ and John B at the beach. 

After JJ's impulsive decision to shoot at a cop fractures his bond with his friends, he's left abandoned by the people he once called family. With nowhere else to turn, JJ makes a desperate choice—to seek refuge with his father, Luke- a choice that drags him deep into the criminal underworld controlled by the ruthless Barracuda Mike. 

Lockdown 

Set during the COVID-19 lockdown, this story follows 14-year-old JJ. Just before the lockdown began, his father, Luke, started dating Veronica, a woman who is far from kind. Veronica constantly manipulates situations to get JJ into trouble, adding even more strain to his already difficult home life. JJ is forced to adapt to his new reality, where school becomes his only escape—a place where he can momentarily forget about the chaos waiting for him at home.

Behind closed Doors

The story begins at the Phantom incident, where John B and Sarah are presumed dead, and JJ has to face the consequences of taking the boat. From there, the plot diverges from the show's storyline, with JJ being forced to work with Barracuda to pay off his debt to Luke. Honestly, your requests decide where the story goes, so I can’t reveal much more than that.

14 Rogers Point Road

If walls held memories, the Maybank house on 14 Rogers Point Road had plenty of stories to tell.

The Pogues barely have time to process finding Terrance’s lifeless body on the living room floor before an unwelcome figure resurfaces and threatens to tear the group apart. As JJ’s world shifts beneath him he follows his father to Yucatán, chasing a mother who may not want to be found.

Hope you check them out and let me know what you think! 💕  

[forestspoonie]

hi tumblr i have neglected this blog so thought it was time for a good ol’ Life Update post

• i’m engaged! this is probably the biggest update. @maybenotcowboycore (yes they have a new blog) and i got engaged in september at a Me First and the Gimme Gimmes show!

• i live with them and our cat in a very cute townhome yaaaay

• i work at an AIDS project doing trans specific housing case management! capitalism sucks but i find my job very rewarding

this blog has sort of faded in my mind as my disabilities have gone into remission/become more under control/easier to cope with. i made this blog at the height of my chronic pain before diagnosis and unmasking adhd and autism. it also flourished at the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic and the isolation and changes that quarantines brought

idk i had a thought with that last point but it has disappeared. tldr: i am thriving (most days lol sometimes things are still hard) so that’s why this blog has not been active

[iowacovid19tracker]

As Iowans learn to live with the COVID-19 pandemic, data and opinions have come at them from all directions. One of the leading voices in Iowa (leading because the Iowa press made it so) is Sara Anne Willette, otherwise known on Twitter as @/amethystarlight. She dubs herself the “chief data officer” of iowacovid19tracker.org, a website devoted to all sorts of pandemic data.

According to court documents, Willette completed her undergraduate training at the University of Iowa, which focused on medieval history, religious studies, and classical languages. She completed that undergraduate work in 2005, and her resume shows no work history until 2013, when she started working as a dog walker under the trade name of “Furry Friends Pet Care.”

Willette apparently abandoned her career as a dog walker in March 2020 for the new enterprise of being the “chief data officer” of her website iowacovid19tracker.org. She also started “IAC Tracker, Inc.” an Iowa non-profit corporation.

According to Iowa Secretary of State records, she filed articles of incorporation for IAC Tracker, Inc. on September 8, 2020, as the sole officer of the corporation. The stated business activity of the corporation is to provide “data transparency, education, outreach, and guidance regarding COVID-19 and other infectious diseases.” The articles also state that the corporation is intended to qualify as a tax-exempt organization as a 501(c)(3) with the IRS, which means that donations to the corporation are exempt from taxation.

But despite the claimed charitable purpose of her corporation, a search of the Internal Revenue Service’s database of tax-exempt organizations shows no record of the corporation having actually filed with the IRS for that status. Without such an IRS filing, IAC Tracker, Inc. cannot legally claim that it is operating as a 501(c)(3) charity.

Iowa Secretary of State documents show that IAC Tracker, Inc. was administratively dissolved on September 7, 2021. Because there is no record of the corporation having filed its annual report,so it seems likely that the corporation was dissolved for this reason.

Willette’s educational background and work history were revealed in an affidavit submitted in litigation challenging the Iowa legislature’s decision to prohibit school districts from requiring students, staff, and visitors from wearing masks. A parent from Council Bluffs has sued Governor Reynolds and several other state departments and their directors challenging that law. The affidavit included Willette’s resume:

UPDATE:

Friday, September 10th 3:02 pm CDT

After the publication of this article, Willette tweeted that she had been listed as the co-author of two academic articles. Both articles listed her husband, Iowa State University Associate Professor Auriel Willette as the primary author. One article, titled “Using machine learning to predict COVID-19 infection and severity risk among 4,510 aged adults: a UK Biobank cohort study” was published January 5, 2021. It listed Sara Willette’s academic affiliation as “Iowa COVID-19 Tracker, Ames, IA, USA.”:

The second article, from July 2021, was titled “Inflammation, negative affect, and amyloid burden in Alzheimer’s disease: Insights from the kynurenine pathway.” It listed Sara Willette’s academic affiliation as “Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA.”:

But a review of that department’s website by Iowa Field Report does not list Sara Willette as a member of its staff or faculty. Iowa Field Report has submitted an inquiry with the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition to learn of Sara Willette’s affiliation with it. This story will be updated when we receive a response.

UPDATE: SEPTEMBER 13th

Iowa Field report reached out to ISU and the Interim Department Chair Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition to determine what if any, affiliation Ms. Willette has with Iowa State University.

The University replied with a single sentence:

Sara Willette is not a student or an employee with Iowa State University. Thank you

Read the full article:

[darkmaga-returns]

Are Particulates to Blame?

Washed Up Pharmacist Nov 08, 2024

Update Eagle-eyed Jessica Rose noted that the Moderna batch 052D22A is NOT included in the batches identified by the FDA and released. However, batches 050D22A and 051D22A are mentioned so it is possible 052D22A wasn’t actually tested but I would expect to have the same issues as the other batches.

This also gives background as to these early booster bivalent doses Moderna's new booster launch tripped up by production issues at Catalent plant: reports

Evidence supporting early lots of the Pfizer vaccine were toxic than later lots. Dr Peter McCullough just recently summarized the data supporting the increased toxicity of the early lots in the US.

I have noticed in my practice that nearly all of those with serious COVID-19 vaccine syndromes including myocarditis, blood clots, and other live-threatening problems received their first shots either in December 2020 or early 2021. Pfizer’s lots or batches have been evaluated and studied for variation in risk by Schmeling, Manniche, and Jablonowski. All three studies have concluded the earlier batches were more lethal and the variation in risk was considerable from lot to lot. Now Jablonowski and Hooker report:

Here is the paper. Batch-dependent safety of the BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 vaccine in the United States. The conclusion states:

So batches allocated in the first 2 months, sent out to hospitals and universities first. Here are the batches mention in the Jablonowski and Hooker report:

Death: EL0140, EL9261, EL3248, EN9581, EJ1686

Serious AEs: EC4176, EK5730, EH9899, EJ1685

All AE’s: EK5730, EH9888, EK9231, EJ1685

All of these are the purple topped vials formulated in the PBS buffer.