another sign that TEOTWAWKI is nigh

Coincidence? Viral mutation? Or the medicine who must not be named?

Covid cases are down in Japan. 

So maybe the rule obeying Japanese have managed to overcome the virus.

Or has the virus mutated? Self Extinction, as happened with SARS?

Or could it be the medicine that must not be named?

Duterte okayed Ivermectin use with a physician prescription on Sept 11. 

and cases started to go down in late September:

(DR. GUIDO DAVID / TWITTER)

and more recently, new cases are about 1000 a day

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COVID-19 NEWS AND VACCINE DATA IN THE PHILIPPINES

1. LATEST NEWS
2. VACCINE ROLLOUT
3. EMERGENCY HOTLINES

CASES IN PH

New Confirmed Cases
( as of November 23 - 4:00 PM )

Active Cases:

18,721

Total Cases:

2,827,820

Total Recoveries:

2,761,617

Total Deaths:

47,482

LATEST STORIES

Read more: https://www.inquirer.net/novel-coronavirus-update/#ixzz7D6DdZKC7

So is part of this due to Ivermectin use, or is it because of the vaccines? Or both? 

I should note Ivermectin is used for both treatment and cure, but no one seems to be bothered studying how many, which folk, or why it is being taken. 

Shouldn't docs know about this? 

And we also need  a study of who is taking what: Because here in the Philippines, they use herbs and traditional treatments all the time, including chinese and Philippine herbs for covid. Which the government says, probably correctly, don't work (these herbs loosen Phlegm and bronchospasm so make you feel better and are widely used for chest colds).

We bought some Ivermectin to have on hand just in case (because although we can buy it in the pharmacy with a doctor's prescription, the pharmacy quickly ran out of the medicine last month. So we sent a prescription to an on line pharmacy so we would have it available just in case.)

All of us, and our employees, have had the vaccine (some alas only the weak Chinese vaccine, but hey, it's better than nothing).

But my stepson loves Alex Jones and is anti Vax, so I started him on a prevention protocol just in case.

Don't know if it works, but his leg rash disappeared, meaning it was probably due to scabies. (no, he never sees doctors for such minor things).

Over 30 million have been vaccinated in the Philippines, out of a population of 110 million....and the news is still stressing the importance of precautions and vaccines. There is now news about giving out boosters to elders, even though the vaccination level in the general population is low.

They have started giving it to kids so they can return to in class room learning, and our anti vax maid got her son a shot so he can go to school again.

Dr. C. keeps discussing that some of the side effects of the mRNA vaccines might be from accidental injection into an artery, and notes in the USA they don't aspirate to check for this before giving the shot. I didn't notice if the nurse aspirated the needle when I got the vaccine, but when I took the dog for his rabies shot, the vet did aspirate before the injection, so presumably it is still the custom here.

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update: This is the only article I could find that mentions Ivermectin use in the Philippines. From a Middle Eastern business website.

In countries such as the Philippines, people are buying ivermectin directly to use themselves as a COVID treatment. 

But even though I suspect it is being used a lot, no one seems to be checking how often it is used, or if it is being used as prevention or only as a cure when people get sick.

And it annoys me when I read an article like this that cites one study that found the drug useless, but not the later analysis of studies that shows it works. 

Am J Ther. 2021 Jul-Aug; 28(4) article Ivermectin for Prevention and Treatment of COVID-19 Infection: A Systematic Review, Meta-analysis, and Trial Sequential Analysis to Inform Clinical Guidelines...

Sigh 

Local covid news

Many women worried about getting vaccine while pregnant: The risk is minimal...

the problem is that pregnancy makes you high risk for pregnancy complications.

We lost the daughter of an acquaintance, a nurse, who died at 7 months, and the baby died also: no vaccine (they were just starting to give it out, and she hesitated because of the pregnancy). 

and more recently, another acquaintance of Joy got covid at 8 months and went into labor: She survived, but the baby developed many complications and died after a month in ICU. Sigh.

I should ask our cousins who are ObGyn, but since they are busy and I haven't left the house in 18 months to go to parties and family reunions I haven't really had time to talk to her.

we have heard of folks dying of cirrhosis (heavy drinkers) strokes, heart attacks, etc. but no recent covid deaths in our large circle of acquaintances. 

Our only family member who got it, JoJo, whose usual job is working on ships and is alas, obese, had a bad case but stayed at home and recovered from it. He monitoring his blood Oxygen with a fingertip oximeter. Heh. I remember when this device was too expensive for our office, but now it is cheap. He stayed above 90, and recovered, but remains with fatigue and shortness of breath on exercize.

rumor says no recent cases in our town, so we are now opening up.

 Parties in the city plaza on the weekend, daily Rumba lessons at 5 am there, and the Palenke (visiting merchants) are again allowed to set up shops. And the Christmas lights are back.

new cases: 984 reported on Monday.

Of the total, 19,798 are active cases. At least 56.6% have mild symptoms, 4.6% are asymptomatic, 5.6% are critical, 13.3% are in severe condition, and 20.02% have moderate symptoms.

CNNPhil blames the low number on lack of testing. Well, yes. But since low testing has been a problem for the last year, one does figure the low numbers mean something.

And although our area has had a lot of deaths in elders, it is not with flu like symptoms. And the main problem now seems to be diarrhea in toddlers causing dehydration.

New Confirmed Cases
( as of November 22 - 4:00 PM )

Active Cases:

19,798

Total Cases:

2,826,853

Total Recoveries:

2,759,767

Total Deaths:

47,288

LATEST STORIES

Read more: https://www.inquirer.net/novel-coronavirus-update/#ixzz7D07LpqJF

herd immunity? Vaccines? Uncounted cases? old folks dying but not listed as covid? The stealth use of Ivermectin? 

Who knows... but maybe it will come back with a vengence, as it is in Europe.

 

If you want information on the vaccine in Pregnancy, go to the good Dr. C's discussions.

:

.....CDC article here.

Family news

 brownout yesterday; fixing the electric lines.

We have a generator, which helps.

Several local deaths. One from liver failure, another from a motorcycle accident several days after his wife died of asthma/heart attack. Sigh.

One never knows if a person dies at home without fever or flu symptoms if it was covid, but probably not: Three people I was giving money to buy medicine for heart/asthma/diabetes/blood pressure have died in the last year. Non covid, but one wonders if they used the money I gave them to buy medicine and bought food instead.

The official covid count is down: less than 900 new cases.

They are putting up the Christmas lights downtown, and decorating the city plaza down the street.

Kuya is still busy with the rice harvest.

I had to take the largest dog for his rabies shot: He was running a minor fever (he was fighting with his brother over our female dog) so I have to take him back in two weeks. But I persuaded the vet to give his brother the rabies shot, since his brother is small but is ADHD and does chase people (no bites yet, but threatens visitors).

We watched the latest Bond movie. Kuya fell asleep despite all the loud gun battles and explosions that are similar to things we saw before. My take: this Bond is not sexy (Sean Connery was the only Bond I liked) and there are no beautiful girls with come hither eyes in the story. Lolo loved the earlier Bond movies because he appreciated lovely ladies.  Me, I figure Bond was more heroic here, but I really didn't care.

If you want a shoot em up watch John Wick. If you want a shoot em up with a lovely lady, lots of action and ROTFL dialogue, watch the Hitman's Wife's Body Guard.

If you want lovely scenery, watch Dune.

If you want a realistic cold war spy story, watch The Courier.

In the past, the joke was that Michael Caine was in every movie, but now it seems that Cumberbatch is doing this, being busy doing both Dr Strange and quiet roles: from an in the closet gay cowboys to a painter of a cats.

I even spotted him in an Agatha Christie tv show.

 

Dr Watson call your office: Dr. Strange is in town.

Uh OH: Bambi has Covid

 SciTechDailyNews reports:

New research from the US has shown that white-tailed deer are being infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 in humans. Antibodies were found in 40% of deer that were tested from January to March 2021 across Michigan, Pennsylvania, Illinois and New York state. A second unpublished study has detected the virus in 80% of deer sampled in Iowa between November 2020 and January 2021. Such high levels of infection led the researchers to conclude that deer are actively transmitting the virus to one another.

Several questions come to mind and are asked but not answered in the article: How was it spread? Could it spread via water? Did hunters spread it to the deer ? Or was it spread via urine/feces (which could come from hunters)? 

There have been reports of covid in house cats and in lions and tigers in several zoos... some rare Siberian tigers in one zoo. 

these cases seem to be human animal transmission, from human owners, but hunters rarely get that close to deer.

Since all of these studies are 9 months old, does that mean the deer have herd immunity and are not infectious? Or are they developing new strains to spread to each other and are still infectious? Could humans eating their meat get infected?

This last one is important.

Deer hunting, like sports, is almost a religion in some areas: We closed our schools (and many businesses closed) for the first day of deer season in our rural Pennsylvania town. For locals it was a sport, reminding them of their ancestors who relied on hunting to live, and of course, for many families, it was a source of meat: something that helps in this area of poverty and high unemployment since the mines have closed down and many miners are too sick from black lung or other problems to work.

Deer ticks spread disease, but since usually the deer is hung outside until it is butchered, and it is cold, this risk should be minimal.

Cooking will eliminate many of the other bacterial pathogens.

The big worry is the deer variant of mad cow disease in deer, aka Chronic Wasting disease. LINK

and care needed in butchering for the meat LINK

I suspect covid threat might make the city fellows hesitate, but locals will still hunt: not just because they are anti vax, but because they have a culture where they accept risk as part of life.

In a previous post, I mentioned an article on culture in Star Trek: And I didn't clarify the article, which was saying that whereas in the newer StarTreks, everyone is diverse but thinks the same, in the original StarTrek, different people from different cultures thought and acted differently, had different priorities, and had a different view of sickness and risk.

Same here. Like the Philippine culture (or Arab culture), a lot of things depend on God's will, so don't worry too much about it. The problem of course is that God expects us to do our part to avoid danger and disease (which is why the Bible and the books of Islam have so many laws on food and hygiene). But it recognizes that some things are not under our control.

One of my worries is that the west seems to think they are in control: And indeed, both covid and "climate change" are now being used to make more laws to affect people's behavior. And the new covid variants and the failure of the vaccines to provide 100 percent protection are causing existential angst among those who felt they are in control of everything: So instead of becoming humble, they are pushing back harder.

I mean, I am reading that some people won't allow unvaccinated people to visit them for the holidays. This is nonsense, of course. But it echoes the western idea that we are in control, and the health is the highest good. So punish the infidel and excommunicate those who refuse to obey.

But in the Philippines, family ties and obligations are more important than a tiny risk of infection.

So in the Philippines, it means if you are sick and test positive, you go into quarantine, wear a mask, and of course keep your distance. 

But family is family. Family ties and obligations to family and friends is more important than rules. 

And to us, all those articles by the PC saying you should punish/ignore/refuse to have family members to dinners if they are anti vax seems crazy, especially given the small risk of infection and the small risk of death if you catch the disease.

So yes, if Granny has leukemia or other reasons for a bad immune system, the masks etc. are important. And if you are unvaxed and want to visit her, then get a test to see if you are infectious before you visit. Big deal. Our drivers had these tests over and over again so they could deliver rice to Manila before the vaccine was no available, so what is the problem?

But whining you hate relatives for being paranoid or dumb here shows something very selfish and wrong with the culture of US elites.

FYI

Musical interlude for the week

 I missed Veterans'day so here is some music to play to remember the Greatest Generation:

.........

.......

...

So will the Pope cancel Miss Marple?

 In the Catholic blogosphere, there is a minor civil war going on about the Pope trying to cancel the Latin mass for good.

The reason, according to Cardinal Cupich, is that this is standing in the way of securing the legacy of Vatican II.

Why yes: but like the "racism"claim about anything that the wokes want to eliminate, this claim is only superficially true.

The Latin Mass community is the tip of the iceberg by lay folks who are tired of the PC hymns, bad sermons, abuse coverups, the pushing of the trendy green agenda while overlooking the concerns of ordinary people, and the elimination of the idea of transcendence, truth, and beauty by the PC reformers who run the church in many areas of the USA and west.

And a lot of laypeople (not just white folks: my AmerIndian patients said the same thing) objected when the reformers destroyed the beauty of churches by whitewashing the walls and removing the statues, and replaced the boring but pious worship of God with a service that too often is about me me ME, and that guy next to me who wants a quick feel under the guise of the sign of peace.

The Latin mass was often jabbered quickly to a congregation that didn't understand and didn't care, goes the argument. 

True. I remember those days. But not always. Because maybe we didn't say the same prayers, but the reverence of the mass allowed us to lift up our minds and hearts to God, helped by the atmosphere of holiness, and the idea that God was coming to us in the sacrament.

And that is the point: The old pre Vatican II mass emphasized God and the transcendence.

And the Latin mass has a depth to it that too often is missing in the modern masses: it has roots in history:

In the UK region, where Catholicism was persecuted for centuries, it was said on the Mass rocks of Ireland and in secret in English houses which often contained priest holes to hide the priest from the inquisitors.

Which brings us to the Agatha Christie.

From Wikipedia:

Following the introduction of the Mass of Paul VI to replace the Tridentine Mass in 1969–1970, a petition was sent to the Pope asking that the Tridentine form of the Roman Rite be permitted to continue for those who wished in England and Wales.

...the petition noted the exceptional artistic and cultural heritage of the Tridentine liturgy, and was signed by many prominent non-Catholic figures in British society, including Agatha Christie, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Kenneth Clark, Robert Graves, F. R. Leavis, Cecil Day-Lewis, Nancy Mitford, Iris Murdoch, Yehudi Menuhin, Joan Sutherland and two Anglican bishops, those of Exeter and of Ripon.

Cardinal John Heenan approached Pope Paul VI with the petition and asked that use of the Tridentine Mass be permitted. On 5 November 1971, the Pope granted the request. Supposedly Paul had read the letter and exclaimed "Ah Agatha Christie!" and so decided to grant the request; giving the indult its nickname.

Because beauty matters: until modern times, the artist felt they had a mission to proclaim truth and beauty: not just in art and music, but in architecture, in ceremony, and in the beauty of the language used to express ourself.

headsup Fr Hunwike via Fr Z.

I was going to report the wonderful BBC Documentary with Roger Scuton: Why beauty matters, but it's been canceled by youtube or the BBC or someone else.

but it is still available at Internet archives: LINK or 

LINK

as for the mass: Thanks to Covid a lot of us were forbidden to attend. But that's another rant for another time.

M. Poirot call your office. We've lost the mass and can't find it.

News stories that make you go: Hmmm

 Diversity on StarTrek:

 (US Naval institute blog):

Captain Kirk’s team—Spock, McCoy, Scott, Uhura, Sulu, and Chekhov—represented both physical and cognitive diversity because creator Gene Roddenberry presented them as products of different cultures. Roddenberry’s bridge team preserved a sense of individual origin—yes, to a degree stereotypically—which led to many examples of their different approaches creating the problem or crisis solution...

Roddenbury was an ex L.A. Cop, so maybe his vision was that of old fashioned liberalism that saw this as a virtue. 

In contrast, the article notes the newer Startrek versions echo today's culture is monolithic, even when the individuals are diverse in colour and background. 

Interestingly, later iterations of the Enterprise, in which everyone seems more and more cast from the same mold, is a bridge where diverse origins and experiences do not shape the characters or their contributions to the plots as much as in the original version. Yes, they still save the universe in an hour, but the later version of unity tended to portray individual cultures as quaint legacies, not defining qualities.

================

Global voices has an article on Pacific islanders attending the global warming fest.

my question in these meeting is: Who paid for their expenses?

It's a good cause, but when you leave out that vital information, it is like awarding the nobel prise to the founder of Rappler without noting it got money from millionaires, who might or might not be CIA fronts.

-------------------

John Cleese fighting the wokes in the UK.

no, not for being in the worst film to be released this Christmas, i.e. Clifford the Red Dog, but because some college student is banning people who played Hitler, and so Cleese, tongue in cheek, figures he's better quit before someone cancels him for playing Hitler on Monty Python.

Heh. Whose next? Mel Brooks?

Or maybe Charlie Chaplin?

 

hmm... for some reason no one bothers to use satire to mock greater murderes like Mao or Stalin...

of course, China will punish you if you mock historical figures, although Xi has been mocked by this:

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still lots of stories out there about the kerfuffle over the vaccine vs anti vax types in the USA... 

but not a lot of news that the new anti virals will make the fight obsolete, in the same way that using horse serum for pneumonia or arsenical medicines for syphilis became obsolete after penicillin was released.

Speaking of horse serum: In the past, horses were used to make antibodies to treat severe illnesses such as pneumonia or snakebite or diphtheria.

But the allergy to horse serum could be fatal.

 in more recent years, hyperimmune globulin, using convelescent serum of someone who survived the disease, or using monoclonal antibodies is being used, not just for covid but for other disease.

Wikipedia:

Monoclonal antibody A monoclonal antibody is an antibody made by cloning a unique white blood cell. All subsequent antibodies derived this way trace back to a unique parent cell. Monoclonal antibodies can have monovalent affinity, binding only to the same epitope.

The experts say that this doesn't work and they have pooh poohed it by saying it doesn't improve the outcome.

Ah, but the problem is that the fatal part of the disease is not the virus but the reaction to the virus, a cytokine storm, and by the time this starts, not much will help you. But it does help if given early in the course of the disease.

But the good news for people whose anti body response is sluggish due to immune problem (e.g. cancer, diabetes, old age) that Regneron shows it protects people for up to eight months or more. 

so again, a game changer that is getting little publicity in the covid war of words.

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of course, the really big story that will get no publicity is that the Russian collusion story was really a hoax.

Place right wing conspiracy theory here.

Actually I'm so old that I remember when the CIA spying on Americans and against organizations organizing protests, manipulating the news and placing false flag stories was a left wing story.

Senator Church, call your office. They are at it again.