The Pope is pushing the green religion and vaccines.
and hey, when it comes to following the rules on sex, who am I to judge?
Everyone comes to communion because hey judas received the sacrament so you can too.
Huh? This implies the Holy Sacrament is not Jesus, but just a piece of bread to make you feel warm and fuzzy inside.
Yup. New age religion. and I won't even get into the worship of pagan idols under the guise of multiculturalism (an Amazon idol to try to make the Amazon Indians feel good about their cultures that include kidnapping women, infanticide etc, but not noticing that like a lot of South Americans, the Amazon Indians are becoming good Protestants).
Never mind it is outside his area of expertise: And until he solves the heretics and pervert problems and tries to clean up the Vatican Bank none of us will take him seriously. Even though about half of what he says is good, he then goes and does or says something that makes one wonder: Is the Pope Catholic?
But for some reason, it is the Latin Mass supporters who really bug him.
Not important to me, but for me the problem is about reverence in the mass, not about language, so why pick on them?
Even Cardinal Robert Sarah commented what was the problem: they only want to pray, so why try to stop them?
Catholic trivia: That is exactly why Teresa of Avila, a medieval Catholic nun who was reforming her convent, said when everyone got their knickers in a knot about her nuns following the old fashioned rules instead of the lax ones that allowed luxury and laziness instead of poverty and prayer.
the elephant in the room is the failure to stop the predators who exploited teenage boys, and I saw in Altoona how the (pro gay) psychologist who advised the bishop and the (pro gay) priests in some areas like State College (put paterno link here). Ah, but the real problem was all those old fashioned Catholic coal miners with "bathtub madonnas" in their yards who disliked it when the reformers destroyed their traditional churches to make them modern (looking more like airport lounges than churches).
Well anyway, did anyone notice now that a lot of VIP types were caught at Epstein island with underage girls, that the MSM seems to be publishing articles trying to normalize pedophilia?
This is the link on Instapundit.
DISPATCHES FROM WEIMAR AMERICA: USA Today Tries to Destigmatize Pedophilia, Fails Miserably. “The article quoted no psychologist or forensic researcher with a different viewpoint on pedophilia – those who might rather characterize it as a severe mental disorder rather than a sexual orientation. It only gives a passing mention that the well-being and protection of children should be society’s top priority when it comes to handling such disorders.
Instead, the article keeps asserting the need for treatment, allowing pedophiles to live openly without fear of social ostracization, not accounting for the risks involved. USA Today took a beating on social media for the article and subsequently deleted a tweet defending its controversial position…The New York Times, Vice, Salon, and many other outlets have also attempted to destigmatize pedophilia in one way or another.”
Hmm...
Wasn't one of the conspiracy theories from Q (not the anons) was that a lot of big shots were involved in pedophilia and sex trafficking?
the guy said he allowed the docs to do this because it was this or die. That might not be true but suggest coercion on the part of the physicians.
The problem is not tranplanting a pig heart (that is merely a technical problem) but trying to stop the human body from destroying it as a foreign tissue. Which means the patient will have to take a lot of anti rejection drugs that destroy his immunity against germs.
Although pigs can be bred in such a way that all known exogenous microorganisms are eliminated, this is not feasible for all endogenous pathogens, such as the porcine endogenous retroviruses (PERVs) which are present in the germline of pigs as proviruses. Upon transplantation, PERV proviruses would be transferred to the human recipient along with the xenograft. If xenotransplantation stimulates or facilitates replication of PERVs in the new hosts, a risk exists for adaptation of the virus to humans and subsequent spread of these viruses. In a worst-case scenario, this might result in the emergence of a new viral disease.
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In the Philippines, they changed to electronic voting machines to stop the fraud (ballot boxes in the back room with fake ballots to change the election. Hello Garci..)
we also saw a few cases of some type of hemorrhagic fever when I worked in Africa, but no epidemics. I never did find what germ caused it, but it didn't spread person to person.
But other viruses can result in hemorrhagic rashes, from severe measles to yellow fever to Rocky Mountain Spotted fever.
And of course, don't forget the Bubonic plague, a few cases a year which are diagnosed on the Navajo reservation or nearby, mainly in hunters who have contact with animals.
And of course, every time we have flooding (where people wade through the water to get around) we get epidemics of Leptospirosis, which can cause a similar symptoms. This is easily treatable with antibiotics if they are given early, but a lot of folks just ignore the early symptoms and get treated too late.
These things are just the regular diseases that go around all the time, and the public health authorities usually figure them out and keep them from becoming an epidemic.
Which is why, as a physician, I am aghast about the anti CDC and anti modern medicine opinions I am seeing on the internet.
The injection of politics into the covid epidemic is the cause of this, and it does not bode well if a really scary epidemic pops up, i.e. an epidemic that kills more than 2 percent of the population (and those dying often have health problems or are old).
In local news, we are in the midst of a surge of cases, as I mentioned in previous blog posts.
and with the new Omnicron variant spreading like wildfire, the DOH is worried that hospitals will not be able to cope with all their personnel in quarantine, so they have shortened the time of quarantine for those who are not sick but test positive.
In the meanwhile, Joy's mom who lives in Bulacan is sick with a chest infection: no one else is sick there, and she has severe Parkinson's disease, so it might just be aspiration pneumonia or a cold. But keep her in your prayers.
the entire family has had 2 shots of the vaccine, but of course if it is omnicron you still catch it and spread it.
But Joy's mom is essentially bedridden so never got the vaccine, and has not been tested to see if this is covid. Why not? Because it won't change her treatment (inhalers, antibiotics, supportive care).
Something to remember when you read about the statistics.
In my previous blogpost, I posted a priest who is a physician with contacts in the poorer neighborhoods in Manila, reporting that omnicron is going around and will probably stop the epidemic. videolink
and yes we are in a surge, and some hospitals are full or having problems with staffing, but notice not a lot of deaths:
The big problem is that it is hitting the provinces, where a lot of folks didn't get the vaccine: So the gov't is worried about any information that might discourage folks from being vaxxed.
So one answer is to shoot the messenger: For example, This Inquirer editorial supposedly refutes the priest's claim that omnicron will result in a lot of cases, but is mild, and will give you immunity. And that the ultimate result will be the end of the epidemic.
How dare he say that, says the editorial.
But it doesn't note that the doctor didn't make up the claim, but was quoting experts from both South Africa and Europe, including Dr. C.
The editorial also condemns the priest for saying that people are self treating at home:
But the editorial didn't make it clear that the priest is not causing the self treatment, but he is reporting what is already going on: (italics mine)....Something I have also observed.
as for blaming people for buying tylenol to treat their symptoms (instead of what alternative?)
Excuse me, there have been shortages of medicines here for a couple of weeks, not just tylenol but NSAIDs anti histamines and presumably other medicines.
The editorial is just echoing the govt/DOH here, in the same way that the US MSM echoes but doesn't question the US CDC.
as for anti vax stuff, I live a block from the Plaza where they are giving out shots, and there is now a line stretching 3 blocks, around the block to the east end of our compound.
the maid claims they are all getting boosters, but most of them look like young folk, not us old fogies who had the booster first, so our shots are 4 or 5 months old.
The editorial talks about the anti vax movement here, but it is not a big thing (what, does the DOH think there are a lot of right wing fundamentalist white racist Trump supporters in the provinces? DUH. ).
Give me a break: a lot of people didn't get the shot because they were working.
Farmers had a harvest, and to get the shot it meant taking an entire day off, and maybe finding they ran out of cards or vaccine so they'd have to come back.
Reality check: there is a fatalism here when it comes to disease: (although the middle class is Americanized enough to make health a priority).
So when Father reports people in the barangays (as opposed to the gated communities) who aren't that sick are staying home and self medicating: Well, he is just reporting what is happening in the barangays (not the gated communities of the rich). A lot of poor elderly died at home during the worse time of the epidemic, and there is no way of knowing if it was covid related or if it was heart attack/stroke or congestive heart failure that caused their shortness of breath (often from diabetes or high blood pressure, and maybe because they couldn't afford their medicine due to unemployment).
Unlike covid2, the Omnicron virus is airborne and can spread at a distance. So masks don't help. And that means spread through the crowded poor neighborhoods even if you obey the rules,
One dirty little secret in the USA about the high rate of covid deaths in minority communities was because, because even in the USA, they live in extended families in the same home.
That the editorial suggests people are catching it deliberately ignores this fact, and one wonders where they got that information? Did they do a poll asking people: hey when your neighbor was sick with omnicron, did you go to his house and ask him to cough in your face?
No, probably what happened is that someone went to the palenke and caught it, came into your house and then voila, everyone got infected, some got minor sniffles and a few started to cough.
Not deliberate but accidental.
Its not so much that people are getting the disease deliberately, but that it is so infectious that you catch it easily despite masks etc.
and with the problem of getting tested, why the complaint that they are self treating cold symptoms at home instead of waiting in line to get a test?
Father is right: If you have a cold, stay home and self medicate. Why not, since there is essentially no treatment unless you manage to buy black market Ivermectin, which the DOH is also trying to stop being prescribed.
The good news is that the imposition of martial law will not happen here under Duterte because the left doesn't trust him, and remembers Marcos.
That might not be true under the next president.
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update: a poor neighbor came for money because her kid is in the hospital. No not covid: they suspect dengue fever.
Just a reminder that there are other things out there that can make you sick.
I posted a video the other day on my facebook account, by a priest/physician who described how Covid was affecting our people in the barangays (the press tends to report the elite news and official news).
The physician priest here explains how many people at the start of the epidemic just died quietly at home, but now he notices that not everyone is being tested... there are a lot of folks out there with the sniffles who are just self isolating at home and using symptomatic treatment...meaning the statistics are not accurate.
I post the link again because this is what we also see in our area.
In the meanwhile, there are still lines in the plaza waiting to get their shot and/or booster. (Since it is cool and dry outside, it's safer to give it outdoors).
Since they now need a paper to get in some businesses, I suspect many unvaxed will get it.
But although there may be a couple hundred people there in line, notice our town has over 50 thousand living here, so put the numbers into perspective.
I had to laugh at blogs posting that Duterte said he's force people to stay indoors or else. The US press seems clueless that Duterte uses irony and hyperbole and humor when he says these things, and here everyone knows that.
But the press and NWO prefer to pretend he is a murderous dictator, blaming all murders on him (even private paybacks and drug dealers murdering snitches) while ignoring that we lost several neighbors in home invasion robberies by drug addicts...not to mention the pre Duterte hits between various political clans that killed bystander, including our nephew...and there is another election coming up....
Here, our main worry is that Joy's elderly mom is sick....as is her whole family in Bulacan...Joy got over sniffles,
Cold or Omnicron? one day someone will get a test and we will figure it out. But why test if you are not too sick.
and I am not sick anymore, but as I tapered off my prednisone, I relapsed with asthma... I finally figured out it was because the maid bought a generic form from a cheap pharmacy, and it doesn't work. They try to keep cheap drugs out of the Philippines, but counterfeit drugs, which are often not fake but contain a lot lower amount of the drug... this is a major problem in Asia: mainly from China (and India), which is why sometimes we used known generic names or brand name medicines, when it is important not to underdose treatment.
In the USA, I cannot judge what is going on: I remember living overseas in the days of Ronald Reagan, who the press said was going to start World War III, kill old people by cutting Social Security, etc etc....and how much hysteria was in the news back then, so I take a lot of the nonsense with a grain of salt.
And now of course things are worse.
the latest "headsup"about this mass hysteria is that it is a "Mass formation psychosis" LINK
this is getting a lot of "pushback"and denial on mainstream news sites, but you know, such things are not new: Think Tulipmania.
Scott Adams (Dilbert) has discussed a lot of this in his recent podcasts. LINK and he not only analyzes the spin by various people, but notes that the problem with the Dr Malone interview with Joe Rogan (which started this conversation) was one sided, without free give and take with some other expert who might point out the problems with his argument.
JoeRoganDrMalone on bitchute. Bitchute is quite toxic, so I hate to go there, and I have been too lazy to listen or even read the entire thing.
But the politicization of the epidemic is not helping matters, nor is the hysteria against those who don't want a newfangled vaccine.
Here, because the DOH refused to sign liablity papers to get the Pfizer vax a year ago, we are behind in shots, but we are using all sorts of vaccines from all over the world that use different ways to manufacture the vaccines.
So is there is anti mRNA vax hysteria in the USA, why don't they just let those suspicious of the new mRNA vaccine have a choice to be given other vaccines that use older technology, i.e. AZ or J&JSputnik adenovirus template, or the lousy Sinovax, which uses an inactivated virus?
The crazy anti vaxers don't seem to notice that there are a lot of choices out there, probably because it's not being publicized or made available. As for side effects: part of this hysteria is because they are giving it low risk folks now, and people don't want to risk it: that is not true for high risk folk, who have a good cost benefit ratio.
a pox on both their houses.
I can see the hysteria types now grabbing on to the anti vax to demonize the left. A pox on them.
But on the other hand, why does the left pretends the ordinary Trumpites, i.e. the tens of thousand of folks who attended the peaceful demonstration at the mall are the same as the many peaceful protesters who were invited into congress by security guards and took selfies, and publicizing the few who got excited there and destroyed things? indeed, you can see it is propaganda because the press always shows a photo of the so called qanon shaman, (a mentally ill guy who demonstrated for both left and right wing causes in the past ).
It's enough to be paranoid and wonder if manipulation is going on. So is there a the plan of control?
But there are serious questions out there:
Why is there such hysteria and even legal sanctions against physicians for carefully prescribing HydroChloroquin or Ivermectin, both of which are legal drugs, and drugs which some of us have used for our patients in the past? Dr. Malone brings up this question in his interview.
In the past, there was no legal reason doctors can't use them off label: we do this all the time, with our patient's permission.
Indeed, I am old enough to remember when HIV positive patients had to fight a pompous Dr Fauci like bureaucrat at the CDC to use experimental or off label drugs that they thought might save their lives. The movie the Dallas Buyers Club.
But it doesn't note that he didn't make up the claim, but was quoting experts from both South Africa and Europe, including Dr. C, that the Omnicron gives immunity.
as for his comments that people are self treating at home: He did not cause this, because he is reporting what is already going on: Something I have also observed.
The govt/DOH here resembles the US CDC.
as for anti vax stuff, I live a block from the Plaza where they are giving out shots, and there is now a line stretching 3 blocks, around the block to the east end of our compound.
Its not so much that people are getting the disease deliberately, but that it is so infectious that you catch it easily despite masks etc.
and with the problem of getting tested, why the complaint that they are self treating cold symptoms at home instead of waiting in line to get a test?
The plaza downtown is still full of folks trying to get their vax/boosters. The cook, whose original vax is over 6 months old, will try to get it again if the lines aren't too long. Yesterday, they ran out of card, so we'll see what happens today.
Lots of retired elderly in town, and lots of folks who will need a vax card to work....
I will wait til next week since I am still on Prednisone taper for my asthmatic bronchitis, although I am completely well otherwise.
But the latest change in our area is the question: Where did all the cats go?
Yesterday, Mama Cat, who had four kittens ten days ago, was found convulsing in the garage and died before we could get her to the vet. Illness? Pregnancy related problem? Poison? She was semi feral (walked in and adopted us, became an indoor cat but doesn't cuddle).
and now I have four tiny unweaned kittens on my hand: and from past experience I know they won't survive even though I feed them because when they are this small, they need mama's milk and care.
But this brings up a puzzling observation: in the last month, all the feral cats have disappeared from the area: not just our four outside cats that live in our bodega/garage and eat the mice/lizards and the dog food we leave outside the house, but there have been no "visitor cats". These are feral cats who come in off the street to eat but sometimes get killed by the dogs who know they don't belong here.
But I haven't seen the visitor cats for about a month, and I haven't had to bury any dead cats either. So where have the cats gone?
Indeed, for the last month we have seen fewer feral cats on the street (who eat garbage and mice). Now, it's holiday season, so a lot more garbage and food dropped by the locals going to and from the plaza or the nearby shops and palenke.
So where have all the cats gone? so why no cats wandering around? I wonder if there is an epidemic going around killing them, or if someone who put out poisoned food to get rid of them.
Don't live here if you are an animal lover. Cats can usually take care of themselves, but we frequently see discarded kittens in the vacant lot. Many of these kittens I try to bring home and nurse until the can eat and join our outdoor cats, but most die because they need mother's milk, and if they do survive, when they start to roam outside the spare bedroom (i.e the "cats room") usually the dogs kill them: we save only about one out of ten of these kittens.
But the really sad cases are the discarded dogs, who either are puppies of feral dogs, or who, in the epidemic, were thrown out of the house because their owners can't afford to feed them... They wander around eating the scraps and garbage, get thinner and thinner, get mangy, and then die. Sigh. We don't dare adopt them because rabies is a problem here, but the city does try to catch and presumably discard these dogs, especially if they are reported after biting someone (usually a kid).
Rabies is treatable: 3 shots at 7 dollars a shot, which they mayor will give you free at the local clinic if you are poor.
No, I am not going to set up an animal rescue shelter: when people are going hungry, people frequently come here to ask for rice or money for medicine, and kids roam the streets to forage extra food, one can't feel too sorry for the animals.
we had hoped the epidemic was over, but now the 4th wave has hit, and although we are not at high level of shut down, one does need the vax cards for some shops and the ban, and the cards are becoming necessary to visit Manila or even nearby Bulacan or Pampanga, which are under level three shutdown, and the cops check you when you travel to these areas.
The gov't hopes the epidemic will stop if the omnicron variant goes around, since if you get this variant it gives you immunity against the other, more serious strains of covid...and the O variant is a lot less lethal, especially if you had a vax in the past... that was what they are seeing in places like South Africa, a semi developed country that also has a lot of low grade malnutrition etc. that makes people more vulnerable to the virus.
.but in the meanwhile it's back to isolation and vaccines.
this is a good discussion with a priest/physician who discusses the epidemic in clear language, and includes observations by grass roots priests and health care workers.
He points out that ordinary Filipinos are not hysterical because we face risks in life, and have a religious point of view toward life: ( I would summarize that point of view as the idea that God, not ourselves is in charge)
Nearby, including Manila, are at Level 3: Not complete shutdown, but at limited capacity, masks etc:
and the isolation/ shutdown of the economy is the real problem in the long term, as people's savings are gone and fewer are getting money from overseas workers or our seamen.
UPDATE: Essay on USNIblog about how rising food prices cause revolutions.
A big problem few seem to be worried about....(Yes, I saw this when an increase in the price of rice led to the revolution in Liberia, which then sank into 20 years of a bloody civil war).
Sigh.
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update: StrategyPage has an essay on the Philippines, but mainly about military security (china, insurgency, crime fighting) not covid.
Manila is in the 4th wave of the virus: and hysteria reigns. From 300 cases a day to 5000 to 14000... or is it 17000 cases? some newspaper articles say only a small number of these tested positive for omnicron, but this article blames the surge on the big bad O....But the death rates are still low: especially if you consider the number of people who are malnourished due to poverty/unemployment: but of course since people die at ten days with the ordinary covid, that might go up too...
Duterte is asking the barangay officials and cops to keep everyone without a vax card at home. And since Duterte has cleaned up the cops, it means a small gift might not get them to look the other way if you want to do this.
Ah, but what about the half of the population who didn't get the card? Stay home? It appears that will be the rule.
if you want to enter Manila or Bulacan, you will need a proof of vaccination card. Actually this simplifies our rice deliveries: Joy managed to get our (low risk) drivers the vaccine (only Sinovax, which has a low success rate in regular covid and doesn't work for Omnicron very well either) but it does mean they now have a card. But in the past it meant an expensive test a day or two before they went, and now that won't be needed.
How bad is it?
Well, for the second year in a row, the big procession of the Black Nazarene has been canceled. There are still masses on line, and outside attendance to some services with distancing, but they are closing the street to keep out folk and no procession on the street.
The Black Nazarene, a wooden statue of Jesus carrying his cross, is a symbol of suffering that is popular here because suffering is part of life in this poor country... and the procession is a way for people to personally identify with the suffering of Jesus, and ask him for help.
The other bad news?
Even though we are on a lower level of alert, Joy found that even our bank has changed from insisting on a mask (and earlier, a face shield) to having a vax card.
Which ironically means I could go in there hacking and coughing because hey I am vaxxed. (don't worry: I sent Joy to do my banking)... No, I don't know if it's covid: Because it just is acting like my ordinary asthmatic response to a cold virus, something I get once or twice a year, for the past 20 years, and I don't have other symptoms like fever, loss of smell, achiness etc. So probably not full blown Covid, and probably not influenza, but could it be the Omnicron virus? or just an ordinary cold?
Oh well: except for a terrible cough I feel fine.
But Joy's family in Bulacan all have the sniffles (but are not sick) but now her elderly mom, who has Parkinson's disease, is coughing and has a low fever. Sigh. She just lost her husband of 50 years to a stroke, and we are worried she will soon join him. Again, is it omnicron or just an ordinary cold?
But I am social distancing, and don't go outside the house/compound and garden.
So I am on my usual medicines for this: An antibiotic, prednisone, and if it gets bad, my asthma inhaler. Just for good measure, I went on Ivermectin: We have some that Kuya takes prophylactically for Covid and seems to be clearing up his scabies as a side effect. He will now have to order more on line: The pharmacy who sent us some earlier is out of stock, but we do hear the local pharmacy has some in stock if you get a doctor's prescription.
They are giving out the booster to high risk folks and seniors: The cook went this morning. And instead of holding inside the nearby city gym, they are holding it in the plaza (it's winter here, cooler and dry so this is not a problem).
The report is that the Plaza is packed with folks getting their shot. so the anti vax hysteria hasn't hit the grass roots here.
I think it is again the British AZ shot
update: The cook just got back and said it was crowded so she'll go back later. And the maid said you have the choice between the AZ (adenovirus) shot or the Pfizer (mRNA) shot.
Hmm... wonder which one will run out first?
==========
But I am on prednisone which interferes with the immune response so I will have to wait a week or so to get mine.
One cynical politician said the push to give these shots is because the vaccines are approaching their expiration date, and they need to be used up rather than thrown away. Actually, being slightly over the expiration date is not a big deal: proper storage is the important thing.
And some vaccines require very cold storage, and others just ordinary refrigerators, or even room temperature if not too hot....In Africa, we had a special refrigerator to store the MMR (measles) vaccine, and transported them in a beer cooler to the baby clinics, where we then would defrost and give this shot. This, by the way, is why only certain clinics in the USA give out yellow fever vaccine. And the Pfizer vaccine requires very cold storage.
I will have to ask the cook what vaccine they are giving out here this week: they said mix and match is okay, and seems to work, although the only study I read was about giving the Pfizer booster after the Sinovax (which doesn't prevent the Omnicron version) which said you will need two Pfizer boosters to get protected.
I have a lot of stupid opinions on the news, but I recognize most of this I might just be echoing what I read.
Yet there are some areas where I have first hand knowledge, and I will comment on those stories that are sort of below the fold, i.e. ignored in favor of propaganda and spin.
StrategyPage has their yearly summary of wars around the world. Read the whole thing (Slowly).
Overall things are a lot more peaceful than the headlines or Internet chatter would have you believe. Like most major trends, world peace just kind of sneaked up on everyone and a lot of people have not noticed.
the most under reported story of the decade: a lot less violence and a lot fewer wars... and hey people are getting out of poverty in a big way.
They also discuss the big problem of corruption, the covid epidemic, the problem of failed states, and why tribalism is one of the biggest problems for failed or failing states.
And they then discuss a lot of countries that are in the news, giving background of the stories in the headlines.
and a lot of these problems are caused by corruption (yes, religion etc. is blamed, but often these rabid religious and communist zealots are rebelling against the corrupt officials who run their countries).
Here is a snippet of the Philippines section, discussing the economic problems and the inability to make nice with China who cheats.
But here is why Duterte continues with a 65percent approval rating:
Since elected president in 2016 Rodrigo Duterte did what most Filipinos wanted to reduce crime and drug violence. ....He did and his term-limited job as president ends in mid-2022.... Duterte presided over peace with Moslem separatists in the south and an end to leftist rebel movements...By 2020 Islamic terrorists and communist rebels were much less active because there were a lot fewer of them and there was much less popular support. Duterte may not be the solution to the many problems the country faces but he was the most radical, and promising, one to come along in decades. He continues to receive record high approval ratings from the voters even as local and foreign critics accuse him of atrocious behavior.
the CIA hates Duterte and the feeling is mutual: it's about the CIA getting a drug suspect out of jail in his Davao days, while hating Duterte for trying (yet alas failing) to make nice with China.
Yes. the PC foreign critics even gave a Nobel prize to a fake ex CNN journalist who set up her own (English) webpage with foreign money (forbidden by local law) much of it donated from sources that are suspected to be CIA fronts. In the meanwhile, brave local journalists who often write in local language papers or radio stations continue to be killed ( 3 in 2020, which is down from previous years), but these deaths are usually ignored (usually the murder for hire by businessmen or gov't officials who they dared to spill the beans on).... Remember, it took ten years but finally the slow prosecution of the (CIA Friendly) Arroyo allies in Manguinadao was settled in 2019, under Duterte's watch. Hello Garci is the background of that scandal.
It's the corruption, stupid. Duterte has a corruption problem, but again it has to be looked at in comparison to the rest of them (Lolo would frequently say of politicians here: They're all crooks).
Sigh.
the bad news is that it doesn't look like Biden will defend the takeover of the West Philippine sea, or probably even try to defend Taiwan. Yes, Biden is a good man, but he is weak.
Mr. Chamberlain call your office. Winston is warmongering again.
The maid just brought in the news that the town is again in lockdown until the middle of January: announced by the mayor on his facebook page...
Bummer, because this weekend is the "Three Kings" fiesta: The patron saints of the town. Usually they have a huge parade and festivities, but I guess it will be canceled.
Sigh.
reportedly there are some cases of covid in kids in our area, and they are planning to start giving vaccine to children now. Also, the boosters will be given to high risk and elderly now after 3 or 4 months instead of waiting six months.
The cook is going for her booster today or tomorrow, and the maid offered to sign me up and go with me for a booster, but hey, it's not really good practice to get a shot to stop a bad cold while you wheeze and cough in a crowded hall spreading a cold virus waiting for your shot.
the real problem will come later this week, when I am due for my weekly bank run to get money for our budget. I may have to send Joy or Kuya to do this for me. I can get money from the ATM like I did last week, but that money is running low and again I don't want to spread infection inside the bank, even if it is just a plain ordinary cold.
all the food kiosks on the street/"night market" near the plaza are closed, and presumably there will be travel restrictions and expensive covid tests for rice deliveries to Manila.
later when the cook returns from buying the food in the palenke, we'll find the rest of the gossip. there seems to be an outbreak in younger kids, too, so they plan tot extend the shots for kids in the near future.
This is what is being seen in Europe and in the USA: The good news is that the death rate is lower with omnicron. The bad news? It is a lot more infectious, so probably lock down won't stop the spread.
Sigh.
But for now the Manila area is in lockdown until the middle of January.
Not a big problem for me, since I rarely have gone outside except to shop for the last two years. And now with my cough, I will just sit at home and self isolate just in case.
I am however well enough to walk the dogs but of course walking outside in the street with a mask far from others is not going to spread the infection to anyone.
One elderly single lady up the street died, but not covid, just old age... it's hard to tell when the elderly die here: often they are chronically ill and cared for at home by families so don't go to the hospital.
For example, one elderly husband of a distant relative has Congestive heart failure and needs oxygen which I am helping him pay for, since he refused admission to the hospital. In the past two years his wife, son (main source of income) and daughter in law have died, presumably of heart attacks since the entire family is diabetic and has high blood pressure. The son was hospitalized with pneumonia and died of a heart attack, and I suspected covid but he tested negative and no one else in the family died or got sick so that is probably true.
There are a lot of elderly in town, cared for by extended family, including some who are, like my husband, balikbayan, returning from working overseas and who decided to retire here. And most folks have relative who live overseas sending financial help to the extended family.
A lot of American guys, especially vets, retire to the Philippines, many with their Filipina wives, and we have a lot of outsiders starting to settle here, building second homes, since we are 2 hours from Manila and the infrastructure is now built up (not like when I moved here 17 years ago).
Except for short term missionaries trying to convert heathen Catholic (/s) Filipinos to their cults, I believe I am still the only white lady in our area of town: sometimes questioned by the clerks if I am visiting, but most of the tricycle drivers know me, because our cook's family are all tricycle drivers, and besides, I am a good tipper.
yes, we do have cars, and years ago in the pre Duterte days when kidnapping of foreigners was a big problem, I only went out in a locked car. But now things are safer, so I use the cheaper and more convenient tricycle (the nearest parking area for tricycles is a block away so no problem).
The good news from London by Dr. C is that he continues to cite the statistics and says the new omnicron variant has taken over the UK and is mild, and a lot of folks just think it is a cold. 75 percent of colds in the UK now are omnicrom covid.
Heh.
And he again predicts it is so infectious that everyone will get it, and lock downs don't work, but that it will give you immunity.
I have a cold now, so will self isolate, but am too lazy to get tested, so remember I'm not the only one doing this in poorer countries, because we have a life. The photos of long lines of mildly sick people waiting to get a test in rich countries against a strain of covid that rarely kills is really ironic.
He analyzes the data.
The bad news: of course, for us old geezers a cold can be serious.
And the other bad news is that he notes a lot of minorities in the London area did not get the vaccine.
Behold the power of anti vax propaganda, or is it BLM/racism propaganda that says doctors etc are racist so don't trust them? That might be the reason in the US, where blacks remember the Tuskegee experiment, of course, or more recent stuff like the Oklahoma city meningomyelocoel non treatment protocol that showed most non treated kids died, and only years later did a black doctor note that poverty and education were part of the criteria, so most of the non treatment cases were minorities. And when I worked in Minnesota, the tribe remembered the Red Lake Streptococcus study, where non aggressive protocol showed mild ecsema not bad enough to see a doc could also cause renal disease. (long story: one of these days I'll try to down load that study that I got sort of illegally on the internet).
I hate the anti vax stuff and post against it on the internet, but I keep running into more and more information suggesting that the mRNA vaccine has problems, and if you whisper it you are canceled.
No problem: I got the AZ vaccine, based on adenovirus template. If I understand from Dr. C, that gives me lower complications but not complete protection.
But for the paranoid, just get the Chinese vaccine: That has 50 percent protection againts covid, and now in the Philippines, they are deciding to use the mRNA vaccine as a booster shot for those who got Sinovax, since it doesn't work at all against the new omnicron variant (but with the pfizer booster, it still only protects 70 percent).
Here in the Philippines, they are again locking down, and there is a huge increase in positive testing, something expected after the Christmas holidays and lower isolation levels, and also a mild increase in hospital and ICU usage (that they expect to go up as covid usually only puts you in ICU after 7 to ten days when the immune overresponse kicks in).
The country now had 14 cases of the Omicron variant, three of which were local cases and 11 from abroad. Of the 11, nine were returning Filipinos and two were foreigners. Vergeire said all were either asymptomatic or had experienced mild symptoms, adding that two cases remained active.
in other words, too early to trust the data due to the holiday where everything is shut down, people don't want to waste time getting tested, and everyone parties with their families (so more spread)
but since the omnicron is so infectious, I suspect this will only mean that the virus will spread like wild fire in the crowded barangays of Manila and other towns (less so in rural areas, where houses are small and crowded, but folks go outside a lot more).
and I suspect the actual numbers of omnicron infections are high but the official count is low because people can't be bothered to get checked for a snifflle
The Daily Telegraph has an interview with the chairman of the government's vaccine advisory group, who says fourth Covid jabs should not be offered until there is more evidence they are effective. Prof Sir Andrew Pollard, from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, tells the paper it is "not sustainable" to give boosters to the whole population every six months and in the future "we need to target the vulnerable".
and several headline lament the NHS staff shortages, but without saying what is causing the problem: This UKGuardian article from July says it's because workers self-isolating en masse after being "pinged" by NHS test and trace.
the tabloid UKSUN says the NHS is now hoping to cut self isolation after being in contact with a case of covid down to 5 days from 7 due because the danger of lack of staff outweighs the small danger of spreading the disease.
Finally, I often post against the anti vax hysteria on the internet discussions, but I am a physician and although I recognize how reports of vaccine side effects get twisted and exaggerated and not put into context by the anti vax Karen (e.g. OPV polio cases, a complicated problem).
So there seems to be an active campaign to censor/punish doctors who don't parrot the party line, which means we can't discuss these thing without fear of punishment.
And that disturbs me: Because if you remember, in China, it was known there was a virus, and that it passed person to person, but both China (and the W.H.O.) tried to censor that information: And the Chinese doctor who actually posted this information at the end of December got punished by their government.
Yes, a problem: But censorship only makes people more suspicious, and a lot of the MSM pretend it's just Deplorables, even though Trumpie boy recommended the vaccine last week (For high risk folks not forced on everyone). But the dirty little secret is that a lot of minorities distrust the vaccine too. Sigh.
But censorship of people who actually do have credentials annoys me,
which brings me to the latest attempt by the internet lords to censor an important story (maybe): and I have been trying to track down the Joe Rogan interview with Dr. Malone which was censored off of you tube.
Kuya found it last night on Spotify (which he has because Ruby has a subscription), but when I tried to find it today, Spotify says it's not there. Huh? Is it because I didn't sign in?
I prefer transcripts, however, and the Conservative Treehouse did post a copy of the transcript on Scribd (which I do have an app for),
and he also links to other sites, including information that a crazy Texan in Congress posted it in the Congressional record, which is a a place hard for the internet masters of the universe to censor.
I have a life, so will only get around to reading it and analyzing it later, as I do the CDC/MMR reports (skim the headines and analyze if I am interested and have time and energy to do so)
The only other medical stuff I have been doing is checking up for Daniel's Maxillary tumor: Because the surgery would be so mutilating and dangerous, they are recommending chemo: I am hoping they mean the cutting edge local high dose interarterial (local artery) injection of cisplatnin, with a second shot to block toxicity to the rest of the body... but since he had radio therapy in the past, I don't know if they will repeat this later or maybe try to resect the smaller remaining tumor.
This is a superspecialized area, and all the similar case I cared for were over 40 years ago, when you either ended up dead or with a huge hole in your face. So one is happy that medicine has progressed in some things.
This is probably because of the spread from family get togethers over Christmas.
They are now discussing increasing the level of quarantine to level 3 in Manila. I haven't checked if we will start increasing the level here too, but for some reason, there was no big New Year's Eve party with fireworks in the Plaza, and all the usual kiosks selling fireworks were not there this year.
I am not sure why they didn't have the party/ fireworks this year: They have been having parties for the last week there, and this morning I heard the music from the Rumba exercize class, so we are not in shut down.
Usually also there are lots of firecrackers and fireworks going off all over the place on New Year's Eve, but this year it was moderately quiet, although noisy enough that I had all five dogs hiding in my room to be safe from the noise.
Is it because of the problem buying firecrackers?
Yes, you could buy them on the quiet if you knew where to go: hey this is the Philippines.
But the bad news is that someone in the next barangay burnt down their house from a misplaced firework. Sigh.
I haven't heard of any cases of covid here, but Joy did go to church this morning so she will get news if anyone is sick (and asking for prayers).
Speaking of prayers: Pray for Joy's nephew. He had a small low grade tumor in his maxillary sinus (cheekbone) treated with radiation about 8 years ago, and it has returned: and since it only caused minor swelling of his face, and because everyone has been avoiding doctors and clinics due to the fear of covid, he didn't get it rechecked until last week. Surgery is scheduled later this week; The tumor is large but no distant metastases so maybe this will cure it, but the surgery is disfiguring and he is newly married, no kids...
The good news is that the medical standards in Manila are high. The bad news is that, although it is a lot cheaper here than in the USA, it is still very expensive for people because the salary level here is low... and most of the bill is paid out of pocket, even when you have insurance.
I got an email from the Democrats abroad where they are tying to get up a petition so we can get medicare to pay for hospitalization for us expats living overseas.
The problem, of course, is fraudulent billing.
For FilAms and other eligible veterans, they do have a VA clinic in Manila for care, but the rest of us just pay cash on the line (I have Phil Health but it only pays for about half of the bill).
There was also an HMO type program that Joy tried to get me to buy: but the problem is that it limited who you could see, and none of the docs were in this area.
Something to remember for all the "deplorables" patriots on the internet who now are saying they want to retire overseas in some third world utopia.
The problem is that these macho guys ignore that in times of trouble you won't have family around you to care for you when you get sick: unless you find a nice Filipina girl who will marry you and let you support her family in exchange for taking care of you. Not a bad deal for guys.
In my case, I married a Filipino and moved here with him, so no problem... family is here, and we have a cook and maid whose family has have worked for our family for two generations and so we look the other way when they steal minor things they need, because hey it's not theft they are borrowing it as part of the family, and you didn't really need all those towels/dishes/ etc. did you?
If you are thinking of moving to the Philippines, watch this video: Mikey Bustos has this parody that goes thru the reality of Filipino life in the barangays....(although if you are rich you can live in a gated community with other ex pats and elite Filipinos and not even realize you aren't in American suburbia).
Sigh.
In other news, Omnicrom is coming:
I had posted videos from DrC about omnicrom in London, where they are expecting everyone to catch it, but since it is less lethal maybe it will not increase the death rate too much. The BBC is a bit hysterical about it, but I was in touch with relatives who are nurses in the London area, and they are very very worried too, even though they have been vaxxed and had caught it last year. So remember them in your prayers also.
I am fighting off an episode of bronchitis that has made my asthma worse. No, not covid: no sore throat, no fever, no achiness, and I can smell and taste okay. And I don't feel sick, as I did six months ago when I had a flu like disease with severe shortness of breath that lasted two day.
I've been double vaxxed, so no problem. Except that we don't have any Ivermectin for me to take if I start getting sicker, and so we're trying to find a place that has it still in stock.
No I am not getting a test: Too lazy to go outside. And prednisone and my inhaler are keeping the asthma under control.
Something to remember when you read about the number of cases being diagnosed: In poor countries they don't always get tested. And the big increase in positive cases might just be because people were too busy to get tested earlier during the holidays and finally got around to doing it.
The farm is doing well, but the big problem is the huge increase in the price of fertilizer, which eats into our profit and of course raise the price of rice and food for the poor and the middle class, many of whom are not working due to shut downs or because they lost their jobs overseas or on ships.
we watch films at night, often streaming them from youtube, netflix or the Kdrama streaming sites.
We watch a lot of the historical dramas: Kings and queens and lovely ladies...and in the background, murderous feuds between different factions, including the murders/executions of some of them.
But often the K dramas present a more sympathetic portrait of the characters, and then you read wikipedia, and you can contrast the dramatized "history" with the reality. (or the reality of Wikipedia, which has it's own biases of course).
For example, we just finished the miniseries Dong Yi,LINK2 about a lowly water girl in the palace who became the king's favorite concubine. The plot's background includes the background of slavery and and powerful factions who assassinate their rivals and framed the non violent equivalent of the underground railroad for the murders... (peasant revolts are alas common in Korean history, as they are in Chinese and British and European history).
Most of the story of Dong Yi is fictional of course: Ladies don't usually get their point of view into the history books.
But I thought it was interesting that Lady Jang, another favorite concubine of the king who later became the queen, was portrayed not as the murderous manipulative bitch as she is portrayed in the history books, but as a girl who loved the king but was pushed into her position by greedy manipulative family members belonging to this faction.
Lots of similarities of Lady Jang with Ann Boleyn, whose family also manipulated their daughters to get ahead: get rid of the queen to become the main queen, and then get executed by the king for your treasonous shenanigans.
The king in the drama of Dong Yi has only two sons (one does wonder why there are so few kids who survive ... High childhood mortality and high miscarriage rate are sometimes mentioned).
Lady Jang's son is a bit retarded or sick and had no kids, so Dong Yi's son ends up king, and a fairly good one, despite his violent purges of the various factions who accused him of poisoning he older half brother and of having a slave for a mother, i.e. lower class tainted blood.
And you thought Game of Thrones was bad. The difference is that GoT has nasty people in it: in the K dramas they try to portray them with a bit of nuance.
DongYi's son, King Yeongjo, was essentially a good king...who alas killed a lot of his enemies to stay in power, but he did reform the government and fought corruption.
But there is one terrible blot on his memory: King Yeongjo also arranged a nasty death of his son, and later gave him the name Prince Sado, (thinking of with great sorrow) to show his grief in having to do this. And the king then put a hold of silence on anyone who dared talk about what had been done.
Years later, Prince Sado's son became king, and he insisted the more benign version of his father's death be the official story: that the king did it because Prince Sado backed up the faction of the poor, not because when Sado lost his temper he went around killing eunuchs and beating up court ladies (and even beat to death his favorite consort in a rage of temper) and the king rightly worried he might end up on his son's hit list.
One of Jeongjo's first statements upon becoming king, however, was to declare, "I am the son of Prince Sado."[31] Jeongjo always showed great filial devotion to his father, Crown Prince Sado, and he changed the posthumous name of his father's to a longer one, which is the origin of the latter's alternative title, Crown Prince Jangheon.
This is the background of the hottest drama on K streaming sites i.e the Red Sleeve, about his son...
But of course one reason it is popular is that it is...romantic:
yet even in this fluffy romance, there is a scene where the now senile King J. shouts at his grandson (who he thinks is his son) that he deserves to die for killing over 100 people.
Despite the attempt of Prince Sado's son to revere his memory by destroying the alternative (real) story, out of love for his father, it was his mother who put the record straight years later, after the death of her son and grandson, who now could not be harmed if the secret came out.
So unlike the earlier drama, we have the woman's point of view of what was going on.
Her early memoirs were of her life in a family of scholars, and also to defend her family members who were killed or exiled for what we now would see as minor problems but back then could be treason and lead to a revolution, and hey, it's easier to kill your enemies than risk a bloody civil war.
But in her last memoir, written in 1805 after the death of her son and grandson , she wrote the real story of her husband, and went into details, and did it in such a way to defend both her husband and his father.
the memoirs can be read in detail, with commentary, here PDF LINK
but a version easier to read is the fictionalized version by famed British novelist Margaret Drabble, which can be borrowed from internet archives. The Red Queen.
The interesting thing about Lady Hong in Drabble's take is that she explains a lot of her husband's troubles using the ideas of modern Freudian psychology: His father neglected him and nagged him for his imperfections, etc. and the nannies/ eunuchs/ court ladies who were supposed to care for him did a bad job: no love, no discipline, etc.... Nobody loved the poor boy, alas so no wonder he went nuts.
But on reading the actual memoirs, in her 1805 memoir, LadyHong actually does use a modernesque psychological explanations for her husband's behavior, blaming it on mental illness...
She blamed the lack of parental love, the father's nagging, and the overly strict Confucian rules that made his life seem like a prison with no way to escape, so that is why the Prince descended into episodes of rage and madness where he destroyed his clothing, threw things at her, and beat to death the servants.
Being an obedient Confucian trained wife, she defends him despite these things: she insists that he was not evil, but mentally ill, echoing the lament of MacBeth:
“MACBETH:
Canst thou not minister to a mind diseas'd,
Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow,
Raze out the written troubles of the brain,
And with some sweet oblivious antidote
Cleanse the stuff'd bosom of the perilous stuff
Which weighs upon the heart?
In other words, she laments that he was sick, not evil.
Even today, a lot of folks would find that nuance a bit ridiculous, so it is not surprising that his less sophisticated father, trained as a fundamentalist Confucian scholar, did not understand. So although she acknowledges that the king had to stop his son's murderous behavior, laments that there was no other way to do it, short of his execution.
Prince Sado had good and bad times, suggesting that he was probably bipolar with psychotic episodes. His aggression, promiscuity and agitation could be signs of mania, and his numerous attempts at suicide are the depressive signs of bipolar disease, a problem that even in our day is often misunderstood and misdiagnosed.
he also had obsessive compulsive tendencies that centered around his clothing, sometimes tearing up his clothing and having problems choosing what to wear.
So was it bipolar disease behind his murderous rages and destruction of personal property and aggression against the staff?
Impulse control disorder, has numerous causes besides Bipolar disease, and the list is long, including psychiatric, toxic, and neurological disease..
Maybe he had low grade toxic heay metal poisoning such as lead contamination of beverages or food or from the ceramic or metal containers, or even lead contamination in the medicines he was given (including medicines used on his chronic skin rashes). Other organic reason for impulse control disorder would be post traumatic or post measles encephalitis brain damage which can cause explosive rage episodes.
But the tragedy is that he became a mass murderer, which of course as prince he could get away with because eunuchs and court ladies were lower class and he was the prince.... (until he killed his concubine, and then it was his mother, not his wife, who told the king what was going on).
It was only the murder of his concubine and attempts to harm higher court officials that made the king act.
And the reason for his horrific death (starved to death in a rice storage box) is that if he was officially executed, the Confucian law said the criminal's family also should be killed, and the king did not wish to execute his beloved daughter in law and her son (who was of course next in line for the throne).
So the king essentially "suicided" him by starvation which the prince "agreed" to by not being forced but by voluntarily entering the box, where he lived for 8 days before dying...
The king then arranged for Prince Sado's son to become the adopted son of his (late) uncle so that he could inherit the throne without this ancestral taint.
