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I'm not sure if there is a cure for Trumpnesia, but there are treatments.
This is what Trump was saying at CNBC the day after the first case of COVID-19 appeared in the US.
Trump dawdled while the virus spread throughout the US. He continued to claim it wasn't a big deal.
The spectacle of the Dow Jones plummeting on March 12th could jar a memory or two. It signaled the start of the Trump recession.
On the following day, Friday the 13th, Trump belatedly declared a state of emergency.
In April he held daily media events where he gave out bad medical advice. If he had been a doctor, that would have gotten him charged with malpractice. He first told viewers to take malaria medicine for COVID. [Malaria is a parasitic disease while COVID is a virus.] He then suggested that people stick UV lights up their butts. And he famously told people to drink bleach. This t-shirt was a reaction to that...
All that year he downplayed COVID-19 as the US death toll and infection rate skyrocketed.
Timeline: How Trump Has Downplayed The Coronavirus Pandemic
It's true that the virus spread everywhere. But the United States had the highest death rate per million of any G7 country. Only Boris "Partygate" Johnson's UK came close.
Reminders of Trump's disastrous last year in office can temporarily keep Trumpnesia at bay. But frequent boosters are a necessity.
#trumpnesia#covid-19#coronavirus#pandemic#donald trump#weird donald#trump doesn't care about you#trump botched the us response to covid-19#trump caused the economy to crash in 2020#trump was the worst president in us history#diet clorox#guy parsons#election 2024#vote democratic#vote blue no matter who
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"“It’s not your fault,” I told 16-year-old Cara, whose mother died of a SARS-CoV-2 infection [Cara] gave her. To be clear, the doctor confirmed Cara (not her real name) had passed on the virus and Covid was entered on the death certificate as the cause of death.
Cara’s mother had not been outside their home in the weeks preceding her death.
When masks were dropped in the “Omicron’s mild” phase of the pandemic, Cara continued as the lone masker at school to protect her immunocompromised mother, who was undergoing chemotherapy. It was tolerable until a child psychotherapist said on the national airwaves that some girls would continue to mask anyway “to hide their acne”.
His words were used to bully her. Cara left, but without support from teachers she struggled. Her parents pleaded with the school to use the Hepa filter they bought. The school refused.
Cara eventually returned to school unmasked, caught Covid and infected her mam. It killed her. Cara self-harms because she blames herself. She hasn’t been to school since.
Research shows that more than 70pc of Sars-CoV-2 transmission in households started with a child.
The incidence was highest during unmitigated in-person schooling. In a recent paper, Dr Pantea Javidan, of Stanford’s Centre for Human Rights, described the ways children’s rights to life, health and safety during the ongoing pandemic have been falsely rendered oppositional to education and development.
Methods used to manufacture consent to forcibly, repeatedly infect children, according to Dr Javidan, include minimising harms to children (“kids don’t get it or spread it”, “it’s mild”) and moral panic around mental health and educational attainment.
Regarding mental health, in August a study looking at paediatric psychiatric emergencies found school openings – not lockdowns – were associated with an increase in the number of emergency psychiatric visits.
In May, a study found that children with and without congenital heart defects showed increased risks for a variety of cardiovascular outcomes (including cardiac arrest, clots, palpitations) after Sars-CoV-2 infection.
In July, a study found that children and teenagers experienced cognitive impairment 12 months post-Covid infection, consistently correlated with poorer sleep and behavioural and emotional functioning.
Last month alone, several studies were published documenting Covid paediatric harms.
One found that children and adolescents experience prolonged symptoms post-Sars-CoV-2 infection in almost every organ system.
Study co-author Professor Lawrence C Kleinman said: “We have convincing evidence that Covid is not just a mild, benign illness for children. This is a new chronic illness in children. We need to be prepared to deal with it for a generation.”
Another study analysing paediatric and adult hospitalisations found teenagers were at greatest risk of severe disease among all children. Yet another study showed compelling connections between viral infection and subsequent autoimmune disease. Early in the pandemic, some children showed negligible Covid symptoms, only to later develop organ failure.
Researchers found the children’s immune systems had latched on to a part of the coronavirus that closely resembles a protein found in the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, skin, eyes and GI tract and launched a catastrophic attack on their own tissues. “Experts” who claimed asymptomatic paediatric Sars2 infections equals mild were catastrophically wrong.
Covid is consistently a leading cause of US child mortality. Paediatric mortality has increased markedly with each year of the pandemic in the US, UK and elsewhere. In 2022, over six times as many children died from Covid than from flu in the US."
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Also preserved in our archive (Daily updates!)
A long read about a consistently quoted covid minimizer who may en up in charge of the NIH. The pro-infection rhetoric that has recently been strenghtening antivax sentiment in general society is mostly his fault.
By Walker Bragman
On Saturday, The Washington Post reported that a top contender for Donald Trump’s new National Institutes of Health director was Stanford professor Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a health economist known for his pro-infection advocacy throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. If confirmed, the controversial professor will oversee the largest funder of biomedical and behavioral research on the planet.
As the new Trump administration takes shape, each appointment has been seemingly more fraught than the last. For example, on Wednesday, Rep. Matt Gaetz, who had previously been caught up in a Department of Justice sex trafficking investigation, was announced as the choice for Attorney General. The next day, anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist Robert Kennedy Jr. was announced for Health and Human Services Secretary. Kennedy, who has mused that COVID-19 was genetically engineered to spare Ashkenazi Jews, suggested that chemicals in water are turning children gay or transgender, and falsely claimed vaccines cause autism, is an ally of Bhattacharya.
The Stanford professor is likely among the most extreme of the lot. While, as The Post noted, Bhattacharya has never held a position managing any position overseeing a large bureaucratic organization, he has been a central figure in an organized, well-funded campaign by the political right to undermine public health in America that has been raging since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Bhattacharya has spent years arguing in favor of “natural,” or infection-acquired, immunity and casting doubt on vaccines and government efforts to control the worst public health crisis in a century, bolstering the position of GOP politicians and right-wing dark money groups. He has even spread conspiracy theories about the very agency he is on the verge of leading, alleging that a small number of top bureaucrats have been using funding to stifle dissent.
Should he be confirmed, Bhattacharya will surely inject unscientific right-wing ideology into the very heart of the agency responsible for leading the fight against infectious diseases.
Infection Advocate Bhattacahrya first taste of the national spotlight came in the spring of 2020. In March that year, he co-authored a Wall Street Journal editorial arguing against lockdowns and making the case that COVID was less dangerous than public health authorities were predicting.
“If it’s true that the novel coronavirus would kill millions without shelter-in-place orders and quarantines, then the extraordinary measures being carried out in cities and states around the country are surely justified,” it read. “But there’s little evidence to confirm that premise—and projections of the death toll could plausibly be orders of magnitude too high.”
That article preceded the release of pre-print study Bhattacharya co-authored purporting to show that the SARS-CoV-2 virus was far more infectious—and less deadly—than the global scientific community was warning. The study’s flaws, from methodological issues to undisclosed funding from the founder of JetBlue, a vocal critic of COVID lockdowns, were quickly revealed. Nevertheless, the paper was hugely influential on the political right and its findings not only impacted policy in the U.S. but abroad as well in countries like the UK.
Several months later, Bhattacharya co-authored the Great Barrington Declaration, a widely rebuked, discredited document calling on governments and scientists to reject large-scale COVID mitigation policies in favor of “focused protection” for the elderly. The idea was that by allowing widespread infection of the rest of the population, herd immunity could be achieved quickly and with minimal disruption to the economy. World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called the plan “unethical” and 14 major public health organizations published an open letter denouncing it.
The document itself was written and signed at a conference hosted by a libertarian think tank called the American Institute for Economic Research, a month ahead of the 2020 election. It added a scientific veneer to the public health approach preferred by the Trump administration and right-wing groups like The Heritage Foundation, which saw lockdowns as a greater threat than the virus itself. Planning for the event had taken place over the summer and involved the Trump administration directly through health policy adviser Dr. Scott Atlas, who, like Bhattacharya, was affiliated with the Hoover Institution. Atlas helped secure passage to the U.S. for UK-based declaration co-author Dr. Sunetra Gupta under the pretext of a meeting with Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar.
While the declaration did little to help Trump’s 2020 prospects, it did propel Bhattacharya to right-wing stardom. He has used his megaphone to continue to evangelize the benefits of mass infection and the harms of government efforts to curb the spread of a deadly virus.
Despite the fact that the SARS-CoV-2 virus would go on to kill more than 1.2 million Americans and leave millions more suffering long COVID, Bhattacharya never changed his position on lockdowns and mitigations. His false and misleading statements about government efforts to curb the spread of the virus are too numerous to list here, though Bhattacharya has blamed “lockdowns” for all manner of ills, including possibly even Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He has also asserted that masks do not work and harm child development without an expertise on the matter and was an early advocate to reopen schools with no mitigation measures in place.
Conspiracy Theories While the Great Barrington Declaration was not itself explicitly anti-vaccine, its central premise—that reopening could safely occur without them—has made Bhattacharya a natural ally of the anti-vax movement. Over time, the professor has moved steadily in their direction. He has repeatedly claimed, for example, that the small risks associated with COVID vaccines outweigh their benefits for young people. In a particularly ill-timed op-ed, he called universal vaccination in India “unethical” on the grounds that a majority of Indians had natural immunity, writing that “for recovered Covid patients…the vaccines provide no benefit and some harm.” Incredibly, several months later, in a piece making the same case for the U.S., he argued that mandating vaccines here would deny doses to countries in need of them, including India.
In September 2022, Bhattacharya misleadingly claimed that the new bivalent boosters were insufficiently tested and alleged that the CDC and FDA were “flying blind.”
The professor has also spoken at events with anti-vaxxers like millionaire Steve Kirsch, who asserts that the shots are responsible for millions of deaths. In March, Bhattacharya spoke at the vice presidential announcement event for Robert Kennedy Jr.’s independent presidential campaign.
Important Context readers will also recall that Bhattacharya was the organizer of a recent health policy symposium at Stanford seemingly aimed at rewriting pandemic history to vindicate fringe positions adopted by the political right. The event was stacked with conspiracy mongers and anti-vaccine voices like Alex Berenson.
Beyond his promotion of anti-vaccine narratives, Bhattacharya has also pushed the unsupported claim that COVID emerged from a lab leak and claimed that Dr. Fauci was involved in a cover-up. The professor recently joined the board of directors of BioSafety Now, a controversial scientist group pushing the lab leak origin story for COVID despite evidence consistently pointing to zoonosis.
Bhattacharya has long held that the mainstream rejection of his ideas is not a reflection of their scientific merit, but rather the result of “censorship” by key public health officials including Dr. Anthony Fauci and former National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins, who communicated privately over email about rebutting the Great Barrington Declaration. He has baselessly claimed that academics self-censor to get NIH funding for their research, suggesting that top bureaucrats like Collins used their positions to enforce their personal beliefs.
Political Operative Bhattacharya’s contrarian views and pro-infection advocacy may have alienated him from the mainstream of public health, but they have earned him powerful allies, including, as The Post noted, billionaires Peter Thiel and Elon Musk, who has supported his censorship claims.
Bhattacharya has also been a favorite in the world of right-wing dark money, having written for the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank with ties to billionaire industrialist Charles Koch, been cited by the Heritage Foundation, and spoken before the secretive, influential Christian Right group Council for National Policy, which connects activists with big money.
The professor holds titles at organizations like the Hoover Institution, where he is a senior fellow (courtesy). He occupies various roles at Collateral Global, a UK-based charity focused on opposing lockdowns, including editor-in-chief and scientific adviser. He is a contributing author to the Australia-based Australians for Science and Freedom.
In the past, Bhattacharya was a senior scholar at the Brownstone Institute when it was formed in 2021. He was part of the institute’s Norfolk Group, which put together a roadmap for a congressional COVID inquiry that mirrored a similar document produced by Heritage weeks earlier. This month, he was a speaker at Brownstone’s recent annual conference. When the Trump-allied Hillsdale College launched its Academy for Science and Freedom, Bhattacharya was one of the first scholars named. The professor was also on the scientific advisory board of the international pandemic denial group PANDA.
Bhattacharya has been awarded with various honors for his work by dark money groups. In April, for example, he won the $250,000 Bradley Prize from the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, a major funder of right-wing causes. Last month, a new group called the American Academy of Sciences and Letters, which is tied to a larger organization working to establish conservative beachheads on college campuses, gave him an intellectual freedom medal.
Republican politicians have unsurprisingly gravitated to Bhattacharya. The professor personally advised Trump in the summer of 2020 and has been a close adviser and ally of Ron DeSantis. Despite his advocacy for “focused protection,” Bhattacharya stood with the Florida governor as he defended a policy of excluding elderly incarcerated from vaccine prioritization, claiming that vaccinating the population would be pointless given that the virus had already spread through the prisons.
“If someone who is older has already had an infection, I don’t think the vaccine would help them,” Bhattacharya said.
The professor has been an expert witness for Republican lawmakers in Congress as well. When the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic held its first hearing in February 2023, he was one of the first expert witnesses called.
He has also leant his expertise to GOP-led states in cases over their lack of COVID protections, particularly in schools. In those cases, Bhattacharya’s testimony served as a counter to the parents of medically vulnerable children, who argued the lack of safety measures put their kids’ lives at risk.
Notably, several judges have questioned the reliability of Bhattacharya’s expert testimony. In his decision temporarily blocking Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee’s executive order allowing parents to opt their children out of school mask mandates, U.S. District Court Judge Waverly D. Crenshaw observed that Bhattacharya “offered opinions regarding the pediatric effects of masks on children, a discipline on which he admitted he was not qualified to speak,” adding that “his demeanor and tone while testifying suggest that he is advancing a personal agenda.”
“At this stage of the proceedings, the Court is simply unwilling to trust Dr. Bhattacharya,” Crenshaw wrote.
Pursuing Grudges Fueled by his support on the right, Bhattacharya has built up a massive online audience. He has over 544,000 followers on X alone as of the writing of this writing. Seemingly emboldened by this support, he has fired back at his critics, including scientists and journalists, asserting that they have misrepresented his positions.
For example, Bhattacharya has denied that the Great Barrington Declaration was a herd immunity strategy even though the words “herd immunity” appear five times in the document, including in the sentence,“The most compassionate approach that balances the risks and benefits of reaching herd immunity, is to allow those who are at minimal risk of death to live their lives normally to build up immunity to the virus through natural infection, while better protecting those who are at highest risk.”
After Mother Jones reporter Kiera Butler published an article documenting his misleading statements about the bivalent boosters, he went after her on X, encouraging his supporters by liking posts suggesting she had ties to the pharmaceutical industry.
With pro bono representation from New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA), a dark money lawfare group that has received funding from Koch to wage a war on the administrative state, Bhattacharya and several other private plaintiffs joined a lawsuit against key officials and agencies within the Biden administration for allegedly coercing social media companies into suppressing their content. The case, Missouri v. Biden—later renamed Murthy v. Missouri—made its way up to the Supreme Court where it was dismissed on the grounds that the plaintiffs lacked standing, having failed to prove they had been harmed by the government.
NCLA is currently trying to revive the lawsuit.
“What Could Go Wrong?” Public health professionals expressed grave concerns about the possible appointment of Bhattacharya. In response to The Post story, for example, Yale epidemiologist Gregg Gonsalves skeeted, “This is all just getting worse.”
Mallory Harris, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Maryland, earned her PhD in biology from Stanford in 2024, had a similar take. “His scientific judgment is questionable at best,” she told Important Context. “As an expert witness in multiple Covid court cases he consistently misconstrued scientific evidence—even going so far as to knowingly cite a retracted study.”
Harris, who led a student group at Stanford to combat science misinformation, has long had Bhattacharya on her radar.
“He has been spreading conspiracy theories about this particular agency for years,” Harris said. “This [likely appointment] is a tremendous blow to independent, rigorous, publicly funded scientific research.”
Frank Han, an adult congenital and pediatric cardiologist, told Important Context that “while hearing a conservative viewpoint is not inherently dangerous to scientific institutions, Bhattacharya has shown through his actions, that he is entirely unsuited for any job at the NIH.”
“Science even at the highest levels of government, places a high value on humility and realizing when you should change course,” he explained, noting that Bhatttacharya never acknowledged the hundreds of thousands of COVID deaths he said would justice mitigation measures in his March 2020 Wall Street Journal op-ed. Han accused Bhattacharya of trying instead to “cover his tracks.”
“Bhattacharya has never honestly engaged with his prior self, rather now consistently holding the viewpoint that COVID restrictions should have ended sooner and schools should have opened sooner,” Han said.
Robert Morris, MD, PhD, an epidemiologist who has taught at Tufts University and the Medical College of Wisconsin, noted that Bhattacharya would be “the first director in the history of the NIH with no clinical experience and minimal biomedical research experience.”
“He is a health economist who would run an agency with no budget line for health economics,” Morris said, adding that the professor “has repeatedly shown disdain for serious biomedical scientists.”
“What could go wrong?” Morris said.
#mask up#public health#wear a mask#pandemic#covid#wear a respirator#covid 19#still coviding#coronavirus#sars cov 2#us politics
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At-Large Marge. http://Newsday.com/matt :: Matt Davies
* * * *
The lesson of Covid
June 4, 2024
ROBERT B. HUBBELL
The United States suffered more deaths from Covid than any other nation in the world (1.13 million) and the highest death rate (341 per 100,000) of any large, high-income country. Those shocking facts suggest that a congressional inquiry is urgently needed to understand why the US fared so poorly compared to other industrialized nations.
On Monday, the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic held a hearing ostensibly designed to understand why the US response to Covid paled in comparison to the responses and outcomes by countries like the UK, Spain, Italy, France, Sweden, Australia, Canada, and Netherlands.
You will not be surprised to learn that the hearing did not devote time to understanding what the US could do better in response to the next pandemic. Instead, Republicans converted the hearing into an evidence-free attack on Dr. Fauci’s selfless, expert guidance through a pandemic that killed approximately 1 out of every 300 Americans. See, e.g., Newsweek, Dr. Fauci Testifies: Unvaccinated Americans Caused Additional "200-300k Deaths".
Led by Marjorie Taylor Greene and Jim Jordan, Republicans peddled baseless conspiracy theories that will kill tens or hundreds of thousands of Americans in the next pandemic—just as vaccine hesitancy and disinformation killed hundreds of thousands of Americans in the last epidemic.
Convicted Felon Donald Trump broke the Republican Party when he elevated loyalty to him above belief in the truth. The disgraceful conduct by Republicans in today’s Select Committee hearing is the direct product of Trump's assault on the truth.
A nation cannot govern itself if it creates policy and passes legislation based on fever dreams and mass delusion. Truth matters. Lies matter. That may be the most important lesson of the coronavirus pandemic. It came at a dear cost: The deaths of 1.1 million Americans. We should never forget that lesson or the losses suffered by tens of millions of family members—or we may be condemned to repeat the tragedy in the next pandemic.
[Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter]
#Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter#Robert B. Hubbell#COVID#Dr. Fauci#MAGA conspiracy theories#global pandemic#US House of Representatives#evidence-free attack
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The widespread claim that Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) "vaccines" saved millions of lies is officially debunked.
Carl Heneghan, head of the Center for Evidence-based Medicine in Oxford, along with Tom Jefferson wrote a piece for The Spectator (United Kingdom) that outlines the "implausible" findings of the modeling study that is widely referenced as proof that COVID jabs saved upwards of 12 million people.
It was the BBC that first made the claim that AstraZeneca and Pfizer had together developed "medicines" that saved the lives of millions of people, citing the findings of a "disease forecasting company" called Airfinity. Similar claims were made here in the United States about Operation Warp Speed.
A study out of Imperial College London calculated that COVID jabs saved 20 million lives between December 2020 and December 2021, the assumption – a false one, just to be clear – being that the jabs conferred protection against COVID infection.
Heneghan and Jefferson downloaded and evaluated data from GitHub to examine the country-specific estimates procured in order to assess whether or not they are realistic. They looked at figures for the UK, Italy and the United States.
It turns out that the figures claimed as evidence that COVID jabs worked are bunk.
"Sadly, many journalists don't check their numbers or facts: many of the assumptions in the model are incorrect, and the estimated number of deaths averted by vaccines is implausible," Heneghan and Jefferson write.
"This isn't surprising. As in medicine, models do not fit anywhere in the pathway for establishing effectiveness. Regulators don't use them for approval, and decision-makers like the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence use economic models with reliable estimates of effect and credible costs."
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whenever you have time and energy, please let us hear more of your thoughts on violence under capitalism
Oh, I have the time and the energy, I just didn't want to make the previous ask/answer excessively long!
I think another basic point about both anarchism and communism is that there is violence inherent in capitalism. Capitalism requires the exploitation of the workers by the bosses in order to make profit.
If we take this on a global scale, I think we're all aware of the concept of "sweat shops" in the general, but often we don't consider how unsafe these places are to work. These are factories with no, or very limited regulation- we hear about factory collapses in Bangladesh, where people die in their hundreds. We don't hear about the individuals who are injured or killed every day globally due to unsafe working practices.
Even in the UK, a country that has reasonably good health and safety legislation (of course, legislation is not always followed), in 2018-2019, 147 workers were killed by "accidents at work", as well as 92 members of the public. That's more than 4 people each week. In 2020-21, bearing in mind there were mass lockdowns and many industries stopped working for a period of time, 123 workers, and 80 members of the public were killed. (figures from HSE). These figures do not include deaths from covid-19.
In fact, part of the reason I started this blog during the coronavirus pandemic was because I was aware people were being put in dangerous situations, and covid was being spread more widely because capitalism and profit were being prioritised above people's lives.
The way we are forced to work is killing many people, and injuring huge numbers. In 2021-22, about 150,000 people in the UK sustained an injury at work which meant they were absent for more than 7 days (so potentially quite a serious injury).
Injuries can be caused by unsafe working practices or environments, but equally things like rushing because you are under pressure can lead to a trip or a fall, or people trying to carry things that are too heavy or awkward on their own, and sustaining an injury. The nature of capitalism is that time is money, so we are encourage to work fast, to work when tired, and this can cause people to get hurt.
So that's a little bit about the violence inherent in "work", but what about the violence inherent in the system?
Capitalism kills people- capitalism has always killed people. The nature of the system is that some of us have money and access to all the things we need (food, housing, medication and so on) and some of us don't. People die, or are injured or get ill all the time due to homelessness, even in so-called developed countries. People die due to lack of food, even when there might be food available. People die due to lack of medicine all the time, even in countries where this ought to be freely available, because they cannot afford it.
Whenever people criticise communism, they like to bring up the famine under Stalin. I'm not going to launch into a defense of Stalin, but when we criticise capitalism, we should therefore look at famines caused by it, or contributed to by it. Historically, the potato famine in Ireland, or the Bengal Famine in India (when it was under British rule) are just two examples. We can also look at the ongoing famine in Yemen, and increasing problems in Sudan and the surrounding area.
Many people consider these famines to be solely due to natural causes, "acts of god" if you will. But that's not the case.
If we look at the potato famine, sometimes called an Drochshaol in Gaelic, solely because that's the one I'm most familiar with, we can see that it was caused largely by a capitalist, colonialist system, and the impacts of it were made far more extreme due to capitalism.
People will tell you the potato famine was caused by the potato blight, but it's not as simple as that. There was potato blight across Europe, in the 1840s, leading to about 100,000 deaths across the whole of Europe. In Ireland, more than 1 million people died, and many more emigrated, causing a 20-25% fall in the total population.
Part of the reason for this was the reliance on a single crop. This wasn't a situation chosen by the Irish people. Instead, English landlordism pushed the poorest Irish people into a situation where they had very little land, and the only crop that could sustain them on their land was the potato. Meanwhile, much of the agricultural land was used to grow wheat or other grains, or farm meat, which was solely used for the profit of the landlords.
Arguably the greatest tragedy of the Irish famine was that there was plenty of food in Ireland. It was just all being exported, so that people could make money. And during the famine, people continued to do this, and continued to make money, even whilst people were literally starving in the streets.
And during all of this, the English landlords continued to charge rent. Even before the famine, many families in Ireland could not fully afford their rents, and were supported through relatives working abroad (usually seasonal work in Britain). During the famine, there were a huge number of evictions.
I recently watched a BBC TV show about evictions (because English landlords haven't changed at all) and one of the tenants facing eviction said something along the lines of "eviction is a really violent act"- which I believe is true. And it is even more violent in a situation where your family is starving and everyone around you is starving.
Anyway, my point is that the landlords were able to evict their tenants, in order to make more money, causing even more deaths. And all of this is was fuelled by a capitalist, colonialist system.
And in the last 170 or so years, we can see that on a surface level, things have improved somewhat in some countries. But equally, in England, we still live in a country where someone can evict you for no reason and make you street homeless if *you* can't find another house in time- yes, in some circumstances, "the council" will help house people, but the housing offered is often inadequate or limited for families- and it often doesn't exist for young, single people- so they end up sofa surfing or sleeping on the streets.
In the USA, people still die or end up in extremely difficult situations because they can't afford the medical treatment they need.
I'm sure anyone who lives in a capitalist country can point to some key injustice which leads to death or serious ill health, and is driven solely by profit and the property owning class. This is the violence inherent in the system, and it kills far more people than interpersonal violence ever could.
Again, this has become very long, and there's still more in it that I want to explore, so do keep sending me asks on these themes if you are interested.
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“They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition” - Paul the Apostle
“This government will have integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level. Trust is earned. And I will earn yours."
These were the words of Rishi Sunak to the nation when he entered Downing Street October 2022. What we were unaware of then was that multi-millionaire Sunak had already forfeited that trust by valuing money more than human life.
At the Covid Inquiry yesterday, Patrick Vallance revealed the moral bankruptcy of Sunak. Trust Mr Sunak requires people to tell the truth and it seems you have been as guilty as Johnson in trying to hide your role in the thousands of unnecessary deaths caused by Covid.
“Patrick Vallance contradicts Rishi Sunak’s evidence to Covid inquiry.” (Guardian: 20/11/23)
Writing to the inquiry, Sunak had claimed he did “not recall any concerns about the scheme” Eat Out To Help Out, being raised at any meetings despite the fear that his scheme would boost the spread of the deadly virus.
According to Vallance, Sunak would have almost certainly have known of the scientific objections to his scheme, and was “very surprised” Sunak was in denial of this fact.
We already knew that Boris Johnson was prepared to “let the bodies pile high”, and now it seems so was Sunak.
“Rishi Sunak 'thought it was OK to just let people die' instead of imposing an economy-crippling second lockdown during the coronavirus pandemic, the UK Covid-19 inquiry has heard.” (itvX: 20/11/23)
Sunak’s ‘Eat Out To Help Out ‘ scheme was NOT run past scientists for approval and no scientific advisors knew about the scheme until AFTER it had been announced. More concerned with the financial cost of the pandemic than human life:
“Rishi Sunak was overheard saying the Government should focus on handling its scientific advisers rather than the spread of Covid-19…" (The Irish News: 20/11/23)
Patrick Vallance has stated that the Eat Out To Help Out scheme is “highly likely" to have led to increased Covid deaths in the UK.
So much for trust! We have an unelected Prime Minister who actively and deliberately introduced a scheme that he knew would lead to an increase in Covid fatalities. For rich-boy Sunak it was “OK to just let people die" because to multi-millionaire Sunak money is more important than the lives of ordinary people.
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Birthday, singer and actress Lorraine McIntosh born 13th May 1964 in Glasgow.
Lorraine was brought up in Cumnock, Ayrshire from about the age of three. She has been a member of one of Scotland’s favourite bands Deacon Blue since they formed in Glasgow in 1985.
Lorraine didn’t have an easy upbringing, she lost her mother and she said her Dad coped for a while then fell apart, hitting the bottle he started missing rent payments which led to them being evicted, she said the council waited until she had turned 18, a week after that the were out. In an interview for The Big Issue Lorraine poured her heart out saying………..
“I got a phone call from a social worker saying I wasn’t to go home, as dad had been evicted. I was at the bus stop with my friend, but couldn’t get on the bus. She phoned her mum and I ended up staying with them at first. No clothes, no nothing. We lost everything. It just got put in the street. And the saddest thing was I lost all my mum’s things, her clothes, wee bits of jewellery, all put on the street. Gone.”
I empathise with this entirely except I actually got home from school and found all our belongings on the street after we got evicted, I was 13 at the time………..
Lorraine was a regular on the Scottish soap, River City, she has also appeared in three episodes of Taggart playing different roles, more recently she turned up on Outlander last year as Mrs. Sylvie, the owner of a popular brothel in the town of Cross Creek. Also last year Deacon Blue’s 10th album, City Of Love, shot to No 4 in the UK album rankings the week before lockdown, giving the Glasgow outfit their biggest chart success since 1994.
During the pandemic, as well as coping with the strain of lockdown, Lorraine, who lives with Ricky in Glasgow, was taken ill with coronavirus in the early stages of the outbreak.
She said: “It has taken quite a while to get over it completely. I was in bed for three weeks, and then recovered.”
In 2020 Lorraine joined up with the Simon Community’s Nightstop campaign, to encourage people to open their homes to vulnerable young people. The Nightstop service offers young people aged 16 to 25 a safe place to stay when they find themselves in a crisis. All the volunteer hosts are fully vetted and trained. Since starting in Glasgow last year, eight families have provided 96 nights of emergency accommodation. She and her husband, Deacon Blue frontman Ricky Ross, are considering signing up as hosts – but only if the Simon Community think that their high profile won’t get in the way.
I really like Lorraine, and Ricky’s humanity, specifically Lorraine visited Rwanda two years ago to raise awareness of sexual violence against women when she was moved to tears by the testimony of victims. She has recently spoken out against the plan to send refugees coming to the UK to the country and said the country was still recovering from a genocide inflicted during the civil war in 1994 and for ministers to consider sending asylum seekers there is deplorable.
On her trip, she heard of shocking conditions, including child slavery, youngsters being burned to death, and rape being used as a weapon of war to destroy communities.
On her final day in Rwanda, she made a pilgrimage to one of the most infamous genocide sites in the country called Nyamata where thousands were slaughtered in and around a church.
She said: “I was unprepared for the sight of thousands of items of clothing from the fallen folded and piled up on the church pews. The ceiling pockmarked with bullets and a line around the bottom of the wall which our guide tells us is the blood line from the carnage. A river of blood. In the gardens outside 50,000 people lie buried.
Hubbie Ricky made a simple tweet yesterday, the post read "33 years today ❤️" with the photo
Lorraine is set to appear in the new season of Shetland.
The song is my favourite where she sings a strong vocal.
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Autism Speaks is the most popular autism research organization in the U.S. They have support from loads of autism moms and people who work with autistic kids. But they’ve had a very controversial past with attempts to raise awareness like the infamous “I Am Autism” and “Autism Every Day” videos. But they’ve also been criticized for using the puzzle piece logo, promoting applied behavioral analysis (ABA) and searching for the cure to “the autism epidemic.” Today we’re going over the many reasons (past & present) that Autism Speaks is trash. ___________________________________________________________________________________
I made a couple mistakes in the most recent video.
I criticized Universal Healthcare + some people thought I meant I don’t support it at all. I am a socialist at minimum and in full support of universal healthcare. I left out the context of UK Do Not Resuscitate Orders on disabled people. I for some reason assumed everyone would know what I was talking about, and because of that I said it in a very misleading way. Firstly, the UK was accused of putting several disabled (autistic/learning disabilities) people on DNRs specifically in 2020/2021 during covid. Leaving that out made it seem like a current thing, I apologize for that. Secondly, this only allegedly happened. According to this report https://www.inclusionlondon.org.uk/wp... several disabled people responded to a survey saying they were put on DNRs or asked to sign them (when they shouldn’t have been). But we only have their word. It is not an objective fact that this happened, it’s just what disabled people say they experienced. The English NHS clarifies that this is not supposed to happen in this statement,https://www.england.nhs.uk/coronaviru... and says any of those questionable DNRs from 2020/21 were put under review. I apologize for not making that clear. I said Autism Speaks worked with Sesame St on creating Julia, which they didn’t. Autistic Self-Advocacy Network worked with them to create Julia, then left when Autism Speaks got involved later. The only mother in the video I was calling a bad parent was the one who talked about wanting to k*ll her daughter. The rest was a criticism of how autism speaks, framed the video, edited it, and what prompts they gave the moms to talk about. I should have made that more clear.
Thank you for all of the support on the video, and especially thanks to the commenters who pointed out these flaws. This correction will appear as a pinned comment on the original video, a community tab post, and in the description of the video. ________________________________________________
BETTER ORGANIZATIONS: Autistic Women & Non-binary Network Self-Advocates Becoming Empowered Autistic People of Color Fund Autistic Self-Advocacy Network https://communicationfirst.org/ _________________________________________________________________
SUPPORT ME: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/foster.the.... Cash App: https://www.cash.app/$fosterthefrog _________________________________________________________________
SOURCES: Autism Speaks Founders: https://www.autismspeaks.org/our-founder Autism Speaks Mission: https://the-art-of-autism.com/autism-... Autism Speaks Q&A: https://www.autismspeaks.org/autism-s... Daughter’s Death Puts focus on toll of Autism: https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/c... Autism Speaks Budget: https://autisticadvocacy.org/wp-content/ Autism Genome Project: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16078... Forced Sterilization in the US: https://lawblogs.uc.edu/ihrlr/2021/05... Ivar Lovaas Feminine Boy Project: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/article Non-Speaking Autistics on ABA Therapy: https://autisticstrategies.net/nonspe... Autism Speaks Interventions: https://www.autismspeaks.org/interven... Cure Autism Now: https://philanthropynewsdigest.org/fea Autism Speaks & AGRE: https://www.autismspeaks.org/about-agre Autism Genetic Research: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti... Autism Speaks Research: https://www.autismspeaks.org/research Videos: Autism Every Day: • Autism Every Day I Am Autism: • I Am Autism comme... I Am Autism Transcript: https://autisticadvocacy.org/2009/09/...
#Autism Speaks#I Am Autism#Autism Every Day#puzzle piece#puzzle piece logo#ABA#applied behavior analysis#autism#autistic#Autistic Women & Non-binary Network#Self-Advocates Becoming Empowered#Autistic People of Color Fund#Autistic Self-Advocacy Network#universal healthcare#autism epidemic
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Black and minority ethnic businesses need support to weather the pandemic
Tolu Olarewaju, University of Staffordshire and Jagannadha Pawan Tamvada, University of Southampton
The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted underlying inequalities that ethnic minorities face in the UK. In England, both death rates and hospital admission rates are more than twice as high for Black people or people from a south Asian background than they are for white people.
The poorer outcomes from COVID-19 among the Black and Asian populations are a result of the underlying social and economic risk factors that ethnic minorities face, such as living in overcrowded accommodation, being employed in riskier lower-skilled jobs, having worse access to healthcare, not to mention structural racism.
But among these well-documented racial inequalities, there is another hidden story: the specific plight of Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) business owners who have also been disproportionately affected by the pandemic.
Specific challenges
During the first lockdown in March, many businesses in the UK temporarily closed with the majority of those that were able to operate doing so at reduced capacity with lower turnover. This had significant implications for BAME-owned businesses, which are traditionally concentrated in the sectors worst hit by lockdown such as retail, health and social care, education, restaurants and accommodation.
Before the pandemic, BAME business owners were less likely than non-BAME business owners to obtain mainstream business support and in the early days of coronavirus, nearly two-thirds of BAME business owners felt unable to access state-backed loans and grants, leaving many on the brink of financial ruin.
The economic crisis facing these businesses is aggravated by the fact that they are more likely to hire a considerable number of BAME employees and attract more BAME customers. The significantly higher risk among such groups from COVID-19 implies that these businesses would have had to incur considerable costs to protect their staff and customers.
COVID-19 has also exacerbated pre-existing disadvantages in the business sector. Although there are some exceptions, BAME entrepreneurs on average have substantially lower success rates for starting businesses and see less success overall compared to other entrepreneurs.
Black business owners in particular experience worse outcomes than their white counterparts. Last year, Black business owners in the UK had a median turnover of £25,000, compared to £35,000 for white business owners. The median productivity of Black business owners is also less than two-thirds that of white business owners, and only half of Black entrepreneurs meet their non-financial aims, compared to nearly 70% of white entrepreneurs.
Our research
To help understand better how COVID-19 has affected business owners, we are currently asking British entrepreneurs about their experiences of the pandemic.
So far, we have found a range of options that many BAME-owned businesses have used to cope in these uncertain times. These include raising the prices of certain products to cover the cost of compliance with new regulations, adjusting operations to take account of social distancing, adopting new technology to facilitate day-to-day business activities and venturing into new business endeavours entirely.
Adaptability and the capacity for evolution have been crucial for BAME-owned businesses to keep afloat during this pandemic, especially as restrictions have become localised and three-tier lockdowns have been introduced.
Despite this tendency to adapt to changing times, some BAME business owners have reported that their customers have stayed away for fear of contracting the virus specifically because of the higher mortality rates reported for their ethnic groups.
How the government can help
We must appreciate the concrete action BAME business owners have already taken to protect their customers and staff in this time of crisis. But the government can do more to protect individuals from adverse health and economic outcomes.
State-backed grants and loans should be made more accessible as an incentive to business owners who have incurred additional costs to protect customers and staff. Crucially, the process to obtain them should not be too onerous, which risks putting people off applying. Regional governments should also take care to plug BAME businesses into the supply chains of local projects in response to the pandemic.
As a community, we need businesses to get through this pandemic in one piece, and we must help protect those who are most at risk. That means working specifically with BAME business owners in creative ways to help ensure their survival.
Tolu Olarewaju, Lecturer in Economics, University of Staffordshire and Jagannadha Pawan Tamvada, Associate Professor in Strategy and Innovation, University of Southampton
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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Tess Finch-Lees: If parents don’t fight to protect children from Covid in schools, nobody else will - Published Sept 5, 2024
By: Tess Finch-Lees
“It’s not your fault,” I told 16-year-old Cara, whose mother died of a SARS-CoV-2 infection she gave her. To be clear, the doctor confirmed Cara (not her real name) had passed on the virus and Covid was entered on the death certificate as the cause of death.
Cara’s mother had not been outside their home in the weeks preceding her death.
When masks were dropped in the “Omicron’s mild” phase of the pandemic, Cara continued as the lone masker at school to protect her immunocompromised mother, who was undergoing chemotherapy. It was tolerable until a child psychotherapist said on the national airwaves that some girls would continue to mask anyway “to hide their acne”.
His words were used to bully her. Cara left, but without support from teachers she struggled. Her parents pleaded with the school to use the Hepa filter they bought. The school refused.
Cara eventually returned to school unmasked, caught Covid and infected her mam. It killed her. Cara self-harms because she blames herself. She hasn’t been to school since.
Research shows that more than 70pc of Sars-CoV-2 transmission in households started with a child.
The incidence was highest during unmitigated in-person schooling. In a recent paper, Dr Pantea Javidan, of Stanford’s Centre for Human Rights, described the ways children’s rights to life, health and safety during the ongoing pandemic have been falsely rendered oppositional to education and development.
Methods used to manufacture consent to forcibly, repeatedly infect children, according to Dr Javidan, include minimising harms to children (“kids don’t get it or spread it”, “it’s mild”) and moral panic around mental health and educational attainment.
Regarding mental health, in August a study looking at paediatric psychiatric emergencies found school openings – not lockdowns – were associated with an increase in the number of emergency psychiatric visits.
In May, a study found that children with and without congenital heart defects showed increased risks for a variety of cardiovascular outcomes (including cardiac arrest, clots, palpitations) after Sars-CoV-2 infection.
In July, a study found that children and teenagers experienced cognitive impairment 12 months post-Covid infection, consistently correlated with poorer sleep and behavioural and emotional functioning.
Last month alone, several studies were published documenting Covid paediatric harms. One found that children and adolescents experience prolonged symptoms post-Sars-CoV-2 infection in almost every organ system.
Study co-author Professor Lawrence C Kleinman said: “We have convincing evidence that Covid is not just a mild, benign illness for children. This is a new chronic illness in children. We need to be prepared to deal with it for a generation.”
Another study analysing paediatric and adult hospitalisations found teenagers were at greatest risk of severe disease among all children. Yet another study showed compelling connections between viral infection and subsequent autoimmune disease. Early in the pandemic, some children showed negligible Covid symptoms, only to later develop organ failure.
Researchers found the children’s immune systems had latched on to a part of the coronavirus that closely resembles a protein found in the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, skin, eyes and GI tract and launched a catastrophic attack on their own tissues. “Experts” who claimed asymptomatic paediatric Sars2 infections equals mild were catastrophically wrong.
Covid is consistently a leading cause of US child mortality. Paediatric mortality has increased markedly with each year of the pandemic in the US, UK and elsewhere. In 2022, over six times as many children died from Covid than from flu in the US.
The UN Convention on the Rights of a Child requires states to “recognise the right of the child to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health” and to fully implement this right. Children’s rights to education include a safe environment not harmful to their health.
Cara and her parents fought for these rights. They were denied, with devastating consequences. Irish schools are legally obliged to clean indoor air and prevent the spread of airborne diseases. Prevention plan? Three Hail Marys.
In year five of an airborne pandemic, parents, Dr Ciara Steele and Sinéad O’Brien set up Clean Air Advocacy Ireland.
Dr Steele said: “Children are vulnerable, they rely on adults to advocate on their behalf. They have a fundamental right to breathe clean, pathogen-free air in schools. That means CO2 monitors, Hepa filters and ventilation in every classroom.”
A recent study in Finland found air purifiers in day-cares led to a 30pc reduction in children’s illnesses. In March 2022, Italy’s Marche region installed mechanical ventilation in some schools, reducing Covid infections in classrooms by 82pc.
Education Minister Norma Foley previously committed €62m for Hepa filters in Irish schools. Where are they?
WHO advice is clear – protect yourself and loved ones from Covid. Stay home if sick, test, get boosted, ventilate, wear a mask when around others. Unless parents are prepared to say “We do not consent to repeatedly exposing our children to biohazardous Sars2 in schools”, our consent will be presumed tacit.
#covid#mask up#pandemic#covid 19#wear a mask#coronavirus#sars cov 2#public health#still coviding#wear a respirator
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UK’s population increases by 1%, driven by migration
The UK’s population grew by 1 per cent over the last year, mainly due to net international migration, according to figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on Tuesday.
The population of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland rose from 67.6 million in mid-2022 to 68.3 million in mid-2023.
The main driver of the population increase was net international migration. Between June 2022 and June 2023, immigration to the UK was 1.185 million and emigration from the UK was 508,000. Thus, taking into account natural attrition, net migration increased the population by 662,400 people.
This is the largest annual numerical and percentage increase since the beginning of such calculations in 1971.
On October 7 media reported that the largest number of irregular migrants in Europe is in the UK.
Despite the overall increase in population, the natural change – the difference between births and deaths – showed a decline.
According to the ONS, the natural change in population fell by 16,300 over the same period.
This is only the second time since 1976, not counting the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, that the UK has seen negative natural population growth. Previous projections did not anticipate such a trend until the mid-2030s.
Read more HERE
#world news#news#world politics#europe#european news#uk politics#uk news#england#united kingdom#great britain#uk#british politics#british people#migration#migration crisis#migration policy#migration services#migrants#countries#immigrants#immigration#immigration services#immigration policy
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XEC Covid Variant: Symptoms, Spread, and How to Stay Protected This Winter
A new coronavirus variant, XEC, is rapidly spreading and could soon become the dominant strain this winter, according to scientists. First identified in Germany in June, XEC has since been reported in the UK, the US, Denmark, and other countries. Experts are now monitoring its growth closely, anticipating its potential impact during the colder months.
What Is the XEC Covid Variant?
XEC is a recombinant variant that combines characteristics of two previous Omicron subvariants: KS.1.1 and KP.3.3. These parent strains have contributed to recent Covid waves across the globe. KS.1.1, known as one of the "FLiRT variants," and KP.3.3, a part of the "FLuQE" family, exhibit unique mutations in the spike protein, giving XEC an edge in transmission.
Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease specialist at UCSF, notes that XEC possesses "tighter binding cells," potentially making it more transmissible and possibly more immune-evasive than earlier variants. While XEC may not cause a significant spike in hospitalizations or deaths, its enhanced ability to spread has scientists on alert.
How Does XEC Differ from Previous Variants?
XEC has unusual mutations, such as the T22N mutation and additional changes in the spike protein. These differences could provide it with a slight transmission advantage over other Covid variants circulating this fall. However, because XEC belongs to the Omicron lineage, its symptoms and overall severity are expected to be similar to those of previous Omicron strains.
Current Statistics on XEC and Covid-19 Spread
While specific case numbers for the XEC variant are limited, global health authorities continue to monitor its spread along with other Covid-19 variants. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that globally, during the four-week period from June 24 to July 21, 2024, new Covid-19 cases increased by 30% and deaths by 26% compared to the previous 28-day period, with over 186,000 new cases reported across 96 countries(World Health Organization (WHO). This surge indicates that new variants like XEC may be contributing to the recent increase in cases.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States provides regular updates on Covid-19 trends, including hospitalizations, emergency department visits, and test positivity rates. However, specific data on the XEC variant's prevalence in the U.S. is not yet available(CDC COVID-19 Data Tracker). Monitoring the overall Covid-19 trends is crucial as new variants emerge, especially as the XEC variant is believed to have a transmission advantage.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) actively tracks and classifies SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern and interest. Detailed data on the spread of various variants, including XEC, across the EU/EEA, is regularly published, although specific numbers on XEC’s prevalence are still being analyzed.
Symptoms of XEC Covid
The symptoms of the XEC variant are similar to those of previous Omicron variants. These include:
High temperature or fever
Cough and sore throat
Fatigue and body aches
Loss of smell and appetite
Congestion and runny nose
Nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea in some cases
Most people recover within a few weeks, but those who are at higher risk, such as older adults or immunocompromised individuals, may experience more severe illness.
How Is XEC Spreading?
XEC has shown strong growth in Europe, especially in Denmark and Germany. Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, has suggested that XEC could become the next dominant variant over the winter. However, this process may take several weeks or even a couple of months.
Monitoring the spread of XEC is more challenging now due to less routine Covid testing compared to previous years. Health agencies, such as the CDC, are using alternative methods like wastewater surveillance to keep track of the virus's spread. Despite these limitations, early indications show that XEC is on the rise in various countries.
How Effective Are Current Vaccines Against XEC?
Since XEC is an offshoot of the Omicron lineage, existing vaccines are expected to provide protection against severe illness caused by this variant. Dr. Chin-Hong has expressed confidence in the updated vaccines, especially for those at higher risk, including older adults and individuals with weakened immune systems.
The vaccines, updated to target recent Covid variants, may not be specifically designed for XEC but should still offer a buffer of protection. Health experts recommend getting the updated booster shots to reduce the chance of infection and lower the risk of developing long Covid.
Who Should Get the Booster Shot?
Health authorities recommend that the following groups receive the updated booster:
Adults aged 65 years and over
Residents of care homes
Individuals over six months old in clinical risk groups
Front-line healthcare and social-care workers
The main vaccination drive for both flu and Covid-19 is set to start in October. However, those at higher risk or planning to travel in the fall should consider getting their booster shot earlier.
Expert opinion
Getting vaccinated is super important, especially for older adults. As we age, our immune systems just don’t work as well, which makes seniors more vulnerable to serious illnesses like COVID-19. During the pandemic, older adults were hit the hardest. In fact, according to the CDC, over 80% of COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. were among those 65 and older. This really shows why getting vaccinated is a must – it significantly reduces the risk of severe illness and death in older adults. Plus, it helps take some of the strain off our healthcare system and keeps our communities healthier overall.
Best regards, Anna Klyauzova LinkedIn Profile Prolife Home Care
Protect Yourself This Winter
As the XEC variant continues to spread, it's important to follow public health guidelines to stay protected. In addition to getting vaccinated, wearing masks in crowded places, practicing good hand hygiene, and maintaining social distancing can help reduce the risk of infection.
FAQs About the XEC Covid Variant
Q: What are the symptoms of the XEC variant? A: The symptoms are similar to previous Omicron variants and include fever, cough, sore throat, fatigue, body aches, congestion, and gastrointestinal issues.
Q: How is XEC different from other Covid variants? A: XEC is a recombinant variant from two Omicron subvariants, KS.1.1 and KP.3.3, with unique mutations that could make it more transmissible.
Q: Are current vaccines effective against the XEC variant? A: Yes, existing vaccines are expected to provide protection against severe illness caused by XEC, though they may not completely prevent infection.
Q: Who should get the updated Covid booster? A: Adults over 65, care home residents, people in clinical risk groups, and front-line healthcare workers are recommended to get the booster.
Conclusion
The XEC variant serves as a reminder that the Covid-19 virus continues to evolve. While vaccines may not be a complete shield against infection, they remain the best defense against severe illness and hospitalization. Global trends indicate a rise in Covid-19 cases, highlighting the importance of staying informed and following health recommendations. By getting vaccinated and adhering to public health guidelines, you can protect yourself and those around you as the winter season approaches.
#brooklyn#prolifehomecare#bronx#homecare#healthcare#manhattan#senior#cdpap#health care#cancer#covid 19#covid is not over#covid vaccine#long covid#xec
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