Did it hurt, Dr. Fauci?

I was hurt to hear that you were disappointed by the use of your name and reputation in an ad by the Trump campaign and it was manipulated when taken out of context.

If Dr. Fauci was emotionally hurt by this he should say so. Being disappointed is something most Americans try to get over. Being hurt is more permanent and long lasting. Americans understand being hurt and that is not allowed.

I sincerely apologize for the reckless use of Dr. Fauci’s name without permission. He is loved by this country. The country trusts him. That will never change. I am sorry this happened to him.

Reinfection with a mutated strain.

This virus MUST be eliminated from the face of Earth. The more SARS-CoV-2 is exposed to human beings it mutates into a stronger strain with exposure over and over to it's hosts, human beings. IT IS RNA and replicates with human DNA. Understand?

12 October 2020

- 25 March - First wave of symptoms, (click here) including sore throat, cough, headache, nausea and diarrhoea

- 18 April - He tests positive for the first time

- 27 April - Initial symptoms fully resolve

- 9 and 26 May - He tests negative for the virus on two occasions

- 28 May - He develops symptoms again, this time including fever, headache, dizziness, cough, nausea and diarrhoea

5 June - He tests positive for the second time, and is hypoxic (low blood oxygen) with shortness of breath

Scientists say the patient caught coronavirus twice, rather than the original infection becoming dormant and then bouncing back. A comparison of the genetic codes of the virus taken during each bout of symptoms showed they were too distinct to be caused by the same infection.

"Our findings signal that a previous infection may not necessarily protect against future infection," said Dr Mark Pandori, from the University of Nevada.

"The possibility of reinfections could have significant implications for our understanding of Covid-19 immunity."

He said even people who have recovered should continue to follow guidelines around social distancing, face masks and hand washing....

Two reports of same reinfection in Nevada.

October 12, 2020

By Karen Weintraub

An otherwise healthy 25-year-old Nevada man (click here) is the first American confirmed to have caught COVID-19 twice, with the second infection worse than the first.

He has recovered, but his case raises questions about how long people are protected after being infected with the coronavirus that causes the disease, and potentially how protective a vaccine might be.

"It's a yellow caution light," said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tennessee, who was not involved in the research.

Respiratory infections like COVID-19 don't provide lifelong immunity like a measles infection. So, Dr. Paul Offit, an infectious disease expert at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, said he's not at all surprised people could get infected twice with the coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2. 

Here we go again. Is the unexplained illness the same inflammatory response as before wtih AstraZeneca?

October 13, 2020

Johnson & Johnson (click here) said on Monday it has temporarily paused its Covid-19 vaccine candidate clinical trials due to an unexplained illness in a study participant....

...Stat News reported the pause earlier in the day citing a document sent to outside researchers running the 60,000-patient clinical trial, which stated that a "pausing rule" had been met, the online system used to enroll patients in the study had been ...

"Stand back and stand by."

October 12, 2020
By Rachel M. Cohen

Detroit - ...Domestic violent extremists (click here) pose a steady and evolving threat of violence and economic harm to the United States and, while trends may shift, the underlying drivers for domestic violent extremism — such as perceptions of government or law enforcement overreach, sociopolitical conditions, racism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, misogyny, and reactions to legislative actions— remain constant, he said.

Lone wolves have been a problem for some time in the USA, but, with the arrests of 13 violent domestic terrorists, those seeking to succeed in the shadows may be lone wolves.

"See something, say something."

The FBI is most concerned about lone offender attacks, primarily shootings, as they have served as the dominant lethal mode for domestic violent extremist attacks, according to Wray. More deaths were caused by domestic violent extremists than international terrorists in recent years. He said 2019 was the deadliest year for domestic extremist violence since the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995.

"The greatest threat we face in the homeland is that posed by lone actors radicalized online who look to attack soft targets with easily accessible weapons. We see this lone-actor threat manifested both within domestic violent extremists and homegrown violent extremists, two distinct sets of individuals that generally self-radicalized and mobilize to violence on their own," Wray said. "Domestic violent extremists are individuals who commit violent criminal acts in furtherance of ideological goals stemming from domestic influences, such as racial bias and anti-government sentiment. Homegrown violent extremists are individuals who have been radicalized primarily in the United States, and who are inspired by, but not receiving individualized direction from, foreign terrorist organizations."

Life saving use of technology. This is a great story out of Australia.

Interesting, the shark nudged his prey. The shark was unsure of his own safety and had to establish whether he would be successful in an attack or would he be the victim and lose his battle. It wasn't a White used to being the dominant predator. Great story.

October 17, 2020

By Stephanie Pappas

..."I was surfing (click here) out the back at Sharpes Beach and just cruising on my own and I heard a splash and a noise and looked around and couldn't see anything," Matt Wilkinson, a pro surfer, said in a statement. "Then the drone came down and told me that there was a dangerous shark in the area, return to the beach."...

All is well that ends well.

There can be side effects to COVID-19 beyond the initial infection. Former Governor Christie might want to keep his doctors close for awhile. Many Americans recovering from the virus do find they need recovery time after battling for their wellness. I wish him well.

October 10, 2020

Trenton - Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (click here) said Saturday he has been discharged from a New Jersey hospital where he spent a week, following his announcement that he had contracted the coronavirus.

“I am happy to let you know that this morning I was released from Morristown Medical Center,” Christie said in a Saturday morning post on Twitter. “I want to thank the extraordinary doctors & nurses who cared for me for the last week. Thanks to my family & friends for their prayers. I will have more to say about all of this next week.”

Christie announced Oct. 3 that he had tested positive and said hours later that he had checked himself into the hospital after deciding with his doctors that doing so would be “an important precautionary measure,” given his history of asthma....

Crackpots.

There are seriously disturbed people in the USA that exercise false authority because they preach about God and not science. Anyone preaching about God is automatically provided with authority.

Most major religions require some degree of education that provides for a "real life" interpretation of their doctrines and texts. That is not a priority of peripheral belief systems seeking to exist under one person's authority, ie: L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology. It grew out of a belief that people subscribed to rather than existing from texts of the ages. In the USA everything is possible and rightfully so, but, when odd belief systems find their way into a sincere authority in the USA then society suffers and flounders.

These folks exist in extremist belief systems and they should not exist in the Supreme Court of the USA stating precedent and stare decisis is irrelevant to the future.

"Oh, she is not that much of a crackpot." The authority Coney-Barrett will find at the Supreme Court has a life long timeline and plenty of time to plan the outcomes of this country.

October 12, 2020

By Paul Braterman 

Every so often (click here) you come across a piece of writing so extraordinary that you cannot help but share it. One such piece is a sermon on global warming by American pastor John MacArthur. Full of beautifully constructed rhetorical flourishes, it is forcefully delivered by an experienced and impassioned preacher to a large and appreciative audience.

For me, as a man of science, it is the most complete compilation of unsound arguments, factual errors and misleading analogies as I have seen in discussions of this subject. But it’s important because climate change is a big election issue this November in the US, where there is a growing movement of evangelical Christians who deny its existence, while Joe Biden promises a “clean air revolution”.

The minister of the COVID-denying, law-defying Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California – which has encouraged worshippers to congregate as normal despite state COVID-19 restrictions – MacArthur is an impressive figure whose Study Bible has sold almost 2 million copies....

...The reverend has the most serious reasons possible for rejecting the scientific consensus concerning the age of the Earth, the origins of humankind, the history and prehistory of the ancient near East and the peopling of continents: it is totally incompatible with the Genesis account of creation, Adam and Eve, the flood and the dispersion of peoples from the Tower of Babel....

Graham is Trump's puppet.

I could not believe Graham made his opening remarks as a dance on the Late Justice Ginsburg grave. They aren't men, they are oppressors to their carved out power. They trample the great achievements of women when they denigrate the historic life of Ruth Badar Ginsburg. She was the liberator of oppression of women. Graham rather women wearing aprons at home only to take them off for the bedroom.

The Affordable Care Act otherwise known as Obamacare stands because it is a tax. It is a tax on each American within a majority age.

It also places a tax on the health insurance companies that inhibit their profit to 15% by limiting their cost to their insured members. It would have been better to institute a tax of all health care insurance providers of 100% over profits greater than 15%.  The tax can then be distributed to those insured by that insurance provider. The more efficient way to achieve that goal is already written into the law and the savings are immediately passed onto the consumers of that insurance.

The health care insurance companies are also taxed by demanding all Americans regardless of pre-existing conditions be insured. Oddly, men's erectile dysfunction is not listed as a pre-existing condition and is covered by Medicare. 

So, Coney-Barrett is now the lynchpin for Wall Street. We'll see.

"Good Night, Moon"

The waning crescent

24.3 days old

28.3 percent lit

May the tides the moon creates keep the whales safe.

October 8, 2020

By Scott Roberts

Savannah - This Thursday (click here) is day 4 of World Space Week. Today, we are going to talk about something that is directly affected by space. Ocean tides happen every day all across the world and have a huge effect on navigation and the natural environment.

Tides are the regular rise and fall of water levels along the coast and are essentially very long-period waves that move though the ocean due to the gravitational pull of the moon and sun. This wave originates in the ocean and then move toward the shoreline and makes the level to go up and then go down.  

Gravity is one of the major forces that work to create tides. The moon and the sun’s mass work to pull the surface of the ocean water. Since the moon is much closer to the earth than the sun, the gravitational force of it is much greater than the sun. The sun’s effects on generating tides is half of what the moon generates.  

The pull of the moon and sun cause the high and low tide though the creation of a bulge of water toward the moon.  The rotation of the earth creates another bulge of water away from the moon. The bulge if water is the high tide. In between is where you have the low tide....