The typhoon came thru here Sunday night: as a signal five, but it weakened when it entered central Luzon so maybe it was only a signal four when it hit us.
My room is the one best protected (window faces the center of the compound, and the other window has a nearby wall) so we all were in my bedroom hunkered down: including five dogs...
the typhoon, which came up suddently and got strong quickly, changed again: from signal 5 to signal 4, and started traveling faster than predicted: It was supposed to be at the peak at midnight, but the eye passed over us at 10 pm, and the winds had pretty well stopped by 4 am.
The bad news is that it caused major damage. Long report from the Inquirer here.
there was a landslide nearby that buried and killed some people.
And many local people lost their roof, including our maid and the house owned by Joy's pastor. Alas, in shoddy houses, if the roof goes, the entire house goes, and of course many of the houses were flooded.
Sigh.
No electricity, and maybe none for another week. City water seems to be on, but our internet was off because no electricity for the office modem, and Joy's internet is completely out.
Our generator needed fixing, so for two days we used my backup generator, which is too small for the office but keeps us in fans and will run the refrigerator and even my airconditioner weakly if we don't add any other appliances. But now our large generator is fixed, so that is a help.
The neighbors are here getting their cellphone charged. People need cellphones to keep in touch with family etc.
I went out for the first time today. The center square plaza lost their large lovely tree, which fell across some of the food kiosk, but the ferris wheel looks intact.
our roof was damaged, and all of our banana trees were destroyed, and the fruit trees in our garden lost limbs.
But the bad news is that the winds flattened the almost rice rice crop, and even our rice storage bodega lost it's roof.
since the business lady that Kuya sold our last crop to has not paid him yet, we are already short money, and now might face a major loss in the summer crop. Not just us, of course, but all the rice and vegetable farmers in the area.
Sigh.
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update: Our rice delivery couldn't get to Manila yesterday due to debris/trees blocking roads but went today.
Right now, it is cloudy and a mild drizzle, but we are signal three, meaning things could get worse by tonight.
I hope the roof doesn't blow off again, and I hope it doesn't flatten the almost ripe rice crop.
And I hope there will be no major flooding.
One of the joys of living in the Philippines: we get typhoons but our area hasn't been hit badly this year, but this one looks like it will go right over us.
I will update later, but if things go bad usually we lose the internet (but still have cellphone connection and radio for news).
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3 pm no wind but heavy rains.
Everyone is getting candles and food, and the ATM will only dispense small 100 peso bills, meaning that it's almost empty.
“The Chinese government wants to cut off all forms of organizing and solidarity that run outside of the Communist Party’s control in Hong Kong,” William Nee, research and advocacy coordinator at Chinese Human Rights Defenders, said in an emailed response to questions. “The fact that Cardinal Zen is compassionate, caring, and well-respected in Hong Kong actually makes him a threat to the ruling authorities.”
the pesky Cajun reporter at EWTN discusses the response (actually lack of response) to this human rights atrocity.
............
One hopes that President Biden and other political leaders will pressure China...
The Pope is ignoring the story. Last year, when Cardinal Zen tried to deliver a letter to the Vatican about the problem of the church's agreement with China, the Pope refused to see him. And now it seems the pope seems to defending China's actions.
again from AlJ:
The Catholic Church has been criticised for failing to take a firmer stand over Zen’s arrest and trial.
After he was charged on May 24, pictured walking into court leaning heavily on a stick, the church released a short statement noting that he had pleaded not guilty and that it would “closely monitor” events.
“Cardinal Zen is always in our prayers and we invite all to pray for the Church,” it concluded.
On Thursday, when the pope was asked about religious freedom in China and Zen’s looming trial, he said that while it was “not easy to understand the Chinese mentality”, it had to be “respected”, according to a report in Catholic News.
Well, it worked for Will Smith. But a genie played by the usually dour Isdris Elba?
But how about a grownup story about a nerdish professor of mythology who accidentally releases a genie? Tilda Swinton plays the part perfectly: Indeed the main reason I decided to watch the film was her tendency to play off beat parts.
After accidentally releasing the genie, they argue about wishes: She points out that usually wishes granted easily tend to go bad, and he answers her by telling her about previous owners of his wishes (whose wishes do seem to give happiness before ending in tragedy).
I am not sure why I liked the film. Maybe because the plot was different: Although there was a genie, it wasn't a Marvel or Disney universe genie, nor a Hallmark type love story...and the stories told by the genie were.... different, albeit a bit depressing because ultimately the genie, who sought to give them wishes to make them happy, saw that his powers were futile to give them the happiness they wanted, and what he wanted (if he grants 3 wishes successfully, he gets his freedom).
The cinematography was beautiful, and although the lady professor was tart and intellectual, you end up liking and understanding her by the end of the film.
I usually post a trailer at this point, but both trailers on line miss the essence of the film's story, which is about longing, not special effects.
The theme song however does give you a hint of the melancholy searching for love that is the theme behind the film.
Joe Biden in at least two interviews claimed the epidemic of covid is over (a milder form is now endemic: sort of as covid morphed from killer flu that needed intervention to control the spread to an ordinary cold that will be with us forever).
....
Dr. C discusses, and one does hope that youtube won't censor him for quoting what any doctor knows about the vaccines: They did work, and saved lives.
but now that the pandemic is over, why the push on vaccinating low risk folk including children?
The newer varients don't kill except for a few high risk folk, and the shots don't give good protection.
but he points out that there is now a covalent vaccine that gives immunity against the newer strains: The problem is the lack of data in humans, including safety data (the experts assume the side effects are similar to the original vaccine). Eight mice confirm it works.
One hopes that Dr C doesn't get banned from Youtube for saying such things (he is, like myself, pro vaccine, but in publich health you have to know about side effects and efficiency of vaccines, and the way you do this is open discussion, not censoring anyone who dares to question the authorities).
theTablet has an article on how government officials pressured media and social networks like you tube etc. to ban publicizing the Great Barrington Declaration, that questioned the extensive use of the vaccines on low risk groups and the high cost of the extreme lockdowns.
To my shame, liberal media websites like the UKGuardian, which are usually sceptical of power pushes from governments and profit making ventures of Big Pharma, added their voice to silence the discussion.
the problem is made worse because private companies can censor stories and give their opinion, but when the government is behind this, it is against the first amendment.
Ironically, the way most ordinary folk found out the details of what was going on was by listening to Joe Rogan who let one of the docs behind this give his side of the story for two hours, transcript here.
---------------------------------
The big danger here is Dengue fever, not just here in the Philippines but also in other countries. LINK
TimesOfIndia discusses the problems of using a vaccine to stop Dengue: what kills you is the reaction to the disease, which causes the hemorrhagic type of sickness.
Background: a few docs pointed out that giving it to kids who had not had dengue in the past could cause the hemorrhagic type complication, and there was a natural suspicions that Filipino kids were being used as guinea pigs, (and of course locals wondered if maybe small gifts encouraged approval of giving out the vaccine),
One side effect: epidemics of other diseases such as measles because parents refused any vaccine for their kids.
another side effect: The DOH refused to approve of the Pfizer vaccine for covid that the US planned to send to the Philippines in January 2021, so we didn't start vaccinating until later in the year.
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And guess what? Ebola is breaking out in Uganda. Luckily they have a vaccine for this now, so it will probably be stopped before it kills a lot of folks. The problem: This is not the strain that the vaccine stopped in DRC, it is a strain from Sudan, so maybe the vaccine won't work as well as hoped.
actually let's not discuss behavior because it means you will be censored as a bigot.
So the full post was moved to my medical blog, where behaviors are part of the reason disease spreads. (what, you stopped wearing a mask? How dare you).
the US Navy has implemented a "don't ask don't tell" program for sailors, and pushing education on those with old fashioned ideas.
What is not discussed: The behavior.....
without discussing how this training goes against religious beliefs that some behavior is wrong, (italics mine) the end result might mean a lot of the best and brightest will either leave or will tell their kids not to join the service.
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Similarly, in this monkeypox in an infant report leaves out the question: Why is a small baby sleeping in the same bed as two caregivers, one of whom had done high risk behavior and started having symptoms three weeks before the child's rash started ? ......
NBC report about this, and the barriers to minority men who suspect they have the disease: not just the stigma against MSM, but the bureaucratic problems that stopped people from getting tested and treated properly, including the slowness in contacting possible contacts to the gentleman who first came down with symptoms, and the obstacles to getting the vaccine.....
And the problems of rural and inner city health outreach is not just about the black community, but about other minorities, including working class whites.
one of the crazier conspiracy theories is that airplane contrails are evil.
I always ignored this, mainly because the photos they posted to show all the contrails filling the sky ignored the fact that planes usually traveled on certain routes, meaning that it ignored the 80 percent of the sky that lacked contrails.
Sort of like showing a traffic jam on I 80 and pretending it represented this respresented not only the rest of the country's roads but the area of the country that lack roads.
The Chemtrail Conspiracy Theory is the belief that the tracks across the sky left by airplanes, usually called contrails, are actually composed of illness-causing or weather-controlling chemical elements actively being distributed to the populace by malevolent parties like the Illuminati or a secret government program. The conspiracy theory is widely discussed in forums online.
So today I ran across a post about the evil carbon producing airplanes, and the plans of the greens to destroy the air industry.
PhysOrg has a summary of an editorial in Nature magazine: about evil carbon emitting airplanes, and why we have to destroy the airline industry to save Mother Gaia, and way down in the article I spotted this
Achieving the levels of clean fuel adoption that many governments and firms aim for—and doing so sustainably—will require commercializing new production methods and feedstocks that are still technologically in their infancy.
And neither of these solutions are sure to address the climate impacts of contrails, which trap heat radiating from the earth's surface, causing warming in the atmosphere below.
WTF?
they go on to note that there are few studies about contrails, and that it is unknown if their impact is big or small, but hey they might be causing problems, so let's remake the airline industry just in case.
It's possible that the effects are small ... But the effects could also be massive—up to half the total climate impact of aviation, according to some studies—and require entirely new aviation technologies and approaches to cutting the impact of aviation on the climate. The study argues that addressing contrails may require profound overhauling of engines, airframes and onboard storage—big, costly and financially risky decisions. The authors urge for more experimentation to test what really could work—backed by government policies and industry collaborations.,,,
Translation: Send money.
as for that part about risky decisions? Duh. Not just financially but to people who travel on airplanes.
September 10, 2022: Currently China has 33 cities and about 65 million people under covid19 lockdowns. Those cities account for a disproportionate amount of the national GDP because factories in these cities supply vital components for manufacturing operations all over China, and the world.
The heavy use of lockdowns to achieve zero covid19 cases Initially (2020) this was a success and allowed China to claim far fewer covid19 deaths than it actually suffered. Other industrialized East Asian nations (South Korea, Taiwan, Japan and Singapore) adopted similar policies with similar success but also accurately reported covid19 deaths. This annoyed China, but worse was yet to come. Covid19 evolved into strains that spread more easily but were much less likely to kill. The other East Asian nations adjusted to this and did not use large scale shutdowns because of the economic damage. These nations trusted their citizens to test themselves and self-quarantine if infected. China was not as trusting of its citizens and continued with large scale lockdowns that did more damage to the Chinese economy without reducing covid19 deaths much.
Another difference with China was their refusal to buy the more effective Western mRNA vaccines or license the technology. There were hacking efforts against the mRNA vaccine developers early on but those hacks failed to get the mRNA tech. China used less- effective vaccines developed locally. These vaccines were less successful in preventing infections and this resulted in strict lockdowns to overcome this problem. China now has an mRNA vaccine design that is being tested.
the scandal was not because of the problem, but because the anti vax types noticed this first, but it took months for the government to admit they had a problem.
Here in Asia, there is a genetic factor that causes sudden death (we lost a cousin and our cook lost her son from this). But now there is a report that Japan is planning to put automatic defibrillators in schools. making one wonder if there has also been an increase in sudden cardiac deaths in recent years.
Almost all schools in Japan now have an AED, and cases of sudden cardiac death have been gradually decreasing. However, 12 children died in 2017 of cardiac arrest in schools, accounting for about 20 percent of all deaths in schools that year.
Here in the Philippines, the death rate has stablized:
here everything is open and things are busy: And in the farms folks are busy at the rice fields. (Hope that the typhoons stay away).
But we are seeing dengue cases but no one has sprayed the open drainage ditches yet.
I had two AZ shots, but didn't get the booster even when the mRNA shot became available because it gave limited immunity against omicron and newer covid versions.
However, there is now a bivalent vaccine that is supposed to hit them, and Moderna is going to make it in Japan.
In other covid news:
Lancet, is now continuing to publish Chinese propaganda saying no it wasn't a Chinese lab leak, but it was probably the US lab fault.
But Dr. C analyzes the poor public health response by WHO and other experts. Since he has been warned by Youtube not to push non approved opinions he happily quotes Lancet who after two years finally got around to admitting what any doc with public health experience knows.
synthetic opioids such as Nitazene, which is stronger than Fentanyl, have been seen in Europe and in the USA for a couple of years, but now seem to be spreading in the USA.
During 2019–2021, a total of 52 nitazene-involved fatal drug overdoses were identified using TN SUDORS data, including no cases in 2019, 10 in 2020, and 42 in 2021
the average person was a middle aged white male, but the article notes that many overdose deaths from this new synthetic opioid are probably missed since the specific test is not done in many areas.
So where is this coming from? Anyone? Anyone?
well, a simple google shows you where you can buy it (you don't even have to go to the dark web to find it)
Place of Origin:ChinaBrand Name:HuiduoCertification:SGSModel Number:Lab Research Chemical
who brags you can buy it from them instead of buying it on the street where you can't be sure of the quality of the drug.
The substance is one of the latest products of our specialists. Its formula was improved and researched and now it is ready to be sold online. To provide our customers with the opportunity to test the substance our online vendor offers to purchase online a sample of this legal powder at a reasonable price and free delivery. For the smaller research chemicals suppliers which are intended to resell the substance we can consider the wholesale terms of collaboration in order to promote the substance at the research chemicals market and among the clients. You can also figure out a lot of other already well known designer chemicals for sale at our web-site.
The substance can bring a lot of pleasant emotions. The lasting of this legal powder is extremely long and it causes absolutely no comedown. You can enjoy the mild euporia from the substance or it can help you to stimulate your organism to work longer. But there will be no consequences the day after.
The process of research chemical online purchase here is simple. You need to fill in the electronic order from at the page of item you have chosen, then pay for the package and then wait. The delivery of product will not take long.
While several substances in this class have found applications in research, they have never been used in clinical medicine due to their profound risk of respiratory depression and death,.
But hey, the US government is right up there stopping this legal drug use:
I didn't expect to enjoy this film: It has a plucky female character, an environmental theme, it was about the South of the USA, and it was a NYTimes Best Seller. All of which would make you expect a PC story that hits all the woke buttons.
The first clue that I might like it was that when I checked out Rotten Tomatoes, and found that the critics panned it but the audience loved it.
And indeed, when I watched it, I was surprised to find I enjoyed it.
It had all the things that I enjoy in movies: Good cinematrography, sympathetic characters, and a plot:
Actually several plots: A love story (two boyfriends actually, one who is good and the other who is just an ordinary jerk).
And the plot of how she worked to survive against all odds, and even found a way to pay taxes on her family's land by becoming an author.
And of course, the main plot is a "who done it" story, where the Atticus Finch type lawyer gets our plucky girl declared innocent of murder of her rotten rapist.
Unlike many Hollywood films, where the female protagonist is cookie cutter pretty (and looks like every other actress even when they are of different races), the British actress playing Kya, Daisy Edgar Jones, was ordinary looking: not Hallmark channel pretty made to look "plain" but actually plain with the shy, flat affect of a character who is stoical in the face of hardship, but who is shy when around other people.
The townfolk are seen as unsympathetic but not as evil cliches, just people involved in their own lives who don't see the outsiders or those who are different.
The exception is the black shop keeper who buys shellfish from her: his wife quotes the Bible to him when he worries that befriending a white girl might get them in trouble.
Yes, someone quotes the Bible without making fun of it. And Kya uses the family bible to prove she is the heir to own the land where her home is located.
(I should explain to non Americans, in the US people traditionally write down the deaths and births and marriages in the front of their family bible, which is then passed down to the eldest child who continues the custom)
But the real "religion" here is love of nature and the care of the land and it's creature (this love of nature was done perfectly: As a country person would see it, in practical terms, not as PC woke city environmentalism)......
Behind this is the crime drama. Did sweet Kya kill the man who raped her, or was it an accident?
Yes, there are holes in the plot, but no worse than a film showing Galadriel swimming 300 miles back to middle earth, or Tom Cruise just happening to find a fully armed and ready F14 to steal.
so if you want to see a nice movie to distract you from worrying if the FBI might show up to steal your cellphone because you pray the rosary and once bought a pillow from the my pillow guy, there are better ways to do it.
it was election day so many arrived a bit late for work and were not inside when the first plane hit.
And the area of the Pentagon that was hit had recently been reinforced and was half empty, so that area did not have a full number of employees there.
As for the Plane in Shanksville: The crash was viewed by a small corporate jet that was headed into Johnstown airport.
If you have ever flown into Reagan National Airport, you know they were probably aiming for the easily seen Capital building, not the WH which is hard to see in the air
one of the most important diseases in world history is malaria. The weaker forms tend to result in chronic malaise/fatigue, but the severe form, falciparum malaria, can be fatal, especially to children and those without immunity.
When I was in Zimbabwe, two of our nuns (one European, one local) developed cerebral malaria:
The local tribe had no resistance since they traditionally lived in the highlands where it wasn't a problem; so when the Europeans displaced some of them to take over their land, they were resettled in a nice, fertile area as a replacement. What was not noticed was that this new area was at a lower altitude, so there were many deaths from malaria in those resettled.
We tested all those from outside our area for malaria, but didn't see many cases due to the altitude.
But when I worked in Liberia, we had many cases, and even though I was on chloroquin prophylaxis, I developed malaria which we treated with an antibiotic.
The problem is that the most virulent strain of malaria has developed resistance to many anti malarial medicines.
Chloroquine-resistant P. falciparum first developed independently in three to four areas in Southeast Asia, Oceania, and South America in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Since then, chloroquine resistance has spread to nearly all areas of the world where falciparum malaria is transmitted.
P. falciparum has also developed resistance to nearly all of the other currently available antimalarial drugs, such as sulfadoxine/pyrimethamine, mefloquine, halofantrine, and quinine. Although resistance to these drugs tends to be much less widespread geographically, in some areas of the world, the impact of multi-drug resistant malaria can be extensive. Most recently, resistance to the artemisinin and non-artemisinin components of artemisinin-based combination therapy has emerged in parts of Southeast Asia, impacting the efficacy of this vital antimalarial class.
thanks to the greens, the use of DDT, which was cheap and non toxic to humans, was essentially banned and it took time to replace spraying with more toxic insecticides.
Thanks to the Gates foundation, the push to use mosquito nets and to drain standing water where the mosquitos breed, has helped.
But you need a multi factorial approach, so vaccines will also help: even if they aren't perfect, they will lower the death rate in infants and of course if the parasite can't live in most of the local humans, the spread will go down.
late last year there were reports of a malaria vaccine. the hope about this was that it would hit the falciparum form, that is most lethal and is more resistant to anti malarial medicines.
But now the BBC (and Lancet) reports initial studies suggest 70 to 80 percent protection.
A good discussion here: Start at 9 minutes if you are in a hurry.
update: Even Mickey Mouse got into the fight against malaria in World War II:
Usually one only hears of the ditzy actors and actresses who are busy moaning and virtue signalling on the Issue of the day.
But some actors work behind the scenes with little publicity to actually do something: and one actor, Gary Sinese, best known as Lt Dan in Forest Gump, is one of them.
He has been working with veterans since 1994 but became more active after 911.
I remember after Sept. 11, 2001, I just found this aching, this terrible feeling, this broken heart, this sadness, and I remember going to our little Catholic Church on the Friday after the Tuesday. And the priest, I don't even know if he said this, but I heard it, that service to others can be a great way to heal your broken heart. And I don't know if he said it, but I heard it, and I tried to turn that into action.
again from the knoxville interview:
the Lt. Dan story for a wounded veteran, is the exact story that we want for every wounded veteran. Maybe not so much the post-traumatic stress side of it and the isolation side of it. We don't want that. But quite often because of what they've been through in trauma in getting blown up or getting shot up or something like that, they're going to go through that. That's a natural response to a traumatic event. But what we also want is the ending of that story of Lt. Dan, where they're standing up there making peace with God. They're making peace with themselves for for the guilt that they may may hold.
when Clinton ran for president, his slogan was: It's the economy stupid.
Right now, the Philippines is getting back to normalcy: but are our OFW getting their jobs back?
And what about local investment? BBMarcos is busy trying to make ties to nearby countries such as Singapore, Korea, Indonesia... and where does China vs the US investments come into this? I'm not sure: I'm sure the human rights types who look the other way when China puts a million Uighars into reeducation camps will hyperventillate if Marcos arrests a few human rights types who actually are helping local terror groups under the thesis that these mlitants love poor people (I saw this in Africa, so it's not a Philippine problem).
But anyway, right now there are shortages of salt and sugar. And things might be worse because we import a lot of food.
I am not an expert in the economy, but we do grow organic rice and are in the early rice crop season, and the price of fertilizer including organic fertilizer, and pesticies has gone way up.,,,,,,
to make things worse, the businesslady who bought last year's crop has not paid for it yet.
Luckily we have some savings to keep the farm running, but one wonders how many farmers will go bankrupt, caught in the trap of increased prices to grow food and investors who cheat to increase prices of food and encourage importation of food instead of investing in local farmers.
will this result in large agribusinesses buying up land from these bankrupt (and often aging) farmers, and the end result being more efficent agriculture?
On the other hand, there is a limit to how much land any person can own (which is why we subcontract a lot of our crops). And there is a ban on outsiders owning local real estate and businesses (although traditionally this is worked around by outsiders marrying a local gal and putting the land/business in her name).
So will our area, which grows a lot of the rice and veggies for Manila, be essentially lost to development?
Maybe... but Kuya notes that with the local roads being improved that investors are buying up rice fields near these roads for development (country houses, resorts, factories, etc).
and the big problem right now is the shortage of fertilizer and the increase in the price of diesel/LPG...part of this a world wide problem due to the shortage of natural gas because of Russia but also because of green policies (Biden's policies changed America from an exporter to an importer of fossil fuels).
But never mind.
Corruption is a big problem, and one that the churches should be paying attention to instead of having the Pope push love of mother earth and the Catholic bishops here in the Philippines opposing investment in fossil fuels that would keep local prices down and help the poor...(one bishop actually dared to whisper that they needed to pay more attention to the plight of the poor, but one doesn't know if he means doing something practical to improve the economy and get jobs for the poor, or just getting a photo op to show they love the poor).
a lot of this is complicated, and here is a discussion of the problem that brings up a lot of these issues.
the cinematography of ROP is beautiful. This is important, since I often criticize the visual choices of films.
But who wrote the script? That was my problem.
Galadrial as warrior? Fine. Taking the place of Finrod, her brother who was killed. Fine. But you know, she isn't very nice. Well, officers don't have to be nice, but they do have to have common sense, and a toughness that enables them to survive the stresses of combat. And this includes attention to logistics and the welfare of your men, which Galadriel doesn't seem to have. (the mutiny of her men in the face of starving and freezing to death suggest she needs to go to Officer Training school).
War is not a one person fight.
So where is Feanor? And the other brothers? Or the men who helped defend the elven kingdoms against Morgoth and company?
Toward the end of episode one, the elves were allowed to go back to elvenhome... But what about their allies? In Tolkien's legendarium, the men that helped them in the fight also were given a safe haven island, i.e. Numenor. Was this mentioned or did I miss it?
When the elves were told they could go back to elvenhome, they went on a ship... standing up in the boat. Uh, what if the sundering seas got choppy? And Galadriel changes her mind and jumps into the water? What was that about? She's now a marathon swimmer?
The hobbits were nice, and one almost wishes that the script writer would have framed the story as being told by a surviving hobbit...
I am leaving out the woke stuff: because the woke stuff is the least problem of part one.
Making hobbits black (not all of them, just some of them)? No problem (the Harfoots did have darker skin than the othet hobbit tribes). But there are other forms of prejudice you know, and the Irish Times was annoyed at the dumb Irish cliches:
for Irish viewers the $1 billion series evokes less welcome memories. It features a race of simpleton proto-hobbits, rosy of cheek, slathered in muck, wearing twigs in their hair and speaking in stage-Irish accents that make the cast of Wild Mountain Thyme sound like Daniel Day-Lewis.
Tolkien was famous for his attention to detail, and one of the reasons that the Jackson films worked was that Jackson retold the story without too many distortions, and allowed fan input to pressure him into keeping close to the story. In contrast, Amazon didn't ask for fan input until a few months ago.
as a result, they lacked feedback that would have helped them clarify the holes in the plot, and maybe even notice how the time and energy trying to be woke actually distracted from their real problem: Telling the story to make it enjoyable.
All of this is about part one: One does hope the plots improve in later episodes.
Dr C has been threatened by Youtube for giving out "disinformation" about covid.
So his revenge is to actually quote the scientific articles, and pointing out their contradictions.
.
there is a question about giving covid vaccine to pregnant women (as I have noted in the past, one of our friend's daughter died of covid because she refused the vaccine due to pregnancy, and another lost her baby at 7 months for the same reason).
So if you ask if women should risk getting the vaccine in areas where the original Covid virus is circulating, I say yes.
But what no one seems to notice is that a lot of the instructions being pushed on people assumes the original toxic covid is around: And the dirty little secret is that things have changed. Not only is there herd immunity but the newer strains have a much lower mortality (and are usually only fatal in those of us with medical problems, such as diabetes, obesity, asthma, or old age).
Given that there are now only mild version of the covid virus shouldn't the public be educated in the risk/benefit ratio? I mean, if the experts censor the actual data that points out the lower risk of newer covid strains then maybe low risk people might not get the shot, but on the other hand being honest might improve the trust of ordinary folks (and people who distrust the medical experts include not only anti vaxers but the black community).
I am reading about rumors of miscarriage rates after the shot, and this disinformation is frightening a lot of women.
But what is not being discussed; the risk benefit ratio. What exactly is the risk (including long term risk) of getting the shot during pregnancy?
Should we avoid it in early pregnancy, or is there a cardiac risk for mom and baby later in pregnancy? Will the danger of blood clots mean a small percentage of women later in prenancy will have placental damage?
And does the risk data apply to getting the original vaccine, or does it apply to those getting boosters? And what about boosters in people who already had the basic vaccine and are now pregnant?
So in discussing the issue, Dr. C quotes the science:
Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), Pfizer Limited & BioNTech Manufacturing, GmbH
https://www.gov.uk/government/publica...
Updated, 16th August, 2022
Reproductive and developmental toxicity
Fertility and early embryonic development and embryofoetal development
A combined fertility and developmental study (including teratogenicity and postnatal investigations) in rats is ongoing.
Prenatal and postnatal development, including maternal function
No such studies have been done.
Studies in which the offspring (juvenile animals) are dosed and/or further evaluated
No such studies have been done.
Local tolerance
No such studies have been done.
The assessments made as part of the general toxicity study should suffice and a separate study is not needed.
Other toxicity studies
No such studies have been done.
Translation: Yes the experts say to give the vaccine to your pregnant patients, but there is no scientific data showing this is safe.
No wonder he gets into trouble.
Now, I suport giving the vaccine to high risk folk, but what about giving the vaccine to low risk folk when the virus going around now is not much of a danger to them?
for example, should you get your baby a covid shot? The MMR/CDC report on giving covid to toddlers and infants show that most of the side effects are mild... but the data is self reported and only covers the first week after the shot.
approximately 23,266 children were enrolled in v-safe after mRNA COVID-19 vaccination.
The most frequent systemic reactions reported to v-safe after receipt of Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines were irritability or crying among approximately one half of children aged 6 months–2 years.
Italics mine.
Among children aged ≥3 years, systemic reactions after vaccination were less frequently reported; injection site pain was the most frequently reported reaction among these older children.
VAERS received a total of 1,017 reports of adverse events after Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccination among children aged 6 months–4 years and children aged 6 months–5 years; 998 (98.1%) events were classified as nonserious and 19 (1.9%) as serious. No reports of myocarditis after vaccination were reported.
So should we worry that half the babies getting the shot got irritable?
But if the irritability after the older pertussis vaccine suggested a tiny percentage of kids developed encephalitis, could the irritability of kids after covid suggest the same thing?
my take in all of this: The original Covid was bad. But the newer strains are mild.
The vaccines did protect against the original strain, but don't work well against the newer (weak) strains, meaning you have to get boosters every couple of months or so to get partial protection.
So give it to high risk folk.
and maybe get a vaccine that actually works against these newer less lethal strains of covid.
For me, I got the AZ vaccine but no boosters for this reason.
if they get a new vaccine that actually works against the newer strains I will reconsider getting a booster.
IN the Philippines, covid deaths are low, case reports are low, but community surveillence suggests a lot of people have mild cases and are not getting tested
For example, Dr. Angie takes the test regularly and when one of the employees tested positive, told our cook who sleeps there at night, and the maid who is in close contact with that employee, to get tested. The maid refused saying she was afraid of catching covid at the testing lab. The cook merely laughed and said Dr A is not God and she wasn't sick. (meaning she didn't want to quarantine for a week if the test was positive).
Now, last year, our drivers needed a negative test every time they delivered rice to Manila. But now testing is not required.
And of course, the dirty little secrets is that the rapid tests might not be completely accurate... If you pay more and wait, the blood tests are probably accuate.
But I am only aware of one neighbor in his 30s who died of a heart attack two months ago and he was an alcoholic so probably not vaccine related (although shabu always comes to mind when young people die of strokes or heart attacks).
Ironically despite the dengue vaccine debacle a couple years ago, most people here are going along with getting the shots, maybe because they trusted Duterte. Will they also trust BBMarcos? Reports he is clamping down on populist organizers of the left who might have spuported anti government militants does not look promising, but it's too soon to judge his actions. A lot depends if the crime rate goes up, if the drug use goes up, and if the economy provides jobs. Given the increase in price of fertilizer and diesel, he has a lot of challenges on his plate.
I have complained in the past about modern films which are deliberately filmed dark or with ugly cinematography (especially Disney recent films like AWIT or nutcracker but also in films such as the Green Knight) where the cinematography and costume designs/ color decisions are bad.
In contrast, Hallmark films and K Dramas have decent cinematography.
So when even the BBC notes that Dark Biden made a speech where his handlers didn't consider the background it makes you wonder who planned this speech which was billed as Biden trying to unite the divided country.
Don't they have friends from Hollywood who know how to light and frame the speech? When you lose the BBC (which otherwise is trying to make the article pro Biden), you know you have a problem.
On television, however, the mood came across a bit differently. The close focus of the camera meant the president was only framed in the dark red portions of the building. It made it look as though he were delivering his speech from the gates of hell - a mood only accentuated by the darker moments of his text.
Question: With whom is the United States currently at war?
...So if this is a “wartime address,” as Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson described it to Joe Scarborough on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, who’s the enemy?
Since I pray the rosary, I am part of the enemy of course, even though I didn't vote for Trumpieboy and am a registered Democrat. Because the demonization of believing Catholics is being done.
and no I didn't watch Biden's speech: I have a life and live in the Philippines so rarely watch US news reports.
update: Libertarian blogger AnnAlthouse who often parses sentences and analyzes how words are used in newspaper articles in her blog, analyzes the speech.
