#there's also Zika

[danithefangirlbunny]

a very tell tale sign I'm from the global south is that I call the mosquito that transmits Dengue fever by his scientific name

[the1312daysofchristmas]

i need to [remembers that all creatures have an important place in the ecosystem] kill every mosquito

[hkayakh]

15

If you stayed the age of your birth DAY forever, how old you would be?

[reasonsforhope]

Pairing frogs and toads together might conjure memories of Arnold Lobel’s beloved characters — dressed to the nines in caramel coats and polyester — biking off toward adventure. 

But in the animal world, frogs and toads on nearly every continent are facing a much more harrowing adventure: a decades-long fight against a mysterious fungal virus that has afflicted over 500 amphibian species. 

Since the 1990s, scientists estimate that the chytridiomycosis disease caused by the fungal pathogen Bd (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis) has led to the extinction of 90 amphibians. One of the lost species includes the Panamanian golden frog, which hasn’t been spotted in the wild since 2009. 

Fortunately, a new research study has finally pinpointed the virus that has been infecting fungal genomes for decades. 

“Bd is a generalist pathogen and is associated with the decline of over 500 amphibian species…here, we describe the discovery of a novel DNA mycovirus of Bd,” wrote Mark Yacoub — the lead author of the study and a microbiology doctoral student at the University of California, Riverside. 

In an interview with UC Riverside News, Yacoub said that he and microbiology professor Jason Stajich observed the viral genome while studying the broader population genetics of mycovirus (viruses of fungi). 

The discovery will undoubtedly have monumental impacts on future amphibian conservation efforts. This includes the possible launching of new research studies into fungal species strains, the practice of cloning and observing spores, and engineering a solution to the virus. 

But Yacoub cautioned that this is only the beginning. 

“We don’t know how the virus infects the fungus, how it gets into the cells,” Yacoub said. “If we’re going to engineer the virus to help amphibians, we need answers to questions like these.”

Still, as scientists strengthen conservation efforts to save frogs and toads (and salamanders too!) they also appear to be saving themselves. Yacoub pointed out several amphibian species around the world have begun exhibiting resistance to Bd. 

“Like with COVID, there is a slow buildup of immunity,” Yacoub explained. “We are hoping to assist nature in taking its course.”

Pictured: A Golden poison frog — one of the many species endangered by chytridiomycosis — in captivity.

Why are frogs and toads so important?

From the get go, every amphibian species plays an important role in their local ecosystem. Not only are they prey for a slew of animals like lizards, snakes, otters, birds, and more, but in an eat-or-be-eaten world, frogs and toads benefit the food chain by doing both. 

Even freshly hatched tadpoles — no bigger than a button — can reduce contamination in their surrounding pond water by nibbling on algae blooms. 

As they grow bigger (and leggier), amphibians snack on whatever insect comes their way, greatly reducing the population of harmful pests and making a considerable dent in the transmission malaria, dengue, and Zika fever by eating mosquito larvae. 

“Frogs control bad insects, crop pests, and mosquitoes,” Yacoub said. “If their populations all over the world collapse, it could be devastating.” 

Yacoub also pointed out that amphibians are the “canary in the coal mine of climate change,” because they are an indicator species. Frogs and toads have permeable skin, making them sensitive to changes in their environment, and they also rely on freshwater. 

When amphibians vanish from an ecosystem, it’s a symptom of greater environmental issues...

Herpetologist Maureen Donnelly echoed Yacoub’s sentiments in an interview with Phys Org, noting that when it comes to food chains, biodiversity, and environmental impact, the role of frogs and toads should not be overlooked. 

“Conservation must be a global team effort,” Donnelly said. “We are the stewards of the planet and are responsible for all living creatures.”

-via GoodGoodGood, April 22, 2024

[hiwelcometothemonstersancturary]

Iconic things brazilians did during the Olympics so far, from the top of my head:

During the 2024 opening ceremony we were one of the few countries that had a boat all for themselves;

Brazilians in Paris dancing and singing "HOJE PARIS VAI VIRAR BAILE" ("today Paris will be a party");

Once again, brazilians dancing and singing to funk music in Paris the exact same way we do over here;

A brazilian teen was giving an interview, and while at it, mentioned the Israel soccer team. Two pro-Israel people from behind him started telling him to "stop talking about politics", when all the kid was saying was that the Israel team did well during the beginning. Kid then started shouting "FREE PALESTINE" while jumping and celebrating;

During street skate, brazilians were cheering for the girls to fall off their skates, shouting "CAI, CAI, CAI" ("fall, fall, fall"). Rayssa Leal, the brazilian skatist, ended up with a bronze medal;

I didn't follow the 2020 Olympics but this is the second Olympics in a row that we brazilians all agree failed to deliver a good opening ceremony like we did;

Brazilians in the 2016 Olympics started cheering for the judge/referee during a boxing match between Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan. Why? Because the guy was the single brazilian out there. Anything he did made people start cheering for him ("JUIZ, JUIZ, JUIZ");

Brazilians shouting "LET'S GO, POKEMON" during the 2016 Olympics as a way for cheering for Japan during their soccer match against Sweden;

Once again during 2016 because I don't remember anything from the 2020 Olympics: Brazilians shouting "ZIKA VÍRUS", "DENGUE" and "CHIKUNGUNYA", three illnesses transmited by a single mosquito, at a soccer player who made a joke about protecting herself from mosquitoes, fearing she would get sick. The joke was not received well, as you could have imagined.

Anyways, please feel free to add things brazilians did during the Olympics. If you are not from the Global North also feel free to add stuff your own country did, and don't forget to cheer for the palestinian athletes!

[brf-rumortrackinganon]

…the colossal screw up of Archie's birth announcement

I was not following the royals back then, so I am completely out of the loop with what was happening when Archie was born. There’s so much noise and theories littering this space, that it’s hard to delineate what is actually the screw up and where the theories start and how far plausible goes before it turns into crazy. Do you have a record or write-up you can point me to?

Totally okay if you want to just ignore this ask, though. I know this topic invites unhelpful inputs from people.

Hey, everyone, it's Wednesday! Guess what that means...yup, a super long research project to the dulcet sounds of Top Chef.

I think I'll just give you the whole timeline and then some since there's a lot of debate and discussion around both things.

The Pregnancy

October 12, 2018: Princess Eugenie marries Jack Brooksbanks. Meghan wears a dark navy dress and coat. Only the top buttons of her coat are done, causing immediate speculation that she's expecting.

October 15, 2018: Kensington Palace announces that Harry and Meghan are expecting and the baby is due in the springtime. The royal rota is informed by Jason Knauf over a cell phone in the airport, as they were already in Australia to begin coverage of the Sussexes' tour.

Now, usually when the palace makes these kind of announcements, there's a separate briefing for the royal rota with a few additional details for them to write about. In Rebecca English's article about the pregnancy announcement, she reveals that Meghan had had her 12-week scan, the baby is due in late April 2019, and that they were telling everyone at Eugenie's wedding. The article also reveals that Meghan will visit Tonga and Fiji despite the Zika risk (pregnant women are advised not to travel to areas with the Zika virus due to the risk Zika poses to their baby); it's a controversial decision.

October 15, 2018: Harry and Meghan are papped arriving in Sydney, leaving the airport. Meghan is holding two purple binders, leading to speculation that they are expecting boy-girl twins.

Pippa Middleton gives birth to her first child on October 15th (though it isn't announced for a bit), stealing some of the Sussexes' coverage.

October 15 - 31, 2018: Harry and Meghan are in Australia for the Sydney Invictus Games. They also tour New Zealand, Tonga, and Fiji. There is a ton of gossip and tea about the tour. Meghan is also photographed with a very inconsistent baby belly - sometimes it's there, sometimes it's not.

Also during this time (and into November) is the Sussex press tsunami when these stories were breaking:

"What Meghan wants, Meghan gets"

Meghan smells tastes eggs that aren't there

Meghan made Kate cry

Sussexes are moving out of Kensington Palace

The Sussexes' office is moving to Buckingham Palace; they'll be part of the resource pool that also represents Anne, Yorkies, Edward, Sophie, Kents, and Gloucesters.

Sussexes are leaving The Royal Foundation and setting up The SussexRoyal Foundation.

November 24, 2018: The palace announces that Harry and Meghan are moving to Frogmore Cottage. They will renovate the property from five staff apartments to ten bedrooms, a nursery, a gym, and a yoga studio.

December 18, 2018: Meghan makes a surprise appearance at the British Fashion Awards to recognize Clare Waight Keller (her wedding dress designer) as the British Womenswear Designer of the Year. Allegedly she crashed the event unexpectedly. She is photographed groping her belly the whole time while on stage presenting.

December 25, 2018: During the Christmas walkabout after church, Meghan tells fans that she is "nearly there". It causes confusion because the palace had briefed reporters two months earlier that it was an April baby.

**Anon, this Christmas walk where Meghan says "nearly there" re the baby's due date is where it starts veering off the rails.**

January 14, 2019: Meghan, with Harry, visits Birkenhead for an away day. At the end of the visit when they are leaving, Meghan is observed by some to have lost her belly while developing a new bulge around her mid/lower thighs. (YMMV.)

January 16, 2019: Meghan visits the Mayhew Animal House during the day, in which some people claim to observe her belly folding in and then popping out and others claim to hear a loud popping noise when she stands up. (YMMV.) Later, in the evening, she attends a Cirque du Soleil performance at Royal Albert Hall. This is the night that, as she tells Oprah in March 2021, she felt suicidal and had been crying all day up until just before arriving at the Hall.

February 15 - 20, 2019: Meghan is in New York City to attend a baby shower thrown in her honor by Serena Williams. She stays at the Mark Hotel. Abigail Spencer merches Away luggage. Jess Mulroney and Amal Clooney are some of the guests. Markus Anderson unexpectedly shows up and allegedly, Meghan is upset to see him. There's a ton of paparazzi, which Meghan loves, and the Mark Hotel ropes off the sidewalk for her, which she also loves.

There is a CDAN blind about the baby shower, alleging that Meghan had asked (maybe demanded) the BRF for one but they refused because it's not what they do.

The baby shower causes a lot of questions. There's one instance where Meghan returns from a night out holding a large purse over her stomach area, which is unusual because in every photo since October, Meghan is always showing off her belly.

Meghan leaves NYC by a private jet via Teterboro Airport, assumed to be Amal Clooney's private jet.

This is the end of the Meghan/Amal friendship, as on March 15, 2019, Clarence House announces a partnership between Prince Charles and Amal Clooney establishing the Amal Clooney Award from Prince's Trust International.

February 23 - 25, 2019: Harry and Meghan are in Morocco for an official visit by request of the Foreign Office.

There's speculation that Meghan was planning to attend the Oscars (which are held on February 24, 2019) and allegedly, the BRF caught wind of it and created the Morocco tour to keep her focused on royal work.

Edited to add: After checking my spreadsheet, I realized I missed one - related to speculation/gossip about Meghan attending the Oscars, there’s additional speculation that the BRF planned the Morocco trip to force Meghan to come home from NYC. (I kind of suspect this may be the origin of “they took my passport” claims as told to Oprah because supposedly the palace was upset she had the baby shower and upset she’d gone out of the country to do so.)

March 5, 2019: When Harry and Meghan crash Charles's celebration of the 50th anniversary of his Prince of Wales investiture, Meghan tells people she is "nearly there" still, according to Us Weekly. Us Weekly also reports that a Sussex source had briefed them that the baby was due in the late March/early April timeframe.

March 14, 2019: Commonwealth Day Service. Kensington Palace indirectly confirms that this is Meghan's last appearance before the baby arrives and she is beginning maternity leave.

March 19, 2019: Meghan suspends her maternity leave to visit the New Zealand embassy with Harry to lay flowers in a tribute to victims of a mosque shooting. Meghan, who is photographed cradling her belly, is also photographed squatting down with knees and feet together, causing questions as some observe that it looks like her belly has completely disappeared.

April 2, 2019: Meghan, with Harry, is papped visiting an apothecary shop.

April 4, 2019: Harry and Meghan are confirmed to have moved into Frogmore Cottage.

The Birth

Note: All items italicized and in red are timings we learned after the fact. Items in "regular" font (not italicized and black) is the timing that happened live on May 6.

May 5, 2019, late in the evening: Meghan and Doria are driven to the Portland Hospital.

May 6, 2019, 5:26am GMT: Meghan gives birth after two epidurals According to Harry in Spare, it was a traumatic birth, potentially complicated, but an emergency c-section was not discussed with Meghan as Harry declined to tell her what was going on. Also, Harry gets high on laughing gas and the nurse disapprove.

May 6, 2019, 7:26am GMT: Harry, Meghan, and Baby Boy Sussex are home from the hospital (from Spare).

May 6, 2019, 1:30pm GMT: Sky News is selected as the pool broadcaster for the birth announcement when a Sussex spokesperson (probably Sara Latham) reaches out to Sky News to coordinate coverage for a statement Harry will make soon.

May 6, 2019, 1:50pm GMT: The palace announces Meghan has gone into labor and is at the hospital. Sky News has the exclusive story owing to the earlier conversation with Sussex representatives.

May 6, 2019, 2:15pm GMT: Harry records his statement about the baby's birth from a stable in Windsor. He speaks about the baby being born early in the morning. Horses make an appearance.

May 6, 2019, 2:37pm GMT: Harry and Meghan announce the birth of Baby Boy Sussex. The palace follows up with more details, including that the baby was born at 5:26am.

The palace's announcement raises questions, as the language used to describe the birth is different from the language used on all the other royal birth announcements.

The traditional birth announcement: {Title} has been safely delivered of a {son or daughter} at {time} today. Her Royal Highness and her child are both doing well. {signatures of medical staff} {date}

This language has been used for the Cambridges (George, Charlotte, and Louis), the Waleses (William and Harry), the Yorks (Beatrice and Eugenie), the Phillipses (Peter and Zara), the Edinburghs (Charles, Anne, Andrew, and Edward), the Brooksbanks (August and Ernie), and the Wessexes (Louise and James).

The Sussexes' birth announcement: The Queen and the Royal Family are delighted at the news that Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Sussex was safely delivered of a son at 0526am today. Her Royal Highness and her child are both doing well. 06 May, 2019.

Immediately causing questions was the verb choice "was" (versus "has been"). From a grammar perspective, "was" is used to describe something that had already happened at a specific point in the past. "Has been" is a verb tense used to talk about an ongoing event - something that started in the past but is still happening. Looking at the language in the birth announcements, and examining it through the grammar only:

When George's birth was announced, Kate was still in the birthing process but it was a safe delivery. Which makes sense; birth doesn't end when the baby pops out - there's afterbirth, there's the hormone evacuation (for lack of a better word), there's the organs moving back into place, etc. She's still in the hospital receving care.

When Archie's birth was announced, Meghan had already completed giving birth. She was no longer in the hospital, already at home.

Causing even bigger questions was the missing medical staff.

Reporters immediately begin asking questions about the timing of the announcements, where the baby was born, who delivered the baby, and why everyone was told she was in labor when she had already given birth.

May 6, 2019, 2:40pm GMT: Harry's pre-recorded statement with Sky News is broadcast. When he begins speaking, the chyron says "Meghan is in labor." After he announces the baby's birth "early this morning," the chyron changes to "Meghan has given birth."

May 7, 2019, 12:28pm GMT: Palace officials apologize for the bungled birth announcement but there are no explanations or clarifications made.

May 8, 2019: Harry and Meghan announce the baby's name, Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor. They have a photocall with the baby in St. George's Hall, Windsor Castle, in which Harry says the infamous quote "babies change so much in two weeks." Later, they take photos with The Queen, Prince Philip, and Doria.

The photocall and the photos aren't without controversy. Royal-watchers and Windsor locals pinpoint two: May 8th is actually a very wet and overcast day in Windsor, so how did they get sunlight streaming in through the windows? And second (admittedly this one I don't understand), there's a question about either The Queen's clothes or the timing of the photo - she's supposed to be at the Royal Windsor Horse Show? Something to do with horses? - that people are confused by.

May 9, 2024: Harry goes to The Hague for Invictus Games 2020 kickoff events. (It has echoes of Charles leaving Diana just hours after Harry is born to go play polo.)

Afterwards

May 12, 2019: Mother's Day in the US. The Sussexes post a picture of Meghan holding Archie's feet in a field of forget-me-nots.

May 17, 2019: Archie's birth certificate is released. Harry doesn't have the right title.

June 6, 2019: Archie's birth certificate is updated to correct Harry's title and change Meghan's name from Rachel Meghan Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Sussex to Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Sussex.

June 8, 2019: Trooping the Colors. Meghan pauses her maternity leave to attend. She and Harry ride in a carriage with Kate and Camilla. Six things happen that everyone notices:

Meghan stares down Kate many times throughout the carriage procession.

When the royals are coming out onto the balcony for the flypast, Kate - carrying Louis (in his balcony debut) - walks out towards the right side of the balcony, by Andrew, while William veers to the left. William calls to Kate and she turns to join him, George, and Charlotte on the left side of the balcony. Harry and Meghan later come out on the right side, near to where the Cambridges would have been.

The Queen comes out onto the balcony and Meghan sees an opening to move in next to her, but then Andrew suddenly moves in, blocking Meghan. Anne moves in next to Andrew behind The Queen, effectively blocking the Sussexes from moving in.

When Meghan turns to speak to Harry, he sternly tells her to turn around. This happens twice. The second time, Meghan does an awkward shuffle to turn around and she starts rapidly blinking her eyes and clenching her jaw.

When The Queen is leaving the balcony after the flypast, Harry and Meghan bow/curtsy, suggesting that they were late arriving to Buckingham Palace before the parade to have properly greeted The Queen.

Meghan tries to speak to George as he passes by and he throws up a 'talk to the hand'-esque wave at her.

Allegedly, Harry and Meghan were set to have their own carriage at Trooping (as they did in 2019) but the BRF had concerns they would be booed and were thrown in with Kate and Camilla at the last minute. Allegedly, Harry didn't like this because he knew it was a demotion to go from their own carriage to riding backwards in someone else's carriage; when there's a group riding together, protocol requires the senior royals to face forward with junior royals facing backwards.

Also Meghan talks to herself.

I can't find a good video of the balcony so if anyone has one, please share!

June 17, 2019: Father's Day. The Sussexes post a new photo of Harry holding baby Archie. Harry is flipping everyone off and Archie's face is partially obscured.

June 27, 2019: SussexRoyal Instagram announces that the Sussexes will travel to South Africa in autumn. They indirectly announce that Archie will join them.

July 6, 2019: Archie's christening at Windsor Castle. Harry and Meghan decline to announce who his godparents are, citing privacy. The portraits are the first time we see Archie's face in full. They raise questions. Some people observe that the perspective/scale of William and Kate is off from the rest of the group. Others observe that Kate's chair is missing a leg. Others observe that the reflections behind the Spencer sisters and Doria are off.

Ahead of the christening service, William and Kate are papped driving into Windsor Castle. In the pap photo, both are wearing blue; Kate a blue dress or sweater and William a light blue casual shirt but in the released portraits, William is wearing a starched white shirt and Kate a pink outfit. There's some discussion that they changed at Windsor before the service but there's also something wonky going on with the metadata in the photos.

July 10, 2019: William and Harry play polo for charity. Kate, the kids, and Meghan attend. Meghan brings Archie. The lack of interaction between Kate and Meghan gets noticed quickly, as does Meghan seeming not to know what to do with Archie: she holds him for the whole outing, he seems poorly dressed (no hat or sun covering), and he doesn't move/Meghan doesn't change his position.

Allegedly, Meghan wasn't supposed to go to the polo match. Supposedly she had heard that Chelsy was there and hightailed it over with Archie to keep her man in line. (Yuck, I felt gross just writing that.)

July 14, 2019: Meghan breaks maternity leave again to attend the European premiere of The Lion King: Live-Action edition in London with Harry, who cancelled an event with the Royal Marines for this. Harry is caught on a hot mike pitching Bob Isner (Disney's CEO) about Meghan doing a voiceover.

July 26, 2019: According to The Sun, Harry and Meghan's neighbors in Windsor have been sent rules for interacting with the royals that include don't approaching the couple, speak only when spoken to, don't pet the dogs, and don't ask about the baby. Buckingham Palace denies that Harry and Meghan knew this was happening.

July 28, 2019: Meghan breaks her maternity leave again to guest-edit British Vogue's September 2019 edition, Forces for Change. There's controversy:

Allegedly Meghan was asked by the BRF if she was doing this and she kept telling them no.

Harry interviewed Jane Goodall for the edition, in which he made a comment that he and Meghan were only having two children for the environment. (The Sussexes eventually get some kind of award for this.)

Meghan interviews Michelle Obama over a lunch of fish tacos. It turns out that the interview was conducted over email.

Accusations of plagiarism, as an Australian magazine already did this something like this with a very similar front cover layout.

Also, just because: Inside Meghan Markle's disastrous attempt to edit Vogue magazine - new book 'Meghan, Harry and the war between the Windsors.'

And throughout July and August, Harry and Meghan are getting flack for racking up private air miles despite being environmentalists. They do four back-to-back private flights across Europe with Archie. On one of these trips, they meet David Sherborne, Elton John's lawyer and off to the lawsuit races we go.

The Queen invites them to Balmoral to join the family but the Sussexes decline, allegedly because Archie was too young to fly. (Mm-hmm, and then they take him on four flights to Europe.)

September 6, 2019: The Sussexes' itinerary for their Africa tour is released. As part of the tour, Harry will visit Angola and copy Diana's famous de-mining walk.

September 12, 2019: Meghan's maternity leave ends with an announcement introducing Smart Set, a capsule collection from her friends that benefit Smart Works. Meghan gives a speech that ends awkwardly when she says she needs to leave because it's "feed time."

September 23 - October 2, 2019: Harry, Meghan, and Archie travel to South Africa, Malawi, Angola, and Botswana. Meghan tries to merch Archie's clothes from H&M but it gets shut down pretty quickly. Archie's first official engagement is to meet Archbishop Desmond Tutu, which SussexRoyal cringely calls 'Arch, meet Arch.' Meghan gives her infamous "no one asked me if I'm okay" interview in which she discusses her post-partum challenges as a "young mom" and her mental health distress. Harry gets in a tiff with one of the royal reporters, snapping at her "you know what you did" when she tries to ask a clarifying question.

Princess Beatrice announces her engagement on September 26th and it steals some of the Sussexes' coverage.

And after the tour (or on the last day of the tour? I don't remember and it's late), Harry announces that he's suing the British press and it is chaos.

November 7, 2019: Harry and Meghan attend the opening of the Field of Remembrance ceremony at Westminster Abbey. Camilla was supposed to join, but backed out at the last minute citing a cold. When Meghan is pictured in overly glamorous hair and makeup for the event, speculation begins that they are recording the work for a documentary and that Camilla pulled out to avoid being in the footage.

November 9, 2019: The royal family attends the Festival of Remembrance at Royal Albert Hall. Harry and Meghan are shoved into the back row behind a pillar, barely visible on camera. (It's a demotion, because in 2018 they were seated behind Camilla.)

November 10, 2019: Remembrance Day/Sunday. The Queen, Camilla, and Kate watch from the center balcony. Meghan watches from a side balcony between Sophie and Tim. She holds her composure at being excluded from the 'main' balcony better this year than last year (in 2018, she kept stealing weepy or vengeful looks (YMMV) at the center balcony while she was sidelined with the wife of the President of Germany) but she still clenches her jaw.

This is Meghan's final entry in the Court Circular (ever).

December 20, 2019: The Sussexes announce they will spend the Christmas and New Year's holidays privately in Canada.

November 17, 2019: Harry's last entry in the Court Circular before Megxit, suggesting he and Meghan peaced out to Canada shortly after this (I'm too lazy to look up if there were any papwalks or other private engagements - another day, maybe). His final events are January 16, 2020 (a rugby thing); Philip's funeral; the service of thanksgiving for the Platinum Jubilee; and The Queen's Funeral.

And if you made it this far: congratulations! My asks are back open.

[covid-safer-hotties]

Also preserved in our archive

Covid is "totally not a pandemic," but HHS has put it on the same level as Zika, Anthrax, nerve agents, and Ebola. Strange.

US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra today signed the 12th amendment to the declaration under the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act (PREP) Act for COVID-19 countermeasures, a step that provides liability immunity through December 31, 2029.

The declaration provides immunity, except for willful misconduct, for certain claims, including loss caused by or related to administration or use of countermeasures to diseases, threats, or conditions, according to information from the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR), which is part of HHS.

Present or credible risk The immunity applies to situations deemed by the HHS secretary as a present or credible risk of a future public health emergency. It also applies to groups or individuals involved in development, production, testing, distribution, and administration of countermeasures.

The PREP Act was enacted in 2005 to help protect pharmaceutical companies from financial risk in the event of a declared public health emergency. The act also provides funding for pandemic influenza preparedness. ASPR notes that the PREP Act declaration is different from and not dependent on other emergency declarations.

Similar PREP Act declarations are currently in effect for countermeasures against a range of other biological or chemical threats, including mpox and other orthopox viruses, viral hemorrhagic fevers such as Ebola, nerve agents and insecticides, Zika virus, pandemic flu, anthrax, acute radiation syndrome, and botulinum toxin.

[biblicallyaccuratemoth]

Hey, can you talk about your disease plushies more?

It may seem a little silly, but I'm quite interested!

Not silly at all!

I collect plushies as a hobby, and some of my favorites I collect are plushies that are modeled after diseases and pathogens. So far I own HIV, Covid, Ebola, and Smallpox. I try to order one every few paychecks to keep it going? Next I’ve had my eye on a Mosquito-plushie that comes with a little Zika, Malaria, Dengue, and West Nile hanging off it. I also really want the Rabies plushie, and Yersinia Pestis is high on the order list too. For the latter when I have friends over I intend to hand it to them randomly and yell, “Get plague’d.”

[queerbaitingbutikissgirls]

Part 1

Sevika x reader

Synopsis: A lot of world building and a sprinkle of Sevika.

Note: I actually wrote the beginning in Tumblr and it got erased so the beginning is just some context cause I'm not rewriting it all lmao.

•You just got accepted for a job as a new healer for silco's crew.

•Your best friend Zika take you out to the last drop to have a drink and celebrate your new job.

•The last drop being a part of silco's empire you come across a few member of his gang coming in to blow some steam after their shift, sevika is one of them.

• You look at them pass to go to their usual boot as they ignore everyone around them and then your best friend start to talk about how you're gonna be so cool and part of their crew now.

• The rest of the night go without anything eventful and you go home at a decent hour knowing you are starting your first day of work tomorrow.

•You walk up to silco's tower ready for your first day at this job that might change your life.

I looked up at the sun grazing the highest peak of the tower. A rare sight in Zaun, the sun. I turned around quickly as I heard footsteps behind me as I looked down I saw a strangely proper man making his way towards me. He had an uncommonly warm smile on his lips. "You must be the new healer!" He said his smile growing even bigger. I tried to find a drop of malice or mischief behind is gaze but the only thing I found was a glimpse of excitement. he held his hand in front of me waiting for me to take it which I did weirdly he didn't instored fear in me.

"Yes, and you are...?" I asked with a confused smile. "Darius! I'm the chief doctor of silco's clinic." He said before dropping the handshake. Oh a doctor I didn't even knew it existed in Zaun, I didn't knew people like him existed in Zaun he looked like a living puppy way too happy to be living in the trenches in my humble opinion. He insisted on guiding me to the clinic and I just followed way too confused to even object.

"So this is the main clinic, here is my operation office  and this is the... break room?" He whispered in a questioning tone. "Don't tell silco's that we call it like that we aren't supposed to take breaks on working hours." He said again in a low tone. I barely conciled a smile at his carefree attitude he seemed way too happy about everything which was a bit unsettling down here. "Okay!" He said sitting back at a desk. "I red your resume, you're good! You'll be a great asset to have in the healer department." A small blush crept on my cheeks I wasn't used to praise.

the door opened violently letting a blue haired girl walk through as she yawned. "Smiley, Newbie." She I guess greeted us before making her way through the room to go grab a note book on the far right desk before walking back through the door frame. I stood there too shocked to say anything once again. But she slipped her head back in the room for a second. "I'm jinx by the way!" She said before disappearing again. I stood there mouth open questioning what just happened and if she really thought I didn't knew who she was. Everyone knew that jinx was silco's treasure, someone to not mess with.

"That was jinx." Darius said. Did they all thought I lived under a rock? "I know." I said with frowned eyebrows tired of this whole circus that I walked in. "She often come in here to learn more about anatomy for her gadget, I helped her work on sevika's new arm!" He exclaimed proudly. I swallowed hardly at the mention of the scary women. I couldn't deny that all that mystery around her was intriguing but also the violence kept my curious mind in check. I wasn't planning on getting in more trouble than needed.

"I hope you took a coffee already before coming in." He said looking at an old alarm clock on the corner of his desk. A tall half reptilian girl ran into the clinic not even sparing us a glance before putting on a brown blouse on top of her clothes. My gaze shifted back to the doctor. "Why?" I asked but before he answered me the old alarm clock went off and less than a second later I heard an hoard of screaming and stomping coming in our direction. "I hope you have thick skin newbie." Said the reptilian women as rugged man and women floded the entire room.

_____

"You did good!" Said the doctor as I pass my hand through my soaked bangs. "You can have the night it's enough for a first day. But get ready to call this room your new home kid." He said before pushing me towards the door. He didn't had to tell me twice I made my way outside of the towering building before letting my head fall against one of its cold brick wall a few meter away from the door. Judging by the cold air against my skin it was probably well pass sunset and well pass "her" bed time.

I sigh, at least Zika was home and I knew she tucked her in bed. I heard a deep chuckle a few meter away from me, I shift my gaze a hand ready to get out my pocket knife on whoever was hiding in the shadow. A pale glowing orange dot barely breaking the darkness a few feet away. "Who's there!" I exclaimed trying to sound convincingly menacing. I pulled out my knife in front of me as the person didn't announced themselves. The pale light fell to the ground and dissapeared under a stomping noise.

I took a step back in a cautious way as I heard the heavy footsteps. My gaze climbed up the imposing women walking out of the shadow. Short brown hair barely touching her shoulders and perpetually frowned gaze. Everyone knew who she was, I knew who she was, but I didn't wanted to be in a dark ally with someone like her.

Standing there I knew my knife wasn't gonna do much against the tall women so against my better instincts I just put it back in my pocket thinking it was wiser to not engage a fight I was bound to lose. "Sorry, didn't knew it was your spot." I just said lazily before turning on my heels to make my way home. "You're not gonna last a week." She scuffed behind me. I halt at her unnecessary words. "Excuse me?" I said before turning around to look back at her.

A hint of a cruel smile shine upon her lips as her usual frown was directed at me. "You don't even know me, keep your comment for yourself." I said annoyed before sending her a bitter look. What was she trying to do? Was she looking for a fight? She was out of luck it wasn't my type.

"You didn't last the night." She said plainly. "They sent me home!" I was offended at her implication. I didn't asked for a break they offered. "Probably because you looked dead already." Her gaze ran all over me analyzing my state. Okay maybe I was slightly exhausted but I will get used to it. I didn't had a choice. "It was my first day." I said half to convince her and half to convince myself. Before turning back around and walking away from the tower and the strange character it contained.

[jackfrostsdaughter]

Micheal Sheen has been turned into a seeing eye friend the same way @milkpropaganda was. Extraordinary.

We all joke about how Crowley follows Aziraphale around like a puppy (he totally does) but I think it’s so funny that it’s likely partially because David Tennant just couldn’t fucking see between the snake eye contacts and the shades, and Michael was like a beacon with his white hair and was often wearing white, so David stuck close and watched him like that to keep from running into everything LMAO

[centers-for-disease-control]

Alright, due to popular request, I bring you the break down of the Taiwan Disease Personifications. Also, just so y’all know, the official explanations for the designs are not easy to find, so a lot of this is just from what I notice and what I know about the diseases

To start off, we have everyone’s favorite disease: COVID-19

So, this is one of the designs where I could actually find the artist explanation, so I will be including that information plus a couple things I noticed and how I think it fits the disease. So let’s start with to crown. The reason for the inclusion of the crown is the reflect the name coronavirus, corona being the Latin word for crown. The face is partially obscured because of COVID’s tendency to hide itself. The bean bag chair that they are sitting on has many protrusions signifying the spike proteins. The different digital devices represent how the world went virtual during the pandemic and the news channels behind them represent the media’s freak out when COVID was at its height. The floor has an outline of the world because everywhere was affected by the pandemic. Also, if you look closely, they are wearing little Covid earrings.

Next up, we got Zika:

I could not find an official artist statement for this design, so take my explanation with a grain of salt. So first off the red waist band reminds me of the red stripe that goes down the abdomen of the mosquito species that spreads Zika after it has fed. Also, the white markings on the black are also a characteristic of this species of mosquito. In fact, the design is the stripes on the chest look like the markings these mosquitoes have on their back. She presents female because it’s the female mosquitoes that bite and spread diseases. Her sleeves look like mosquito wings once again a reference to mosquitoes being the primary vectors of Zika. The area behind her has palm fronds to represent that Zika is a disease typically found in tropical climates.

Next up we have: Hansen’s Disease (aka Leprosy)

This is one where I could find the artist statement due to it being a pretty recent one, however, I will say that at least the translation was a bit lacking in describing the reasoning of every detail. She is a mask maker because leprosy changes how people perceive those who are infected but it is something that can easily be removed with modern antibiotics. She has different accessories like the lion and crocodile headpiece that implicate the divine involvement because leprosy has been historically thought to be a punishment of the gods. The scales on her arm look like an allusion to the scaling pattern scars that those with leprosy would develop.

Next up: Rubella

After a lot of digging I found the official profile for this design but it didn’t really explain the design choices so we are going to do more analysis on my end. So the pomegranate and the red dots represent the red rashes that come with rubella infections. The glasses I assume are to show how Rubella can lead to Congenital Rubella Syndrome (CRS) which can occur in children if their mother had rubella while pregnant. One of the symptoms that comes with CRS is cataracts.

Next up: the plague

I found the explanation on this and it just confirmed my own suspicions for certain design choices. So her design is very focused on death and mysticism because of how the Black Plague led to a lot of cultural focus on these two ideas. Behind her are old coins because of the economic impact the plague had on the civilizations of its time. The references to death are the skeletal pattern on her dress, and the scythe behind her and on her belt. The references to mysticism include the tarot cards she is holding and the crosses on her hat. On the tarot cards are designs referencing the three different forms the plague takes (bubonic, septicemic, and pneumonic) as well as a posey which was used to try to ward of the plague in old times. On her hat is also a collection of plague doctor masks which is pretty self explanatory as to how that connects.

Next up: Ebola

I couldn’t find the official explanation for this disease, so this is mostly speculation based on my analysis. Her outfit is red because of the hemorrhaging that comes with the disease. Specifically he lips are red because one of the more unique characteristics of Ebola is hiccuping up blood. The accessories seem to be inspired by central and western african traditional jewelry. There appear to be tribal masks on the necklace, I am not well versed in African art unfortunately, so any deeper meaning of these accessories are unfortunately lost on me. There are bats on the headdress because of bats being the natural host of Ebola. Her design is rather demonic because Ebola was so terrible for the areas affected, that people thought it could be caused be some great evil. The skulls are because of the extremely high death rate that comes with ebola. The leaves and fruits shown come from the African jungles which is typically where Ebola outbreaks start.

Next up: Novel Influenza A Virus Infections

I actually found the artist explanation for this design! As a disease closely associated with birds, there are many elements linked to birds. There are many bird shadows, the hair that looks like feathers, and the beak shaped mask, feathers on his tie and a feather tattoo on right arm, and the “H-N” pin (H and N proteins of the influenza virus).

Next up: Dengue Fever

Another one with an artist statement! Since only female mosquitoes bite, the character is set as a female. Her dark red lips represent mosquito’s instinct to bite, and she is holding a poisonous thornapple flower. She has mosquito wings tattooed on her back and thornapple flower tattooed on her arm. I have spent a long time looking into how the thornapple flower relates to dengue, but I haven’t had a lot of luck. From what I have seen is that the roots, seeds, and leaves are used in some traditional medicines, including treatments for malaria, but I have not had luck finding how it is connected to Dengue specifically.

Next up: Japanese Encephalitis

I found the artist statement for this disease as well. The disease is visualized into three characters that form a pop group, with their names reflecting the 3 main Culex mosquito species that spread Japanese encephalitis in Taiwan, which are Culex tritaeniorhynchus (Three), Culex annulus (Ring), and Culex fuscocephala (Shiro). They wear black and white, like the colors of the Culex mosquitoes. Red accessories represent their love for blood. I don’t have much to add outside of the artist explanation.

Last one for now is: Rabies

I found the explanation for this one, but it is not descriptive at all, so I am going to be going into every detail because this is Rabies. The spikes on the jacket and pant legs represent the protein spikes rabies uses to infect nerves. The blue jacket and gloves are representing water as one of the unique characteristics of rabies is hydrophobia (physical repulsion to water). The claw marks on the shirt show the animalistic tendencies the virus brings out. The violin players in the animal mask show how the virus can hide in these animals. The personification of rabies is holding a conductor’s wand showing how rabies controls those who are infected. The teeth necklace shows how it spreads through bites and they are standing on the brain because that is what rabies infects. He has a chain with mammal skulls once again tying back to rabies being a fatal mammalian disease. The belt buckle has a bone on it as bone are associated with bones and rabies is associated with dogs.

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

The virus behind an outbreak in Brazil can spread from mother to fetus

Transmission of Oropouche to the womb means it has a feature in common with Zika and dengue

A virus that caused a large outbreak in Brazil this year can spread from a pregnant woman to the fetus. The confirmation of several cases of transmission to the womb means that the virus, called Oropouche, has a feature in common with two other insect-borne viruses, Zika and dengue.

A 40-year-old woman’s stillbirth this summer in Brazil was linked to transmission of the virus from the woman to the fetus, researchers report October 30 in the New England Journal of Medicine. (The World Health Organization defines a stillbirth as the death of a fetus after 28 weeks of pregnancy.) The Brazilian Ministry of Health has also confirmed two other deaths due to the spread of Oropouche virus to the womb: a stillbirth to a 28-year-old woman and a baby born with congenital anomalies who died after 47 days. There are other potential cases of transmission to the womb being investigated.

As of mid-October, Brazil has reported more than 8,000 cases of Oropouche fever since the beginning of the year. It’s the largest outbreak in the Americas this year; some of the other countries with cases include Peru, with more than 900, and Cuba, with more than 500. Infections can cause fever, chills, joint pain and severe headaches, among other symptoms. The virus is spread mainly by the bite of Culicoides paraensis midges, which are very small flies, and sometimes by mosquitoes. As with Zika, there aren’t any medicines to treat Oropouche fever or vaccines that target the virus.

Continue reading.

[louissatturi]

WHY PEOPLE THINK Q!CELLBIT IS Q!BAGI LONG LOST BROTHER

• Look at this idiots, identical

• Bagi called attention to the fact that cellbit's hair was just like her's but inverted

• cc!bagi said to peopld to analyse her minecraft skin and that everything om her skin was invencional

• When she asked the brazilians about if they liked worms and Candy cellbit gave a weird awnser to both, whith the cand he anwsared "se eu ver dando sopa eu pego" (if i see laying around i take it) implying that he would steal random candy, something that her brother would also do and about the pet worm idea he said "ter uma minhoca de estimação ia ser zika" (having a pet worm would be pretty rad) then he said to bagi in a really strange way "but im not your brother"

• the chest that she found yesterday had a soup that cellbit already said it gave nostalgia for his hunger games past

• The chest having horror book, mistery book, a coffee mug (bagi HATES coffee) and a book teaching cyphers(all this stuff can also aply to bagi, minus The coffee, só idk)

• acording to some people they see glasses/goggles in the hair (i dont see it personaly)

• "It only exists one afeminited fag that does this passiva tóxica(toxic bottom) pose and wears a trench coat, its cellbit for SURE!"

[zikadraws]

~ Did a little two years timeskip of my Neo 3 & Smallfry for funsies ~

Sock the Smallfry, shaping up to be a Chum.

Earned the more serious name "Sockeye" (you get a biology sticker if you get the reference) and its own super badass title (they keep modifying it because there's a lot to brag about here), speaks inklish nearly fluently (Zika and 'em taught each other's languages), going through an actual fighter training, welding a modified scooping metal spoon that deals mean damage that Zika found and gifted them.

Grown enough to wear clothes, but dresses mostly "pseudo-grunge", aka "still got no style that truly fits me so I'll be a fashion disaster until I do''. Has a long scar a bit below its neck from ''whatever the hell went down with that whole agent thing''. Matching kinship bracelets with Zika, that he wears on its tail.

Still kinda just hanging around like he's hot stuff. Zika keeps telling them to please get a job. Vaguely considering ambassador career or perhaps Salmonese teaching, but won't do anything about it because he thinks he's a natural and don't need any formation. That's a dangerous mentality to have, Sockeye. Zika could tell you about it, Sockeye.

Zika, aka Neo 3, aka Agent 5 (they insisted).

Still working as an archeologist specialized in human culture, though after Alterna, they seriously lost their spark about it. In fact, after the whole thing they got into a deep depression and never truly recovered, still goes into dissociative episodes, random outbursts, slight nihilism, and often cries themselves to sleep. (Also they got serious PTSD and miiight have ursaphobia now.) Sockeye helped them a lot through that, and still does ; although Zika now no longer cares about telling Humanity's History and would actually rather hide it all from the public. They're very bitter about it. They now focuses on just restorating human media, human ethnicities, and disposal of human remains. They don't like to talk about that, and actually now focuses most of their agent work on getting rid of potentially harmful human stuff. The NSS doesn't have the context of the Alterna logs (5 hides that from them at all costs), so they don't really understand. Although Cap is a willing ear.

Other than that, they are getting decent at Salmonese (issues with understanding though); they manage their restoration enterprise more part-time ; they returned to school to follow anthropology classes and study the various ethnicities of ✨Today✨, especially regarding Salmonids ; got around to travel a lot more (sometimes alone, often with Sockeye and sometimes with the NSS), and keeps a very cautious eye on Grizzco, as they highly suspect their newly acquired nemesis to pull out a Plan C. (Still works here though. Yeah, they're aware.)

Oddest thing though is, after witnessing Agent 5's and Sock's relationship and prowesses, Shiver & Frye got into their minds that Zika simply *must* become "Salmon Tamer". They're going on and on about legacy, ancestral practices and binding rituals and just wouldn't drop it. Zika is pretty reticent to the whole thing, because they find it wildly disrespectful towards the Salmonids as an ethnicity, but eventually caved under the nagging and reluctantly agreed to the training and the outfit and mask crafting. This is relatively recent and they're feeling worse about it than working at Grizzco still. Big Man personally advises against it, the NSS thinks it's super fresh, and Sockeye is... Split.

This recent change might shake Sockeye into finally taking some action upon the whole Envoy of the Salmon Kind idea, actually.

---

I know this is super random but I wanted to make it. Also still getting around with that one elaborate post I promised I was making, so have this in the meantime. Hope you enjoyed my OC ramblings :)

Stay fresh 🐟

[godscobhhq]

Pain from Hercules Name: Hector Payne Age: 35 Profession: Mayor Zika's security Pronouns: He/Him FC suggestions: Brian Tyree Henry, Ryan Corr, Harvey Guillen Face Claim:  Harvey Guillen Availability: Taken

Hector can't exactly remember much of his life before coming to Godscobh, let alone before working for Mayor Zika. There are some fuzzy outlines there - a scraped knee or two from childhoods spent running around on gravel - but nothing more. There might've been parents, maybe even a whole family, but that's all gone now. Instead of dwelling on the past, Hector spends most of his energy nowadays avoiding the next time he might get burned (literally and figuratively).

He doesn't think it was always like this. His life wasn't always waiting on Hades hand and foot, waiting for the next time he'd get punished for screwing up. There isn't really any point in resisting his position though, fearful of the power Hades holds over him and Marc every second of the day.

Despite his position on the mayor's "security" team, folks around the town know Hector to be a docile type. He's more likely to be the one getting beat up, not the other way around. In truth, Hector doesn't offer protection like the title implies, his real job is keeping a watchful eye on the citizens and reporting back with his findings.

It's really more of a glorified assistant position anyways, since Hector's the one getting sent out on the most unsavory errands his boss can think of. It's a blessing in disguise though, Hector figures, since it mean Hades still trusts him enough to keep him protected and "under his wing".

After all, ever since he and Marc royally tanked that "Jerk-u-lees" mission, he considers it a miracle Hades never found out. He won't. He definitely won't find out, Hector has to remind himself almost daily. If that got out, Hector would be able to run anywhere anymore. It's been a few decades of keeping the town running now, so surely nothing is the matter on that front anyways. So there's no reason to worry about it! Nope, no reason at all.

Notable character information: Hector is one of the few citizens of Godscobh who knows who Hades is and what he can do. Hector is also keeping a big secret alongside his friend Marc, that Hercules lives.

[bpod-bpod]

Zika Flies

Fruit flies bearing Zika virus proteins as a live model for studying the mechanisms underlying infection in humans with Zika virus and how it causes microcephaly

Read the published article here

Image from work by Nichole Link and J. Michael Harnish, and colleagues

Department of Neurobiology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT and Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, BCM, Houston, TX, USA

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in and on the cover of Disease Models & Mechanisms, February 2024

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