2020 didn't die

 

How's it going MAGA?

 

Since COVID, that is.

Trump's blame for the Covid disaster

The first recorded case of covid in the US was in January 2020. A few weeks later Judd Legum at Popular Information posted on Twitter, “I feel like more people should be talking about the fact that Trump fired the entire pandemic response team two years ago and then didn’t replace them.”

Indeed, the Trump administration gutted the infectious disease defense infrastructure through shortsighted cost-cutting measures starting in 2018 — a year after passing a trillion-dollar tax giveaway for his billionaire buddies. The administration specifically canned the executive branch team that would’ve coordinated a response.

Trump then spent most of February 2020 minimizing covid’s threat. He called the coronavirus Democrats’ “new hoax” at a campaign rally in South Carolina. By April, when everything was going to hell, he lamented that the pandemic was “something that nobody expected.” However, former President George W. Bush had warned in 2005 that “if we wait for a pandemic to appear, it will be too late to prepare.” Bush compared a pandemic to a forest fire: "If caught early it might be extinguished with limited damage. If allowed to smolder, undetected, it can grow to an inferno that can spread quickly beyond our ability to control it.”

Bush paved the way for pandemic planning, which the Obama administration continued. Only Trump was simultaneously arrogant and stupid enough to demolish what his predecessors had built.

[...]

Trump wasn’t simply in over his head with the pandemic. He was willfully, maddeningly obstructive and resistant to the most basic mitigation measures.

On April 3, 2020, during one of his covid pressers, Trump grudgingly reported that the CDC advised “the use of non-medical cloth face covering as an additional voluntary public health measure.” Then he outright dismissed this guidance: “So it’s voluntary. You don’t have to do it. They suggested for a period of time, but this is voluntary. I don’t think I’m going to be doing it.”

  Public Notice

So his MAGA minions proceeded to harrass everyone who did.

Originally casting himself as a wartime president, he soon offloaded any actual responsibility to individual states and declared that the federal government would only serve as “backup.” The lack of a centralized federal response resulted in a fragmented approach to the pandemic that differed based solely on regional politics rather than science.

[...]

[T]he Trump administration had dismissed a national pandemic plan as bad politics. It was deemed preferable to let the virus rage through blue states — where it was disproportionately killing people of color — and blame the Democratic governors. Trump’s advisers had to tell him directly that the virus was hurting “our people” — white MAGA voters in Republican-run states.

Trump was rightly mocked for his bizarre press conference on April 23, 2020, when he suggested injecting people with disinfectant (not specifically bleach!) or maybe UV light.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Some answers are coming in on long Covid disease

As seen in other long COVID studies, the problem wasn't related to how their lungs or heart were functioning. Instead, something was making it hard for the muscle to take up the oxygen in the blood.

[...]

"As opposed to what's been sold to patients over the last few decades, that symptoms such as extreme fatigue and exertional malaise are psychological or physical conditioning issues," he says. "Physical exertion does harm to the bodies of people with these illnesses."

His general guidance is to avoid exercise if you have post-exertional malaise and instead practice "energy conservation."

At his clinic, Putrino prescribes what's called "autonomic rehabilitation" for these patients.

  NPR

COVID-19 and pregnancy

Boys born to mothers who got COVID-19 while pregnant appear nearly twice as likely as other boys to be diagnosed with subtle delays in brain development.

That's the conclusion of a study of more than 18,000 children born at eight hospitals in Eastern Massachusetts. Nearly 900 of the children were born to mothers who had COVID during their pregnancy.

In the study, boys, but not girls, were more likely to be diagnosed with a range of developmental disorders in the first 18 months of life. These included delays in speech and language, psychological development and motor function, as well as intellectual disabilities.

[...]

"As part of the body's effort to fight the virus, it produces proteins known as cytokines, which regulate the immune system.

[...]

But cytokines, unlike most pathogens, can cross the placenta and cause inflammation in a fetal brain. And animal studies suggest that this inflammation has a greater impact on the brains of male fetuses than female fetuses, and results in different behavioral abnormalities after birth.

[...]

The Harvard researchers plan to continue assessing the children in their study for several more years. That will allow them to see whether the early delays in boys persist or result in a diagnosis like autism spectrum disorder.

[...]

The finding is just the latest to suggest that a range of maternal infections can alter fetal brain development, especially in male offspring. For example, studies have found links between infections like influenza and cytomegalovirus, and disorders like autism and schizophrenia.

[...]

With influenza or COVID-19, the risk to a fetus appears to come primarily from the mother's immune response to an infection, not the infection itself.

[...]

But the effect from COVID-19 appears to be modest, Perlis says. "Most children of moms who have COVID during pregnancy won't have neurodevelopmental consequences even if there is some increase in risk.

  NPR

But why just males? Is it connected to genes on the missing arm on the Y chromosome?  Or what?  (That missing arm is what I blame all undesirable male traits on.  It's handy.)

 ...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Hoist with their own petard

Once again, a self-own by the ridiculous GOP "investigations".

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 03/01/2023:

Wow.

UPDATE 01:21 pm:

UPDATE 02:13 pm:

New vaccine for Covid now in trials

A new made-in-Canada COVID-19 vaccine that can be inhaled is set to enter Phase 2 human trials.

[...]

The vaccine is meant to target parts of the coronavirus that do not change or mutate, potentially making it more effective against new variants.

"The current vaccination strategy for COVID-19 has us constantly chasing the virus, and it’s clear that we simply can’t keep up," explained Matthew Miller, scientific director of McMaster's infectious disease research institute, and one of the trial's leaders. "Our team has developed a vaccine strategy aimed at circumventing this cycle and the need to constantly update these vaccines by targeting parts of the virus that are resistant to mutation, and inducing strong immunity at the site where infection actually occurs."

  CTV

Covid's ability to mutate easily and rapidly makes it king of viruses

And assholes' refusal to mask up now and, more importantly, in the beginning, is a factor in why we're unable to stop it.  Not to mention the CDC's lack of preparedness and Fauci's and Birx's lies about the effectiveness of masking under the Trump administration.

Officials have warned in recent weeks that the [XBB.1.5 omicron subvariant, “the most transmissible subvariant that has been detected yet” of the already highly contagious omicron strain], can more easily evade the immunity offered by vaccines or prior infections than past variants — and is likely to drive cases up around the country.

But while another omicron subvariant, BQ.1.1, is still dominant in the country beyond the Northeast, XBB.1.5 has also reached all other regions of the U.S., and officials predict it will continue to spread. Due to its recent ascent, data on XBB.1.5 is limited, but health officials have disclosed some key insights into the strain, as well as what questions remain unanswered.

[...]

“At this point, we’re experiencing an increase in cases with no evidence of increased severity of illness related to these variants,” he said.

  The Hill

A silver lining? Losing your sense of taste and smell, and possibly your ability to breathe, along with dibilitating long term effects, aren't severe enough illnesses?

Califf noted that while that booster has been observed to be less effective in neutralizing against the XBB strain when compared to the ancestral strain, the neutralization it offered was still strong enough to provide “some degree of protection.”

"Some degree." Comforting.

Oral antivirals like Paxlovid and molnupiravir are also still expected to be effective against XBB.1.5, as they don’t function by boosting antibodies — which the strain appears better able to evade — but by hindering the virus’s ability to replicate itself.

What is that costing us? A fuckton more than masks would have.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Destroying Twitter day by day

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

JFC

FAAFO

Biden administration officials are raising concerns that the slow pace of developing a nasal vaccine for Covid-19 in the U.S. could pose a security risk as China, Iran and Russia approve their own vaccines taken through the nose or mouth.

Though nasal and oral vaccines are being studied in the U.S., none are close to coming on the market because Congress hasn’t approved more money to support research and development.

[...]

The [Vaccine Research Center at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases] has mapped the nasal and oral Covid vaccines in development in the U.S. and abroad. It is also testing nasal versions of the Moderna vaccine and two other types of injectable Covid-19 vaccines in monkeys, Bok said. But that probably won’t lead to a nasal Covid vaccine being approved in the U.S. anytime soon because funding for clinical trials and production is lacking.

  Politico

And why is that?

Researchers working on nasal vaccines are hopeful that they could stop virus transmission by generating immunity against it in the nose and other parts of the upper respiratory system where the coronavirus enters the body. If that bears out in clinical trials, nasal vaccines would be superior to existing mRNA vaccines, which prevent severe disease but don’t stop transmission.

[...]

Disagreement in Congress about how to pay for additional aid or whether it’s needed, as well as disinterest from major drugmakers in spending their own money on something that may not be very profitable, could mean a foreign rival gets an advantage.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

About that inflation...

After-tax corporate profits stood at 8.1 percent of the economy at the beginning of 2020 but have since shot up to as high as 11.8 percent of the GDP.  [...] These higher corporate profits have been the cause of over 50 percent of recent price increases.

[...]

[T]he key issue right now would be how to lower inflation while keeping employment and worker power high. Such a tack would include full-bore attempts to lessen supply chain issues and reduce the pricing power of big corporations.

  The Intercept

One reason to think the pandemic is the root cause of the recent inflationary surge is empirical. The inflationary shock has occurred in essentially all rich nations of the world—it’s very hard to find any country-specific policy that maps onto inflation.

Another reason is to look where this inflation started: the rapid run-up of prices in the goods sector (particularly durable goods). The pandemic directly shifted demand out of services and into goods (people quit their gym memberships and bought Pelotons, for example) just as it also caused a collapse of supply chains in durable goods (with rolling port shutdowns around the world).

[...]

In short, the rise in inflation has not been driven by anything that looks like an overheating labor market—instead it has been driven by higher corporate profit margins and supply-chain bottlenecks. Policy efforts meant to cool off labor markets—like very rapid and sharp interest rate increases—are likely not necessary to restrain inflationary pressures in the medium term.

Other tools that would be less damaging to typical families—like care investments to boost expected growth in labor supply or a temporary excess profits tax—could be effective in tamping down inflation over the next year and should be a bigger part of the policy mix.

[...]

The inflation spike of 2021 and 2022 has presented real policy challenges. In order to better understand this policy debate, it is imperative to look at prices and how they are being affected.

  Economic Policy Institute

Continue reading.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

We're so over it

Unfortunately, it's not over us.

We're going to have to change its name to Covid 19-20-21-22.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

We're over Covid, aren't we?

Trump admin meddling at CDC

New evidence of political interference in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s early pandemic response raised fresh questions in Congress on Friday on how to prevent future meddling and strengthen public trust in the health agency.

  Politico

I have a suggestion: Keep Republicans out of government. They don't believe in it anyway.

Emails detailing how Trump administration officials intervened to take out “offensive” language that raised “religious liberty concerns” from CDC guidance to faith communities in May 2020 were released by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis ahead of a Friday hearing on the scientific integrity of public health agencies.

[...]

Friday’s hearing follows the release of an April 29 report from the Government Accountability Office that found employees at four public health agencies did not report their concerns about the political interference they saw in their workplace. They said they didn’t because they “feared retaliation,” were “unsure how to report the issues” or “believed agency leaders were already aware.”

[...]

Just 44 percent of Americans say they trust what the CDC says about the coronavirus, according to a January NBC poll. That dwindling number could jeopardize the government’s ability to effectively communicate with Americans about current and future risks to their health.

[...]

The GAO found all four of agencies — CDC, Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health, and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response — did not have procedures on how political inference in their work should be reported and handled.

And having a Trump judge overrule the CDC doesn't exactly help. 

 ...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

There is power in a union

The never-ending virus

New Covid strains: BA.2 and 3.

The BA.2 subvariant is thought to be about 30 percent more transmissible than the original BA.1 strain of omicron, which itself was already more contagious than earlier forms of the virus.

Scientists believe that part of BA.2's high level of transmissibility is caused by its unique mutations. BA.2 has eight mutations not found in BA.1, according to the New England Journal of Medicine.

Just as with the other omicron variants, vaccines are less effective against BA.2 than they are against the original strain of the coronavirus, and protection wanes over time. However, a booster shot restores protection against the virus, especially when it comes to preventing severe cases that lead to hospitalization and death, according to data from the United Kingdom Health Security Agency.

[...]

A missing gene in BA.1 meant it could be tracked through a regular PCR test, whereas BA.2 can be identified only through genomic sequencing, according to Reuters. The same is true for BA.3, which is increasing in various places but at relatively low rates.

Despite the subvariant's high level of transmissibility, evidence so far shows that BA.2 does not cause severe disease.

[...]

The rise in cases in Europe due to BA.2 — which has hit Germany and the United Kingdom particularly hard — has also been driven by the loosening of coronavirus safety measures across the continent.

Ralf Reintjes, professor of epidemiology at the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, told CNBC that the combination “of everyone thinking and expecting somehow that the pandemic is over now” and the relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions gives the subvariant “a really good chance to spread extremely wild in many parts of Europe.”

  The Hill

We're next, no doubt.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:  Well, that was quick.

I guess Covid is over

Or at least we're over it.

Scientists at the National Institutes of Health are scrambling to decide whether all its coronavirus research and development can continue after Congress dropped new funding from its sweeping budget bill.

There are immediate implications for government trials on Covid-19 therapies, tests and vaccines that run out of funds as soon as this month, according to an internal email obtained by POLITICO.

“We would like to understand which March activities can be delayed, de-scoped, paused, etc. and what the consequences are of choosing this option,” Health and Human Services Department program analyst Thomas Libert wrote to NIH agency officials in a Thursday email.

NIH staff overseeing dozens of trials for coronavirus treatments, vaccines and variant evolution are spending Friday discussing how to limit or wind down certain trials, estimating that they are more than $1 billion short on funding to continue all their research.

[...]

Libert in his email warned that top officials assumed there would be no new coronavirus funding in the 2023 fiscal year and that “agencies should be prepared to use base funding to continue any COVID activities” in the next year, writing “no new activities should be funded at this time. This includes expansion of ongoing efforts.”

[...]

The budget crunch comes after House Democrats tossed $15.6 billion in coronavirus relief spending from the omnibus bill earlier this week amid caucus complaints that their states’ assistance would decline to pay for the new relief spending. While Speaker Nancy Pelosi pledged to pass new coronavirus spending separately, stand-alone legislation has a slim chance in the Senate, where many lawmakers have questioned how health agencies spent past funding.

The $15.6 billion allotment was already a significant cut from health officials’ original $30 billion request to continue buying Covid-19 vaccines, therapies and tests as well as conducting research.

[...]

Officials warn that if these trials are curtailed, the country will not be equipped to respond to another surge or a new coronavirus variant.

  Politico

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Yet another hazard from Covid

The vast amount of waste accumulated as part of efforts to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic poses a threat to human and environmental health, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned.

Discarded syringes, used test kits and old vaccine bottles have piled up to create tens of thousands of tonnes of medical waste, putting a huge strain on healthcare waste management systems, the United Nations health agency said in a new report on Tuesday.

[...]

The discarded material poses a potential hazard to health workers to burns, who are exposed to needle-stick injuries and disease-causing germs, as well as communities close to poorly-managed landfills, who can be affected through contaminated air from burning waste, poor water quality or disease-carrying pests.

[...]

The UN health body called for reform and additional investment, including through the reduction in the use of packaging, using PPE more rationally and investing in non-burn waste treatment technology.

  alJazeera

Aphids also die from an accumulation of their own waste, but at least they're not killing everything else around them in the bargain.

Government finally providing free tests and masks

The 400 million newly available masks will be non-surgical N95s that are sourced from the government's Strategic National Stockpile, as part of an effort to ensure Americans can access the more-protective masks during a record surge of Covid-19 cases.

[...]

The administration plans to make the masks available at tens of thousands of pharmacies and health centers by early February, the White House official said, which people will then be able to pick up for free.

The supply will not include child-sized masks, though two people with knowledge of the matter said the government is working to procure them.

  Politico

https://special.usps.com/testkits