Post by mhbruin on Dec 16, 2021 9:19:30 GMT -8
US Vaccine Data - We Have Now Administered 490 Million Shots (Population 333 Million)
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Are You Ready for Some Omicron?
61.1% of population is fully vaccinated. 27.6% of those have been boosted.
So 17% of the population has had 3 doses.
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Clearing Her Record and Clearing Up THE Record
In March 1955, nine months before Rosa Parks defied segregation laws by refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin did exactly the same thing. Eclipsed by Parks, her act of defiance was largely ignored for many years.
Civil rights activist Claudette Colvin, who in 1955 at age 15 refused to give up her seat on a bus for a white person, has had her record expunged.
"My name was cleared," Ms Colvin told CBS News, the BBC's US partner. "I'm no longer a juvenile delinquent at 82."
Ms Colvin was convicted of assaulting a police officer while being arrested in Alabama and put on probation.
After a petition from Ms Colvin, an Alabama judge last month ordered the records to be destroyed.
In March 1955, Ms Colvin sat aboard a crowded city bus in Montgomery with three classmate in the section reserved for black people.
A young white woman boarded and moved towards the back of the bus, hoping to take a seat, Ms Colvin told CBS. At the time, a black person and a white person could not sit in the same row, and all the seats were already taken.
The bus driver asked the four students to move and stand in the aisles. Ms Colvin refused, saying she had paid her fare and that it was her constitutional right to remain where she was.
"I said I could not move because history had me glued to the seat," she said.
In 2018, Ms Colvin told the BBC: "Whenever people ask me: 'Why didn't you get up when the bus driver asked you?' I say it felt as though Harriet Tubman's hands were pushing me down on one shoulder and Sojourner Truth's hands were pushing me down on the other shoulder. I felt inspired by these women because my teacher taught us about them in so much detail."
The bus driver flagged down a traffic patrolman. She faced three charges: disturbing the peace, breaking segregation law and assaulting a police officer. The first two were dropped by the court, but the assault charge stayed.
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Here Comes the Fed! Here Comes the Fed!
The Federal Reserve will cut back its stimulus programme more quickly than planned, as it ratchets up its response to rising inflation.
The US central bank had already announced it was tapering off the monthly support, introduced to bolster the economy during the pandemic.
But on Wednesday officials said the process would be speeded up, suggesting the stimulus will end by March.
The move opens the door to interest rate rises in 2022.
Meanwhile This Turkey Is Screwing Up Turkey
Turkey has cut interest rates again, despite spiralling inflation and a currency crisis.
Its central bank cut its main interest rate by 1%, from 15% to 14%, amid concerted pressure from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for rates to be cut to stimulate the economy.
He believes pushing interest rates lower will help alleviate red-hot inflation. It is a view that runs contrary to conventional economic theory.
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This Will Stop It. Not!
France is tightening Covid restrictions for travelers arriving from the UK, as the government in Paris tries to slow the spread of the Omicron variant.
From Saturday, most travelers who are not French residents or citizens must give a "compelling reason".
Some lorry drivers and students will be able to travel, but Brits visiting relatives are not currently listed.
All arrivals will have to provide a negative Covid test less than 24 hours old and isolate for at least two days.
Confirmed Omicron cases are currently much higher in the UK than in France.
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Faster Than a Speeding Delta. More Powerful Than a Flu Virus. Able to Lead National Boundaries in a Single Case
The omicron variant multiplies 70 times faster in the human bronchial tubes than the initial COVID-19 infection or the delta variant, according to a new study from the University of Hong Kong.
The lightning-fast spread within people may explain why the variant may transmit faster among humans than previous versions, the researchers say. Their study also showed the omicron infection in the lung is significantly lower than the original SARS-CoV-2, which may be an indicator of lower disease severity. The research is currently under peer review for publication.
"By infecting many more people, a very infectious virus may cause more severe disease and death even though the virus itself may be less pathogenic," said Dr. Michael Chan Chi-wai, the study's principal investigator. "Therefore, taken together with our recent studies showing that the omicron variant can partially escape immunity from vaccines and past infection, the overall threat from omicron variant is likely to be very significant."
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Wrong, Wronger, and Wrongerer
Melania Trump is getting in on the latest crypto craze -- NFTs.
The former first lady announced Thursday that she is selling an NFT, or a non-fungible token, titled "Melania's Vision" -- her first public endeavor since leaving office almost one year ago.
The NFT is the first digital art to be sold on her newly launched platform, which will release NFTs regularly and is powered by Parler.
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I Was There in the 60's, and This Makes No Sense to Me
Anthony Back, a physician at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, knows many of his colleagues are hurting.
Over the past 21 months, they’ve weathered waves of infection, vaccine vitriol and hospital furloughs. At times, they’ve been isolated — in gowns, respirators and masks — from suffering patients whom they’ve been powerless to help survive Covid-19.
“The level of uncertainty and personal vulnerability and feeling like maybe you weren’t doing the right thing has really just been off the charts,” Back said. “These are physicians and nurses who experienced so much death firsthand.”
As health care professionals across the U.S. look for ways to deal with the mental and emotional anguish that has been wrought by the pandemic, Back is looking in a new, once-taboo, direction.
In a first-of-its kind clinical trial at the University of Washington, Back’s research team will treat 30 depressed medical professionals with a dose of synthetic psilocybin — a psychedelic drug — to see if the drug, along with psychotherapy, can reduce their mental anguish.
It follows small clinical trials of psilocybin in people with cancer and major depressive disorder that suggested it could help reduce depression and anxiety in these groups. Other research suggested the drug could treat alcohol use disorder.
That medical researchers are turning toward psilocybin to treat colleagues is representative of a growing curiosity and acceptance of the drug among those in the medical establishment.
Maybe Because of My Drug Experiences in the 60's, Very Little Today Makes Sense to Me.
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As Long As We Don't Have a Chocolate or Tequila Shortage, I Am Fine.
In light of the national cream cheese shortage, Kraft is offering customers $20 to bring another dessert to holiday gatherings instead of cheesecake.
Supply chain issues have disrupted United States markets for months, leading to shortages of medical supplies, liquor, athleisure, toys, gasoline and other items, and now cream cheese. In New York, bagel shops are struggling to meet the demand for the condiment, The New York Times reported, as suppliers' inventories run dry.
In response, Kraft, which manufactures Philadelphia Cream Cheese, is offering 18,000 people a $20 reimbursement for buying desserts that don't involve cream cheese this holiday season.
Maybe It's Time for The Chocolate-Tequila Diet", An Instant Best Seller
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The Death Report: COVID Up, Guns Up, Executions Down
States and the federal government carried out 11 executions this year, the fewest since 1988, as support for the death penalty has continued to decline.
That’s according to an annual report on the death penalty released Thursday, which was also sharply critical of the Supreme Court and its role in green-lighting executions.
Three of the death sentences were carried out in January during an unprecedented run of federal executions that ended days before President Donald Trump left office. Annual executions have steadily declined since peaking at 98 in 1999.
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That's One Texas-Sized Can Of Worms That Is Getting Opened
Oregon has a Democratic governor and a legislative super-majority of Democrats all of whom understand climate change to be a major problem. The Oregon legislature likely has the votes to copy the Texas and California strategy exactly, and allow private right of action to sue in Oregon courts and collect $10,000 from any manufacturer of coal burned as fuel that enters the state of Oregon. They could declare coal to be a hazard to air quality and public health. The only coal-fired electrical generation in Oregon ended in October, 2020, and there is no commercial coal mining in the state.
Doesn't the Constitution's Commerce Clause, giving Congress sole power to regulate interstate commerce, make such an Oregon law impossible? Yes, of course, IF it were Oregon law banning coal. Instead this uses the Texas strategy of Constitutional circumvention.
Realistically, this is just a gesture, something to float into the news cycle as a credible threat, given the politics of Oregon. It need only require the governor, some candidate for governor, or some legislator to make a public request of Oregon's Attorney General for an opinion on whether such a law is possible, and to request one be drafted.
Why Only $10,000?
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One Headline Shows What's Wrong With America
From Barron's: "The Omicron Variant Won’t Go Away That Easily. That’s Good News for Vaccine Stocks."
One Bad Headline Deserves Another
"10 Best COVID Stocks To Buy Now"
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They Right Caught Adam Schiff Telling the Truth
The ultra-rightist Federalist website published a ludicrous alleged "exposé" of what they considered a shocking misrepresentation of a text sent to Trump's former chief of staff, Mark Meadows. They introduced this abomination saying that...
"During a hearing Monday night on the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Adam Schiff claimed to have proof that a member of Congress texted former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to instruct former Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.
"Not only did Schiff misrepresent the substance of the text message and its source, he even doctored original text messages, which were obtained and reviewed by The Federalist in their entirety."
The charge of "doctoring" is laughably over the top. What the Federalist is so outraged by is that the quote Adam Schiff read was slightly condensed for relevance and clarity. Here is both the quote as Schiff presented it, followed by the unedited text:
Schiff's quote: "On January 6, 2021, Vice President Mike Pence, as President of the Senate, should call out all electoral votes that he believes are unconstitutional as no electoral votes at all."
The unedited text: "On January 6, 2021, Vice President Mike Pence, as President of the Senate, should call out all the electoral votes that he believes are unconstitutional as no electoral votes at all — in accordance with guidance from founding father Alexander Hamilton and judicial precedence"
Note that the only difference is that Schiff's version didn't include the part about Alexander Hamilton, and it placed a period at the end. None of that changed the context or meaning of the quote. Nevertheless, the Federalist went berserk with charges that Schiff "doctored" the quote with some nefarious intent.
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Here's An Idea. Next Time You Are on a Plane With a Crying Baby, Call Child Protective Services
It's a Horrible Idea, But It's An Idea
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John F Kennedy, Lee Harvey Oswald, and Franco Are All Still Dead
The National Archives on Wednesday made public nearly 1,500 documents related to the U.S. government’s investigation into the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
The disclosure of secret cables, internal memos and other documents satisfies a deadline set in October by President Joe Biden and is in keeping with a federal statute that calls for the government to release records in its possession concerning the Kennedy assassination. Additional documents are expected to be made public next year.
There was no immediate indication that the records contained new revelations that could radically reshape the public’s understanding of the events surrounding the Nov. 22, 1963, assassination of Kennedy in Dallas at the hands of gunman Lee Harvey Oswald.
Why Are Documents About This Still Classified Almost 60 Years Later?
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Afghanistan, Where Men are Men, Women Are Uneducated, and Millions Could Die
The diesel fuel needed to produce oxygen for coronavirus patients has run out. So have supplies of dozens of essential drugs. The staff, unpaid for months, still shows up for work, but they are struggling to make ends meet at home.
This is the plight at the Afghan-Japan Hospital for communicable diseases, the only COVID-19 facility for the more than 4 million people who live in the capital of Kabul. While the coronavirus situation in Afghanistan appears to have improved from a few months ago when cases reached their peak, it is now the hospital itself that needs life support.
Its predicament is a symptom of the crisis in Afghanistan’s health care system, which is on the brink of collapse and able to function only with a lifeline from aid organizations.
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Today's Investment Tip: Don't Buy Land or Houses in Florida and New York City
An Antarctic ice shelf could crack and disintegrate within the next decade, allowing a Florida-sized glacier to slide into the ocean and raising sea levels by feet, scientists warned Wednesday.
A dramatic chain reaction in the ice could occur by 2031, starting with the Thwaites Glacier, said Erin Pettit, a professor at Oregon State University who studies glacier and ice sheet dynamics.
The glacier, a river of flowing ice, is blocked from falling into the sea by the eastern ice shelf, which sits atop an underwater mountain and is disintegrating.
New research Pettit presented to a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in New Orleans suggests the final collapse of the ice shelf may occur "within as little as 5 years" and mark the beginning of the end of the Thwaites Glacier.
The ice at the top of the shelf is newly crisscrossed with cracks that are expanding toward the center of the shelf as quickly as 2 kilometers (1.24 miles) a year, the research found.
Today's Health Tip: Keep Your Kids Out of Bounce Houses When It's Windy
Five children were confirmed dead and four others were left in critical condition following a horrific bouncy castle accident on Thursday in Australia.
The children fell 33 feet from the bouncy castle after a gust of wind swept up the inflatable house. The bouncy castle was at a school function celebrating the end of the year in Australia's island state of Tasmania.
The children who died included two boys and two girls around 10 and 11 years old, according to police Commissioner Darren Hine. Police confirmed a fifth child died later on Thursday in the hospital.
Five other children were being treated, including four in critical condition.
This isn't the first tragedy that's occurred from a jumping castle or bounce house. In May, four children were injured after a bouncy house was lifted by strong winds in Arizona. In 2016, a 7-year-old in England died after sustaining injuries inside blown-away bouncy castle. And back in 2015, a young girl in China died after falling from a bouncy castle that was blown into the air by a strong gust of wind.
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The Appeals Courts Are Now Conducting Experiments With the Lives of Americans
A federal appeals court panel on Wednesday lifted a nationwide ban against President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate for health care workers, instead blocking the requirement in only certain states and creating the potential for patchwork enforcement across the country.
The decision by the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals kept a preliminary injunction in place for 14 states that had collectively sued in federal court in Louisiana. It altered a Nov. 30 ruling by U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty, who originally applied his order nationwide.
A separate preliminary injunction on appeal before the St. Louis-based 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals applies to 10 additional states. That means the vaccine requirement for Medicare and Medicaid providers is blocked by courts in about half states but not in the other half.
“This vaccine rule is an issue of great significance currently being litigated throughout the country. Its ultimate resolution will benefit from ‘the airing of competing views’ in our sister circuits,” the ruling from three 5th Circuit judges said.
"Let's See How Many More Die in Half the States"
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The "I Sent It, But I Didn't Write It" Defense
On January 5, Congressman Jim Jordan sent a text message to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows that argued that the certification of the 2020 election could be blocked by the vice president.
"On January 6, 2021, Vice President Mike Pence, as President of the Senate, should call out all electoral votes that he believes are unconstitutional as no electoral votes at all," the text message read.
Jordan's office confirmed on Wednesday that the text message had come from him, after the House select committee investigating the January 6 assault on the Capitol revealed a portion of the message Monday. But a spokesperson for Jordan said the message shown by the committee was incomplete and had not in fact been written by Jordan, but by Joseph Schmitz, a D.C. lawyer and former Defense Department inspector general.
"Mr. Jordan forwarded the text to Mr. Meadows, and Mr. Meadows certainly knew it was a forward," said Jordan's communications director, Russell Dye.
Is That Like the "I Fired the Gun, But I Didn't Make It" Defense?
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Jim Jordan Was Supposed to Sit on the Committee Investigating Jim Jordan
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CDC doesn't do a good job of reporting around holidays.
200 Million Fully Vaccinated
Doses Administered 7-Day Average | Number of People Receiving 1 or More Doses | Number of People Fully Vaccinated | New Cases 7-Day Average | Deaths 7-Day Average | |
| Dec 16 | 2,043,207 | 240,321,022 | 203,159,327 | ||
| Dec 15 | 1,795,384 | 239,975,167 | 202,748,005 | 119,546 | 1,187 |
| Dec 14 | 1,904,464 | 239,553,956 | 202,504,037 | 117,950 | 1,143 |
| Dec 13 | 1,951,329 | 239,274,656 | 202,246,698 | 117,890 | 1,147 |
| Dec 12 | 1,984,721 | 239,008,166 | 201,975,235 | 116,742 | 1,131 |
| Dec 11 | 2,020,853 | 238,679,707 | 201,688,550 | 116,893 | 1,131 |
| Dec 10 | 1,721,570 | 238,143,066 | 201,279,582 | 118,575 | 1,146 |
| Dec 9 | 1,583,662 | 237,468,725 | 200,717,387 | 118,052 | 1,089 |
| Dec 8 | 1,611,831 | 237,087,380 | 200,400,533 | 118,515 | 1,092 |
| Dec 7 | 1,781,389 | 236,363,835 | 199,687,439 | 117,488 | 1,097 |
| Dec 6 | 1,780,807 | 236,018,871 | 199,313,022 | 117,179 | 1,117 |
| Dec 5 | 2,264,301 | 235,698,738 | 198,962,520 | 103,823 | 1,154 |
| Dec 4 | 2,009,864 | 235,297,964 | 198,592,167 | 105,554 | 1,150 |
| Dec 3 | 1,700,056 | 234,743,864 | 198,211,641 | 106,132 | 1,110 |
| Dec 2 | 1,428,263 | 234,269,053 | 197,838,728 | 96,425 | 975 |
| Dec 1 | 1,116,587 | 233,590,555 | 197,363,116 | 86,412 | 859 |
| Nov 30 | 1,152,647 | 233,207,582 | 197,058,988 | 82,846 | 816 |
| Nov 29 | 937,113 | 232,792,508 | 196,806,194 | 80,178 | 804 |
| Nov 28 | No Data | 72,008 | 719 | ||
| Nov 27 | No Data | 72,139 | 721 | ||
| Nov 26 | No Data | 73,962 | 742 | ||
| Nov 25 | No Data | 82,440 | 887 | ||
| Nov 24 | 898,833 | 231,367,686 | 196,168,756 | 93,931 | 989 |
| Nov 23 | 1,126,545 | 230,669,289 | 195,973,992 | 94,266 | 982 |
| Nov 22 | 1,521,815 | 230,732,565 | 196,398,948 | 93,668 | 1,009 |
| Nov 21 | 1,774,196 | 230,298,744 | 196,284,442 | 91,021 | 985 |
| Nov 20 | 2,136,513 | 229,837,421 | 196,128,496 | 90,823 | 996 |
| Nov 19 | 1,952,717 | 229,291,004 | 195,920,566 | 92,852 | 1,047 |
| Nov 18 | 1,870,564 | 228,570,531 | 195,713,107 | 94,260 | 1,069 |
| Nov 17 | 1,811,047 | 228,175,638 | 195,612,365 | 88,482 | 1,032 |
| Nov 16 | 1,608,906 | 227,691,941 | 195,435,688 | 85,944 | 1,028 |
| Nov 15 | 1,582,519 | 227,133,617 | 195,275,904 | 83,671 | 1,029 |
| Feb 16 | 1,716,311 | 39,670,551 | 15,015,434 | 78,292 |
| At Least One Dose | Fully Vaccinated | % of Vaccinated W/ Boosters | |
| % of Total Population | 72.4% | 61.2% | 28.1% |
| % of Population 12+ | 82.7% | 70.5% | 30.5% |
| % of Population 18+ | 84.7% | 72.3% | 42.2% |
| % of Population 65+ | 95.0% | 87.3% | 52.9% |
Are You Ready for Some Omicron?
61.1% of population is fully vaccinated. 27.6% of those have been boosted.
So 17% of the population has had 3 doses.
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Clearing Her Record and Clearing Up THE Record
In March 1955, nine months before Rosa Parks defied segregation laws by refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin did exactly the same thing. Eclipsed by Parks, her act of defiance was largely ignored for many years.
Civil rights activist Claudette Colvin, who in 1955 at age 15 refused to give up her seat on a bus for a white person, has had her record expunged.
"My name was cleared," Ms Colvin told CBS News, the BBC's US partner. "I'm no longer a juvenile delinquent at 82."
Ms Colvin was convicted of assaulting a police officer while being arrested in Alabama and put on probation.
After a petition from Ms Colvin, an Alabama judge last month ordered the records to be destroyed.
In March 1955, Ms Colvin sat aboard a crowded city bus in Montgomery with three classmate in the section reserved for black people.
A young white woman boarded and moved towards the back of the bus, hoping to take a seat, Ms Colvin told CBS. At the time, a black person and a white person could not sit in the same row, and all the seats were already taken.
The bus driver asked the four students to move and stand in the aisles. Ms Colvin refused, saying she had paid her fare and that it was her constitutional right to remain where she was.
"I said I could not move because history had me glued to the seat," she said.
In 2018, Ms Colvin told the BBC: "Whenever people ask me: 'Why didn't you get up when the bus driver asked you?' I say it felt as though Harriet Tubman's hands were pushing me down on one shoulder and Sojourner Truth's hands were pushing me down on the other shoulder. I felt inspired by these women because my teacher taught us about them in so much detail."
The bus driver flagged down a traffic patrolman. She faced three charges: disturbing the peace, breaking segregation law and assaulting a police officer. The first two were dropped by the court, but the assault charge stayed.
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Here Comes the Fed! Here Comes the Fed!
The Federal Reserve will cut back its stimulus programme more quickly than planned, as it ratchets up its response to rising inflation.
The US central bank had already announced it was tapering off the monthly support, introduced to bolster the economy during the pandemic.
But on Wednesday officials said the process would be speeded up, suggesting the stimulus will end by March.
The move opens the door to interest rate rises in 2022.
Meanwhile This Turkey Is Screwing Up Turkey
Turkey has cut interest rates again, despite spiralling inflation and a currency crisis.
Its central bank cut its main interest rate by 1%, from 15% to 14%, amid concerted pressure from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for rates to be cut to stimulate the economy.
He believes pushing interest rates lower will help alleviate red-hot inflation. It is a view that runs contrary to conventional economic theory.
--------------
This Will Stop It. Not!
France is tightening Covid restrictions for travelers arriving from the UK, as the government in Paris tries to slow the spread of the Omicron variant.
From Saturday, most travelers who are not French residents or citizens must give a "compelling reason".
Some lorry drivers and students will be able to travel, but Brits visiting relatives are not currently listed.
All arrivals will have to provide a negative Covid test less than 24 hours old and isolate for at least two days.
Confirmed Omicron cases are currently much higher in the UK than in France.
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Faster Than a Speeding Delta. More Powerful Than a Flu Virus. Able to Lead National Boundaries in a Single Case
The omicron variant multiplies 70 times faster in the human bronchial tubes than the initial COVID-19 infection or the delta variant, according to a new study from the University of Hong Kong.
The lightning-fast spread within people may explain why the variant may transmit faster among humans than previous versions, the researchers say. Their study also showed the omicron infection in the lung is significantly lower than the original SARS-CoV-2, which may be an indicator of lower disease severity. The research is currently under peer review for publication.
"By infecting many more people, a very infectious virus may cause more severe disease and death even though the virus itself may be less pathogenic," said Dr. Michael Chan Chi-wai, the study's principal investigator. "Therefore, taken together with our recent studies showing that the omicron variant can partially escape immunity from vaccines and past infection, the overall threat from omicron variant is likely to be very significant."
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Wrong, Wronger, and Wrongerer
Melania Trump is getting in on the latest crypto craze -- NFTs.
The former first lady announced Thursday that she is selling an NFT, or a non-fungible token, titled "Melania's Vision" -- her first public endeavor since leaving office almost one year ago.
The NFT is the first digital art to be sold on her newly launched platform, which will release NFTs regularly and is powered by Parler.
--------------
I Was There in the 60's, and This Makes No Sense to Me
Anthony Back, a physician at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, knows many of his colleagues are hurting.
Over the past 21 months, they’ve weathered waves of infection, vaccine vitriol and hospital furloughs. At times, they’ve been isolated — in gowns, respirators and masks — from suffering patients whom they’ve been powerless to help survive Covid-19.
“The level of uncertainty and personal vulnerability and feeling like maybe you weren’t doing the right thing has really just been off the charts,” Back said. “These are physicians and nurses who experienced so much death firsthand.”
As health care professionals across the U.S. look for ways to deal with the mental and emotional anguish that has been wrought by the pandemic, Back is looking in a new, once-taboo, direction.
In a first-of-its kind clinical trial at the University of Washington, Back’s research team will treat 30 depressed medical professionals with a dose of synthetic psilocybin — a psychedelic drug — to see if the drug, along with psychotherapy, can reduce their mental anguish.
It follows small clinical trials of psilocybin in people with cancer and major depressive disorder that suggested it could help reduce depression and anxiety in these groups. Other research suggested the drug could treat alcohol use disorder.
That medical researchers are turning toward psilocybin to treat colleagues is representative of a growing curiosity and acceptance of the drug among those in the medical establishment.
Maybe Because of My Drug Experiences in the 60's, Very Little Today Makes Sense to Me.
--------------
As Long As We Don't Have a Chocolate or Tequila Shortage, I Am Fine.
In light of the national cream cheese shortage, Kraft is offering customers $20 to bring another dessert to holiday gatherings instead of cheesecake.
Supply chain issues have disrupted United States markets for months, leading to shortages of medical supplies, liquor, athleisure, toys, gasoline and other items, and now cream cheese. In New York, bagel shops are struggling to meet the demand for the condiment, The New York Times reported, as suppliers' inventories run dry.
In response, Kraft, which manufactures Philadelphia Cream Cheese, is offering 18,000 people a $20 reimbursement for buying desserts that don't involve cream cheese this holiday season.
Maybe It's Time for The Chocolate-Tequila Diet", An Instant Best Seller
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The Death Report: COVID Up, Guns Up, Executions Down
States and the federal government carried out 11 executions this year, the fewest since 1988, as support for the death penalty has continued to decline.
That’s according to an annual report on the death penalty released Thursday, which was also sharply critical of the Supreme Court and its role in green-lighting executions.
Three of the death sentences were carried out in January during an unprecedented run of federal executions that ended days before President Donald Trump left office. Annual executions have steadily declined since peaking at 98 in 1999.
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That's One Texas-Sized Can Of Worms That Is Getting Opened
Oregon has a Democratic governor and a legislative super-majority of Democrats all of whom understand climate change to be a major problem. The Oregon legislature likely has the votes to copy the Texas and California strategy exactly, and allow private right of action to sue in Oregon courts and collect $10,000 from any manufacturer of coal burned as fuel that enters the state of Oregon. They could declare coal to be a hazard to air quality and public health. The only coal-fired electrical generation in Oregon ended in October, 2020, and there is no commercial coal mining in the state.
Doesn't the Constitution's Commerce Clause, giving Congress sole power to regulate interstate commerce, make such an Oregon law impossible? Yes, of course, IF it were Oregon law banning coal. Instead this uses the Texas strategy of Constitutional circumvention.
Realistically, this is just a gesture, something to float into the news cycle as a credible threat, given the politics of Oregon. It need only require the governor, some candidate for governor, or some legislator to make a public request of Oregon's Attorney General for an opinion on whether such a law is possible, and to request one be drafted.
Why Only $10,000?
--------------
One Headline Shows What's Wrong With America
From Barron's: "The Omicron Variant Won’t Go Away That Easily. That’s Good News for Vaccine Stocks."
One Bad Headline Deserves Another
"10 Best COVID Stocks To Buy Now"
--------------
They Right Caught Adam Schiff Telling the Truth
The ultra-rightist Federalist website published a ludicrous alleged "exposé" of what they considered a shocking misrepresentation of a text sent to Trump's former chief of staff, Mark Meadows. They introduced this abomination saying that...
"During a hearing Monday night on the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Adam Schiff claimed to have proof that a member of Congress texted former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to instruct former Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.
"Not only did Schiff misrepresent the substance of the text message and its source, he even doctored original text messages, which were obtained and reviewed by The Federalist in their entirety."
The charge of "doctoring" is laughably over the top. What the Federalist is so outraged by is that the quote Adam Schiff read was slightly condensed for relevance and clarity. Here is both the quote as Schiff presented it, followed by the unedited text:
Schiff's quote: "On January 6, 2021, Vice President Mike Pence, as President of the Senate, should call out all electoral votes that he believes are unconstitutional as no electoral votes at all."
The unedited text: "On January 6, 2021, Vice President Mike Pence, as President of the Senate, should call out all the electoral votes that he believes are unconstitutional as no electoral votes at all — in accordance with guidance from founding father Alexander Hamilton and judicial precedence"
Note that the only difference is that Schiff's version didn't include the part about Alexander Hamilton, and it placed a period at the end. None of that changed the context or meaning of the quote. Nevertheless, the Federalist went berserk with charges that Schiff "doctored" the quote with some nefarious intent.
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Here's An Idea. Next Time You Are on a Plane With a Crying Baby, Call Child Protective Services
It's a Horrible Idea, But It's An Idea
--------------
John F Kennedy, Lee Harvey Oswald, and Franco Are All Still Dead
The National Archives on Wednesday made public nearly 1,500 documents related to the U.S. government’s investigation into the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
The disclosure of secret cables, internal memos and other documents satisfies a deadline set in October by President Joe Biden and is in keeping with a federal statute that calls for the government to release records in its possession concerning the Kennedy assassination. Additional documents are expected to be made public next year.
There was no immediate indication that the records contained new revelations that could radically reshape the public’s understanding of the events surrounding the Nov. 22, 1963, assassination of Kennedy in Dallas at the hands of gunman Lee Harvey Oswald.
Why Are Documents About This Still Classified Almost 60 Years Later?
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Afghanistan, Where Men are Men, Women Are Uneducated, and Millions Could Die
The diesel fuel needed to produce oxygen for coronavirus patients has run out. So have supplies of dozens of essential drugs. The staff, unpaid for months, still shows up for work, but they are struggling to make ends meet at home.
This is the plight at the Afghan-Japan Hospital for communicable diseases, the only COVID-19 facility for the more than 4 million people who live in the capital of Kabul. While the coronavirus situation in Afghanistan appears to have improved from a few months ago when cases reached their peak, it is now the hospital itself that needs life support.
Its predicament is a symptom of the crisis in Afghanistan’s health care system, which is on the brink of collapse and able to function only with a lifeline from aid organizations.
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Today's Investment Tip: Don't Buy Land or Houses in Florida and New York City
An Antarctic ice shelf could crack and disintegrate within the next decade, allowing a Florida-sized glacier to slide into the ocean and raising sea levels by feet, scientists warned Wednesday.
A dramatic chain reaction in the ice could occur by 2031, starting with the Thwaites Glacier, said Erin Pettit, a professor at Oregon State University who studies glacier and ice sheet dynamics.
The glacier, a river of flowing ice, is blocked from falling into the sea by the eastern ice shelf, which sits atop an underwater mountain and is disintegrating.
New research Pettit presented to a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in New Orleans suggests the final collapse of the ice shelf may occur "within as little as 5 years" and mark the beginning of the end of the Thwaites Glacier.
The ice at the top of the shelf is newly crisscrossed with cracks that are expanding toward the center of the shelf as quickly as 2 kilometers (1.24 miles) a year, the research found.
Today's Health Tip: Keep Your Kids Out of Bounce Houses When It's Windy
Five children were confirmed dead and four others were left in critical condition following a horrific bouncy castle accident on Thursday in Australia.
The children fell 33 feet from the bouncy castle after a gust of wind swept up the inflatable house. The bouncy castle was at a school function celebrating the end of the year in Australia's island state of Tasmania.
The children who died included two boys and two girls around 10 and 11 years old, according to police Commissioner Darren Hine. Police confirmed a fifth child died later on Thursday in the hospital.
Five other children were being treated, including four in critical condition.
This isn't the first tragedy that's occurred from a jumping castle or bounce house. In May, four children were injured after a bouncy house was lifted by strong winds in Arizona. In 2016, a 7-year-old in England died after sustaining injuries inside blown-away bouncy castle. And back in 2015, a young girl in China died after falling from a bouncy castle that was blown into the air by a strong gust of wind.
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The Appeals Courts Are Now Conducting Experiments With the Lives of Americans
A federal appeals court panel on Wednesday lifted a nationwide ban against President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate for health care workers, instead blocking the requirement in only certain states and creating the potential for patchwork enforcement across the country.
The decision by the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals kept a preliminary injunction in place for 14 states that had collectively sued in federal court in Louisiana. It altered a Nov. 30 ruling by U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty, who originally applied his order nationwide.
A separate preliminary injunction on appeal before the St. Louis-based 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals applies to 10 additional states. That means the vaccine requirement for Medicare and Medicaid providers is blocked by courts in about half states but not in the other half.
“This vaccine rule is an issue of great significance currently being litigated throughout the country. Its ultimate resolution will benefit from ‘the airing of competing views’ in our sister circuits,” the ruling from three 5th Circuit judges said.
"Let's See How Many More Die in Half the States"
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The "I Sent It, But I Didn't Write It" Defense
On January 5, Congressman Jim Jordan sent a text message to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows that argued that the certification of the 2020 election could be blocked by the vice president.
"On January 6, 2021, Vice President Mike Pence, as President of the Senate, should call out all electoral votes that he believes are unconstitutional as no electoral votes at all," the text message read.
Jordan's office confirmed on Wednesday that the text message had come from him, after the House select committee investigating the January 6 assault on the Capitol revealed a portion of the message Monday. But a spokesperson for Jordan said the message shown by the committee was incomplete and had not in fact been written by Jordan, but by Joseph Schmitz, a D.C. lawyer and former Defense Department inspector general.
"Mr. Jordan forwarded the text to Mr. Meadows, and Mr. Meadows certainly knew it was a forward," said Jordan's communications director, Russell Dye.
Is That Like the "I Fired the Gun, But I Didn't Make It" Defense?
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Jim Jordan Was Supposed to Sit on the Committee Investigating Jim Jordan
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