Don Tarcisio Colombo would welcome Donald in his confessional ... waiting in line Berlusconi 😂

Hasbara is a dead language

Lots of chat about B.1.640.2 in the last few days - just a few points to keep in mind:
- B.1.640.2 actually predates Omicron
- in all that time there are exactly... 20 sequences (compared to the >120k Omis in less time)
Def not one worth worrying about too much at the mo...

— Tom Peacock (@PeacockFlu) January 3, 2022

BA.2, nicknamed "Omicron's little brother", made its first appearance in France a few weeks ago.

Where does BA.2 come from?
BA.2 was first identified in India and South Africa in late December 2021. It is a sub-variant, believed to have emerged from a mutation of Omicron (officially known as BA.1).... Other sub-lineages have already been referenced[sic], such as BA.3 or BB.2, but they have attracted less attention from epidemiologists.

Is this sub-variant as dangerous as Omicron?
[...]
Why is BA.2 so difficult to trace?
... In the UK, the way the tests are carried out does not allow us to distinguish between BA.2 and Delta," explains [Institute of Ecology and Environmental Sciences Florence] Débarre. There is a more accurate but less commonly used tool for tracking variants: genetic sequencing of the virus. ...But in France, for example, only some of the laboratory tests are randomly subjected to this more in-depth and expensive form of analysis.
[...]
Where is BA.2 most dominant?
The sub-variant has been detected in at least 43 countries on all continents. It is believed to have become the most common variant in a number of countries, including India, Denmark[,] and Sweden
[...]
Is BA.2 evolving as fast in France?  

UK Health Officials Play Down 426 Cases of New Omicron BA.2 Sub-Strain

A total of 426 cases of the so-called BA.2 sub-variant were identified in the UK on Friday, as a portion of the almost 96,000 people registered as testing positive that day alone.
[...]
"As is routine for any new variants under investigation, UKHSA is carrying out laboratory and epidemiological investigations to better understand the characteristics of this variant," the UKHSA said. "We will continue to monitor this situation closely and recommend appropriate public health measures if needed. More detail will be available in UKHSA's regular variant technical briefings."
[...]
While the strain's origin is unknown, it has already accounted for 45 percent of cases in Denmark during the second week of January -- up sharply from 20 percent in the last week of December 2021.

Since mid-November, more than three dozen countries have uploaded nearly 15,000 genetic sequences of BA.2 to GISAID, a global platform for sharing coronavirus data. As of Tuesday morning, 96 of those sequenced cases came from the U.S.
[...]
WHY IS IT HARDER TO DETECT [in the USA]?
The original version of omicron had specific genetic features that allowed health officials to rapidly differentiate it from delta using a certain PCR test because of what's known as "S gene target failure."

BA.2 doesn't have this same genetic quirk. So on the test, [Houston Methodist Hospital pathologist Wesley] Long said, BA.2 looks like delta

The election is an opaque process, involving secret ballots that historically unfold through backroom deals among top lawmakers. Yet political leaders are struggling to strike those deals and convince their party members to get in line.
[...]
Then there's Prime Minister Mario Draghi, whose international gravitas would serve Italy well as president. But inside parliament, where self-interest and expediency may trump lofty ideals, opposition is growing over fears that moving Draghi from prime minister to president could cause the governing coalition to fall apart, leading to early elections. A recent poll of parliamentarians suggested only one in three would be prepared to vote for Draghi. Even the tacit acknowledgment by Draghi that he could become president is impairing the cohesion of the governing majority and its ability to act.

Many intelligence reports in war are contradictory; even more, are false, and most are uncertain.

The pinnacle of Italy's political system, the Quirinale lies somewhere in between France's powerful presidency and the largely ceremonial role of a German head of state. Its significant powers are most apparent in times of political instability - of which Italy has no shortage.

Metsola was elected with 458 votes, followed by Green party candidate Sweden's Alice Kuhnke with 101 votes and leftist Sira Rego from Spain with 57 votes. At the last minute, conservative lawmaker Kosma Złotowski withdrew his candidacy following an agreement with other political groups on the roles of the assembly's vice-Presidents and quaestors, which are also due to be elected during this week's parliamentary session.
[...]
Metsola succeeds Italy's David Sassoli, who passed away last week following complications due to pneumonia he developed in September. Sassoli's health was made precarious by leukaemia, which he suffered since he took over the presidency, but that was only made public after his death.

As a conservative lawmaker from Malta, a country where abortion remains illegal in all cases, Metsola consistently votes against parliamentary resolutions that defend the right to abortion. Her position stands in stark contrast with the majority inside the hemicycle, which advocates pro-choice viewpoints. Last year, the Parliament passed a resolution declaring safe access to abortion as as human right with 378 in favour and 255 against.

For political analyst and journalist Miguel Szymanski, the outcome of the election suggests that "the Socialist Party's strategy that triggered the snap election seems to have worked out fine: the two parties on the left were punished, the main opposition party did not benefit from it as (PSD leader) Rui Rio and the main opposition PSD expected."
[...]
The Chega! (Enough!) populist party launched in April 2019. Six months later it secured 1.25% of the vote and one parliamentary seat. Now, it will become the third biggest party in parliament after securing over 7% of ballots. This could give the party twelve members in parliament.

The CNIL data privacy watchdog said its investigations found that while the U.S. online giants gave French users a single button to immediately accept cookies, there wasn't an equally simple way for them to decline because "several clicks are required to refuse all cookies."

Case in point: Polish lawmakers are almost finished with rules, known as the Freedom Act, that would force Facebook & Co Meta Platforms, Inc. to reinstate deleted posts/pages at the behest of Warsaw. FWIW, that may go against the EU's separate content proposals.

In the opposite direction are Germany and France, where national lawmakers are either planning to tweak existing online hate speech rules (known as NetzDG in Germany) or are about to pass legislation that would impose a so-called duty of care on social media companies to tackle illegal content (like child exploitation or hate speech) and publish regular risk assessments. The U.K., too, is finalizing similar legislation -- including hefty fines and potential jail sentences for wrongdoing.
[...]
It's not just social media where diverging rules are popping up all over Europe. Last August, a new so-called gig-economy law came into force in Spain that made contractor drivers full-time employees (with benefits) at local delivery companies like Uber. Yet in Belgium, a court recently classified the same type of workers as self-employed, making it unclear where Europe, as a whole, stands on this issue. Interestingly, companies tried to sidestep local rules requiring them to provide benefits to contractors.

Radek Sikorski MEP  @radeksikorski

Get this, @RussianEmbassy, once and for all, in a language you can grasp. We were not orphaned by you because you were not our daddy. More of a serial rapist. Which is why you are not missed. And if you try it again, you'll get a kick in the balls.

Radek Sikorski British journalist intelligence agent "from Oxford to Afghanistan" 1987 Stinger missiles

Hasbara is a dead language

He passed away after a "serious complication" related to his immune system.[...?...] In September 2021, during a plenary session of the parliament, the 65-year-old came down with a bad case of pneumonia.

The EMA's head of vaccines strategy, Marco Cavaleri told a media briefing that repeated vaccinations within short intervals would not represent a sustainable long-term strategy.
[...]
"COVID-19 vaccines need to ... elicit immune responses that are broad, strong, and long-lasting in order to reduce the need for successive booster doses," [WHO.int technical group] added. "A vaccination strategy based on repeated booster doses of the original vaccine composition is unlikely to be appropriate or sustainable." The WHO statement stopped short of advocating an omicron-specific vaccine at this stage.

[Pfizer's CEO Albert] Bourla said at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference on Monday that Pfizer is developing an omicron-targeted vaccine, in addition to a shot that includes both the previous vaccine as well the omicron-specific vaccine, or a "hybrid," as he described.

Influenza virus strains were selected based on the influenza vaccine production method; egg-based and cell- or recombinant based. The committee recommended that the quadrivalent formulation of egg-based influenza vaccines for the U.S. 2021-2022 influenza season contain the following:

• an A/Victoria/2570/2019 (H1N1) pdm09-like virus;
  
• an A/Cambodia/e0826360/2020 (H3N2)-like virus;
  
• a B/Washington/02/2019- like virus (B/Victoria lineage);
  
• a B/Phuket/3073/2013-like virus (B/Yamagata lineage).

As countries experience their Omicron wave health systems will be challenged. Most of the severe cases will be unvaccinated people. Once Omicron goes through a country then the rest of the year should see far fewer cases so Covid can be treated more like seasonal flu.

— Bill Gates (@BillGates) January 11, 2022

"We want this in the Charter of Fundamental Rights. We want this in the European strategy for public health," ES Iratxe García Pérez] said, highlighting that access to sexual and reproductive health rights "are vital."

A day before (19 January), Emmanuel Macron himself, speaking before EU's lawmakers, said that the right to abortion should be included in the charter.

"We have the charter of fundamental rights. Twenty years ago, the death penalty was outlawed throughout Europe. So we should use this charter to be more explicit on protecting the environment and recognising the right to abortion," he said.

However, according to Bruno de Witte, professor of European Union law at Maastricht University, "this is not going to happen, and Macron knew this very well."
[...]
"It would seem simple: those three can sit together and change the text," Witte said, but in reality, it would have no legal force unless the EU Treaties are revised.

"Even though some governments start talking about Treaty revision again, it is not likely to happen any time soon, and anyway the procedure for treaty revision gives a veto right to every state - for example, Poland in this case," Witte highlighted.

About half of the approximately 200 cases of AHIs in China, Colombia, Austria, Germany, Australia, India, Vietnam, and other locations have been reported by members of the CIA.

...
The delay in sharing information between the CIA and the State Department was a critical error in managing the emerging crisis.

Those Castro acolytes are just everywhere.

The classified report of 98 pages where 80 pages are redacted or blanked makes brief reading. Jiminy Crickets

Havana Syndrome: The Perfect Disease for a Post-Truth World | Balkan Insight |

In late 2016, the lives of Americans practicing the divergent arts of spycraft and statecraft in Cuba suddenly converged. Both CIA agents and State Department employees reported hearing loud ringing, buzzing, chirping and grinding noises resembling a mass of pulsing cicadas. Those affected immediately began to experience headaches, vertigo, insomnia, tinnitus, balance problems, nausea, hearing loss, cognitive difficulties and other symptoms normally associated with blunt-force head trauma.

Yet, mysteriously, there was no physical contact. By spring 2017 there were more than 80 alleged cases. Their medical diagnosis was akin to a "concussion without a concussion." Shortly after, more than two dozen personnel and family members attached to the Canadian Embassy in Havana began to report similar symptoms, but no noises. The "Havana Syndrome" was born.

By late summer 2021, this Havana Syndrome had made its first appearance in the Balkans and Central Europe, with cases erupting in Serbia, Vienna and Berlin. These outbreaks followed three years of a growing global escalation of similar cases at the US consulate in Guangzhou, China, as well as diplomats, intelligence officers and other US government personnel being afflicted in locations as diverse as Russia, Georgia, Taiwan, Vietnam, India, Colombia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Washington, D.C., near the White House.

The US Congress health act is named: Neurological Attacks Act.

For the common people unexplained illness with symptoms difficult to analyze, the GP and specialists quite easily conclude it is between the ears. Shut case.

I refute the unfounded & slanderous US gov. sanctions against Army Corp Gral Alvaro López Miera and the National Special Brigade.

It should rather apply unto itself the Magnitsky Global Act for systematic repression & police brutality that took the lives of 1021 persons in 2020.

— Bruno Rodríguez P (@BrunoRguezP) July 22, 2021

The interim finding, described to POLITICO by three intelligence officials, does not rule out the possibility that a foreign actor or a sophisticated weapon is behind a specific, smaller number of mysterious incidents that have stumped U.S. officials for more than five years.

Much like the Co-op on the Strand, where staff reportedly bought enough bottles of wine to fill up a suitcase and wheel it back to Downing Street, No.10 has now received a series of scathing and presumably fake reviews online.

One person wrote: "Lovely garden. Great for parties. Plenty [of] room in fridge for wine."

Referencing the photo which was leaked to The Guardian, they added: "Only downside is the creepy guy on the balcony next door - looked like he was taking photos."

Another reviewer gave the venue just one star out of five, calling it a "lively party venue" and especially valuable because "you can have a proper party during Covid lockdowns".

Chances are Trump in '24.

Hasbara is a dead language

You should wear a well-fitting mask around others for 10 days from the date of your last close contact with someone with COVID-19 (the date of last close contact is considered day 0).

• Get tested at least 5 days after you last had close contact with someone with COVID-19.
  
• If you test positive or develop COVID-19 symptoms, isolate from other people and follow recommendations in the Isolation section below.
  
• If you tested positive for COVID-19 with a viral [RT-PCR] test within the previous 90 days and subsequently recovered and remain without COVID-19 symptoms, you do not need to quarantine or get tested after close contact.
  
• You should wear a well-fitting mask around others for 10 days from the date of your last close contact with someone with COVID-19 (the date of last close contact is considered day 0).

"We intend to litigate this question [UNTIL DONALD J. TRUMP IS DEAD]," John Bonifaz, the group's president, told The Hill. "So if a secretary of state does not follow the mandate [ of Section 3, the 14th Amendment, we will bring this matter in court." But some scholars think such lawsuits could face serious hurdles and would likely face a challenge in the Supreme Court.

reference
14th Amdt, § 3
Ex parte Garland, 71 U.S. 333 (1866)

8. The admitted power of Congress to prescribe qualifications for the office of attorney and counselor in the Federal courts cannot be exercised as a means for the infliction of punishment for the past conduct of such officers, against the inhibition of the Constitution.

9. The power of pardon conferred by the Constitution upon the President is unlimited except in cases of impeachment. It extends to every offence known to the law, and may be exercised at any time after its commission, either before legal proceedings are taken or during their pendency, or after conviction and judgment. The power is not subject to legislative control.
[...]
"That hereafter every person elected or appointed to any office of honor or profit under the government of the United States, either in the civil, military, or naval departments of the public service, excepting the President of the United States, shall, before entering upon the duties of such office, take and subscribe the following oath or affirmation:"

"I, A. B., do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I have never voluntarily borne arms against the United States since I have been a citizen thereof; that I have voluntarily given no aid, countenance, counsel, or encouragement to ...

Among those charged for the first time in one new grand jury indictment is Stewart Rhodes, a disbarred attorney alleged to have coordinated the attack on the Capitol who has long been of significant interest to federal prosecutors probing the insurrection by Donald Trump supporters. Rhodes was arrested in Texas Thursday morning, the Justice Department said.
[...]
The nature of the charges themselves cast the Jan. 6 in a far more menacing light. Seditious conspiracy charges are extremely rare. The most recent before the new charges facing the Oath Keepers came in 2010 against nine militia members who plotted a violent assault on federal authorities [AKA "an unidentified member of local law enforcement"].

21A244 Nat. Fed'n of Indep. Bus.(NFIB) v. Dept. of Labor
21A240 Biden v. Missouri
ORAL ARGUMENTS, audio
ORAL ARGUMENTS, transcript

The C-SPAN recorded stream (running time 02:06:09 under continuous cition NFIB v Dept. of Labor and OHIO[!] v Dept. of Labor) every.stinking.telecom delay drove me NUTS.

Notwithstanding a conspicuous absences of "evidence-base" epidemiology and a constitutional question, the dramatic climax of the hearing has to be SCALITO's request for the government to entertain a [KEYWORD:] administrative stay of judgment in order for the court to "digest the arguments before maybe people start losing jobs," ie. when OSHA's dread 9 February employee-paid employer antibody testing MANDATE kicks in, theoretically, regardless of mandatory vaccination as a condition of employment, "economy-wide"[BWAH!].

GENERAL PRELOGAR: I'm not going to say that, Justice Alito. If the Court believes that it needs a brief administrative stay, then, of course, it can enter it.
JUSTICE KAGAN: But you mean "brief," don't you?
GENERAL PRELOGAR: Yes. We think that there are lives being lost every day.
CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS: Well, brief compared --
JUSTICE BREYER: I thought 750 --
CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS: I'm sorry. Brief compared to what? The months that it --excuse me -- the months that it hasn't been in effect since November, whatever it is, when the courts have been active in this area, or brief -- brief compared to what?
[...]
JUSTICE SOTOMAYOR: So the need for an administrative stay, if we're talking about a few days, is really small, if -- very small, correct?
GENERAL PRELOGAR: I certainly myself do not think an administrative stay would be warranted here, but I of course defer to the Court on that.

interested parties...

JUSTICE ALITO: All right. So it's different in that respect. And here's another respect in which it may be different. And I don't want to be misunderstood in making this point because I'm not saying the vaccines are unsafe. The FDA has approved them. It's found that they're safe. It says that the benefits greatly outweigh the risks. I'm not contesting that in any way. I don't want to be misunderstood. I'm sure I will be misunderstood. I just want to emphasize I'm  not making that point.
But is it not the case that this -- these vaccines and every other vaccine of which I'm aware and many other medications have benefits and they also have risks and that some people who are vaccinated and some people who take medication that is highly beneficial will suffer adverse consequences? Is that not true of these vaccines? And if that is -- is that true?
GENERAL PRELOGAR: That can be true, but, of course, there is far, far greater riskfrom being --
JUSTICE ALITO: But there are --
GENERAL PRELOGAR: -- unvaccinated --
JUSTICE ALITO: -- there is -- there
GENERAL PRELOGAR: -- by orders of magnitude.
JUSTICE ALITO: Right. There is some risk, do you dispute that?

JUSTICE SOTOMAYOR: Counsel, if I might just go back to Justice Alito's question, there's no vaccine mandate here, correct?
[US SOLICITOR] GENERAL PRELOGAR: That's correct.

"Agencies continue to move forward with the process, including taking progressive disciplinary measures as necessary," an OMB spokesperson told The Hill. The COVID-19 vaccine mandate for federal workers is a cornerstone of Biden's coronavirus response. The deadline for federal workers to comply with the mandate was Nov. 24, when 92 percent of the 3.5 million employees working for the federal government had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccination.

JUSTICE ALITO: ... Does the federal government object to our taking a couple of days maybe to think about this, to digest the arguments before people start losing jobs?

Throne of Lies BULLETIN ...
Blinken sets limits on U.S. talks with Russia

"I don't think we'll see any breakthrough in the coming week," Blinken said.

Supreme Court blocks federal mandate for private workers to vaccinate or test

While no judge signed the decision granting a stay of the mandate from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito joined a concurring opinion from Justice Neil Gorsuch. Justice Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor took the rare step meanwhile of co-signing a dissent that labels Covid-19 "a menace in work settings."
[...]
Skewering the majority's focus on OSHA's power to address a disease outside the workplace

Like this?
JUSTICE GORSUCH re: EO 14043 ... And so the question in my mind really turns a lot on the major questions doctrine in this case. Is this one that has been given to the agencies to decide or one that Congress has to make as a major question under our federal system? And I haven't heard a lot of discussion about that.

The Solicitor General says that the major questions issue only comes into play when a statute's ambiguous, and I'd like to give you an opportunity to explain your view. ...
Or like this?
JUSTICE BARRETT re: EO 14042 ... This was an omnibus rule, and even though the Secretary, in a chart, identified all these, you know, specific provisions, we don't really have before us the structural and textual arguments directed at each of these provisions. So what if I think some do and some don't? In an omnibus rule, what am I supposed to do? ...

Breyer, Kagan and Sotomayor emphasized that there is no dispute that Covid-19 poses a GRAVE DANGER and that a vaccination policy is necessary to thwart the harms it causes. They argue that nothing in OSHA's charge from Congress supports the majority decision.
[...]
"Although Congress has indisputably given OSHA the power to regulate occupational dangers, it has not given that agency the power to regulate public health more broadly," the ruling states. "Requiring the vaccination of 84 million Americans, selected simply because they work for employers with more than 100 employees, certainly falls in the latter category."

SCOTUS blocks Biden's workplace vaccine rule [BWAH!]

The high court's action allowing the health care worker rule[sic] to proceed garnered a narrow five-justice majority formed by the court's three Democratic appointees and, two Republican-appointed jurists Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

Both decisions hinged on the authority of federal regulators. The majority ruled that OSHA -- which is part of the Labor Department -- appeared to have exceeded the authority it was given by Congress, but not the Department of Health and Human Services in the ["]health care worker case["].

The court's action on the ["]business mandate["] punts that issue back to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The challenges posed by a global pandemic do not allow a
federal agency to exercise power that Congress has not conferred upon it. At the same time, such unprecedented circumstances provide no grounds for limiting the exercise of authorities the agency has long been recognized to have. Because the latter principle governs in these cases, the applications for a stay presented to JUSTICE ALITO and JUSTICE KAVANAUGH and by them referred to the Court are granted. The District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri's November 29, 2021, order granting a preliminary injunction is stayed pending disposition of the Government's appeal in the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit and the disposition of the Government's petition for a writ of certiorari, if such writ is timely sought. The District Court for the Western District of Louisiana's November 30, 2021, order granting a preliminary injunction is stayed pending disposition of the Government's appeal in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and the disposition of the Government's petition for a writ of certiorari, if such writ is timely sought...

There's a new plan to fix Millennium Tower's sinking and tilting -- with fewer piles than expected

Engineers are proposing a new fix for the sinking, tilting Millennium Tower that they hope will avoid exacerbating the building's settlement like during prior efforts.

The plan calls for installing 18 piles to relieve weight from the foundation, far fewer than an earlier plan that called for 52, which was paused after the 60-story tower sank further during the summer.

Through mediation with all the parties, a global settlement has been reached, including this class action. Liability is disputed by the Settling Parties, and no Court decision has been made on the merits. This Settlement is a part of the resolution of all of these lawsuits.

Maryland is not even a "blue state." It's a DINO (or "purple," as in aubergine) state. It's the home of Agnew, Friedman, Pelosi, Steny The Ankle-biter, and Ben "Crush BDS" Cardin. The state legislature and congressional delegation, tho' dominated by Reagan-Democrats of every "race or ethnicity", has never--and I mean since John Adams toured it's boundaries and bay--been capable of committing to a "progressive" political agenda. That's why Tubman and Douglass, for instance, fled to NY state. These days, the no-low tax or spending culture in the "Capitol Corridor" and its proximity to congress still attract corporate opportunists.

GONZALES POLL: At 74%, Maglev Hogan is most popular governor over the past 60 years.
archived WHAT REPUBLICANS?!

Plenty in the news about the pilgrims, Leiden, medicine and Hortus Botanicus, Plymouth, the Speedwell and Mayflower.

The Pilgrims Before Plymouth 1609-1620 | Smithsonian |

... one of the pre-eminent authorities on the Pilgrims, cites a 1645 proposal by the Plymouth Colony leaders that Jews, Catholics, Unitarians and many other sects be accepted in the Plymouth Colony.

Hasbara is a dead language

Akram had demanded the release of Aafia Siddiqui, an American-educated Pakistani neuroscientist who is accused of helping terrorists and is currently imprisoned in Texas for attempting to murder a U.S. soldier.

In 2020, there were roughly 1.5 million tuberculosis deaths worldwide, representing the first year-over-year increase in tuberculosis deaths since 2005 (see figure).2 Other negative pandemic-related effects include a 15% reduction in the number of people treated for drug-resistant tuberculosis, a 21% decrease in people receiving preventive treatment for tuberculosis infection, and a decrease (from $5.8 billion to $5.3 billion) in global tuberculosis spending between 2019 and 2020.
[...]
Without an effective tuberculosis vaccine for adults, treatment is the primary form of disease control. Because so many tuberculosis cases have been missed during the past 2 years, increased transmission is expected. WHO modeling suggests that the pandemic's effects on tuberculosis incidence and mortality in 2020 will be exacerbated in 2021 and beyond, in some cases throughout all 16 countries that were considered.

One of the studies found that 2.5 billion people - around 86% of people living in urban areas worldwide - are exposed to unhealthy particulate matter levels. This resulted in 1.8 million excess deaths in cities globally in 2019.

Another study found that nearly 2 million asthma cases among children around the world were linked to traffic-related nitrogen dioxide (NO2) air pollution, with two in three occurring in cities.
[...]
Between 1990 and 2019, the number of premature deaths attributable to air pollution in the European Union's member states has decreased from around 1 million per year to approximately 350,000 per year

What is it with you people and fixation to linear models of evolutionary DOMINATION?

the study, which has not been peer-reviewed, looked at infectivity[sic] from the Alpha and Delta variants of concern, and was carried out before Omicron was dominant.

Using a Bayesian hierarchical statistical model,5 we compared SARS-CoV-2 viral dynamics among 36 participants who were infected with the B.1.1.7 (alpha) variant, 36 participants with the B.1.617.2 (delta) variant, and 41 participants with a variant that was not of current interest or concern, along with 37 vaccinated and 136 unvaccinated participants. We found no meaningful difference in the mean peak viral load (with a lower peak cycle threshold [Ct] indicating a higher viral load), proliferation duration, clearance duration, or duration of acute infection of either the alpha or the delta variant as compared with variants not of interest or concern, as evidenced by overlapping 95% credible intervals (Figure 1A, 1B, and 1C, Table S2, and Fig. S1). We also found no meaningful difference in the mean peak viral load or proliferation duration between vaccinated and unvaccinated participants (Figure 1D and 1E, Table S2, and Fig. S2).

Previously, Kazakhstan asked other member states of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) to send their peacekeepers due to violent protests in Almaty and unrest across the country.

DW: How could a small uprise against fuel prices get this serious? What's the background to all this?
EXPERT: Well, there's been simmering tensions out there for quite some time. There's a YUGE disparity of wealth in that country. ...

According to [Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart] Tokayev, at least 20,000 gunmen attacked Almaty.

He said that the armed rioters were trained and coordinated by one centre and that the terrorists will be eliminated if they refuse to surrender.
[...]
Tokayev thanked Russian President Vladimir Putin for the prompt response to his appeal regarding peacekeepers and stressed that the CSTO forces ["peacekeepers"] would only be in the country for a short time.

Additionally, he stressed that the authorities noticed the demands made by peaceful protesters[?!] before the riots[!] ignited, and announced reforms[!], saying he will deliver a speech in the nation's parliament on 11 January, regarding the current crisis.

According to African business leader Strive Masiyiwa, Africa has been deliberately sold short. In the early days of the COVID outbreak, he was appointed by the African Union to help procure vaccines.
[...]
"COVAX has delivered only a fraction of the doses it was supposed to. The people who bought the vaccines and those who sold them knew there would be nothing for us. We had money, we were willing to pay in cash upfront and they told us that all capacity for 2021 had been sold". He concludes, therefore, that Africa must build its own vaccine production infrastructure. That's already happening with at least a dozen production centres set up or in the pipeline across six African countries.

Companies like the UAE-based G42 has developed a vaccine called Hayat-Vax in partnership with Sinopharm. ... Elsewhere, vaccine manufacture is starting up, or due to be in Algeria, Egypt, Senegal and Morocco. The Egyptian government hopes their facility will produce a billion doses a year, whereas Senegal is seeing a $200m manufacturing facility built in partnership with the Pasteur Foundation.

Moderna hopes to market a combined booster vaccination for COVID-19, influenza and RSV -- a common respiratory virus -- as soon as the fall of 2023, CEO Stéphane Bancel said Monday. ... "Our goal is to be able to have a single annual booster so that we don't have compliance issues where people don't want to get two to three shots a winter," said Bancel.
[...]
Bancel told investors last September that Moderna was working on a booster shot that would combine its mRNA vaccine for COVID-19, a vaccine it is developing against influenza and possibly a dose to treat respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV.

The COVID booster is currently in phase three trials, he told the panel discussion, while the flu vaccine under development -- which also uses mRNA technology -- should progress from phase two to three trials in the second quarter. Investors sold off Moderna shares after an update in December showed that it generated antibody levels against all four strains of the influenza virus in an early-stage study that were not as robust in older people as an existing flu jab from Sanofi.

To mark the occasion, Macron took to Twitter in a Steve Jobs-style turtleneck, crowing that French start-ups "change the lives of French people, create hundreds of thousands of jobs across France and are what make us sovereign!"

The investment will initially involve the production of active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) for paxlovid at a plant run by French pharmaceutical group Novasep, Pfizer said, noting that additional Novasep facilities will be added next year.

"Novasep will produce API for use in our manufacturing network, expected to contribute to the over[ ] all (global) effort to produce 120 million courses of treatment in 2022," it added.
[...]
Novasep confirmed the production schedule adding that technical transfer, on-site development and equipment installation activities at the Mourenx plant will begin immediately, with the company planning to recruit more than 40 ADDITIONAL EMPLOYEES!! there.

this is the key takeaway from the latest analysis by Italy's National Institute for Infectious Diseases Lazzaro Spallanzani, Russia's Gamaleya Research Centre for Epidemiology and Microbiology[,] and Moscow State Sechenov Medical University.

The draft also seeks to declare Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism and "Russian-backed" forces in Donbass as terrorists, The Washington Post's report says.

reference
Lapa et al., "Retention of Neutralizing response against SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant in Sputnik V vaccinated individuals"

Putin Accountability Act, draft sanctions

The Medicines Patent Pool said the deals would allow drug companies to make both the raw active ingredients for molnupiravir and the finished product dosage itself.

Molnupiravir, developed by Merck[-]Ridgeback Therapeutics, has been reported to cut the hospitalization rate in half among patients with early signs of COVID-19. Britain, the European Union and the U.S. authorized its use in recent months.
[...]
The group said 27 generic drug manufacturers in 11 countries, including Bangladesh, China, Egypt, Vietnam, Kenya[,] and South Africa, would soon start producing [molnupiravir].

a flurry of regulatory, testing and logistical issues is complicating the rollout, potentially requiring people with symptoms to make multiple stops at doctors' offices or testing sites within the five-day window when the drugs are recommended.
[...]
Trials have shown [m]olnupiravir is the less effective of the two and is not recommended for pregnant people or children because of possible side effects. Paxlovid™ interacts with a host of blood pressure, cholesterol and other widely used drugs [DDIs], meaning patients may have to suspend taking those medications [WTAF].

The requirements also could wind up sending Covid-positive individuals into several public places. One state Nomi Health's Newman works with had planned to replicate its Covid vaccine drive by making Paxlovid™ available in grocery store pharmacies -- until officials realized that none of those locations has a drive-through option to allow Covid patients to stay outside.

"The whole distribution architecture of this is crazy," Newman said.

Pharmacy groups say one way to mitigate that issue would be to give pharmacists prescribing authority for the antivirals, just like they can administer [but not prescribe; that's FDA's "role"] Covid-19 vaccines under the PREP Act. That would, however, fall outside the "traditional" categories of prescribers the FDA stipulated in its authorization -- physicians, physician assistants and advanced practice registered nurses who are licensed by states to dole out anti-infective[sic] drugs.

"You've got a lot of physicians who don't know these drugs yet, don't know how to prescribe them

and so pharmacists are spending a lot of time educating the physicians on it," he said. "And the bottom line is, the problem that this has created is that the payers[medical insurers who do have beneficiaries' medical histories] are just viewing pharmacies as dispensers."

The ["]nature of the drugs["] requires pharmacists to extensively review patients' medical histories [FALSE] and medication regimens to ensure the pill they're prescribed is the best option for them.

"I thought this drug was made for people that couldn't get vaccinated in the first place," Newman said. "How many people in America take a statin?"

The pharmacists' frustration is compounded by the fact they say they're getting paltry reimbursement rates of $1 or less ["]advising["] patients [to read manufacturers' ADR disclosures] on the antivirals [packaging].

"How many pharmacies are going to continue to even partner with the state health departments?" said Rebecca Snead, executive vice president and CEO of the National Alliance of State Pharmacy Associations. "They want to serve their communities [O RLY?], but they're losing a tremendous amount of money."

licensed protease inhibitor
Pfizer: Paxlovid™

FDA Rescinds Authorization For Covid Antibody Treatments By Regeneron, Eli Lilly

those treatments proved ineffective against the omicron variant, over a month after some hospitals voluntarily decided to stop offering the drugs.

Because Regeneron's REGEN-COV treatment and Eli Lilly's bamlanivimab and etesevimab treatment are "highly unlikely to be active against the omicron variant," which currently accounts for 99.5% of cases, they are no longer authorized by the FDA, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research director Dr. Patrizia Cavazzoni said in a statement. [...]The announcement came less than a month after the FDA's December 23 decision to temporarily pause distribution of Regeneron's and Eli Lilly's treatments due to their ineffectiveness.
[...]
Sotrovimab, a monoclonal antibody treatment produced by GlaxoSmithKline and Vir Biotechnology, appears to still work against omicron, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. However, hospitals in New York, Maine, Texas and other states have struggled to maintain supplies of sotrovimab. In December 2021, the White House announced plans to ship about 300,000 sotrovimab doses to state and territorial health departments in January.

Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo and DeSantis have contended the delta variant still exists in the state, and have said they disagree that the antibody treatments are not effective against omicron.

For the week ending Jan. 23, states received nearly 100,000 combined doses of Regeneron's treatment and Eli Lilly's treatment, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

The Pfizer/BioNTech trial could deliver data that regulators can review as early as the second quarter, according to source familiar with the matter -- a timeline that would rule in the possibility of administering fresh doses to the elderly and vulnerable before the coming winter, when respiratory viruses spread faster.
[...]
Some have warned however against vaccines that target a single variant, suggesting a multivalent approach may provide better protection against future unknown variants.

The study will evaluate up to 1,420 participants across the three cohorts:

Cohort #1 (n = 615): Received two doses of the current Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine 90-180 days prior to enrollment; in the study, participants will receive one or two doses of the Omicron-based vaccine
Cohort #2 (n = 600): Received three doses of the current Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine 90-180 days prior to enrollment; in the study, participants will receive one dose of the current Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine or the Omicron-based vaccine
Cohort #3 (n=205): Vaccine-naïve participants will receive three doses of the Omicron-based vaccine

Individuals should not get the vaccine if they:
[...]
Individuals should tell the vaccination provider about all of their medical conditions, including if they:
[...]
The vaccine may not protect everyone.

Side effects reported with the vaccine include:
[...]

Try to act surprised.

Friday morning in the US was marked with the cancellation of more than 2,300 flights, with northeastern schools and workplaces being shuttered due to blizzards. According to AccuWeather.com, the Northeast snowstorm could evolve into the winter season's first "bomb cyclone."

Need a diary to discuss the book. Must I do it myself?

_{It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II}

Methodological Notes ...

Xi Jinping Warns That China's Coronavirus Outbreak Must Be Taken Seriously

Chinese President Xi Jinping said Monday that it's "extremely crucial" to take every possible measure to combat a new coronavirus that has infected 217 people in the country.

His remarks, cited by state broadcaster CCTV, came the same day that the country reported a sharp rise in the number of people infected by the novel form of viral pneumonia, including the first cases in the capital.

"The recent outbreak of novel coronavirus pneumonia in Wuhan and other places must be taken seriously," Xi said, according to CCTV. "Party committees, governments, and relevant departments at all levels should put people's lives and health first."

And on Feb 3

Xinhua Headlines: China penalizes derelict officials in coronavirus fight

The discipline inspection authorities in China have strengthened supervision and taken strict measures to deal with unqualified and derelict officials during the prevention and control of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV).

Compare to on Feb 28:

Trump calls coronavirus Democrats' 'new hoax'

President Donald Trump accused Democrats of "politicizing" the deadly coronavirus during a campaign rally here on Friday, claiming that the outbreak is "their new hoax" as he continued to downplay the risk in the U.S.

5  Conclusions

China stands nearly alone in having successfully implemented and sustained, for nearly two years, a zero-COVID policy. Although this is being tested by the omicron variant, it is very likely to be sustained, in part because the capability exists to do so, but largely because it is hard to imagine decision makers in China deciding that the alternative -- conditions in the EU, the United States, and elsewhere -- are preferable.

It is, rather, societies and leaders outside China that could benefit from China's example. This is not only because China has suffered far less illness and loss of life, and done much better economically, during the pandemic. In addition, and critically, had the world possessed the capacity and political will to employ a zero-COVID strategy like China's, there would probably be no omicron variant today, and COVID would not continue to ravage human societies. The inability or unwillingness of most other nations to adopt a zero-COVID policy has had far-reaching consequences, but these have been limited by COVID's relatively low case fatality rate (CFR) as well as by the development of vaccines and, soon, anti-viral drugs. A future pandemic could be worse.

So in 1654 it was more about Ruthenian lower gentry seeking protection from Russia against Poland from which they had carved their domain.

It just reminds us that without Russia there would be no Ukraine, is all ;-)

On another issue, I see that a reader named "blues" who seems to have a background in medicine given his older post is now suggesting that IVM will be kept for the happy few. And he confirmed my thought a year ago that intensive use of anything would lead to its non efficiency (but that still does not excuse the fact we don't even try to use it in small doses at population levels)
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/01/the-moa-week-in-review-ot-2022-005.html?cid=6a00d8341c640e53ef 0278806620ae200d#comment-6a00d8341c640e53ef0278806620ae200d

While seasonal influenza (flu) viruses are detected year-round in the United States, flu viruses are most common during the fall and winter. The exact timing and duration of flu seasons varies, but influenza activity often begins to increase in October. Most of the time flu activity peaks between December and February, although significant activity can last as late as May.
[...]
CDC collects, compiles, and analyzes information on influenza activity year-round in the United States and produces FluView, a weekly surveillance report, and FluView Interactive, which allows for more in-depth exploration of influenza surveillance data. The Weekly U.S. Influenza Summary Update is updated weekly year-round.

Seasonal influenza activity in the United States declined slightly this week but remains elevated and is expected to continue for several weeks. The amount of activity varies by region.