News & views not related to the wars In Ukraine and Palestine …
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July 6, 2024
Open (Neither Ukraine Nor Palestine) Thread 2024-158
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persiflo @ 292
That’s where they retreated to after being badgered bullied harassed and threatened. And it still says it don’t work. It does say those who torture the language for kicks can play in their sandbox.
Posted by: oldhippie | Jul 8 2024 19:29 utc | 301
I did open the Oxford, btw, and it has no chapter on grammar. I will probably never know if “an uncountable of circumstance” is a valid construction.
Posted by: persiflo | Jul 8 2024 20:31 utc | 302
You can’t do RCTs ethically in the middle of a pandemic (still ongoing despite Biden’s declaration). You need aerosol scientists to tell you the physics of blocking virus with a *electrically charged* mask fabric WORN CORRECTLY.
How many have you seen wearing ‘chin diapers’…the shit don’t work!!
The Cochrane Review report on masks has been refuted.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucelee/2023/03/11/cochrane-says-review-does-not-show-that-face-masks-dont-work-against-covid-19/
Still wearing a mask (don’t LOVE IT but DO LIKE TO REMAIN HEALTHY FOR THE REST OF MY TIME ON EARTH) and have been repeatedly exposed and still novid (as far as I know)
Masks work.
Posted by: furies | Jul 8 2024 21:20 utc | 303
One must wonder how Gerstein could possibly pinpoint a timeline for a pandemic, which is generally seen to be the result of unpredictable microscopic events. Unless, perhaps, he has a hand in creating one.
https://www.activistpost.com/2012/01/dancing-apocalypso-with-microbial.html
signing off….
Posted by: denk | Jul 8 2024 4:03 utc | 230
—————————–
Chris Floyd
This column stands foursquare with the Honorable Donald H. Rumsfeld, U.S. Secretary of Defense, when he warns that there will be more terrorist attacks against the American people and civilization at large. We know, as does the Honorable Donald H. Rumsfeld, U.S. Secretary of Defense, that this statement is an incontrovertible fact, a matter of scientific certainty. And how can we and the Honorable Donald H. Rumsfeld, U.S. Secretary of Defense, be so sure that there will be more terrorist attacks against the American people and civilization at large?
Because these attacks will be instigated at the order of the Honorable Donald H. Rumsfeld, U.S. Secretary of Defense.
Posted by: denk | Jul 9 2024 3:31 utc | 304
the meaning of the stars in the Chinese flag.
Posted by: Johan Kaspar | Jul 8 2024 10:14 utc | 263
I was told the stars represent the political parties of China. The big star the communist party; the smaller stars the minor parties.
Posted by: Passerby | Jul 9 2024 11:25 utc | 305
suzan@215 Obviously the parts where you agree with me I heartily approve, if only from vanity. And other parts I might see as too hyperbolic and would rephrase are not worth arguing over.
However this part? “This is nonsense. Yes, the spike complex is the targeting configuration for cell entry, attaching to cells and infusing them with viral body. But I would argue that directed evolution on the spike complex (which targets ace 2 receptors which are nearly everywhere in the body) which attaches to and penetrates host cells increases the ability of the “hook” to gain cell entry via newly evolved biochemical configuration mechanisms of evasion of host immune responses and increased speed of attack. Think of it as we are the lab ferrets through which iterations of infections are run. This process perfects spike infection speed rate and host immune response escape.”
I’m sorry, there are two big objections here. First and most elementary in one sense, there is no “directed” evolution. Mutation is essentially random (things like meiotic drive or genetic accommodation are like chromosomal intersex in humans, something that happens but not on a major scale.)
Second, this argument applies just as much to live attenuated viruses, and to antibiotics, and to all use of any drugs for every medical intervention. Whether it was meant to or not, the logical conclusion is the Great Barrington/herd immunity/let’er rip! policy. Ultimately it seems to me to be a visceral reaction based on Mother Nature/Evolution aka God Knows Best and messing with DNA is unholy. But live attenuated viruses mess with the DNA of immune cells too. People lose it when DNA comes up. Plant and animal breeding changes DNA too.
Posted by: steven t johnson | Jul 9 2024 13:47 utc | 306
@ steven t johnson | Jul 9 2024 13:47 utc | 306
“Obviously the parts where you agree with me I heartily approve, if only from vanity. And other parts I might see as too hyperbolic and would rephrase are not worth arguing over.”
Guilty. I can exaggerate sometimes. Not a fisherman but if i were, fish would grow bigger with every telling.
“However this part? …there are two big objections here. First and most elementary in one sense, there is no “directed” evolution. Mutation is essentially random (things like meiotic drive or genetic accommodation are like chromosomal intersex in humans, something that happens but not on a major scale.)”
By directed i am referring to the disproportional evolutionary pressures the spike complex undergoes when infecting and replicating in hosts who are continuously primed ( how many boosters now?) with newly designed modified-RNA spike configurations, compared to the evolutionary pressures on the backbone of the virus. So directed not in terms of a planned end-game configuration, but a “helping along” via pharma intervention so as to evolve faster.
Random mutations are sifted through more quickly than otherwise would have occurred, and the selection process encompasses more than merely success or failure of a viral mutation; it is an unfolding relationship influenced by the pharmaceutical treatment of the hosts.
“Second, this argument applies just as much to live attenuated viruses,”
The pharma constructs are completely different. Live attenuated virus vaccines include the virus backbone whilst the modified-RNA shots are laboratory concoctions confined to the spike area and incorporate “tricks” to fool the host cells into replicating the antigen for a longer duration — f.eks. using non-human amino acid to prolong duration before degradation and promote more replications of spike.
“and to antibiotics, and to all use of any drugs for every medical intervention.”
The immune system is very complex. We do not fully understand. Overexposure to an antigen can imprint the system and render it passive to future exposure of antigen. Like how food allergies are approached, treated.
But. We do not know if there is something about the backbone which negatively affects overall immune system as some are arguing. If so and host body allows the virus in without effective protective response, much damage could be done.
Also, Inflammation and destruction of critical membranes, weakening them, thinning them in places, esp in circulatory system and organs, due to spike attacking membrane cells, with or without backbone, is thought to be cause of heart and blood circulatory system problems.
Research in mid 1990s by some of the key players demonstrated spike causing problems with heart and blood system.
“Whether it was meant to or not, the logical conclusion is the Great Barrington/herd immunity/let’er rip! policy. Ultimately it seems to me to be a visceral reaction based on Mother Nature/Evolution aka God Knows Best and messing with DNA is unholy.”
The question is, are we dealing with mother nature’s virus or some Frankenstein virus?
Posted by: suzan | Jul 9 2024 15:41 utc | 307
Suzan@397 Looking for what applies to Covid and mRNA vax, all I can pin down is “We do not know if there is something about the backbone which negatively affects overall immune system as some are arguing.” I’m getting lost, I thought your argument was mRNA vaccines do not contain the “backbone” and this lack did something bad, maybe leave the antigen simply infecting the host or overstimulating thus weakening immune response or some other unspecified direct damage. These are all hypotheticals, not very well defined ones at that. And it’s just as logical to turn it around, that including the whole virus would make the immune response too specific or insufficiently stimulate immune response due to a kind of interference!
“If so and host body allows the virus in without effective protective response, much damage could be done.” Well, yes, though I am still confused as to whether you are arguing still that mRNA vaccines are killing millions of people or whether they are failing to keep Covid from killing millions. Covid can and sometimes does do amazing amounts of damage in almost all kinds of tissues. Personally I have nightmares that Covid can lurk, to erupt at random, like chickenpox virus can come back as shingles. Precisely because I agree on this, I don’t think humanity is well-served by pushing Chinese flu or mark of the beast vax theories. Against vaccines, against social distancing, against masks, against quarantines, against contact tracing…that’s all “without effective protestive response…”
Posted by: steven t johnson | Jul 9 2024 17:37 utc | 308
@ steven t johnson 308
“I’m getting lost, I thought your argument was mRNA vaccines do not contain the “backbone” and this lack did something bad, maybe leave the antigen simply infecting the host or overstimulating thus weakening immune response or some other unspecified direct damage.”
No. That was not my argument.
See AJ post below for clarification of theory of backbone as one potential cause of disease severity. The spike plays a more immediately visible role in sickness. It is complex.
I’m off to do other work.
~~
Shortly after Baric’s hypothesis was presented as fact, people argued Novelty was the cause of Severity: the end of the pandemic. This piece left no room for hypothesis or for the possibility there was an intrinsic component of the virus that could create severe illness. Rather, it was the novelty that caused severe illness.
Such a proclamation left no chance for reinfections to be severe in any form. Thus, the pandemic was over.
Now, there are historical examples of why this is not the case with many viruses.
Dengue can cause more severe disease on reinfection. Ebola also can reinfect and is lethal when it does. Both of these viruses have an important commonality: it is their immunomodulation which creates the severe disease. T cells are killed en masse in ebolavirus infection, yet
The virus itself does not infect them. The power is in immunomodulation.
A new piece of information enters the fray. SARS Cov 2 forms immunomodulatory complexes which cause overreaction and harm. And when the T cells die in ebola, they dump inflammation-causing interferons as a departing gift.
Here, we have an intrinsic piece of the virus that is absolutely not going away with reinfection.
The only thing that could change would be the host’s susceptibility or the code in the virus itself.
The issue of an intrinsic factor creating severity persists much as the inflammation persists when viewed via modified PET several years following infection.
So, it seems each infection with sars cov 2 is unlike that of a common cold coronavirus. I hope you, dear reader, are not among those who thought it was.
Easy Chair
It’s all about immunomodulation
Anthony J Leonardi, MBBS, PhD
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2300644120
Posted by: suzan | Jul 9 2024 18:06 utc | 309