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Showing posts from April, 2020

A Certain Irony

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So "Conservatives" Don't like a Pandemic Shutdown. Give me liberty, and some of us death! Neither do Bangladeshi Muslims. Never miss an important funeral! There is a powerful strain of the same - what? - disregard for the truth in health warnings?  Maybe it's a guy thing  (OK, there a a few women in the Austin demonstration, but mostly guys.) There are even old guys in both groups. BOFs; Brave Olde Farts. We know various Republican and Trumpster groups organized the U.S. anti-lockdown "spontaneous" rallies. Paid for by the likes of Betsy DeVos.  Not sure if anybody organized the Bangladeshis. Maybe the white cap manufacturers. Not sure why this strike me as ironical.

Opening Up Which America?

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We don't need to Go Back to Normal We need to Go Back to Better   "Better" would mean:      Everybody who works full time will make a LIVING WAGE              A "living wage" means enough to COVER THE BASICS              "The basics" means THE NECESSITIES and a bit left over. "The necessities" means food, shelter, healthcare, education,  sick leave, child care, paid vacation, retirement contribution.              " A bit left over " means something to save, invest, give away, contribute, blow. Whoa!! The richest nation in the world can definitely afford  to assure it's workforce makes a living wage. We have to decide if that's what we want to do. The cost could be a reduction in profits for private companies and increase in costs of  non-profits.  The benefits could be a far healthier and more productive work force resulting in gains that pay for the expenses.  Which

Searching for Good News

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A Ray of Hope in  A VERY credible source. This line caught my eye: " ... p otential utility as an effective antiviral against SARS-CoV-2" You can call me Novel Every week I read Science Magazine cover-to-cover.  It's one of the 'gold standard' journals.  The world's scientific research output is prodigious.  I find hope in that.     Put on your science specs and plow through this bit of promising research.  Abstract  Coronaviruses (CoVs) traffic frequently between species resulting in novel disease outbreaks, most recently exemplified by the newly emerged SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of COVID-19. Herein, we show that the ribonucleoside analog β-D-N 4 -hydroxycytidine (NHC, EIDD-1931) has broad spectrum antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2, MERS-CoV, SARS-CoV, and related zoonotic group 2b or 2c Bat-CoVs, as well as increased potency against a coronavirus bearing resistance mutations to the nucleoside analog inhibitor remdes

CRUSH CORONAVIRUS... Now in Action!

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Salvation of the Economy UP & RUNNING (Experimentally, of course) ...in one small, rich, Colorado town. Telluride The Original Big, Simple, Winning Plan (Click to read) 1. Give EVERYBODY the antibody test for Covid-19. 2. Quarantine all positives. 3. Do comprehensive contact tracing. Quarantine all contacts. 4. Drop all social distancing for those with the "well and immune" antibody load. I.e. kickstart the economy back into life. ) A wise decision by a government entity? Nah... Its tests are being donated by Mei Mei Hu and Lou Reese, a married couple who live part of the year in the county seat of Telluride and are executives at United Biomedical, a biotech company that developed the test. Full article in Medium-Elemental I'd say this is THE plan! Scott Gottlieb, MD, former Food and Drug Administration commissioner under President Trump, and Ezekiel Emanuel, MD, PhD, one of the architects of the Affordable Care Act und

You Think You've Got It Rough...

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Luxury Apartments.  Nice Balconies. Shelter in Place. NO JUMPING! Hang gliding would be OK.