Posted 28 May 2020 - 03:00 PM
So the PR event on BCTV with Dr Henry and Dix just ended.
Blows my mind why she rollsout the poor, addicted, and sometimes homeless require sympathy.
FFS woman, the people suffering and dying from the China 19 virus have no choice!
The vermin have a choice and they made the wrong one. And yes we have to pay for them too. Free everything including drugs.
Time to shutdown these politicos from here to Ottawa getting way more airtime than they deserve!
Rant over
Posted 28 May 2020 - 03:13 PM
Posted 28 May 2020 - 03:47 PM
Referring to people as vermin won't win you many allies, even among those who may be in agreement with some of your positions.
Too old vet to worry about allies or likes..thats for the young war untainted. Thank you
BUILD
Posted 28 May 2020 - 04:14 PM
speaking of vermin, I don't know what SNL could do to satirize this:
It’s a modern quandary for the ultra-wealthy: a yacht awaits at harbor, but how to safely reach it without risking exposure to the germ-ridden masses?
Global aviation company VistaJet has a solution. Spurred by member demand, clients can reserve a freshly sanitized jet to fly them to a yacht moored in Malta (where, as it happens, VistaJet is based). Lest anyone be worried that the island nation itself is germ-ridden, a press release notes that “The World Health Organization singled out Malta as a role model for other countries in the fight against Covid-19.”
Malta is the only destination for this service, so if your yacht is moored in Antibes or Porto Cervo, you’re out of luck. But if you’re the type of person who’s serious about yachting during a pandemic, then Malta is probably a place you should check out.
In addition to multiple yacht marinas and a mild Mediterranean climate, the country levies zero taxes on income or capital gains earned outside Malta and there’s no estate tax, making it a popular choice for the ultra-rich when it comes to buying a second citizenship. Yes, buying. A Maltese passport can be yours for just 1.2 million euros ($1.3 million) in cash and property.
https://www.bloomber...y-to-your-yacht
Edited by amor de cosmos, 28 May 2020 - 04:16 PM.
Posted 28 May 2020 - 08:28 PM
Know it all.
Citified.ca is Victoria's most comprehensive research resource for new-build homes and commercial spaces.
BUILD
Posted 29 May 2020 - 07:31 AM
https://www.eurekale...s-ede052820.phpScientists from the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) developed an experimental diagnostic test for COVID-19 that can visually detect the presence of the virus in 10 minutes. It uses a simple assay containing plasmonic gold nanoparticles to detect a color change when the virus is present. The test does not require the use of any advanced laboratory techniques, such as those commonly used to amplify DNA, for analysis. The authors published their work last week in the American Chemical Society's nanotechnology journal ACS Nano.
"Based on our preliminary results, we believe this promising new test may detect RNA material from the virus as early as the first day of infection. Additional studies are needed, however, to confirm whether this is indeed the case," said study leader Dipanjan Pan, PhD, Professor of Diagnostic Radiology and Nuclear Medicine and Pediatrics at the UMSOM.
Once a nasal swab or saliva sample is obtained from a patient, the RNA is extracted from the sample via a simple process that takes about 10 minutes. The test uses a highly specific molecule attached to the gold nanoparticles to detect a particular protein. This protein is part of the genetic sequence that is unique to the novel coronavirus. When the biosensor binds to the virus's gene sequence, the gold nanoparticles respond by turning the liquid reagent from purple to blue.
"The accuracy of any COVID-19 test is based on being able to reliably detect any virus. This means it does not give a false negative result if the virus actually is present, nor a false positive result if the virus is not present," said Dr. Pan. "Many of the diagnostic tests currently on the market cannot detect the virus until several days after infection. For this reason, they have a significant rate of false negative results."
https://www.fastcomp...car-heater-hackAs COVID-19 has spread across the U.S., sterilizing wipes and hand sanitizer have been in short supply, which was a problem for the NYC police department. So it reached out to Ford to see if there were alternative cleaning products that it could use to keep its fleet of Interceptor SUVs sterile for officers to share across shifts.
And that’s when an engineer at Ford realized: They didn’t need bleach to kill COVID-19 when the car’s own heater could do the job instead. And over the process of just 40 days, the auto company created a software patch that could upgrade the Interceptors to self-sterilize with the climate control system in just 15 minutes, no elbow grease required. (That patch is currently being installed on NYC police vehicles, and it’s offered to police officers free nationwide through dealers, though Ford is unsure how many have received the update to date.)
But it isn’t just a tool that could work in high horsepower police SUVs. According to Bill Gubing, Ford’s director of passenger vehicles and SUVs, it could work in just about any car on the market, with the right retrofitting.
How is this possible? COVID-19 is extremely susceptible to heat. And car engines? They put out a lot of heat.
Why it works
While it’s still uncertain if summer climates will curb the spread of COVID-19, studies have demonstrated that you don’t need blazing hot temperatures to kill the coronavirus. Teaming up with Ohio State University, Ford confirmed that a temperature of 132.8 degrees for 15 minutes would reduce viral concentrations by more than 99% on surfaces and in the air.
Meanwhile, a properly functioning car heater blows air that’s around 130 degrees already, so in reality, a car needs just a few little nudges to get up to that temperature. And in Ford’s case, those nudges could be handled entirely by a software update, which modifies the engine and onboard climate control.
https://arstechnica....n-of-outbreaks/What makes the approach here all the more useful is the fact that changes in the amount of detectable virus in sewage sludge appears to mirror changes in the number of new cases—in fact, they give advanced warning. Those are the findings in a recent preprint from a group of researchers at Yale.
Between March 19 and May 1, the scientists took daily samples of sewage sludge from the East Shore Water Pollution Abatement Facility in New Haven, Connecticut, which serves a population of around 200,000 people. The researchers then measured the total amount of RNA in each sample, as well as the amount of SARS-CoV-2 RNA. This showed that levels of coronavirus rose over that time, peaked, and then decreased.
When the researchers then looked at daily COVID-19 admissions to the Yale New Haven Hospital, as well as laboratory confirmed cases in the communities served by the sewage plant, they discovered a clear correlation to the viral levels that lagged by seven days. In other words, a rise of viral load in sewage showed up a week before a similar rise in new COVID-19 cases.
https://www.vice.com...ews-experts-sayEarlier this week, 11 local broadcasters were caught airing “news” segments that were actually advertisements praising Amazon’s handling of the COVID-19 crisis. Experts say the ads—which featured an Amazon PR rep pretending to be a reporter—not only violated the law, but are a shining example of how media consolidation is slowly destroying quality local journalism.
The ads were part of an Amazon press release lauding the company for its “innovation” during the COVID-19 crisis. And while some ethical reporters correctly balked at the idea of running marketing fluff as news, some stations ran the prepared segment as hard news without informing viewers they were watching an Amazon infomercial.
Unsurprisingly, the puff piece failed to discuss the eight Amazon warehouse employees who have died from COVID-19, the worker protests over inadequate protective equipment, or the company’s failure to extend a modest $2 per hour hazard bonus beyond May—despite being one of the most valuable organizations in human history.
Lawyer and tech policy expert Harold Feld told Motherboard that Section 317 of the Communications Act gives the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) the authority to go after broadcasters for airing PR as “news”—but only if the broadcaster fails to disclose where the promotional material originated.
https://www.rawstory...hs-in-24-hours/Brazil registered a new record in Covid-19 cases and more than 1,000 dead in a 24-hour period, according to official figures released on Thursday.
The South American country has the world’s second highest number of confirmed novel coronavirus cases — 438,238 — after the United States.
According to Health Ministry data, 26,417 new cases were confirmed in a 24 hour-period ending late Thursday.
In that same period Brazil experienced its third highest number of virus deaths since the start of the pandemic: 1,156, bringing the total death toll to 26,754, the sixth highest in the world.
Some experts, however, believe that the actual virus infection rate could be up to 15 times higher because there has been no widespread testing in Brazil.
https://medicalxpres...vid-deaths.htmlThe COVID-19 crisis points to female leadership as a marker for healthier and more equal societies that are more receptive to political agendas placing social and environmental wellbeing at the core of national policymaking, according to a new analysis involving Lorenzo Fioramonti from the University of Pretoria and Luca Coscieme from Trinity.
The researchers ran some statistical analyses on available COVID-19 pandemic data and a series of dimensions of basic human needs, inequality and economic resilience. For the analyses, they used continuous daily data of the number of confirmed COVID-19 deaths for a total of 35 countries from December 31st 2019 to May 11th 2020 (data is available from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control).
They today report a summary of some of the stunning correlations, which include:Luca Coscieme, Marie Skodowska-Curie and Irish Research Council CAROLINE Fellow in Trinity College Dublin's School of Natural Sciences, is one of the authors of the study. He said, "Female-led governments shared similar approaches to the crisis, characterized by early consultation with national health experts and advisors, and containment measures were implemented early. On the other hand, most male-led governments downplayed initial warnings and acted with substantial delays to respond to the crisis."
- Countries with women in position of leadership suffered six times fewer confirmed deaths from COVID-19 than countries with governments led by men
- Female-led governments were more effective and rapid at flattening the epidemic's curve, with peaks in daily deaths roughly six times lower than in countries ruled by men
- The average numer of days with confirmed deaths was 34 in countries ruled by women and 48 in countries ruled by men
https://www.nextgov....tracing/165719/Americans trust big tech companies like Amazon, Facebook and Google to collect their sensitive, personal information through COVID-19 contact tracing over the federal government, according to a survey released this week.
The survey found 60% of Americans trust big tech companies to oversee contact tracing—the act of identifying and monitoring people who may have been exposed to COVID-19—while only 40% said they’d prefer federal agencies oversee contact tracing.
Further, among the 1,200 Americans surveyed in May by software firm ExpressVPN and online sampling service Lucid, 84% expressed concern the government would misuse sensitive personal information, like phone location data, compared to 79% expressing similar concern over its misuse by tech companies.
Posted 29 May 2020 - 10:11 AM
Seems like a good solution for planes, buses, trains etc. too. eg. Just warm up the interior of the plane to 132 degrees for 15 minutes, then vent and cool for next flight.
Posted 29 May 2020 - 12:11 PM
A troop of monkeys in India attacked a medical official and snatched away blood samples of patients who had tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Because things weren't quite weird enough.
Old White Man On A Canadian Island
Posted 29 May 2020 - 12:27 PM
if those monkeys were not on motorcycles when they drove up to attack they need to up their game.
Edited by Victoria Watcher, 29 May 2020 - 12:28 PM.
Old White Man On A Canadian Island
Posted 29 May 2020 - 12:46 PM
President Trump on Friday announced that the U.S. is "terminating" its relationship with the embattled World Health Organization (WHO) over its failure to enact reforms in the face of U.S. concerns over its handling of the coronavirus pandemic and its pro-China bias.
Old White Man On A Canadian Island
Posted 29 May 2020 - 02:20 PM
No new COVID-19 deaths in B.C. for second time in a week
The province also announced just four more cases of the virus in the past 24 hours. The total number of deaths from COVID-19 in B.C. remains at 164, while the recovery rate climbs to 85 per cent.
Edited by Victoria Watcher, 29 May 2020 - 02:21 PM.
Old White Man On A Canadian Island
Posted 30 May 2020 - 08:27 AM
Edited by Victoria Watcher, 30 May 2020 - 08:27 AM.
BUILD
Posted 30 May 2020 - 08:47 AM
https://www.citylab....e-spain/612328/This month, Italy introduced a new tool in its fight against coronavirus and other health crises: a hospital train. Capable of treating and transporting as many as 21 critically ill patients, the newly equipped train is currently located at Milan’s Greco Pirelli railway station, in Italy’s worst hit region, Lombardy. With pressure on regular hospitals reduced since Italian cases of Covid-19 peaked between late March and early April, the train is not due to be deployed immediately. It could, however, be used to relieve any regions hit hard in a second wave. It is one of several converted trains in western Europe since the beginning of the pandemic – with one mobile clinic already being credited for saving lives.
*snip*
It is France, however, that has done most to use railways to help manage its pandemic response. In March, CityLab reported on its plan to use a high-speed TGV train to transfer Covid-19 patients from the particularly stricken Grand Est region flanking the German border to hospitals in western France. Since then, carrier SNCF has conducted patient transfers: four from the Grand Est region, and five from Paris to hospitals in Brittany and Aquitaine. The transfers seem to have had an effect.
Health authorities in Brittany announced this month that of 84 patients transferred by hospital train to the region, 57 had already improved enough to return to their home regions, and 17 released from hospital. Six patients transferred have since died, nine remain in intensive care, and a further 12 have left emergency care but remain in the hospital. It’s unclear whether or not these outcomes are better than if the patients had all remained in the regions where they were first admitted to the hospital, but it seems likely that the transfers gave a better chance of recovery to both the patients on the trains and the patients left behind in hospitals.
https://www.santafe....vid-19-pandemicThis week in the journal Frontiers, researchers describe a single function that accurately describes all existing available data on active cases and deaths—and predicts forthcoming peaks. The tool uses q-statistics, a set of functions and probability distributions developed by Constantino Tsallis, a physicist and SFI External Professor Emeritus. Tsallis worked on the new model together with Ugur Tirnakli, a physicist at Ege University, in Turkey.
“The formula works in all the countries in which we have tested,” says Tsallis.
Neither physicist ever set out to model a global pandemic. But Tsallis says that when he saw the shape of published graphs representing China’s daily active cases, he recognized shapes he’d seen before—namely, in graphs he’d helped produce almost two decades ago to describe the behavior of the stock market.
“The shape was exactly the same,” he says. For the financial data, the function described probabilities of stock exchanges; for COVID-19, it described daily the number of active cases—and fatalities—as a function of time.
Modeling financial data and tracking a global pandemic may seem unrelated, but Tsallis says they have one important thing in common. “They’re both complex systems,” he says, “and in complex systems, this happens all the time.” Disparate systems from a variety of fields—biology, network theory, computer science, mathematics—often reveal patterns that follow the same basic shapes and evolution.
https://www.eurekale...t-spe052920.phpA combination of genetic shuffling and evolutionary selection of near-identical genetic sequences among specific bat and pangolin coronaviruses may have led to the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 and its introduction into humans, a new study suggests. The results also showed that the virus' entire receptor binding motif (RBM), a component that plays a key role in viral entry into host cells, was introduced through recombination with pangolin coronaviruses. The study joins ongoing efforts to identify the source of the virus that causes COVID-19, which is critical for informing efforts to establish proper animal models, discover new drugs and vaccines, and ultimately prevent the rise of future zoonotic diseases.
https://english.alar...covid-19-reliefThe UN humanitarian chief urgently appealed for $2.4 billion to help millions of people in Yemen cope with the conflict and coronavirus, saying programs are already being cut and the situation is “alarming.”
Mark Lowcock told a UN briefing Thursday that the UN received $3.2 billion last year for Yemen because countries in the region — including Saudi Arabia and the UAE who are involved in the conflict — stepped up.
This year, the UN has appealed for about $3.4 billion but as of Wednesday it had only received $516.6 million, just over 15%. The Saudis pledged $525 million in early April and Lowcock said he hopes it will quickly be turned into cash.
The United Nations and Saudi Arabia are co-hosting a video pledging conference for Yemen on Tuesday and Lowcock said he has been on the phone with Persian Gulf leaders in recent days but doesn’t know what they’re going to do. The collapse in oil prices because of the pandemic may be spurring internal discussions, he said.
https://medicalxpres...ens-plasma.htmlScientists do not yet know if Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2, or SARS-CoV-2—the virus that causes COVID-19—can be transmitted by blood transfusion. But given the unknowns around this new pathogen, researchers at Colorado State University used existing technologies to show that exposing the coronavirus to riboflavin and ultraviolet light reduces pathogens in human plasma and whole-blood products.
The study, "Pathogen reduction of SARS-CoV-2 virus in plasma and whole blood using riboflavin and UV light," was published May 29 in PLOS ONE.
Dr. Izabela Ragan, postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at CSU, said the research team tackled one of the big questions about the novel coronavirus: If the pathogen can spread through blood or by donating blood, would it be possible to kill the virus?
"The research we conducted answers that question: yes, you can," said Ragan. "We eliminated a huge amount of virus and we could not detect the virus post-treatment."
http://www.ecns.cn/n...pi8641501.shtmlThe World Health Organization (WHO), Costa Rica and other partners on Friday officially launched a COVID-19 Technology Access Pool, an initiative aimed at making vaccines, tests, treatments and other health technologies to fight COVID-19 accessible to all.
WHO said in a press release that the Pool was first proposed in March by President Carlos Alvarado of Costa Rica and so far has been supported by over 30 countries and multiple international partners and institutions.
Speaking at a virtual media briefing on Friday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that the COVID-19 Technology Access Pool, or C-TAP, is a sister initiative of the ACT Accelerator, another plan that WHO and partners launched a month ago to speed up the development, production and equitable distribution of vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics for COVID-19.
"Through C-TAP, we are inviting companies or governments that develop an effective therapeutic to contribute the patent to the Medicines Patent Pool, which would then sub-license the patent to generic manufacturers," Tedros said.
https://www.bloomber...utput-this-yearA front-running Covid-19 vaccine candidate being developed in China is expected to be available as soon as the end of this year, according to a report published in the official Wechat account of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission.
The vaccine, jointly developed by the Beijing Institute of Biological Products and China National Biotec Group Co., has completed phase II testing and may be ready for the market at the end of this year or early next year, said the report.
The production line for the vaccine will be fully disinfected and closed in preparation for output to start Saturday, and will have a full manufacturing capacity of 100 million-120 million vaccines each year.
Drugmakers are racing to develop a cure for the contagion that has so far killed at least 365,000 people. More than 100 vaccines for the virus are being developed globally, but only a handful have made it to the crucial and final human clinical trial stage, with Chinese scientists leading the way.
long & w/vidBut The Intercept, as the result of an investigation by animal rights group Direct Action Everywhere, or DxE, has obtained video footage of the procedure and the resulting carnage that occurred at one of the company’s facilities in mid-May. Additionally, a whistleblower employed by Iowa Select has provided extensive details to The Intercept about the extraordinary methods now being employed to kill pigs — agonizingly and over the course of many hours — in increasingly large numbers.
What prompted both the DxE investigation and the whistleblower to come forward is Iowa Select’s recent adoption of the mass-extermination method known as “ventilation shutdown,” or VSD. Under this method, pigs at the company’s rural Grundy County facility are being “depopulated,” using the industry’s jargon, by sealing off all airways to their barns and inserting steam into them, intensifying the heat and humidity inside and leaving them to die overnight. Most pigs — though not all — die after hours of suffering from a combination of being suffocated and roasted to death. The recordings obtained by The Intercept include audio of the piercing cries of pigs as they succumb. The recordings also show that some pigs manage to survive the ordeal — but, on the morning after, Iowa Select dispatches armed workers to enter the barn to survey the mound of pig corpses for any lingering signs of life, and then use their bolt guns to extinguish any survivors.
*snip*
During the pandemic, mass slaughter has become commonplace at factory farms, even though many of these farms are not where large-scale killing is meant to occur. In normal times, the animals would be transported to slaughterhouses and killed there in ways that, at least in theory, minimize the cruelty by accelerating the death process. But mass killings that radically deviate from the normal slaughterhouse process are now rampant in this industry and are expected to increase. “At least two million animals have already reportedly been culled on farm, and that number is expected to rise,” The Guardian reported on April 29. Officials in Iowa “have warned that producers could be forced to kill 700,000 pigs a week due to meat plant slowdowns or closures.”
https://www.khaleejt...aims-pfizer-ceoGlobal pharmaceutical major Pfizer believes that a vaccine to prevent Covid-19 could be ready by the end of October, the company's CEO Albert Bourla said.
Pfizer is conducting clinical trials in the US and Europe for the BNT162 vaccine programme to prevent Covid-19 in collaboration with German mRNA company BioNTech.
Bourla made the comments while participating at a virtual event organised by the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations (IFPMA) this week.
"If things go well and the stars are aligned, we will have enough evidence of safety and efficacy for us to feel comfortable, for the FDA (US Food and Drug Administration) to feel comfortable, and for the EMA (European Medicines Agency) to feel comfortable, to have a vaccine around the end of October," Bourla was quoted as saying at the event by FierceBiotech.
https://www.vice.com...ronavirus-casesWhole Foods has fired a California employee who created a running count of COVID-19 cases in company’s US supermarkets because neither Amazon nor Whole Foods would make the information publicly available.
Katie Doan, who worked at the Tustin Whole Foods in Orange County for three years, says she was fired on Wednesday for “time theft” when she took a 45 minute break to recover from a panic attack. For many Whole Foods employees and other grocery store workers around the country, working at the company has been stressful and anxiety-inducing, in part because of the ever-present risk of catching COVID-19. Motherboard viewed a copy of the terms of her separation from the company.
Old White Man On A Canadian Island
Posted 30 May 2020 - 01:55 PM
Old White Man On A Canadian Island
Posted 30 May 2020 - 02:59 PM
some stats from an ottawa-area health unit:
Median age of cases is 74-years (min = 0, max = 104)
50 deaths (47 long-term care, 3 community)
Median age of deaths is 86-years (min = 56, max = 100)
48 (96%) of deaths occurred in population aged 65+ years
https://www.insideot...-lanark-may-29/
michigan:
The average age of coronavirus deaths is 75.3 years old. The state median age of those deceased as of Saturday is 77.
https://www.freep.co...ths/5291666002/
Edited by Victoria Watcher, 30 May 2020 - 03:00 PM.
BUILD
Posted 31 May 2020 - 07:17 AM
https://www.cbc.ca/n...water-1.5590882Testing waste water could be used in a number of ways. It may provide:
*snip*
- Earlier warning than clinical tests or hospitalizations that the disease's spread is growing in a given area or community, particularly when a second wave of the epidemic arrives.
- A way to detect outbreaks at vulnerable institutions such as prisons or meat packing facilities without testing everyone there.
- Evidence that testing isn't reaching certain groups, or there is more asymptomatic spread than expected.
It's not a new idea — waste water testing has previously been used to track polio in India. Statistics Canada has also tested waste water to get a sense of illicit drug use across the country. And Prystajecky has studied the use of waste water to track the stomach bug norovirus.
While waste water testing for COVID-19 can potentially hit groups of people that are missed by clinical testing, it can't diagnose individuals or give a very accurate count of how many people are infected. What it can show clearly is whether cases are increasing or decreasing.
*snip*
Steve Hrudey is professor emeritus at the University of Alberta, who is co-ordinating a pilot project to assess the viability of a national COVID-19 waste water surveillance system through the Canadian Water Network.
"We're wanting to have this in place before we run into any major second waves to assist the public health decision-makers in recognizing what's happening early on and giving them another source of information that can help them make the tough decisions they must make."
*snip*
That said, both Prystajecky and Hrudey said lots of research and development are still needed before waste water testing can be deployed on a wide scale for COVID-19 surveillance in Canada.
For one thing, there isn't yet a standardized method for taking samples — where, when and how often, Hrudey said.
Prystajecky said such methods also need to be checked and validated.
*snip*
She estimates it will take a couple of months before her team feels they have a "good valid test."
https://www.rawstory...-cdc-officials/According to a report from the Daily Beast, officials at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) believe that a “statistically significant” increase in pneumonia-related deaths in Florida may be related to the COVID-19 virus.
With Florida being one of the first states to re-open after most of the country went into an almost complete shutdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, reports of deaths in sthe state have been under more scrutiny than usual as health experts attempt to get their arms around the health crisis.
*snip*
According to Bob Anderson, the chief of the Mortality Statistics Branch in CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, that increase is “statistically significant” and the death total was likely tied to COVID-19.
“The increase has sparked a conspiracy theory on the left, that Florida is deliberately trying to undercount coronavirus fatalities by labeling them as something else. There’s no evidence to suggest any such underhand efforts, or that the state is unique across the country,” Banco wrote but cautioned, “But officials, including Anderson, do believe that a portion of the pneumonia and influenza deaths in Florida involved patients who were infected with, but never tested for, COVID-19. In such scenarios, though the virus likely contributed to the death, it may not have been recorded as the cause of death by the physician, coroner or medical examiner.”
https://www.salon.co...p-1-of-earners/Roughly three-quarters of the benefits from the capital gains tax cut floated by President Donald Trump as part of the administration's coronavirus relief plan would go to the top 1% of earners, according to the Tax Policy Center.
Trump has repeatedly floated a cut to capital gains taxes, which are taxes paid by investors on profits made when an asset, like stock or real estate, is sold. The capital gains tax rate is already 35% lower than the top income tax rate, and only about 6% of households in the bottom 80% of earners claim any capital gains, meaning the overwhelming majority of benefits would flow to the wealthy.
*snip*
"Capital gains tax cuts are poorly targeted benefits," writes the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, which noted that 75% of tax filers who reported capital gains last year were in the top 1% of earners.
"About 6 percent of households in the bottom 80 percent reported any capital gains income at all, compared with 83 percent of those in the top 0.1 percent," said Tax Policy Center co-founder Leonard Burman, who previously served at the Treasury Department and the Congressional Budget Office. "That elite group (incomes over $3.8 million) accounted for more than half of all long-term capital gains, reporting an average gain of $5.5 million."
https://sputniknews....vid-19-vaccine/American biotech company Moderna, racing to develop a COVID-19 vaccine, has been slammed for lack of transparency and allegedly seeking to boost its share price by holding a stock offering just hours after releasing the first “positive” results of its early human trials, reports the Independent.
Questions have been raised over the way the company disclosed results from the first phase of its clinical trial of a potential coronavirus vaccine involving humans, as well as the absence of critical information regarding the candidate’s efficacy.
Released in a press release, the results are yet to be peer-reviewed by the wider scientific community.
“What is important at this moment is to independently verify the science and that apparently is not possible,” Ellen t’ Hoen, an expert in medicines policy and intellectual property law, was cited as saying by the outlet.
Edited by amor de cosmos, 31 May 2020 - 08:44 AM.
Posted 31 May 2020 - 01:15 PM
Posted 31 May 2020 - 01:19 PM
Maybe you should, why is it in most Asian countries it is completely acceptable to walk around wearing a surgical mask if you have a respiratory illness or for whatever I guess(probably good for seasonal allergies) and not here, is it because are we are apparently vain, embarrassed and selfish?Many people die every year from complications of respiratory illness.
yah the masks are a bit creepy/security risk
Edited by todd, 31 May 2020 - 01:21 PM.
BUILD
Posted 31 May 2020 - 07:30 PM
https://ca.news.yaho...-171840325.htmlThere are now 12 active cases of COVID-19 in New Brunswick’s Campbellton region, after a family doctor defied social-distancing rules following a personal trip to Quebec.
Dr. Jennifer Russell, the province’s chief medical officer of health, said on Sunday that four residents of the Manoir de la Vallée long-term care facility have tested positive over the weekend. Earlier this week, a health-care worker at the facility was diagnosed with COVID-19, prompting all staff and residents to get tested.
“An outbreak in a senior’s home is everyone’s greatest fear,” said Russell, as COVID-19 continues to have a devastating impact on long-term care facilities across the country.
Premier Blaine Higgs said all four cases (three announced Sunday, and one Saturday) have been located in a single unit of Manoir de la Vallée, which houses 18 of its 51 total residents. All other residents who tested negative will still be monitored for 14 days as they self-isolate.
New Brunswick previously had no active cases, after all of its patients had recovered by May 16. But over the past 11 days, they’ve discovered 12 new cases in the Campbellton region, all linked to a cluster that officials believe was started by a health-care professional who exposed at least 150 people to the virus.
0 members, 1 guests, 0 anonymous users
Community Forum Software by IP.Board 3.4.6
Licensed to: Citified Media Inc. All materials © Copyright Citified Media Inc. All rights reserved.
STAY CONNECTED TO VIBRANTVICTORIA
WHAT'S HAPPENING ON CITIFIED VICTORIA
