Last week's posts at Moon of Alabama:
- August 3 – Trump Presses Microsoft, TikTok Into A Deal That Neither Wants – Who Profits From It?
Related:
Announcing the Expansion of the Clean Network to Safeguard America’s Assets – State Department
Statement on the Administration's Executive Order – Tik Toc
CIA Finds ‘No Evidence’ Chinese Government Has Accessed TikTok Data, Report Says – Forbes
TikTok: Logs, Logs, Logs – Elliot Alderson
> As far as we can see, in its current state, TikTok doesn’t have a suspicious behavior and is not exfiltrating unusual data. Getting data about the user device is quite common in the mobile world and we would obtain similar results with Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram and others. <
- August 4 – Beirut Explosion
- August 5 – Beirut Blast Wrap-up
Related:
The Tragic Physics of the Deadly Explosion in Beirut – Rachel Lance / Wired
The Beirut Explosion: Who is responsible? – Elijah Magnier
> The many “conspiracy theories” fail to line up with the facts of this accident. Ignorance, incompetence, favouritism and bureaucracy are the reasons for the loss of so many lives and the destruction of Beirut, a capital where people have not learned to stand together. This is a huge national tragedy. The Lebanese hold property in many foreign countries, west and east. This expresses the lack of a sense of belonging- because this is a country where elected politicians have amassed and stolen all the country’s wealth, where they hoard power, and where they pass it on to their sons. <
Sharmine Narwani @snarwani – 22:24 UTC · Aug 8, 2020
Lebanese protestors today hung cardboard cutouts of Saad Hariri and his allies, but you won't see this because media is only showing pics of Nasrallah, Berri and Aoun being hung. All political leaders were derided equally today. Don't fall for the propaganda, #Lebanon
Amal Saad @amalsaad_lb – 22:46 UTC · 8 Aug 2020
The US and Saudi have once again sought to capitalize on politically engineered tragedies in Lebanon using their local proxies. Legitimate fury about the Beirut blast has been channeled into a sectarian campaign to disarm Hizbullah by interventionists with neo-colonial fantasies
- August 6 – Addicted To Nuclear Weapons – Why U.S. Policies Never Change
Related:
U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper: "[NATO countries must share] the burden so we can all deter Russia and AVOID PEACE in Europe."
- August 7 – The 'Russian Coup' Plot In Belarus Was Faked By Ukraine
Related: Full English translations of the original kp.ru report:
The Arrest of 33 Russians in Minsk Turned Out to Be a Provocation of the Ukrainian Security Services – Stalkerzone
SBU involvement in the incident in Belarus – Putin offers a way out for Lukashenko – Donbass Insider
Putin, Lukashenko discuss detention of Russian nationals in Belarus – TASS
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Other issues:
Civil War of 2020:
America Is About To Feel Like A 3rd World Nation – Ian Welsh
How white radicals hijacked Portland’s protests – Michael Tracey / Unherd
The white liberal is the worst enemy to America, and the worst enemy to the black man. – Malcolm X
Covid-19 research:
SARS-CoV-2 infection fatality risk in a nationwide seroepidemiological study
We used data from a nation-wide seroepidemiological study and two sources of mortality information -deaths among laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases and excess deaths- to estimate the range of IFR, both overall and by age and sex, in Spain. The overall IFR ranged between 1.1% and 1.4% in men and 0.58% to 0.77% in women. The IFR increased sharply after age 50, ranging between 11.6% and 16.4% in men ≥80 years and between 4.6% and 6.5% in women ≥80 years. Our IFR estimates for SARS-CoV-2 are substantially greater than IFR estimators for seasonal influenza, justifying the implementation of special public health measures.
Findings In this cohort study that included 303 patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection isolated in a community treatment center in the Republic of Korea, 110 (36.3%) were asymptomatic at the time of isolation and 21 of these (19.1%) developed symptoms during isolation. The cycle threshold values of reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction for SARS-CoV-2 in asymptomatic patients were similar to those in symptomatic patients.
A Randomized Trial of Hydroxychloroquine as Postexposure Prophylaxis for Covid-19 – NEJM
Results We enrolled 821 asymptomatic participants. Overall, 87.6% of the participants (719 of 821) reported a high-risk exposure to a confirmed Covid-19 contact. The incidence of new illness compatible with Covid-19 did not differ significantly between participants receiving hydroxychloroquine (49 of 414 [11.8%]) and those receiving placebo (58 of 407 [14.3%]); the absolute difference was −2.4 percentage points (95% confidence interval, −7.0 to 2.2; P=0.35). Side effects were more common with hydroxychloroquine than with placebo (40.1% vs. 16.8%), but no serious adverse reactions were reported.
Statement from Yale Faculty on Hydroxychloroquine and its Use in COVID-19
While minority opinions, anecdotal evidence, novel interpretations and challenges to orthodoxies in a field can be important, at some point, the application of the scientific method generating evidence from multiple, well-designed clinical trials and observational studies does matter and should be heard over the noise of conspiracy theories, purported hoaxes, and the views of zealots.
Scientists May Be Using the Wrong Cells to Study Covid-19 – Wired
Dr. Angela Rasmussen @angie_rasmussen – 15:18 UTC · Aug 6, 2020
…
Vero cells don't express TMPRSS2, but do express cathepsin L. These are proteins that can both enable #SARSCoV2 entry. CQ/HCQ blocks cathepsin L, but not TMPRSS2. Human lung cells, which do have TMPRSS2, are still susceptible to infection because CQ has no effect on that pathway.
Now I know this because I'm a virologist and I know all about Vero cells. But as both @profvrr and @paimadhu point out, when non-virologists start working on #COVID19 treatments using only Vero cells because they're convenient, the results can be misleading.
…
Covid-19 economics:
Minimizing Economic Costs for COVID-19 – Yaneer Bar-Yam / NECSI
Coming Next: The Greater Recession – Paul Krugman / NYT
Put it all together and the expiration of emergency aid could produce a 4 percent to 5 percent fall in G.D.P. But wait, there’s more. States and cities are in dire straits and are already planning harsh spending cuts; …
Bear in mind that the coronavirus itself — a shock that came out of the blue, though the United States mishandled it terribly — reduced G.D.P. by “only” around 10 percent. What we’re looking at now may be another shock, a sort of economic second wave, almost as severe in monetary terms as the first.
Boeing 737:
Air India Express plane skids off runway, breaks into two pieces, police say; at least 16 people are dead, dozens injured – AP
This was a Boeing 737-800 NG. To learn why this type is prone to break apart after a hard landing watch the Al-Jazeerah documentation On a wing and a prayer.
Use as open thread …
