Monthly Archive: August 2021
/cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com/reuters/T2I4NMG4D5OYHKD2SK3ZMEYUSA.png){kind=link}
LA Times Reports True Scale of Infectiousness of Delta
From the LA Times: The first is the emergence of the Delta variant — at least twice as transmissible as the previous dominant variant, Alpha, and capable of producing a viral load up to 1,000 times greater...
Why are we Protecting and Rewarding the Afghan Security Forces who Fled and Surrendered to the Taliban?
Retreats in warfare are never pretty. Especially when the enemy is attacking the retreating force and there are civilians being killed in ongoing military skirmishes and battles. But, this is not what is happening...
My Best Guess is we will Need a Vaccine for Epsilon too
Two days ago, I said my best guess is that we will need a new vaccine for the Lambda variant. You should add Epsilon to the list of variants that will need a new...
My Best Guess is that We Will Need a New Vaccine for the Lambda Variant
For what it is worth, my best guess is that we will need a new vaccine for the Lambda variant.
bioRXiv Study: New Lambda Variant as Contagious as Delta
From the NY Post: “In a July 28 report appearing on bioRxiv, where the study awaits peer review prior to getting published, researchers in Japan are sounding the alarm on the C.37 variant, dubbed...
BioRxiv Study: As of Two Weeks Ago, the Lambda Variant Found in 26 Countries
From the Study: “As of June 29, 2021, 1,908 genome sequences of the Lambda variant belonging to the PANGO C.37 lineage have been isolated from 26 countries and deposited in GISAID….”
BioRxiv Study: “The infectivities of the Delta, Epsilon and Lambda variants were significantly higher” than original Covid
From the study: “As shown in Figure 2A, the infectivities of the Alpha and Beta variants were significantly lower than that of the parental D614G S, and the infectivities of Gamma variant and the...
How the New Delta Variant is a Classic Case of “Affective Forecasting Errors,” which has specific psychological blow-back
From The Washington Post via MSN: Something called ‘affective forecasting errors’ may also be shaping our moods. That phrase, coined by Harvard psychologist Dan Gilbert and University of Virginia psychologist Tim Wilson, refers...
Will Maskie-Mask-Mask Face Stop the Delta Variant?
From the City-Journal: “Seriously people—STOP BUYING MASKS!” So tweeted then–surgeon general Jerome Adams on February 29, 2020, adding, “They are NOT effective in preventing general public from catching #Coronavirus.” Two days later, Adams said,...
New Census data to show US diversifying at fastest rate ever
From The Hill: Over the last four years, annual census surveys have shown the white population has declined by more than 1 million — a drop that is sufficient to wipe out the population...
Professor Sir Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford Vaccine Group: Delta Means that Everyone, the Vaccinated and Unvaccinated, “will meet the virus”
Seems clear enough: “We know very clearly with coronavirus that this current variant, the Delta variant, will still infect people who have been vaccinated and that does mean that anyone who’s still unvaccinated, at...
Price: Give Americans a Personal Option
From Give Americans a Personal Option: One important improvement would be to expand tax-free health savings accounts. HSAs save people at least 15 percent each time they make a health care purchase. Yet, given the current constraints, only...
Sen. Hagerty, Carrying Trump’s Water, Stops All Amendments to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill
From Reuters: Multiple bipartisan groups of senators on Saturday could be seen clustered around Hagerty, at times gesticulating. They included Republicans Rob Portman and Lisa Murkowski, Democrats Joe Manchin and Chris Murphy and staffers...
Thing One about a Pandemic: Everyone gets Infected
Those lamenting the Americans who haven’t had their partial or full vaccination for Covid, should stop worrying. Nature will vaccinate those who do not want to be vaccinated by infecting them with the Delta...