By Lambert Strether of Corrente.
Patient readers, I’m still playing catch-up from my power failure, and I have a good deal both in Politics and Health to come. There’s plenty under Health to take about more, and there is more to come. –lambert
Bird Song of the Day
#COVID19
At reader request, I’ve added this daily chart from 91-DIVOC. The data is the Johns Hopkins CSSE data. Here is the site. I feel I’m engaging in a macabre form of tape-watching….
We already start to an instant rebound from Labor Day, I assume because reporting is returning to normal. Nevertheless, Labor Day, as the end of summer, also signals life changes for Americans, so those changes will affect the numbers too. We shall see!
Down again.
54.1% of the US is fully vaccinated (mediocre by world standards, being just below Ecuador, and just above Switzerland and Malaysia). We are back to the 0.1% stately rise per day. This is the number that should change if Biden’s mandates “work.” However, as readers point out, every day those vaccinated become less protected, especially the earliest. So we are trying to outrun the virus… (I have also not said, because it’s too obvious, that if by Bubba we mean The South, then Bubba has done pretty well.)
Case count by United States regions:
Big drop, supporting Monday reporting catch-up theory. I’m almost inclined to call the last peak and, as in December and January of last year, worry about the next peak from school re-opening. I dunno. Maybe, again, somebody caught up on the backlog Monday. We could get lucky, as we did with the steep drop after the second week in January. The populations are different, though. This one is more vaccinated, and I would bet — I’ve never seen a study — that many small habits developed over the last year (not just masking). Speculating freely: If the dosage from aerosols drops off by something like the inverse square law, not linearly, even an extra foot of distance could be significant if adopted habitually by a large number of people. And if you believe in fomites, there’s a lot more hand-washing being done. On the other hand, Delta is much more transmissible.
“Here’s What the Next Six Months of the Pandemic Will Bring” [Bloomberg]. “For anyone hoping to see light at the end of the Covid-19 tunnel over the next three to six months, scientists have some bad news: Brace for more of what we’ve already been through. Outbreaks will close schools and cancel classes. Vaccinated nursing home residents will face renewed fears of infection. Workers will weigh the danger of returning to the office as hospitals are overwhelmed, once again. Almost everyone will be either infected or vaccinated before the pandemic ends, experts agree. Maybe both. An unlucky few will contract the virus more than once. The race between the waves of transmission that lead to new variants and the battle to get the globe inoculated won’t be over until the coronavirus has touched all of us.” • Even China. Oh, wait…
“Majority of Americans believe worst COVID-19 outbreak is yet to come: report” [The Hill]. “The American public has lived with the COVID-19 pandemic for over a year now, and new national data suggests that a majority of 54 percent still think the worst of the virus is still yet to come. New data from the Pew Research Center highlights a bleak outlook surrounding the pandemic among most Americans, despite more known about the virus and vaccines that are readily available. This pessimistic sentiment has fallen from higher levels seen in November of 2020, when 71 percent believed that the worst of COVID-19 had yet to hit the U.S. This was during the record-breaking winter outbreaks of the virus, and prior to the resurgence seen this past summer with the onset of the delta variant. Like other topics, the sentiment expressed about the state of COVID-19 in America is largely partisan; more Republicans feel that the country has a better handle on the virus, with 53 percent feeling another major outbreak looms around the corner. In contrast, 59 percent of Democrats believe the U.S. is destined for yet another surge. The same trends exist among people based on their vaccination status. Fifty-six percent of unvaccinated adults feel the worst is still yet to come as opposed to 53 percent of vaccinated individuals who feel the same.”
NEW From CDC: “Community Profile Report September 13, 2021” (PDF), “Rapid Riser” counties, this release:
Ohio Valley less red. Upper Midwest and the Rockies more red; Fascinating to see the Sturgis cluster heal, though. Remember, however, that this chart is about acceleration, not absolute numbers, so the case chart still has momentum. This map, too, blows the “Blame Bubba” narrative out of the water. Not a (Deliverance-style) banjo to be heard. Previous release:
(Red means getting worse, green means bad but getting better.)
The South, the leader, steadily dropping.
Hospitalization (CDC):
Dropping.
Here the CDC’s hospitalization visualization, from the source above:
Alabama is heading downward at last, but things are picking up in the West.
“Idaho declares statewide hospital resource crisis amid Covid surge” [NBC]. “Idaho hospitals are so overwhelmed with the surge in coronavirus cases that doctors and nurses have to contact dozens of regional hospitals across the West in hopes of finding places to transfer individual critical patients. The situation has grown so bad that the Idaho Department of Health and Wellness announced Thursday that the entire state is in a hospital resource crisis, permitting medical facilities to ration health care and triage patients. Kootenai Health, a hospital in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, has already converted a conference room into an overflow Covid unit, started paying traveling nurses $250 an hour and brought in a military medical unit. The hospital received permission from the state to begin rationing care last week. That’s all in response to the Covid surge that in recent weeks has taken over much of Idaho — a state with one of the nation’s lowest vaccination rates.” • If only the pencil-necked MBAs in charge of our hospitals hadn’t optimized for profit, and left no spare capacity to handle a surge!
Deaths (Our World in Data):
We are approaching the same level as our first peak last year; I have drawn an anti-triumphalist black line to show this. Which I am finding more than a little disturbing. (Adding: I know the data is bad. This is the United States. But according to The Narrative, deaths shouldn’t have been going up at all. Directionally, this is quite concerning. Needless to see, this is a public health debacle. It’s the public health establishment to take care of public health, not the health of certain favored political factions.)
Covid cases worldwide:
Politics
“But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?” –James Madison, Federalist 51
“They had one weapon left and both knew it: treachery.” –Frank Herbert, Dune
“They had learned nothing, and forgotten nothing.” –Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord
Biden Administration
“Biden vows to “deal everyone in” as Nobel laureates back economic plan” [Axios]. “In East Room remarks Thursday afternoon on leveling the economic playing field, President Biden will argue that his Build Back Better plan will ‘deal everyone in.’… A White House official tells me that Biden will argue that the nation has reached an inflection point — whether or not to perpetuate an economy where the wealthiest taxpayers and biggest corporations play by a set of rules they’ve written for themselves….
UPDATE “How a key Biden tax idea got crushed” [Full Stack Economics]. “President Joe Biden came into office planning to tax intergenerational wealth more heavily. He had several policy ideas to do this, and the most intellectually defensible of these was to change a capital gains tax provision called ‘step-up basis. ‘Under current law, when you sell an asset, you pay capital gains tax on the amount the asset appreciated. The appreciation is calculated by subtracting the acquisition price—known as the basis—from the sale price. However, there is an exception when you inherit an asset: the basis is the value of the asset at the time you inherited it, not the value at the time it was originally acquired. The capital gains between acquisition and inheritance are lost to the income tax system, as the Treasury Department explained in a recent report supporting Biden’s plan. Biden had hoped to address this issue in upcoming legislation. But that plan is now in shambles after a public revolt and a decisive push from lobbyists like former senator Heidi Heitkamp. Step-up repeal has been entirely removed from the latest plans released by House Ways and Means Chair Richard Neal. ‘Frankly this is a humiliating climbdown from the administration’s posture,’ Capital Alpha Partners’ James Lucier told the Financial Times.” • Man oh man, the Massachusetts Democrats really did Biden a solid by smearing Alex Morse so Richie Neal would keep his seat, good job.
Democrats en Deshabille
“Gates Foundation Was Major Donor to Pro-Biden ‘Dark Money’ Network” [ReadSludge]. “The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation gave nearly $70 million last year to a major liberal charity that acts as the ‘parent’ organization of one of the largest pro-Democrat dark money groups, a recent update to the group’s online grant database reveals. It was the largest one-year commitment the foundation has made since 2014, and its second largest ever. The donations were given to Arabella Advisors’ New Venture Fund (NVF), a major player in the political nonprofit sphere that is the payroll reporting agent for Sixteen Thirty Fund, a dark money group that funneled tens of millions to super PACs during that 2020 election cycle that backed Democratic candidates including President Joe Biden. The most recent tax returns available (2019) show that New Venture Fund, which raised $450 million from anonymous sources that year, transferred $33 million to Sixteen Thirty—the largest single donation given by the former and received by the latter.” •
2020 Post Mortem
“Trump’s 2020 gains in rural America offset by Biden’s urban dominance” [The Hill]. “Former President Trump became the first Republican presidential nominee in more than three decades to earn more than 1.1 million votes in Los Angeles County last year, when his campaign attracted more than 375,000 new voters in what is otherwise a solidly Democratic fortress. But Trump’s success in finding new votes in the nation’s largest county was overshadowed by an even more opportunistic campaign — Joe Biden’s. The 46th president gained 500,000 more votes in Los Angeles County than the previous Democratic nominee, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, had in 2016….Former President Trump became the first Republican presidential nominee in more than three decades to earn more than 1.1 million votes in Los Angeles County last year, when his campaign attracted more than 375,000 new voters in what is otherwise a solidly Democratic fortress. But Trump’s success in finding new votes in the nation’s largest county was overshadowed by an even more opportunistic campaign — Joe Biden’s. The 46th president gained 500,000 more votes in Los Angeles County than the previous Democratic nominee, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, had in 2016. That pattern repeated itself in counties large and small last year, as both Biden and Trump drove turnout to a zenith not seen since before American women got the right to vote in 1920. Trump made substantial gains, improving on his 2016 performance to become the most-voted-for Republican presidential candidate in history — but lagging Biden, who earned more votes than any candidate to ever run for president regardless of party…. Biden won 91 of America’s 100 largest counties, while Trump carried 95 of the 100 counties with the smallest populations…. Many of those counties where Biden outperformed Clinton by huge margins made the difference in the Electoral College: He scored 337,000 more votes in Maricopa County, in Arizona, a state he carried by about 11,000 votes. He won 83,000 more votes in Atlanta’s Fulton County, on his way to carrying Georgia by just under 12,000 votes. And he won the four counties that surround Philadelphia with a combined 170,000 more votes than did Clinton, more than twice his overall margin of victory in Pennsylvania.” • “”For every blue-collar Democrat we lose in western Pennsylvania, we will pick up two moderate Republicans in the suburbs in Philadelphia, and you can repeat that in Ohio and Illinois and Wisconsin.” —Sen. Charles Schumer. Or in Fulton and Maricopa Counties? It would be bitterly ironic if Schumer’s prediction came true on the back of public health performance during a pandemic, particular since the Democrat performance is so miserably inadequate.
RussiaGate
UPDATE “Durham Is Said to Seek Indictment of Lawyer at Firm With Democratic Ties” [New York Times]. You guessed it: Perkins Coie. “John H. Durham, the special counsel appointed by the Trump administration to scrutinize the Russia investigation, has told the Justice Department that he will ask a grand jury to indict a prominent cybersecurity lawyer on a charge of making a false statement to the F.B.I., people familiar with the matter said. Any indictment of the lawyer — Michael Sussmann, a former federal prosecutor and now a partner at the Perkins Coie law firm, and who represented the Democratic National Committee on issues related to Russia’s 2016 hacking of its servers — is likely to attract significant political attention. Donald J. Trump and his supporters have long accused Democrats and Perkins Coie — whose political law group, a division separate from Mr. Sussmann’s, represented the party and the Hillary Clinton campaign — of seeking to stoke unfair suspicions about Mr. Trump’s purported ties to Russia. The case against Mr. Sussmann centers on the question of who his client was when he conveyed certain suspicions about Mr. Trump and Russia to the F.B.I. in September 2016. Among other things, investigators have examined whether Mr. Sussmann was secretly working for the Clinton campaign — which he denies. An indictment is not a certainty: On rare occasions, grand juries decline prosecutors’ requests.” • Glenn Greenwald explains:
In sum, a DNC-linked lawyer — partners with Clinton lawyer @marceelias — fabricated a Trump/Russia link, fed it to DNC operatives masquerading as journalists, had Hillary trumpet it, then lied to FBI about who he worked for.
Russiagate in a nutshell:https://t.co/SRRSAowcGn
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) September 16, 2021
Yep. And Biden owes both Barr and Durham big time for slow-walking this.
Realignment and Legitimacy
“State Election Officials on Rich Donors’ Radar, Thanks to Trump” [Bloomberg]. “The once-obscure state-level job of overseeing elections has emerged as a prime target for wealthy donors and national organizers from both parties seeking an edge in the 2022 midterms that could shift control of Congress away from Democrats. Republicans are backing secretary of state contenders who echo Donald Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him through voter fraud, with donors including Richard Uihlen. Democrats have also seen an exponential increase in the amount of money they’re raising for the role, which is often sought as a stepping stone to higher statewide office….. [The] amounts pale in comparison to what is spent on national campaigns, but it is a lot for second-tier state offices.”
“U.S. Senate Democrats, Republicans spar over revised election reform plan” [Reuters]. “U.S. Senate Democrats on Tuesday unveiled a new version of an election reform bill that is a top priority of President Joe Biden, as a wave of Republican state legislatures impose restrictions on voting. Senator Amy Klobuchar and seven fellow Democrats, including moderates such as Senator Joe Manchin, introduced the bill, which would set national standards for states to follow as they administer elections. The Democratic senators said their bill, dubbed the Freedom to Vote Act, would ensure that all qualified voters can request mail-in ballots and have at least 15 days of early voting. The legislation also would allow people to register to vote as late as Election Day, which would become a public holiday.” Election Day as a national holiday is quite sensible. But: “The pared-down bill abandons the previous version’s requirement for commissions to oversee the once-in-a-decade drawing of congressional districts with the goal of preventing oddly shaped, or gerrymandered, boundaries that favor one political party over another.” • This has never been a Democrat priority (presumably they feel they can gerrymander California, Illinois, and New York — especially with Cuomo gone — to offset Republican gains)?
UPDATE “New York Gerrymandering: When the Puzzle Pieces Don’t Fit” [Gotham Gazette]. “The New York State Senate’s lines were drawn by Republicans as part of a power-sharing agreement with Democrats, who were allowed to draw their own Assembly districts. One reason both parties maintained such strong grips on their respective chambers for so long is gerrymandering. Since the Democrats now have a supermajority in both houses, the power-sharing agreement no longer exists. That means that this year’s redistricting, occurring under several new parameters for the first time, is an opportunity to win lines that are more representative of actual communities.” • Hard to imagine things could be worse, but redistricting is not without its issues….
Stats Watch
Employment Situation: “United States Initial Jobless Claims” [Trading Economics]. “The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits rose to 332 thousand in the week ending September 11th from a pandemic low of 312 thousand reported last week due to a combination of unfavorable seasonals and a surge in applications delayed by Hurricane Ida. It is the first reading after the September 6th expiration of enhanced unemployment benefits including a $300 weekly supplement to regular state benefits from government pandemic aid.”
Manufacturing: “United States Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index” [Trading Economics]. “The Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index in the US rose to 30.7 in September of 2021 from 19.4 in August, above forecasts of 18.8, suggesting general activity expanded faster.”
Inventories: “United States Business Inventories” [Trading Economics]. “Manufacturers’ and trade inventories in the US increased 0.5% mom in July of 2021, following an upwardly revised 0.9% rise in June and in line with market expectations. It was the 13th consecutive month of gains in business inventories.”
Shipping: “‘Just Get Me a Box’: Inside the Brutal Realities of Supply Chain Hell” [Bloomberg]. “The system underpinning globalization—production on one side of the planet, connected to consumers on the other by trucks, ships, planes, cranes, and forklifts—is too rigid to absorb today’s rolling tremors from Covid-19, or to recover quickly from the jolts to consumer demand or the labor force. It’s avoided a complete collapse only through a combination of human ingenuity, painfully long hours, and, as [logistics manager RoxAnne Thomas] describes a recent success, strategy, mixed with a stroke of luck…. [S]upply uncertainties, disruptions, and inflationary forces are here for the foreseeable future, perhaps into 2023. But how things play out this month, one of two peak seasons each year for goods, will be crucial in determining how long these shortages last and which companies are able to adapt…. With summer winding down, the big test of the global trading system’s resilience might still be ahead. Every October a weeklong national holiday in China marks the unofficial deadline to get shipments out of the world’s second-largest economy in time to reach the U.S. and Europe for the holiday shopping season. With lines of ships outside ports at their longest since the pandemic began, the pressure to meet that cutoff is stronger than ever.” • Well worth a read.
Today’s Fear & Greed Index: 37 Fear (previous close: 36 Fear) [CNN]. One week ago: 42 (Fear). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Sep 16 at 1:03pm.
The Biosphere
“Why investing in libraries is a climate justice issue” [High Country News]. “hen a heat wave hit the Pacific Northwest in late June, many cities and residents found themselves facing shockingly high — and lethal — temperatures: up to 116 degrees Fahrenheit in Portland, Oregon, for example. Hundreds of people across the region died. For many, the safest and most accessible place to escape the heat was also free — the library. Public libraries are increasingly opening their doors as cooling centers as officials develop emergency plans for heat and other extreme weather conditions. In Clackamas County, Oregon, authorities designated 21 local cooling centers; over half of them were libraries. Just north in Multnomah County, where Portland is located, around 7,600 people sought shelter in public libraries over four scorching days.” • That’s great, but it would be even more great if we were supporting libraries as libraries, and not because they’re improvised air conditioning solutions.
Health Care
“[UPDATED] Deyalsingh: No evidence worldwide that covid19 vaccines cause testicular swelling” [Trinidad and Tobago Newsday]. “Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh has said there have been no reports of testicular swelling as a result of the covid19 vaccine, either in TT or the world. Speaking at the Health Ministry’s covid19 media conference on Wednesday, Deyalsingh said the Health Ministry spent a lot of time researching the issue following a tweet by rapper Nicki Minaj on Monday. ‘We didn’t respond on Tuesday in real time to Ms Minaj because we had to check and make sure that what she was claiming was false, and unfortunately we wasted so much time yesterday running down this false claim….as far as we know at this point in time, there has been no such reported either side effect or adverse effect. What was sad about this is that it wasted our time yesterday trying to track down, because we take all these claims seriously, whether on social or mainstream media. As we stand now, there is absolutely no reported such side effect or adverse event of testicular swelling in Trinidad or anywhere else in the world.'” • In any case, one would have thought we would have heard about this. (As an old codger, however, I am not certain how Minaj’s fans would have taken this information.)
Debacle in the hopelessly-behind-the-times-yet-entrenched infection control community, at the International Conference on Prevention & Infection Control:
Big title says "beneficial"
Conclusions in the poster say – "unclear", "limited evidence"
Thank you, @SHIPGCU I learn some new "synonyms" today. https://t.co/uR6U6lH1Fp— Asit K Mishra 😷🪟 (@akm5376) September 16, 2021
Anybody remember Tufte on NASA’s Challenger disaster PowerPoints? Exactly the same discrepancy between headline and low-level bullet points.
Infection control needs a blast of fresh air:
#HandHygiene slide session at @ICPIC_meeting in #Geneva … continues to be among the highlights of the meeting #InfectionPrevention #ICPIC2021 pic.twitter.com/fq2LjUilFJ
— Prof Didier Pittet (@DidierPittet) September 16, 2021
Hygiene theatre:
Geneva, September 16 2021.
While covid patients in intensive care increase, infection prevention and control experts worldwide gather without masks to talk about hand washing.
Do you see it too?#ICPIC2021 theatre https://t.co/WPIVEH4dKG pic.twitter.com/XD2Q5hRG4k— Lara #COVIDisAirborne #SafeIndoorAir (@Iamgoingtosleep) September 16, 2021
UPDATE And speaking of theatre (1):
When we see things like this that are so fully detached from the scientific evidence we really need to be asking where this is coming from. Who is advising these schools? pic.twitter.com/bYD3lJSe9i
— Joseph Allen (@j_g_allen) September 14, 2021
CDC guidance for schools has been a debacle from the beginning. New York’s million-pupil system opened Monday. The New York statistics in two weeks should be interesting (and at least we’ll have some sort of baseline, no matter what happens. New York readers, thoughts?)
UPDATE Speaking of theatre (2):
Our COVID-Busters are out in full force cleaning & disinfecting to make a safe return to the classroom possible.
Good luck to all NYC students & staff on your first day back!#BacktoSchoolNYC pic.twitter.com/yo9P674Z4h
— 32BJ SEIU (@32BJSEIU) September 13, 2021
What’s really shocking to me is that this is from the SEIU. Where’s the solidarity in hygiene theatre? Does the leadership not know better?
This is why, if you have children in school, you should get a CO2 meter and test their rooms. But the story has a happy ending! Thread:
CO2 over 4000 at my child's school. Teachers are not allowed to open windows. What can I do? #COVIDCO2 @Poppendieck @DavidElfstrom @WBahnfleth@HuffmanLabDU @DrEricDing @CleanAirCrewOrg @CO2Guerrillas @sunandshower pic.twitter.com/adMUvzLTLL
— Momto Rox (@MomtoRox) September 14, 2021
“The Booster-Shot Debate Is Getting Hotter” [New York Magazine]. “This weekend, two key U.S. vaccine-advisory groups are going to meet and hash out one of the most contentious debates of this phase of the pandemic: whether to authorize booster shots for all…. On one side of the debate, experts argue booster shots should be available only for those who are immunocompromised; on the other, some argue they’re needed now for all in order to stay ahead of the virus. The White House has proposed making additional COVID-vaccine doses available to everyone eight months after their initial vaccinations…. At the same time, some Americans who are not yet eligible for a booster dose are already taking matters into their own hands. An internal CDC briefing that came out early last month estimated that 1.1 million Americans had already received an unauthorized booster shot. Amid all the confusing messaging, the number of people seeking underground booster doses will undoubtedly continue to rise.” • Oddly, there’s no moral panic about underground booster doses.
A thread on “waning” in the UK, well worth a read:
NEW: lots of news recently on waning immunity against infection, but a study has now landed from Public Health England on how vaccines are faring against *severe disease & death*
This chart summarises key findings, but the paper is a real goldmine, so let’s dig into more detail: pic.twitter.com/9wAiax8poJ
— John Burn-Murdoch (@jburnmurdoch) September 15, 2021
“Rapid Increase in Ivermectin Prescriptions and Reports of Severe Illness Associated with Use of Products Containing Ivermectin to Prevent or Treat COVID-19” {CDC]. The headline is deceptive; “Products Containing Ivermectin” makes no distinction between prescribed, off-label use, and the use of animal formulations. In fact, the section on “Recommendations for Clinicians and Public Health Practitioners” is conspicuously silent on whether prescribed, off-label use is OK, saying: “Educate patients about the risks of using ivermectin without a prescription, or ingesting ivermectin formulations that are meant for external use or ivermectin-containing products formulated for veterinary use,” and reinforcing the layered defense: “Educate patients and the public to use COVID-19 prevention measures including wearing masks in indoor public places, physical distancing by staying at least six feet from other people who don’t live in the same household, avoiding crowds and poorly ventilated spaces, and frequent handwashing and use of hand sanitizer that contains at least 60 percent alcohol.” • Hand sanitizers, sigh. In any case, it doesn’t appear that the morally panicked have actually read beneath the headline; they do not mention that CDC, like FDA, does not proscribe off-label use, nor do they mention layered defenses [pounds head on desk].
“CDC: Do not prescribe ivermectin to treat COVID-19” [Anerican Academy of Pediatrics]. The headline is wrong; see above. They then quote the CDC: “Educate patients about the risks of using ivermectin without a prescription or misusing ivermectin formulations meant for external use or ivermectin-containing products formulated for veterinary use.” Do you see “do not prescribe” there? No? Good. On the other hand–
UPDATE “Ivermectin for the Treatment of Covid-19” (PDF) [European Network for Health Technology Assessment]. Metastudy. Lengthy. From Level of Evidence: “25 RCTs and two observational prospective studies have documented the effectiveness and safety of ivermectin. Except for one study, all included RCTs were conducted in non-European countries. Among these, 9 were designed as multicenter and 14 were double-blinded. Study population size ranged from 24 to 501 patients. The population included in the studies was heterogeneous in terms of disease severity. Mild patients were included in ten studies, mild to moderate patients in nine studies, mild to severe patients in two studies, severe in one study, mild to critical patients in one study and severe to critical in one study. Furthermore, there was a wide variation in standards of care across trials. Ivermectin dosing and duration of treatment was also heterogeneous.” From the Conclusion: ” The current evidence is not sufficient to support the use of ivermectin for COVID-19 and requires validation in larger, high quality RCTs evaluating fixed dosing schedules. At the moment, conclusions on the efficacy of ivermectin are of high uncertainty.” • There’s a ton of detailed information in the Tables. Maybe somebody with more skills than I have can dig into them.
“Alabama Doctors Concerned About Biden Admin Limiting Monoclonal Antibody Treatments” [Newsweek]. (See Biden’s vaccine mandate speech on monocolonal antibodies at paragraphg (85), as well as their “not-well characterized” and EUA status at (85)[2]-[3]. “labama doctors are concerned about the impact on health care systems after the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) decided to temporarily limit monoclonal antibody orders. The summer’s surge in coronavirus cases prompted spikes in orders for monoclonal antibodies, and 70 percent of orders were being sent to just seven states. With a limited supply of doses, the HHS announced it was temporarily limiting the number of doses that could be ordered at any given time in an effort to ensure the treatment remains available for future patients. Dr. Aruna Arora, president of the Medical Association of the State of Alabama, said in a statement that the announcement came at a time when Alabama’s hospitals are ‘full and under tremendous stress.’ Given the level of hospitalizations the state is experiencing, physicians are ‘very concerned’ about the move to limit supply and access, she said.”
The Democrat Outer Party shares its views:
I feel like the dewormer people have completely lost sight of the fact that we have a treatment for covid that works well and that numerous Republicans including Trump took— monoclonal antibody therapy.
— Molly Jong-Fast (@MollyJongFast) September 7, 2021
In Jong-Fast’s world, Bubba treatment is a “dewormer”. But her preferred treatment, monoclonal antibodies, is being taken away from Bubba too!
“Biden administration moves to avoid shortages of Covid-19 monoclonal antibody treatments” [CNN]. “The US government is buying more doses of monoclonal antibody treatments for Covid-19, and the Biden administration is taking over distribution in order to avoid shortages of the key therapeutics.” • Imagine the pearl-clutching if Trump had done this! More “The moves come as demand for monoclonal antibodies has increased as cases surged due to spread of the Delta variant and low vaccination rates in some areas of the country…. The US Department of Health and Human Services says that as of September 10, 2.17 million doses of monoclonal antibodies have been shipped to all sites, and 938,000 doses have been used since December. About 43% of the distributed doses have been used as of September 3. An HHS spokesperson said seven states have accounted for 70% of orders for the therapy. Those seven states are Florida, Texas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana. ‘Given this reality, we must work to ensure our supply of these life-saving therapies remains available for all states and territories, not just some,’ the HHS spokesperson said.” • Could it be that decision makers in the Blue States were high on their own supply, bought into the “Vax! Vax! Vax!” propaganda, and thereby missed the opportunity of a life-saving treatment?* If so, this move by the Biden administration isn’t exactly the “come together as a country” Biden was pushing in his speech. The same story–
“Biden administration moves to stave off shortages of monoclonal antibodies” [WaPo]. “The policy change that went into effect Monday is all but certain to result in cuts of the medication to some states, especially seven in the Deep South with high infection rates that have been using about 70 percent of the national supply. Soaring demand for the therapy represents a sharp turn from just two months ago, when monoclonal antibodies were widely available and awareness of them was low. Consumers, doctors and states, amid little government promotion, were obtaining just a fraction of the available supply. Since then, however, word of the highly effective therapy — which is free to patients — has spread, with federal officials and Republicans, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, urging their use. Now the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will, at least temporarily, set the rules for distribution of monoclonal antibodies instead of allowing states, medical facilities and doctors to order them directly.” • The last paragraph of Biden’s speech: “Look, we’re the United States of America. There’s nothing — not a single thing — we’re unable to do if we do it together. So let’s stay together.” How’s that workin’ out? (This is a separate issue from why the supply is low in the first place; I’d bet “Vax! Vax! Vax!” is the answer there, too. At least horse paste has the advantage that the Biden Administration can’t turn off the tap on supply. What on earth do they expect Bubba to do now?
“Biden’s team tightens grip on state use of Covid antibody treatments” [Politico]. “The Biden administration is imposing new limits on states’ ability to access to Covid-19 antibody treatments amid rising demand from GOP governors who have relied on the drug as a primary weapon against the virus. Federal health officials plan to allocate specific amounts to each state under the new approach, in an effort to more evenly distribute the 150,000 doses that the government makes available each week. The approach is likely to cut into shipments to GOP-led states in the Southeast that have made the pricey antibody drug a central part of their pandemic strategy, while simultaneously spurning mask mandates and other restrictions. That threatens to heighten tensions between the Biden administration and governors like Florida’s Ron DeSantis, who have emerged as vocal opponents of the federal Covid-19 response. President Joe Biden has sharply criticized DeSantis and others for resisting efforts to encourage mask wearing and ramp up vaccinations, vowing in a speech last week that if “governors won’t help us beat the pandemic, I’ll use my power as president to get them out of the way.'” • If that’s Biden’s tactic here, he’s putting patients at risk (not to mention Florida in 2022). Again, the real issue is that the molasses-brained Biden administration is stepping in to regulate a shortage it created.. They were perfectly happy to buy up boosters in advance of approval; what was to prevent them from, Operation Warp Speed style, making a market to produce monoclonal antibodies months ago? “Vax! Vax! Vax!” would be the kindest explanation.
UPDATE “Anti-Vaxxers Are Now Gargling Iodine to Prevent Covid-19” [E.J. Dickson, Rolling Stone]. The deck: “One ER doc’s response to the new trend: ‘Fuck me! Of course they are.'” I really must protest here. Both Yves and I are vaccinated and pro-vax (regardless of any views about particular vaccines). We also both use Betadine (a povidone brand). Povidone is low cost, low risk, is anti-viral, and is supported by studies. Anecdotally, Yves has, remarkably, kept her mother free from Covid, despite her mother’s great age, and the constant coming and going of aides. Povidone is part of Yves’ protocol to keep her mother safe. N = 1, and we can’t know povidone works, but if that were my protocol, I’d keep on doing what at least not failed to work, and tell Wikipedia fabricator E.J. Dickson to take a flying [family blog] at the moon. Of course, moral panics = clicks, so you can hardly blame Rolling Stone from runing the story in between Dickson’s effusion on Tik-Tok stars. Nevertheless.
UPDATE Lambert here: Among the dominant factions of the PMC, particularly in the press, there seems to be an inability to comprehend multiple causalities. There must always be one single thing, and a moral panic ensues when not-that-one-thing is encountered. RussiaGate, the one single cause of Trump’s victory in 2016. Trump, the one single cause of all our ills from 2016-2020. Racism, the one single cause of what ails America. And of course, vaccines, the one single solution for Covid. Hence, the moral panics not just about hydroxychloroquine, but about Ivermectin, and now about povidone. We can’t let science do its work, when tribalism is so much more effective, and clickbait is so profitable! This mentality even applies to the concept of treatment generally — not just repurposed drugs; as above, I’d speculate that “Vax! Vax! Vax!” impeded the molasses-brained Biden administration from building up the supply of monoclonal antibodies for treatment.
News of the Wired
“The McMansion Hell Yearbook: 1980” [McMansion Hell]. “A real estate agent uploads a listing to an aggregator, knowing that it will be a difficult sell but thinking not much of it, for, like Tolstoy’s unhappy families, all houses are difficult to sell in their own way. A house is built in 1980 in Staten Island and would have thrived as an anonymous bastion of tastelessness had the internet not been invented. But the internet had been invented. All of these things are brought together here, through truly unlikely circumstances.” • You won’t be able to look away.
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RE: “Majority of Americans believe worst COVID-19 outbreak is yet to come: report”
The local restaurants are packed. People are attending the theatre and opera in droves. Sporting events are at capacity.
Yes, I am not sure about that conclusion, either. I am seeing less masking when hitting the store/library/etc. I hope they know what they are doing.
At state liquor store today, half the workers were not masked and half the shoppers were not masked. Not that long ago, it was mandatory for both groups. I was unaware it had changed.
My senses tell me the majority of folks around here think it is past or something. Maybe the sample is biased, but the change over recent time has been much more unmasking in my area.
I took my car to two different repair shops. I was double-masked — one mask was an N95.
At the first shop, between the time I dropped the car off and picked it up, I encountered about 10 people and only ONE was masked.
The other shop, much smaller, had a couple of employees. None were masked.
I guess the pandemic is over.
I’m still wearing a [family blogging] mask if I’m in an enclosed space with other people.
Signs on stores in the beating heart of the CVBB (in this case Central Visalia Bible Belt, a new Catholic church is being built in mission style, will house 3,200-the most of any house of worship of the old school Jesus in these United States, its an odd setting, a giant church done in the style of one of those missions we all had to make reasonable copies of in elementary school in Cali utilizing foodstuffs such as penne pasta (roof tiles) & sugar cubes (lode bearing walls) but we didn’t learn jack about how the missions operated, it was more like Mission-Shop class)
State as follows:
No mask needed if vaccinated
Mask must be worn if unvaccinated
The only place that has asked me for my vaccination papers was my mom’s assisted living home down in LA, otherwise nada!
I’ve been wearing an N95 the past 5 weeks, so by the looks of me i’m unvaccinated, while those who have their reasons for not getting the jab tend to be sans mask.
Its all topsy turvy the approach, but look we were never serious with making our vaccination cards a lot more secure, oh 1920’s technology will do, a thicker paper stock, eh?
A lot of the people around me seem to get anxious when the numbers are going up, but as soon as they start dropping for even a couple of days they’re like “phew, it really is over this time.” I feel like this must be very exhausting for them.
That seemed to be the situation a year ago during those spikes when I walked around Davis Square in Somerville. For some the pandemic ended a year ago, even before vaccines! Places have been packed ever since!
I went to my doctor’s office this week for an annual checkup. A new office nurse took my vitals (even doctors’ offices seem to be having a high number of nurses leaving their jobs). Anyway, as soon as I was in the examining room with the new nurse, she pulled her mask down around her neck. I asked her to put it back on and she just laughed. I was wearing my own N95 mask and kept it on except when she took my temperature. The examining room door was closed, it was very stuffy inside (seemed to be no ventilation at all) and there she was, unmasked, right in my face as she took my temperature. I have been vaccinated. I have no idea if the nurse has been vaccinated. It was a bad experience.
find a new office imo though that is not always easy.
When nearly half the country can’t or won’t get the vaccine and the other half thinks it makes them immune, there’s a certain “whistling past the graveyard” feeling to the current situation.
Or perhaps, “Whistling Past the Graveyard of the Fool’s Paradise.”
Its the 2021 version of the Danse Macabre.
> The local restaurants are packed.
Eat, drink, and be merry….
I can’t remember the last time I was “merry”.
I’m still checking data from various locales searching for outbreaks from outdoor sporting events. It’s hard to spot. I could definitely tell an uptick in Milwaukee a few months ago from the Bucks winning the NBA championship in June, but that was indoors.
College football attracts people from all over, so it’s hard to use one county’s stats for those games although the student sections should be “locally sourced”.
NFL football seems to be a more likely event to see upticks if they’re occurring since more fans are likely local.
If anyone sees any clear evidence from the past few weeks, let me know!
Here in central NY there’s a pretty clear uptick that correlates with the NY state fair where the big attendance numbers were for concerts. The fair started August 20 and ran through Labor Day.
https://covidactnow.org/us/new_york-ny/county/onondaga_county/?s=23051225
Maybe they want to have some fun and get it out of their system before the covid restrictions they fear come back.
how true … these restrictions are terrible for peoples mental health. Increases/spikes were expected, when they started opening up here they said they were conecerned about if those spikes turned into hospitalisations and overwhelming the NHS.
Yeah, because the courtier class thinks they’re safe and when the next outbreak comes it’ll sweep the flyover states clean of the dumb Trump bubbas.
The die hard anit vaxers figure the fix is in anyway and nothing they do matters as the liberal elite have decided to push the button on the great reset.
And everybody else may not know how or why, but they know bone deep that they’ve been lied to and the powers that be have no f**king clue what is happening or how to stop it, and that there is no one coming to save them, just fleece them one more time, so put your head down and try and make it through the best you can.
So everybody “knows” this isn’t over, and everyone knows it’s only going to get worse, it’s just that everyone has either resigned to just hoping to dodge the bullet of one more burden to bare in the rapidly dying, stripped bare empire, or that the powers that be are allowing it to happen, or that their vaccines will magically save them because alot of money and effort and P.R. hours have been spent telling them it’s so, as long as they get their new and improved booster shots only 500 dollars a pop.
So yeah, each group has their reasons to just say f**k it, let it ride. If no one knows what they’re doing and nothing seems to actually stop it, or that this is all part of the plan and I will resist the powers that be and show them, or I’ll be fine because I got my jabs and only the dumb rubes are going to die, everyone’s got a reason to hit the bar, go to the ball game and grab some food on the way home.
well said
>Biden vows to “deal everyone in” as Nobel laureates back economic plan”
That’s the metaphor you want, that everyone gets the chance to gamble their meager resources away.
Walmart update–today everybody was wearing a mask and in Lidl, where you often see refuseniks, one lady had a mask and disposable gloves. When it comes to health, word does get around despite the Dem belief that Republican politicians are telling people to not wear masks.
And re High Country News–there’s an Emilio Estevez movie called The Public where homeless people conduct a sit down in the main library at closing time so they don’t freeze to death overnight in Cincinnati. Needless to say this film is pre Covid. I get the impression our own library homeless presence has diminished considerably (along with everybody else) due to the pandemic.
Is this just a “Dem belief”? When you have State Governors deliberately obstructing and sabotaging efforts to slow the disease spread in schools or anywhere else by banning local health authorities and other health-responsible people from mandating masking for the Typhoid MAGA germspreaders to stop them from destroying the effectiveness of efforts of other mask-users?
Talk about ” personal choice” and ” the Republicans aren’t telling individuals they individually can’t wear masks” is cynical anti-health sophistry, at this point.
Those states, or at least my state, are not telling parents that their children can’t wear a mask. This was discussed at a recent school board meeting here. I’m just sharing some facts which you don’t seem to like and then engage in a personal attack.
The mask mandate question generally was discussed in SC last year The position of the governor was that he had the power to require private businesses to mask up because of state licensing–and he did– but the state constitution did not allow such a demand over individuals in other settings.
So clearly even our Trump ally governor is not some anti mask fanatic. More likely it’s a body of parents who don’t want their children being forced to wear masks for a variety of reasons. You may not agree, but If you think it’s because they don’t care about the health of their children that’s silly.
I wonder if the state-level resistance to pandemic-related recommendations from Federal authorities will extend to resistance to Federal agencies’ recommending against employment of certain off-label therapies.
RE: “[UPDATED] Deyalsingh: No evidence worldwide that covid19 vaccines cause testicular swelling”
I’m so sick of media outlets failing do even minimal research. Five minutes on the VAERS site reveals 14 reports of adverse events involving swollen scrotums related to the mRNA vaccines. If even 1 of those reports are valid, then Minaj is more right than wrong.
But I guess it’s more fun to giggle about the word “balls” and brush off what might be a valid observation.
FFS, didn’t anybody learn anything from all those hundreds (thousands?) of women complaining about disrupted menstrual cycles from the vaccines who turned out to be right?
Has there been any discussion here of swollen breasts after 2nd vaccine?
I’ve heard of swollen purses in Idaho with RN’s pulling down $250 an hour, which could lead to swollen breasts if they are in the market for enlargements.
The reason I bring it up is because I know several women who have that complaint. It makes looking for lumps, post-cancer surgery, quite a challenge. So I did ask in seriousness, though I take your point, Wuk.
VAERS has something like 440 Adverse Event reports involving swollen breasts among mRNA vaccine recipients. Perfect opportunity for some boob jokes, right?
Thank you. I will see if I can figure out the site.
My bad, hadn’t kept abreast of the news.
And you’re right, boob jokes usually go flat when written, its more the milieu of men amusing themselves by spoken word.
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose:) Ok. No Le Brest jokes s’il vous plaît.
That’s too fecund a source of laciviously licentious leitmotifs for this geriatric pseudo-roue.
> Five minutes on the VAERS site
Needs a link. An addition, AFAIK, no quality assurance is performed on VAERS data. Am I wrong?
I am not sure there is anyway to link to a VAERS query once you have left the main page.
You can go to the VAERS site here – https://wonder.cdc.gov/vaers.html
There is no way I can tell to do any linkage after you have started a query – but then again – I am fairly computer illterate.
Unfortunately, it took me weeks and weeks of playing with this before I could ever come up with a correct search. Interestingly, all the time, searching through this leads to different findings. I am sure there are just tweaks or wording issues.
This is a hideously cumbersome system – I think they did it this way on purpose.
I did this same search (see my other comment) and found almost exactly the same findings.
There is no quality assurance – but it is easy to tell that some of these entries are very likely legitimate. Some of the others – who knows?
I just have no clue how to link anything once you have left the front page.
Correct, you can’t link to a search results page. There are two disclaimer check boxes you need to click on to access the search engine in the first place. Copying the URL of the search results page and trying to access it via a link doesn’t work.
As far as quality assurance of the VAERS data, I dunno. What database did Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh access to verify that there were no reports of swollen testicles “anywhere in the world.”?
Whatever he accessed, it was better than VAERS. Or a celebrity’s personal report on issues with her
boyfriend’sfriend’s cousin’s er, waning prowess.Wow.
Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh is either a liar or incompetent. He may be correct that there are no reports of testicular swelling in Trinidad/Tobago (I don’t know, I can’t access their Adverse Event reporting system), but he is foolish to assert that there are also no reports worldwide.
A closer look at the VAERS site reveals there are many reports of testicular swelling and other similar disorders after vaccination. Here are the search terms and results:
Varicocele — 5 reports
Orchitis — 11 reports
Epididymitis — 20 reports
Hydrocele — 9 reports
Testicular swelling — 57 reports
England maintains a robust reporting system. They report events by vaccine manufacturer. A look at the adverse events under the “scrotal and testicular disorders” heading, which includes swelling, yields these results:
Pfizer — 78 scrotal and testicular disorders, including 15 reports of swelling (See page 81)
Moderna — 14 scrotal and testicular disorders, including 3 reports of swelling (See page 42)
Astra Zeneca — 166 scrotal and testicular disorders, including 24 reports of swelling (See page 102)
Would link to it if I could recall the provenance, but earlier today I saw a screenshot of purported-VAERS data showing 47 reported cases of swollen testicles. NOT suggesting this is accurate, however I can’t help but think of how the words / terms “without evidence,” “unsubstantiated,” “baseless,” etc. have been so abused by narrative enforcers in recent years that I now read those descriptors as “nothing to see here, folks” which points back to the credibility of the source.
You can report which boxes you ticked, what search terms you entered, and so on – but like you say, it’s hideously cumbersome.
thanks for sharing this link. I typed in my post-vaccine symptom, nose bleed, just to see how often it appears (I did enter it into VAERS many months ago). 1,811 hits.
Re the VAERS ‘system’, this is from a level headed physician:
“Some of you may remember that I had a severe reaction to the Moderna vaccine. Three episodes of quadriplegia cataplexy, an episode of double vision, and then aphasia, which put me into the NYU stroke ICU for observation overnight.
I put in a VAERS report, and they have assiduously followed up, asking me for more info every 6 weeks.
My case was listed appropriately as cataplexy, and the history given correctly on the VAERS website.
I occasionally check VAERS to see if there are more cataplexy cases, and yesterday I discovered that mine was no longer there. Looking up my permanent VAERS ID, I found I was now described as having syncope, secondary to hypotension.
Everything related to cataplexy and TIA symptoms is removed. Even the ER visit…. It’s terribly upsetting. They ask me every 6 weeks for an update, and then edit the report dishonestly.”
My take away is that the FDA/CDC will never own up to serious side effects from the vax no matter how prevalent.
I suspect the vax lowers the innate immune system (for some amount of time, in some people) — thus the shingles and Bells Palsy that also have been reported.
This is unsettling to say the least and serves as another reason why most conclusions, both positive and negative, drawn from any of the data about every aspect of the virus and the vaccines are suspect.
I assume there is nothing you can do to rectify the misinformation.
Why am I not surprised?
14 VAERS unconfirmed *reports* out of 461+ million US vaccinations given, and no headlines from around the world from the 5 BILLION vaccinations given?
That is not evidence and it is not even a problem worth talking about.
Does potential evidence even matter to you?
it apparently does to the Trinidadian authorities, which is why they investigated it. Assuming one takes their claims in good faith (which, absent a good reason not to, I do)
See my comment above regarding nearly 100 adverse event reports in the U.S. and England involving testicular swelling, not to mention another 200 or so reports involving scrotal and testicular disorders. The Trinidad Health Minister is either lying or incompetent.
I wish the media would stop mindlessly repeating claims from health officials about the vaccines’ safety.
I wish the media would stop mindlessly repeating claims about the vaccine’s dangers.
Don’t think that’s a problem.
It is if you’re one of the unlucky few who get the side effects. Does it matter how many people haven’t had the side effects then ? I’ve never understood an attitude like yours. People amaze me, that we can look at the same thing but see it differently due to our mind.
And you say 14 cases … I never heard of that website until today, even if they had had side effects I’m not sure most people could be bothered with it anyway.
Maybe, but what is the background rate of swollen testicles? Your statement and Delaysingh’s can both be true if the background rate is similar to VAERS rate, within their confidence intervals etc….
If it’s just swollen testicles, who cares?
“The FDA has not authorized or approved ivermectin for prevention or treatment of COVID-19,” equals “do not prescribe.” — Hope is the enemy. If Covid doesn’t kill you, a secondary infection will.
Monoclonal antibodies and the vaccine are almost the same thing, the difference is the vaccine allows your own body to create antibodies as opposed to a lab creating antibody proteins with an intensive use of resources.
> “The FDA has not authorized or approved ivermectin for prevention or treatment of COVID-19,” equals “do not prescribe.”
It does not. A doctor may prescribe Ivermectin for off-label use regardless of the FDA or CDC’s opinion. I don’t know what you mean by secondary infection. The placebo effect (“hope”) doesn’t cause them, so far as I’m concerned.
Here in Oz, our doctors have been forbidden from prescribing the horse-paste to those who want it for protection from the virus or as treatment. I suspect that this was done as part of negotiations with pharma companies as a precondition for importing their vaccines here. We are still importing Remdesivir though so there is that.
https://www.news.com.au/world/coronavirus/australia/australian-gps-banned-from-prescribing-ivermectin-to-covid19-patients/news-story/6291379ada4720568584c7717651f794
I am very sorry to inform you – but you are completely and terminally wrong in your assessment of the FDA approval issue.
Once a drug is approved by the FDA for any use whatsoever – any licensed physician in this country can use that drug for whatever indication he/she may deem doable. This has been this way for decades.
This has never been questioned before either. There are all KINDS of drugs out there in every day use that are not approved for the indications they are being used for. BOTOX, all the hormone blockers for gender transitioning, amiodarone for AFIB, I can go on all day.
If they push this too hard with ivermectin not being allowed to be prescribed – they are going to open up a pharmaceutical wasp nest like nothing ever seen in this country. Just wait till the red states start banning the hormone blockers for gender transition as just one of many many examples.
Biggest example is avastin (anti angiogenesis cancer biologic) used off label for wet macular degeneration instead of Lucentis, fancy MD-specific biologic, which is much more costly and ophthalmologists argue is less good. Millions of regular injections a month and lots of savings.
Even the Australian Therapeutic Goods Admin has weighed in to ban its use except for treatment of parasites:
https://www.tga.gov.au/media-release/risks-importing-ivermectin-treatment-covid-19
Its like two different countries here, doc. We have States that lost control early and now facing 100s of new infections each day – Victoria, NSW and the ACT. And the rest of us, including me in QLD, have zero instances of covid (albeit we’ve had several near misses). This weekend, the AFL grand final, which is normally held in Melbourne, will be played out in Western Australia, whose border is also closed to the covid madness we see down south.
Pressure is on everyone to vaccinate (to save the economy and business, not to save people) and the covid states want us to open the borders to vaccinated people once they achieve the magic figure of 70 or 80 per cent, depending on who you are listening to. Just insanity and I am not sure we can hold out as a non covid paradise for much longer.
Thanks for your input over the past months
Best search for “compassionate use authorization,” among other exemptions for direct approval
Monoclonal antibodies and the vaccine are almost the same thing
Many of the COVID vaccines contain spike protein, or encourage the body to make it, which antibodies don’t. And some blame spike protein for various things.
In related news:
Ivermectin: Australian regulator bans drug as Covid treatment after sharp rise in prescriptions
Ivermectin: Northern Ireland seizures of unproven horse drug used for Covid
The combination of viral mutations and waning immunity, whether from vaccines or infection, could make treatments such as monoclonal antibodies, ivermectin, or something yet to be discovered our the best option for individual survival and the avoidance of civilizational collapse.
And why the hell are those RCTs of ivermectin we’ve heard so much about taking so long?
A suicidal intake of ivermectin was reported in a 19-year-old woman with severe Loa-Lao filariasis. She developed nausea and vomiting, and moderate neurological manifestations including ataxia, reactive mydriasis and hyperreflexia after possibly ingesting 100 times the recommended therapeutic dose (≈400 3-mg ivermectin tablets). She received conventional supportive treatment and could be discharged from hospital on day 4 post-ingestion [Djeunga et al., 2019].
“ivermectin human toxicity cannot be claimed to be a serious cause for concern.”
EXPERT REVIEW REPORT
MEDICAL SAFETY OF IVERMECTIN
Link to Toxicology report (requires email for free PDF download): https://www.medincell.com/ivermectin/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATiX0-2PEr4&t=251s
I can suicide on Tylenol – I can suicide on Advil – I can suicide on Listerine Mouthwash. All are easily available OTC.
A suicide overdose – where bottles of pills may be involved is not even in the same league of issues as a toxic side effect.
Suicidal overdoses are handled completely differently by the authorities.
The TRUTH of the matter is this agent has been in wide distribution over continents for the past 40 years. It has literally been given in billions of doses at this point. It has one of the best safety profiles of any drug in the PDR.
The fact that one patient committed suicide with it – is not evidence of a safety problem with the drug. That is an apples to oranges comparison. I am pretty sure if I took 100 times the recommended dose of pretty much any medication in the PDR I would be dead. By the way, that is not just pharmaceuticals – you can absolutely overdose yourself to death on plain simple tap water.
To amplify: one of my pet peeves is that Tylenol is OTC. That stuff is dangerous, period. 2x the recommended dose is toxic. One of our aides, who worked in nursing homes before she got tired of that under Covid (worse understaffing plus the contagion risk) said that she had had, over the years, quite a few patients who had been taking Tylenol daily for joint pain. Some were for semi-legit reasons, they could not tolerate NSAIDs, others it sounded like a lack of thinking by their MDs. She said they all looked like and had pathological profiles similar to alcoholics, that’s how bad the liver damage was.
She didn’t die. She tried to commit suicide by taking 100 times the recommended dose, but failed.
“She received conventional supportive treatment and could be discharged from hospital on day 4 post-ingestion.”
NYT published correction to IVM poisoning calls. “This article misstated the percentage of recent calls to the Mississippi poison control center related to ivermectin. It was 2 percent, not 70 percent,”
Out of how many millions of people that have taken ivermectin?
See how that works?
“A White House official tells me that Biden will argue that the nation has reached an inflection point — whether or not to perpetuate an economy where the wealthiest taxpayers and biggest corporations play by a set of rules they’ve written for themselves…”
Has Biden forgotten the bankruptcy law he helped write? (I suppose he may have forgotten but surely others have not.)
I would just like to make certain that everyone knows that there are indeed reports in VAERS of testicular swelling after the vaccine. I am able to find about a dozen. I have not searched for adjacent type diagnoses – lymph node swelling, genital pain, etc. All of these dozen or so reports date back long before this whole issue – and some of them have been filled out by physicians. I have also looked for erectile dysfunction. Quite a few hits – but after looking over them, I can not be certain about the provenance. Honestly, there are quite a few, extending back for months. and I just do not have time to read over them. They are there, however.
I am saying this because if you look at the PDR entry on any pharmaceutical used in the USA, you are going to find a laundry list of complications and side effects. This often goes on for 2-3 pages in very small type. They are forced to list every single one.
The VAERS is all we have right now. However, when the PDR entry of this vaccine is finally published, if it is true to form, both testicular swelling and erectile dysfunction should appear in the long list of side effects.
I have no idea what is going on with this young singer. But the fact that these issues exist on VAERS is a problem for all those bashing her today for making stuff up – or her family making stuff up. These issues appear to be rare. RARE IS NOT IMPOSSIBLE. RARE HAPPENS. To wit, I am personally dealing with a patient in the hospital this minute with a condition that happens in America only 1-2 times a year. For whatever reason, the “rare fairies” delivered this patient to my ER yesterday.
I cannot support bashing her given the facts that are available. Patients in my practice have had very strange and almost unique reactions to this vaccine – I have no doubt that this could very well have happened to her family member. Hopefully, he sought medical attention.
Why do media and social media figures feel they have the authority to question anyone else’s medical issues? When did this ever start being something in our discourse? I get it with political figures or Presidential candidates….but a family member of a rock singer in Trinidad? Are there not more important things to talk about on these news shows?
Disparaging others on national media for stating their truths is just inexcusable. Especially coming from St Joy Ann Reid. Look at how fast Ms Minaj destroyed Ms Reid. It is very easy to do when your opponent is a moral zero. I just cannot believe the media in this country. Nor can I believe the Twitter mobs – but more importantly the Twitter corporation censoring her for this kind of thing is very ominous indeed.
As I understand it, VAERS is system of poorly vetted digital submission. In other words, it’s more like 4Chan than the curated NC comments system. To me, it’s not trustworthy.
As for Minaj, she’s a celebrity and can say whatever comes into her head for clicks, especially when it concerns her boyfriend’s sexual function or dysfunction. She also says:
My view is that even at my advanced age, I personally notice and care about the state of my testicles (“No news is good news”). My intuitive sense is that a very large number of men do the same. In other words, if this were a real issue, we would have heard about it long before now, especially because no tests are required. This is even more true, given that liberals are not the only political faction given to fomenting moral panics or motivated reasoning.
As far as erectile dysfunction, I will refrain from n=1 testimony, but this idea is persuasive at the narrative level because of all the other weird vascular stuff Covid does. My impression, however, is that erectile dysfunction has many overlapping causes, which could include being cooped up at home, pandemic stress, etc. This is something that would, I think, take a real RCT to sort out.
I am just saying that we should not just discount the story out of hand. If real – it is very very rare.
Unfortunately – VAERS is the only system we have to monitor vaccine complications. There is another called CISA – but that is just about the same level of problems.
But remember – we were promised over and over again early on in the vaccination program with the EUA that side effects and problems would be vigorously monitored. This system is what is in place to cover those promises.
VAERS and CISA is what we have. I am certain that the FDA very likely has other ways they are monitoring complications – but that is not open to community physicians like myself. This is all we have.
And yes – the testicular issue is very rare – 12 out of millions (even if the 12 is not really 12 but 6) is very rare – but it is there – and as I stated I can tell that some of those reports are put in by physicians. I give those absolute credence.
I have had to look things up on VAERS multiple times this year to see if some strange thing happening to a patient was unique or if there were others, and the N was 3 or 4. Fortunately, the vast majority of my patients did not have any significant problems – and these things resolved. But it can give great comfort to people to know that yes – this has at least been reported.
This is our horribly broken system – and it is what we in clinical medicine are forced to use. That is the way it is.
The UK version of VAERS states reported episodes following AZ vaccination of:
– kosher diet
– job dissatisfaction
– homosexual parent
– food contamination
– water pollution
– homosexuality
– anal sex
– hair dye user
– refusal of vaccination
– tanning
– tattooing
– smoking
It’s a mess. It is also invaluable data on rare side effects but still a mess.
vaers may be poor but it is what we have. and the evidence is that is severely undercounts adverse events. Most vaers reports are by medical personnel. It is a federal crime to falsify.
vaers can however ultimately only be a signal. those signals demand careful scrutiny and study.
never checked my testicles and I don’t enjoy the company of women, so no clue about erectile dysfunction.
You seem incredibly cynical that all those people posting to that site aren’t trustworthy. I think people pick and choose the evidence (anecdote/otherwise) to support their entrenched views. Very few people have the awareness to do it the other way around. You can see this in “debate” all the time. I’m willing to give those pepole the benefit of the doubt, and recording of effects after the vaccine should be as easy to attribute to the vaccine as deaths are to covid, or long covid is to covid. I don’t have the brains to know if the vaccine is safe or not, but I see the absolute hand waving of anything that is contrary to the mainstream view as curious.
you say “… My impression, however, is that erectile dysfunction has many overlapping causes” Couldn’t I swap erectile dysfunction for Covid deaths ?
The Biden admin has gone completely insane! To “reach out” to Minaj to set the record straight etc. it has reached a level of trying to control people that should really be frightening. First the ivermectin insanity with the horse paste and hospitalization lies.
Now they are going to personally contact people to control the narrative. The mask lies, the strange story from Abbott labs CEO with regard to destroying thousands of at home test. The decision to force people to get a vaccine that does not impart immunity, after covering up breakthrough infection. Refusing to let states with high covid cases to give patients monoclonal therapy.
They seem to be systematically taking away everything one could use to mitigate getting the virus or protecting others. All in order to force a shot or shots that will not get us out of the pandemic.
The White House Wants to Talk to Nicki Minaj About Her Cousin’s Friend’s Balls New York Magazine.
Best headline ever, but maybe the White House would do better to reach out to the school superintendants so they’re not wasting their budgets on union guys in moon suits spraying disinfectant to control a respiratory disease that spreads by aerosol transmission.
NOTE I stand corrected. It isn’t Minaj’s boyfriend who suffers from testicular discomfort. I’m so glad we’ve cleared that up.
ADDENDUM “Now don’t say ‘balls’ again.” –Dashiell Hammett, The Thin Man
Here’s the New York Magazine link: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/09/nicki-minaj-will-talk-to-wh-about-cousins-friends-balls.html
Instead of “Russia, Russia, Russia” it’s “Balls, Balls, Balls”.
I’ve concluded that liberal Democrats have a brain disease. It’s hard to fathom otherwise such an irrational, flailing response with little basis in The Science TM.
Many many thanks for your comment. Best.
To repeat my comment from yesterday about the FDA approval and expansions beyond initial regulatory approval of exploratory drugs:
https://www.spin.com/featured/aids-and-the-azt-scandal-spin-1989-feature-sins-of-omission/
My doctor submitted a report to VAERS on testicular swelling. He said that the patient’s testicles swelled to the size of a cantaloupe. He told me this when I called to ask about the vaccines. He was taking ivermectin.
The point is, doctors are definitely submitting reports of these AEs. He also said he was on hold with the CDC for 30 minutes.
On libraries: I use both the Multnomah and Clackamas libraries (as media resources). I find the Clackamas system more congenial as they have a much larger catalog of books and disks instead of e-books and streaming that Multnomah has moved towards. Clackamas also has a large catalog of LGBT media, contradicting the stereotype of a more rural county.
I have added the UPDATEs. Today is a rich collection; we seem to be in an overly dynamic situation. More on ventilation, the latest moral panic on povidone, even RussiaGate (!!).
Here in the AZ, the moral panic is still stuck on horse paste. Or, as this story refers to it, catte drug. Link:
https://tucson.com/news/local/banner-health-dealing-with-arizonans-poisoning-themselves-with-cattle-drug/article_43820b40-1645-11ec-99d6-f7eee11cced2.html
Oops. My bad. I meant to say cattle.
cartel drug works too. not as much cachet though
The photo of the experts ever so pleased at themselves at having washed / sterilised their hands, somehow reminds me of way back at the beginning when certain eminent citizens warned about touching your face, with many of them then promptly doing so – maybe it was a sign of things to come.
I remember fauci using the touching your face or mask could spread decease lie when he was lying about masking. He has been steadfastly telling lies ever since.
Or, as I am fond of saying:
Wash your hands! It’s airborne!
To me it looks like these experts are dealing with this pandemic with “jazz hands”-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BatoXPSA3HQ (25 secs)
This might become the standard pose for photos of any professional group – proof that no one is sexually assaulting anyone at that very moment.
An independent commission draws congressional districts in California so the Democrats can’t be counting on that to offset any R gerrymandering.
The same for Arizona. The 2010 redistricting resulted in the Rs loosing of 4 or 5 US House seats over the last ten years. The Rs weren’t able to change the independent commission makeup – currently 2 Rs, 2 Ds and 1 independent. The new redistricting is commencing. With a new House seat coming, it will be interesting to watch.
Arizona will not get an additional congressional seat this time, they will stay at 9. The current makeup is 5 D’s, 4 R’s. I have some reservations about the commission this time around.
Schools and pandemic: my daughter teaches in the second largest high school in Oregon which just closed today due to coronavirus infections. They plan to open again in a week for in-person learning after making some “adjustments” to combat spread of the virus.
This includes being more diligent about seating charts. No, this isn’t the Onion. The idea being that in a small room with over thirty students and a window that doesn’t open, they will notify those closest to the infected person and that will be good enough.
Students who are vaccinated will not need to quarantine even if exposed. I guess they haven’t heard about the Provincetown event, or any number of documented cases from other countries.
The lack of understanding of how to control this pandemic is stunning. Reminds me of the end of June when the governor lifted most masking requirements, social distancing rules, and capacity limits. We know how that turned out in this state – the largest wave of infections yet.
> The idea being that in a small room with over thirty students and a window that doesn’t open, they will notify those closest to the infected person and that will be good enough.
They don’t seem to understand that aerosols fill a room; that is why Covid-19 has superspreading events. The enormous fustercluck that CDC’s guidance has created… will probably lead to promotions and/or lucrative jobs in the private sector, like Iraq.
Oh be still my beating heart! If only we could ‘export’ the present “Official” Medical Establishment leaders to Irak! Unfortunately, the Irakis would rightly consider that an act of war.
“will probably lead to promotions and/or lucrative jobs in the private sector, like Iraq.”
Hopefully a private sector job IN Iraq….
Italy just put into force a “Green Pass” system (which exists in paper and QR code app forms) where all employees, public and private, must prove either current vaccination or a recent negative test to get a paycheck. The tests will be free for those medically unable to be vaccinated, but will cost €8-15 for all others.
The politics of doing this were done without a lot of political pushback and most of that from the hard right party Lega which is pretty much split down the middle on the issue. The center and left are substantially onboard. A recent series of anti-vaxx anti-mask demonstrations in public piazze were famously a damp squib and few showed up to protest although there have been sporadic small but energetic demonstrations in the past.
Social distancing and masking measures remain similar to that you’d find in a typical blue state: obligatory masking in indoor public spaces and events, restricted capacities, classroom spacing. To dine indoors or go to indoor public spaces, entertainment venues and events has required a Green Pass for several weeks now.
The situation there is improving off the Delta peak a few weeks back, new cases are about one-fourth the peak last winter, hospitalizations, about one-eighth, and deaths, about one-tenth. The government says that if cases continue to fall they will look at relaxing current social distancing regulations.
It is definitely the most aggressive approach being taken in the EU and it will be interesting to compare with other approaches in the EU ranging from softer Green Pass implementations to essentially “let ‘er rip” approaches like Sweden and Denmark.
Mandatory periodic testing is certainly a good thing. If the testing is ubiquitously available everywhere and everywhen. Ideally it would be taxpayer-funded “free to all”. And it would include the vaccinated, in deferrence to the reality that vaccinated people can get and give the disease just like everyone else.
And then quarantining with all expenses paid for the positive testers, and effective contact tracing and traced contact testing.
Lambert, I wish you would add a chart — the chart that used to be on TV every night: total deaths. I remember when it passed 250,000, then up to 400,000, then the stations stopped showing it.
Is anyone compiling a cumulative chart along these lines: total COVID deaths to date?
Your charts show PERCENTAGE of deaths (per million), but not a running total.
Worldometer and 91divoc have US deaths somewhere between 660k and 690k,
If I can find one. Suggestions?
worldmeters [dot] info [forward slash] coronavirus [forward slash]
skynet (?) doesn’t like the direct link I tried to post
Takes a few clicks to get in clean, but the DIVOC has it too…
Direct link to chart here.
Got it that way by doing: additional highlight on US, show “Highlight Only”, data “Total Deaths”
Zooming out like this makes things pretty stark..especially the re-acceleration since August.
excellent. ty.
Their graph of the individual states shows about 22 of the top 25 states voted trump in 2020.
Largest increases in the past week:
New Hampshire
Maine
Rhode Island
New Jersey
Connecticut
Pennsylvania
New York
Vermont
It’s blue states’ turn. Hopefully decent vaccination rates blunt the damage.
A great chart, updated all day and all nations is Roy Labs. It’s here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSDuco7vUnc
Today, now, the US is at 686,781 deaths. There were 59 deaths over the last 9 minutes, in the US.
If you can’t read Bloomberg, the next 6 months article is also on MSN:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/here-e2-80-99s-what-the-next-six-months-of-the-pandemic-will-bring/ar-AAOmGL2
That Bloomberg doesn’t provide free pandemic coverage is kind of astounding and sad.
Thanks. And still no significant emphasis on treatment. John Campbell is quite uncharacteristically upset about the latest directive from the Australian government forbidding doctors, other than certain “specialists” from prescribing Ivermectin to treat Covid-19:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gndsUjgPYo
It’s also sort of predictable. Bloomberg is a Neoliberal Media Outlet. Their philosophy is that “Only the Deserving(TM) Deserve to Survive.” The rest follows ‘organically.’
Oh to live on Flower Mountain
With the barkers and accomplished buffoons
You can get your information
On Flower Mountain
Although the paywall will hit you soon.
I wonder if Mr. Young would do your version in concert?
The article claims that there was some hope that the vaccination would be sterilizing or at least have a similar effect. Was that ever true? I’ve forgotten at this point.
As usual no mention of long COVID is made.
Yours truly is not omniscient but I sure as hell don’t recall seeing anything like that at the time.
We bought an Aranets to check up on CO2 at the university where my wife teaches. Mostly sub 1000, one 1500 reading so far. The 4000 in that tweet should move someone to pull the fire drill lever. The Aranets manual isn’t covid-oriented, but it says >2000 is bad in any case.
What this water cooler is calling outdated handwashing theatre seems more to me like a deliberate plan to spread the disease as far and wide as possible, on purpose. The goal is to get everyone possible infected, and hype-in-public the seemingly recovered, while saying nothing TO the recovered about the multiple organ micro-cell legacy damage they carry. The secret hope is that tens or hundreds of millions of today’s young and middle aged people will die prematurely of all kinds of organ failure with the many-years-delayed link to their coronavid infection covered up and never admitted to.
What else can explain the deliberate and malicious suppression of aerosol knowledge and the deliberate diversionary confusion of hundreds of millions of people with malicious displays of handwashing theater?
In a perfect world, every knowledgeable participant in this conspiracy would be Nuremberg arrested, Nuremberg tried, and if convicted, Nuremberg executed.
One would hope that at least a few thousand of the “Big Conspirators” would be put to death for their role in the deliberate “future-forward” mass murder of hundreds of millions of deliberately-exposed-and-infected coronavid victims.
but tell us, how do you really feel about this?
add to your list the utter refusal to address the new facts: that the fully vaccinated can and do spread covid.
do mandates or passports in any way acknowledge this reality? Nope
I’m afraid I really do feel this way about this. We are all a helpless school of fish caught in a huge Darwin Filter net. Some of us will get through. Perhaps some of us can help others get through.
And yes, mandates and passports become something more to fight about and divert huge numbers of peoples’ attention away from the deliberate prevention of genuine public health measures. Different people are driving that prevention at different levels for different special agendas. But the quiet OverClass OverAgenda ( or UnderAgenda . . . . the UnderAgenda beneath it all . . . if you prefer)
is to entrench and ubiquitize and permanentise the disease to everyone if possible, in order to leave the maximum number of people with legacy cell damage which the OverClass hopes will lead to slow-rolling megadeaths starting a safely two-or-three decades from now.
Am I delusionally paranoid or am I ahead of my time? In two-to-three decades we will begin to find out.
As an old geezer, I think that we will be finding out sooner than that. We are already seeing an uptick in the “departures” of the elderly and frail.
Anyway, I don’t see any of the “Upper Classes” promoting the idea of sharing the wealth with the ‘survivors’ of the Jackpot.
The “Me Generation,” stupid to the core.
Is it a ” Me Generation”? Or is it a ” Me Class ” ? I think it is a ” Me Class” and the Me Generation meme was engineered by the Upper Class Servant Media.
Well, the ethos of a ‘generation’ is determined by the prevailing educational regime. Media can be likened to a hortative ‘educational’ apparat. So, I see a general indifference to the Robber Baron 2 Era archetecture of social relations inculcated in the generality of the populace. No ongoing: big demonstrations, bombing campaigns, big civil disobedience actions, etc. For whatever reasons, the general populace now is quiet, and passive. I credit this to the emergence of a “Me Generation.”
The “Me Class” has always been around. That is in the nature of aristocrats and psychopaths; the two classes often overlap with each other.
Your mention of an Upper Class Servant Media fits that pattern. The servants of an amoral Elite corrupting the minds and morals of the public.
Essentially, the meme of the “Me Generation” has ennervated and ensnared the imaginations of the generality.
I take some comfort in the fact that Revolutions, like the Reaction being instituted today, eventually spin out of control and wreck all and sundry.
Stay safe!
Just some advice-
‘Try to look unimportant. They may be low on ammo.’
It may just be a general feeling of futility and pointlessness. Perhaps the professional meme engineers engineered and disseminated and viralized the Me Generation meme to help in that process.
OWS demonstrators were certainly not modeling mere me-ism. Nor were
Sanders volunteers. What they were taught is the futility of working “within the system”. They may start looking for other methods, or they may redefine “the system” for themselves in ways that the SystemLords have not thought of.
And their methods may be exquisitely legal.
I seem to recall it was Thomas Wolfe who is credited with having coined the term “me generation”. Read an interview with him sometime around the publication of The Bonfire of the Vanities in which this point was noted and Wolfe was asked to opine about the near future. His response was: we’re going to see a celebration of plutocracy.
I expect that we will see the fruition of plan A – “jabs only” this or next year. Lambert has redrawn the black line on the chart of COVID deaths above. The number of increasing deaths is exactly tracking earlier spikes. There are no treatments or public health plans that can counter this. Indeed, the incompetent Biden Administration is now rationing monoclonal antibodies that southern states were using to fight their outbreaks. The neoliberal managerial class has no idea what “United” means.
The half-assed reopening of schools without testing, bubbles, ventilation, air filtration, and at-home education backups is a likely disaster that will impact American working families. The Obama Crew corrupted messaging will ignore all of their future Kabul like SNAFUs. Succession is in the wind. The corporate/state paid politicians cannot – will not admit to being utter failures and what they are bringing forth.
“What else can explain the deliberate and malicious suppression of aerosol knowledge and the deliberate diversionary confusion of hundreds of millions of people with malicious displays of handwashing theater?”
I’m sure there are some of those at the top of our vaunted meritocracy with ill intent who look at the climbing death numbers and smile. Most, however, are at a complete loss about what to do. They’re flailing.
Covid may not be the perfect storm, but it’s pretty close. Our socio-economic system is a marvel of “efficiency,” i.e. it’s maxed for profit, the bulk of which goes to a few billionaires. When you max something to that extent, a lot of other things end up minimized, things like resilience, adaptability, the precautionary principle. There’s a reason (beside perhaps talking his book) that hedge funder Bill Ackman was saying, “It’s all going to zero” back in March, 2020. The choice was to deal properly with the disease and break the system, perhaps permanently, or let ‘er rip. They couldn’t even imagine making a few concessions to the disease by shutting down indoor dining and keeping it shut down. Instead, they implemented bizarre policies like PPP that attempted to freeze everything in place–everybody in the same job!–rather than restructure one “industry.” And whatever they were telling us about fomites and masks were all “noble lies” designed to deal with the problem of the day whether it was a drop in hospitality activity because of Covid fears or a shortage of PPE.
The same is true of climate change. While there are still plenty of desperate fools clinging to fossil fuels and climate denialism, even the route proposed by “progressives” would actually exacerbate the problem in the short term, and the short term is probably all that matters. If we overfill the bathtub by a massive conversion to electric vehicles and the infrastructure required to support them, we’ll overshoot 1.5 degrees and then some with the carbon emissions released by the conversion. The only real solution is not a massive conversion but a massive lowering of consumption, much of which will impact the sacred “middle class.” Our politicians all have nightmares that they’re sitting behind the Resolute Desk (LOL), wearing a sweater and staring into the camera, asking, begging the American public to seriously cut back on driving, flying to Disneyworld, eating out, etc. They all remember Jimmy Carter.
Somewhere around 35% of our country is already mad as hell and unwilling to take it anymore. They want their Maypo, and nobody is going to deny them. Another 50% are going about their business, merrily assuming that the “experts” will get us out of this. What politician is going to take that on?
And thanks to our spreading our cultural and economic poisons around the world, nearly the entire global North is in the same spot as we are. Our Madmen have created a Frankenstein, Homo consumerus, and all they know how to do is nudge and prod them to go shopping. They can’t find the “off” button.
Our Madmen have created a Frankenstein, Homo consumerus, and all they know how to do is nudge and prod them to go shopping. They can’t find the “off” button. Henry Moon Pie
It was popular pressure that led FDR, with expressed reservations, to sign the bill authorizing government guarantees of privately created bank deposits so the madmen may well be us (or at least the Chamber of Commerce?).
I was being too cute. When I use “Madmen,” I’m referring to “Mad Men,” the television series about Madison Avenue admen in the 60s. They’re the ones who have been resolutely programming us to “Buy! Buy!! BUY!!!” since Bernays grasped some of what his uncle was talking about with all that “subconscious,” etc.
if we do not do this, we will melt down into a civil war where the deplorable are blamed for everything, and deplorable will fight against each other even more than now.
the main thrust of these trails and commissions, was not to demonize and make one single person pay, if you pull weeds, you must get to the roots, otherwise the weeds grow right back.
you have to expose the whole rotten group in government, their advisors inside and out side of government, and their financial supporters.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pecora_Commission
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truman_Committee
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_trials
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truth_commission
Libraries:
yeah what I’m getting from this is that they are just about the only public places we have left in our commons. :(
You forget the jails.
Too many of those are privately owned and operated.
The financialization of pain. Fitting.
Some follow up on Evergrande (over 300 billion USD debt!).:
https://wolfstreet.com/2021/09/15/what-a-collapse-of-chinas-evergrande-would-mean/
Michael Pettis linked to this overview of Evergrande’s systemic risk on Twitter:
https://www.reuters.com/business/how-china-evergrandes-debt-troubles-pose-systemic-risk-2021-09-16/
“Covid-busters”:
It does look like they are busting ghosts. In a practical way, they might as well be.
Wondering if they’re planning to open those windows.
A friend became an RN about a decade ago with obstretrics as her profession, and then after a few years got disgruntled from here to maternity and called it quits as she reckoned 4 out of 5 births in the CVBB were to mothers on drugs, unwed mothers, mothers with husbands/boyfriends in jail, etc. She termed them ‘unhappy births’.
Even though she’s rusty, hospitals are hot for her skills not doing delivery though, they’re most interested in those two capitalized letters.
https://www.ttnews.com/articles/diesel-exhaust-fluid-sensor-failures-sideline-thousands-trucks
Listening to a video earlier from Rajiv Malhotra a long time Indian activist, whose guest was one of the team taking the WHO to court – a passionate young lady named Dipali Ohjah. She made a very important point in that the West is forcing it’s official protocol on how to deal with Covid on much of the developed world, who for the most part cannot afford to pay for it, while also depriving them of any alternatives that may save countless lives – vaccine colonialism ?
Something else that I didn’t know was that when the WHO head scientist Soumya Swaminathan tweeted the news that ivermectin could not be used for any other use than in an RCT, for proof she linked to the private company Merck’s statement attacking the drug which contained nothing of any real scientific merit – the tweet was removed after the charges were filed.
I think it’s good to see that India is it seems sticking up for itself at least at the provincial level & can’t help feeling that the West due to it’s attitude & perceived incompetence in dealing with the pandemic & recent geopolitical issues, is increasingly shooting itself in the foot – but I imagine that y’all knew that already.
“Why investing in libraries is a climate justice issue”
This could be an important sleeper story this. When all those workers were forced to stay at home last year, an unexpected side-effect was all those people finally had a chance to re-evaluate their lives and question the treadmill that they were on. And over the past few months we have seen workers revolting by quitting those jobs where bosses wanted to re-institute the old cruelty. Whole stores of workers have just closed up the store and walked away. You would not have seen that happening in 2019 I bet.
So think about all those people seeking refuge from the heat in all those libraries but having to stay relatively quiet. Pretty soon they will get bored, even with their mobiles, and their eyes will fall on all those rows of books just sitting there. Can you imagine the following conversation?
‘Hey, look at this book I have been reading. I thought that is was a biography of one of the Marx Brothers but instead this fella is talking about capitalism and the reason why things are done the way that they are. Real good stuff’
‘That’s nothing. I grabbed this book yesterday because I thought it was about MTV which I grew up on and instead it is about economics. Did you know that the finances of running a country are not like running a household budget as in at all?’
‘Got that beat. I have just been reading this book by a guy called Hudson and it turns out everything that I have believed was total bs and now I am having to re-evaluate everything that I thought was true. And yet I lived through this whole period. Crazy, man. We should compare notes.
“Covid19 vaccines cause testicular swelling”
As long as they’re making up these kinds of stories, if they want to increase vaccinations, the story should’ve been how vaccines are responsible for penis enlargements- that could’ve moved the needle- so to speak…
LOL … I think this got trumped (pun unintended) by COVID19 sometimes causing priapism (via nih.gov).
As part of that AUKUS (pronounced as Orcs?) deal, the US will be setting up a nuclear submarine base in Australia which they will no doubt be using years, if not decades, before Australia takes delivery of their first nuclear submarine. The date mentioned at the moment is 2040. Meanwhile New Zealand was stated that any Aussie nuclear submarines will not be allowed in New Zealand waters which has been a nuclear-free zone since 1984-
https://www.news.com.au/technology/innovation/military/jacinda-ardern-and-new-zealand-ban-any-future-australian-nuclear-submarine/news-story/1469e5e955678beaadbe60bea31fd935
If only NZ could annex the West Island, and have Jacinda appoint Scotty from Marketing to be in charge of some place he couldn’t Wadjemup.
Relative of Yves – ?????
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-17/us-woman-virginia-oliver-still-works-catching-lobsters-at-101/100471260
I hate #RussiaGate with the force of a million suns getting sucked into a black hole … I hope history will be forever unkind to all those in power who peddled it.
UGH!