March 9, 2021

Why is sub-Saharan Africa a cold-spot for covid?

Could genetic diversity have anything to do with it?

"So let’s rephrase our initial question: Could some ‘populations’ more or less susceptible to Covid-19 because of their evolutionary history?

Given the odious racist history of biological beliefs about human differences, this is a fraught question to ask, let alone attempt to answer. Social scientists, for example, emphasize the socially constructed nature of ‘race’, while rejecting as superficial the possible biological basis to observable differences between racial populations. Population geneticists too acknowledge the myriad social factors that lace through the historical concept of race, and its frequent misuse to support odious racial hierarchies; nevertheless, these geneticists also highlight the growing wealth of data that suggests that individuals in pockets of populations, some small and large, are more likely to have certain genotypically based phenotoypes across certain characteristics. Scientists don’t refer to these as ‘racial differences’ but rather call them population-based differences, and they don’t always correlate with popular and often problematic notions of race."

https://geneticliteracyproject.org/2020/03/31/whats-race-got-to-do-with-it-most-of-sub-saharan-africa-emerges-as-coronavirus-cold-spot-which-may-offer-clues-to-finding-covid-19-vaccine/

March 9, 2021

Malaria vs Covid

wonder why the scientific community, ie the pharmaceutical industry, comes up with a covid vaccine in a matter of months.

Take a bow, folks.

But for decades cannot come up with a vaccine to prevent malaria, or at least prevent malaria deaths. (409,000 in 2019).

hmmmm...

December 18, 2020

Congress to receive first batch of Covid-19 vaccines,

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/12/17/capitol-hill-first-coronavirus-vaccine-448008

I think no one who has ever called the vaccine a hoax, or refused to mask, or social distance, should get the vaccine.
If it doesn't exist, why should they get a vaccine.

December 18, 2020

Anthony Fauci: PCR test results are mis-interpreted.

https://twitter.com/jimgris/status/1326518250386063361

December 5, 2020

What is your opinion re Russian covid vaccine?

What I hear on the news (France24 and DW -German news)
is that the vaccine is being rolled out for mass vaccination even tho it is still in clinical trials.

It is theoretically not mandatory, but some people are being pressured to take it.

October 12, 2020

Why does Wisconsin have the worse coronavirus outbreak in the US?

"Right now Wisconsin is battling the worst coronavirus outbreak in America. The question is why. What about Wisconsin is different from, say, the neighboring states of Michigan, Minnesota and Illinois, where the virus isn’t spreading nearly as fast?

The answer, at least in part, is politics: specifically, the brand of cavalier, it-will-go-away politics propagated by President Trump and parroted by lower-level Republicans who seem hell-bent on resisting efforts to sustain social distancing and mask wearing when the spread is still low enough to contain — and in Wisconsin’s case, who continue to resist even after infections spiral out of control. "

https://news.yahoo.com/wisconsin-is-battling-americas-worst-coronavirus-outbreak-and-the-states-broken-politics-is-partially-to-blame-143650745.html

October 12, 2020

Blue Dog-Affiliated Group Runs Ads for Big Pharma

"A nonprofit affiliated with the conservative Blue Dog Coalition of House Democrats is working to boost the reputation of Big Pharma through a series of paid ads it’s running on Facebook.

The group, Center Forward, is currently sponsoring seven news articles and op-eds that give positive coverage to the pharmaceutical industry’s efforts to create COVID-19 treatments and vaccines, according to Facebook Ad Archive. While the articles Center Forward is promoting do not necessarily contain false information, they are in line with messages from the Trump administration and many in the business community who are eager to fully reopen the economy more rapidly than is advised by most epidemiologists."

lol:
“Trust the seeds of hope our scientists have planted working around the clock to develop COVID-19 treatments and vaccines,” one ad reads.


https://readsludge.com/2020/10/09/blue-dog-affiliated-group-runs-ads-for-big-pharma/?fbclid=IwAR3aUrv0MXNP-5uitXK8DALJWyiO95ua03gevFA0s1SbWyvULLlLPdGWnzk

October 4, 2020

I know The Lincoln Project and Repubs for Biden

are not new to anyone here, but I really enjoyed this:
https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2020/05/05/trump-tweet-lincoln-project-ad-ip-vpx.cnn

October 4, 2020

What if drump insists on leaving the hospital, while

the doctors say he is not ready to return to WH?

(not that he was ever 'ready').

I wonder what protocol kicks in.

October 4, 2020

trump's covid: it's a leftist conspiracy

can't put anything past those lefties.

“Trump was fine until the debate, where they set up microphones & podiums for him,” Tesoriero wrote. “Incubation period is usually 2 - 3 days. He tests positive a couple of days after the debate. I put nothing past the left. NOTHING.”

lol- source: q-anon.

https://news.yahoo.com/qanon-trump-getting-covid-good-041358684.html