Feb 13, 2022
Today's Tweet
A lot of us are feeling stagnant and empty, like we’re muddling through our days & looking at our lives through a foggy windshield. I don't have a secret for getting out of the funk but I can tell you one thing - I'm done languishing.
— @ππ¦ππππ_πΎππ£π (@SundaeDivine) February 13, 2022
COVID-19 Update
WaPo: (freebie)
Judge orders protesters to end blockade of Ambassador Bridge by Friday night
An Ontario court on Friday ordered protesters to end their blockade of a key bridge connecting Canada with the United States as the country headed into a third weekend of “Freedom Convoy” demonstrations. The protests have paralyzed the capital, slowed traffic at the border and caused manufacturers on both sides of the border to reduce operations.
Ontario Superior Court Chief Justice Geoffrey Morawetz gave protesters until 7 p.m. to end the blockade at the Ambassador Bridge between Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit, the busiest crossing on the U.S.-Canada border and a vital supply route between automakers on both sides. It was not immediately clear what would happen at 7 p.m.
Protesters locked arms, chanted and shouted for freedom 15 minutes after the deadline as Canadian police looked on with no sign of disrupting the demonstrators.
Demonstrators holed up in trucks continue to paralyze parts of downtown Ottawa and block the Ambassador Bridge and crossings in Coutts, Alberta; and Emerson, Manitoba. What began as a protest of rules in both countries requiring that truckers be fully vaccinated to cross the border has snowballed into a much broader movement against pandemic restrictions generally and other complaints.
Here’s what to know
- A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study found that booster shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines lose effectiveness after about four months — but still provided significant protection in keeping people out of the hospital during the omicron surge.
- New York Mayor Eric Adams (D) defended the city’s move to hand out termination notices Friday to employees who did not comply with a coronavirus vaccination mandate. As many as 3,000 unvaccinated employees were facing termination.
- The Food and Drug Administration granted emergency use authorization Friday to a new monoclonal antibody treatment that works against the omicron variant.
Put A Pretty Face On It
This has to be the best lede paragraph I've seen in a long time - WaPo (pay wall)
At the starting gate, 200 feet up, big air Olympians can choose from a panoramic array of views. Straight ahead, they can take in the grand Beijing skyline, the under-construction Citic Tower poking into the clouds. Behind them, they can peer out at the craggy, brownish Western Mountains in the distance. And to their left, they can gaze upon a dystopic array of cooling towers and blighted office buildings, a fever dream that looks like someone plopped Homer Simpson’s workplace into circa-2005 Bushwick.
It just doesn't quite capture that winter wonderland feel, does it?
Today's Beau
Republicans in congress seem to have a serious lack of many of the attributes that used to be fairly common because they were believed to be essential to good governance.
Maybe they've just spent too much time and effort running "to the right" to be capable of easing back a little bit.
Maybe the point was always been to keep applying pressure to push the whole thing so far "to the right" that our little experiment in self government collapses back into a Daddy State plutocracy.
There's ample evidence (IMO) for all of that. Not the least of which is the GOP's absolute refusal to do anything about the gun problem here in USAmerica Inc.
Justin King - Beau Of The Fifth Column - The boyfriend loophole
Black American History #13
Dr Clint Smith - Crash Course - The Rise Of Cotton
By the 1850s, the labor of 4 million enslaved people in the southern US was worth more than all the railroads and all the factories in this entire country combined.
Feb 12, 2022
COVID-19 Update
We should be seeing a pretty substantial drop-off in Cases and the Deaths here fairly soon - unless of course something new pops up.
But right now, the 7-Day Avg New Deaths is still north of 2,000. Which means the day we hit 1,000,000 dead Americans is only about a month away. That drop-off better be a big one.
WaPo: (freebie)
CDC recommends people with weakened immune systems get booster doses after three months instead of five
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its guidance on Friday for some people with weakened immune systems, recommending they get a booster dose of the coronavirus vaccine three months after completing the initial series of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna shots, rather than the current interval of five months.
The guidance also said immunocompromised people who received the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine should get an additional dose. That means two doses, at least 28 days apart, followed by a booster dose of one of the mRNA vaccines.
“Although COVID-19 vaccines continue to work well to prevent severe illness, hospitalization, and death, we have seen reduced protection against mild and moderate disease,” the agency said in a statement. “With the number of cases of COVID-19 still high across the United States and globally, this guidance helps to ensure that people have optimal protection against” the virus that causes the disease.
The updated guidance also says it is no longer necessary for people to delay coronavirus vaccination after receiving treatments with monoclonal antibodies, a treatment authorized for early stage covid-19, or with convalescent plasma, which is taken from blood donated by people who have recovered from covid-19.
Agency officials had presented the anticipated changes Feb. 4 during a meeting of the CDC’s outside vaccine experts on the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
Recommendations for some immunocompromised people are already different than those for the general population because those with frail immune systems are at increased risk for severe covid-19 and more likely to be infected even when fully vaccinated. Once infected, they can also potentially harbor mutations that could lead to more virulent new variants, experts say.
The CDC recommends people with weak immune systems receive three primary shots of the mRNA vaccines plus a booster for a total of four doses. But given the less-than-optimal immune response that these individuals typically have with their first three doses, a booster at three months may provide better protection, especially amid high transmission of the omicron variant, officials have said.
The CDC estimates that about 2.7 percent of adults — 7 million people — are immunocompromised, a group that includes patients with medical conditions that weaken their immune response, as well as people taking immune-suppressing drugs because of organ transplants, cancer or autoimmune diseases. Also on the list are people with advanced or untreated HIV infections, and those who have chronic medical conditions that can weaken immune response, such as chronic kidney disease.
Today's Tweet
Cat: "Hey, so you know how sometimes... I bring home birds?" pic.twitter.com/Q9vUiJt95L
— Joe Zimmerman (@joezimmerman) February 10, 2022
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