Today In Space

If, by "today", you mean 3 to 5 years ago.

LiveScience:

The Truth Behind This Amazing Video from the Surface of a Comet

Look at this amazing GIF. That snowy-looking scene wasn't captured on Mount Everest, or in some canyon in Antarctica. That's the view from a lander on the surface of a comet.

Remember Rosetta? That comet-chasing European Space Agency (ESA) probe that deployed (and accidentally bounced) its lander Philae on the surface of Comet 67P? This GIF is made up of images Rosetta beamed back to Earth, which have been freely available online for a while. But it took Twitter user landru79 processing and assembling them into this short, looped clip to reveal the drama they contained.

As several astronomers and casual observers pointed out in the replies to landru79's original tweet, the "snowstorm" depicted almost certainly isn't a true snowfall of the sort experienced on Earth and other planets. Instead, there are likely two or three different phenomena creating the snowy effect.

Up close to the camera, dust particles backlit by the sun are likely moving around, mimicking the look of snow on Earth. Cosmic rays may also be creating snow-like artifacts on the images. And those dots in the background, that appear to be falling straight down and disappearing behind the cliff? Those appear to be stars, which look like they're falling because the comet is rotating as it orbits the sun every 6.5 years.

Landru79 posted another GIF on Twitter, which freezes the starfield in the clip in place, making it clearer that the comet is moving but the stars are mostly staying still.

May the fake lord bless you and keep you, nerds. You know I love you guys.

I Got Questions

Is Glenn Youngkin a Nazi shitheel?

I don't know, because of course, I can't tell what's in his heart of hearts.

But it doesn't really matter if he's a Nazi shitheel or not - he was happy to be on a Nazi shitheel radio show, hosted by a Nazi shitheel, with an audience chock full of Nazi shitheels.

So while there's nothing truly definitive we can conclude about Glenn Youngkin actually being a Nazi shitheel himself, it's obvious he's being supported politically by whole big bunches of Nazi shitheels - who very probably believe him to be a Nazi shitheel.

Right Wing Watch:

Republican candidate for governor Glenn Youngkin appeared on Sebastian Gorka’s “America First” radio show in a clip posted to Gorka’s website Monday night.

Gorka, a former Trump White House official turned Salem Broadcasting radio host, has a long history of Islamophobic comments, once saying that taking Muslim refugees into America would be a “national suicide.” A Nazi-linked Hungarian group—whose pin Gorka wore to Trump’s Inaugural Ball in 2017—says that he is one of their sworn members.

Gorka has been trying to get Youngkin to come on to his show in recent weeks, suggesting that Youngkin was a RINO—Republican in name only—and needed to convince his viewers otherwise.

Thanking Gorka for having him on his show, Youngkin launched into his pitch, vowing to “get critical race theory out of our schools” and to “invest in law enforcement instead of getting them defunded.” He began criticizing Democratic nominee Terry McAuliffe before Gorka cut him off.

“He’s one of the most reprehensible politicians in America,” Gorka said. “You are speaking to millions of Trump supporters across the nation; there’s no concern amongst them that Terry is bad news and will be bad news for Virginia. What they want to hear from you is that you support the America First agenda, that you support making America great again, and that you won’t be just, as somebody labeled you, potentially another Mitt Romney for Virginia. What can you do to reassure Trump supporters that is not who you are?”

“The president knows that I am a Virginia first governor’s candidate, I’m going to stand up for Virginians,” Youngkin said, touting his endorsement from the former president. He went on to claim that President Joe Biden is dispatching the Department of Justice to silence Virginian parents as he tried to bring the focus of the conversation back to the right-wing movement’s attacks on school boards for teaching about racism in U.S. history and LGBTQ-inclusive curriculum. “We’re going to make Virginia the best state in America. We’re going to save it.”

“He came on the show, give him credit for that. Look him up, go to Glenn Youngkin, go to his campaign site,” Gorka said. “We need to save America, and that includes the commonwealth. Thank you, Glenn Youngkin.”

Youngkin has tried to portray himself as a moderate, but the Republican nominee’s appearance on Gorka’s show is just his latest effort to court extreme figures and organizations. Last week, Youngkin spoke at the religious-right “Pray Vote Stand” conference held by Family Research Council—an organization the Southern Poverty Law Center has deemed a hate group. The week prior, he attended an event for the Family Foundation, a virulently anti-LGBTQ, anti-choice group.

Like Grandma said:

People are gonna know you

by the crowd you run with.

COVID-19 Update

This, or something very much like it - for me - will be the poster for the Age Of COVID-19.

WaPo: (freebie)

Cold-weather states showing highest rate of new cases

As coronavirus cases spurred by the delta variant wane across much of the country, states with cold weather are showing a rise in new coronavirus infections, according to Washington Post data.

Alaska is leading the low-temperature states with an increase in the number of infections, with 123 new cases per 100,000 residents on a seven-day rolling average. Montana, Wyoming, Idaho and North Dakota also are seeing a rise in infections as the weather cools, reducing opportunities to socialize outdoors and limiting physical distancing.

States in the northeastern region of the country also have experienced an increase in infection numbers over the past seven days. New Hampshire, Illinois, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island have recorded increases in infections, according to Post data.

The data mirrors trends of last fall and winter when new-case numbers diminished in Southern states that were hit hard by the virus before it devastated colder-weather states.

Overall, new daily reported infection numbers fell by more than 6 percent in the past week along with the number of covid-related hospitalizations, which dropped by nearly 9 percent, according to Post data.

On Sunday, Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease expert, said the downward trend can continue if the nation does well in getting more people vaccinated.

Say What?

So I'm coming out of Lowe's, and I see a guy asking a lady to sign his petition, in support of strict Voter ID laws.

Her: Do you need to see my ID for this?

Him: Nope.

Her: So how do you know I'm a real voter?

Him: We verify it with the voter registration rolls down at the county building.

Her: You just explained why Voter ID is totally unnecessary.

Today's Tweet

Best thing I've seen in a month

The Senate will vote tomorrow on the Freedom to Vote Act. The bill is supported by an overwhelming majority of voters across the country. Anyone who votes against it, only does so because they are personally served by elections being unfair. Take note. pic.twitter.com/3v3VkEuQA2

— PoliticsGirl (@IAmPoliticsGirl) October 19, 2021

Overheard

I think a Venn diagram of anti-vax cops

and the proverbial "bad apples"

in police departments

would come pretty damned close

to being a perfect circle.

Vaccine mandates could solve

more than one problem.

@MarlaTauscher

The Ugly Truth

Every time we have a real shot at making changes that will benefit very large portions of the American public, some jag-off Democrat pops up and appoints himself kingpin - the guardian of the exchequer - the one true voice of reason - a hostage-taking son of a bitch.

Every.

Fucking.

Time.

Ten years ago, when ObamaCare was moving through the process, it was Joe Lieberman and Ben Nelson, and while there was some pretty strong push back, I don't remember anything like this:

Of course, we didn't have the kind of total immersion and over-saturation of social media that we have now.

Democracy is fighting for its life, slugging it out with full-blown Plutocracy, and the winner will likely be decided by people who live and die on Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Tik Tok, and YouTube.

That seems like it's nine kinds of fucked up, but that's what we've got, kids. We have to figure out how to make the best of it.

COVID-19 Update

WaPo:

FDA to allow ‘mix-and-match’ approach

on coronavirus booster vaccines

The agency is expected to say people can bolster protection by getting an extra shot, even if it is from another brand

The Food and Drug Administration is expected to say this week that people can get coronavirus vaccine booster shots that are different from their initial doses, according to two federal officials familiar with the situation.

The agency is rushing to make the announcement Wednesday as part of its authorization of boosters for the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines. The FDA may also say that people should generally stick to the same vaccine if possible, according to the two federal officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the issue.

Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine has been shown to be less effective than the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, so there is intense focus on how to boost protection for recipients of the single-shot Johnson & Johnson regimen: Should it be with the Johnson & Johnson shot or with the other vaccines, which use a different technology?

A key matter of debate: If Moderna is used as a booster for Johnson & Johnson, what should be the correct dose? Some officials say it should be a half dose of the regular shot — the dosage that will be authorized for Moderna boosters in general — while others say it should be a full dose, which was the amount tested as part of a National Institutes of Health study released last week.

“People should generally get the same vaccine as their initial series,” said one of the federal officials familiar with the situation. But the official said people in nursing homes might not have access to their original vaccine, or that some people might have had a bad reaction to the mRNA vaccines, the technology used to make the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna shots.

The New York Times was first to report the FDA would allow a “mix-and-match” approach.

An FDA advisory committee last week discussed mix-and-match data from NIH, but the numbers of people in the studies were small and were followed for a short length of time.

Documents from the FDA provided to committee members included an agency review of Johnson & Johnson’s tests of a second dose of its own vaccine and a separate preprint study that tested mixing booster doses from different companies. The data could provide a road map for the 15 million people who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in the United States, many of whom have felt left out because the vast majority of U.S. vaccine recipients received either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine.

The data showed that while recipients of the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine may benefit from a second dose of the original, they may derive even greater protection if the boost comes from a different vaccine technology. The study showed that a second shot using the Moderna vaccine triggered the biggest boost of virus-neutralizing antibodies in Johnson & Johnson recipients, resulting in a 76-fold increase in antibody levels. A Pfizer booster increased antibody levels 35-fold. A matching Johnson & Johnson booster triggered only a fourfold increase.

One issue that may affect the real-world decision about how to use boosters is the association of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine with a very rare clotting side effect that tended to be more common in women under 50 years old. If health-care providers have the freedom to recommend any booster, they could recommend a messenger RNA dose as a second shot to people who may be at increased risk for an adverse event.

Today's Reddit

Writin' checks with his mouth 

COVID-19 Update

Cross-Filed under: Dead Celebrities and Famous COVID-19 Victims:

Colin Powell died of complications due to COVID-19.

Powell was fully vaccinated. Which does not give credence to the Anti-Vax bullshit. He had Multiple Myeloma, which is a blood disease that interferes with your immune system's ability to make the antigens that the vaccine teaches your body to make.

It's not that simple, but it's pretty close. Those predisposing factors are out to get you no matter what, so you'd best be doing everything the docs tell you to do.

My point is that when you can be fully vaccinated and still die because of COVID, it emphasizes the need for everybody to get vaxxed in order to increase everybody's chances of surviving this thing.

Powell caught that shit from somebody, and the odds are pretty fair that that somebody was not vaccinated, or that that somebody picked it up from somebody who's not vaccinated.

That's how a pandemic works.

So get the fuckin' shot, you ignorant dumbass pussies.

CP24 (Canadian)

Most past allergic reactions not valid reason for COVID-19 vaccine exemption: allergists

Dr. Mariam Hanna noticed an uptick in requests for allergy assessments in her Burlington, Ont., clinic after the province began implementing COVID-19 vaccine certificates last month.

Whether people have held off on getting vaccinated because of a past reaction, or are seeking an exemption to inoculation mandates, Hanna said a previous allergic response doesn't mean you can't get your shots.

Allergists across the country have safely inoculated most patients who come into their clinics, regardless of allergy history, she said.

“Be it as an excuse or a misunderstanding or some miscommunication there, we are certainly getting a lot of referrals because of (vaccine rules),” said Hanna, an assistant clinical professor at McMaster University.

“Most of the time, it isn't reason for exemption.”

Hanna said many of the patients she assesses are concerned about previous reactions to non-COVID-19 vaccines. But because the mRNA jabs from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are different from typical inoculations, those past reactions usually don't come up again.

Other patients are concerned about receiving a second mRNA dose if they had an adverse reaction to the first. But she said many patients mistake common non-life threatening reactions - including rash or swelling at the injection site - for an allergy.

“It's only the very, very few patients that have had a systemic reaction, typically within 15 to 20 minutes of receiving the first dose, that we want to be careful about,” Hanna said. “Most of the side effects that we expect with a vaccine, those are not contraindications for exemption.

“And sometimes you need an allergist to help clarify it.”

Allergists assess patients in their specialized clinics, taking a full history to determine the severity of the previous allergy experience - and whether it was an allergic reaction at all.

The assessment can sometime include skin tests, where an ingredient of the vaccine is smeared on a small patch of skin, but Hanna said every patient's appointment will be different.

Dr. Samira Jeimy, a clinical immunology and allergy expert with Western University, said even those who experienced what they perceived to be strong allergic reactions could be mistaken.

Some non-allergic reactions can include anxiety-related events that mimic allergic responses, she said, including hyperventilation, fainting and even symptoms that look and feel like anaphylaxis - a severe, potentially life-threatening reaction where blood pressure drops and airways narrow making it hard to breathe.

“Things that mimic anaphylaxis are far more common than actual anaphylaxis,” Jeimy said. “One example is vocal cord dysfunction, where somebody could actually have their vocal cords slammed shut (when) nervous.”

The Canadian Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology says the risk of systemic allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis, is extremely rare. Studies suggest the estimated annual rate of anaphylaxis in Canada is approximately 0.4 to 1.8 cases per one million doses of vaccines administered.

According to Health Canada's review on adverse vaccine reactions, 307 cases of anaphylaxis have been reported in the country - out of more than 56 million COVID-19 doses administered.

Jeimy said her London, Ont., clinic has been able to vaccinate “about 99 per cent” of people coming in with allergy concerns. That includes those who have had real, severe reactions to a first COVID-19 vaccine dose.

Allergists work around this by giving someone with a confirmed allergy small amounts of the dose, separated by 15- to 30-minute observation periods, until dosing is done.

Jeimy said it can take hours to complete a graded administration for extreme cases.

“If I think the patient is at a moderate risk of reaction, I'll divide the vaccine up into three or four doses,” she said. “If the patient is at a higher risk, I'll make the dosing even longer.”

Canada's National Advisory Committee on Immunization says COVID-19 vaccines shouldn't be offered “routinely” to those who had severe allergic reaction following the first dose. If a risk assessment deems the benefit of vaccination outweighs allergy risks, NACI says a different vaccine than the one that caused the initial reaction - either AstraZeneca's viral vector jab or the mRNA products - may be used to complete the two-dose series.

Jeimy said that her clinic carries doses of AstraZeneca for emergency situations but she hasn't had to use them. Instead, most people can safely complete a two-dose mRNA series.

Jeimy said allergists aren't certain which component of the mRNA vaccines cause severe allergic reactions in a small number of people. But PEG, or polyethylene glycol, is “currently thought to be the culprit.” She added PEG allergies on skin tests don't necessarily “correlate to vaccine tolerance,” however.

PEG is a common ingredient in cosmetics, skin-care products and some medications, including Tylenol and cough syrup, Jeimy said. So people with PEG allergies likely know they have it long before getting an mRNA vaccine.

NACI says a COVID-19 vaccine “should not be routinely offered to individuals who are allergic to any component” of the jab.

Jeimy urges people to ask a doctor for clarification before swearing off COVID-19 shots.

“I don't think it's helpful to preemptively avoid things because of a fear of a reaction,” she said. “You have a far greater risk of COVID-19 infection.”