(actually there's no *controversy* or debate concerning this guy; he's just a crazy anti-mask/anti-vax lunatic & everyone knows it)
A video posted to Twitter shows controversial conservative Pastor Artur Pawlowski being arrested Monday at the airport in Calgary. He spent four months in the United States speaking to conservative media and spreading lies about the COVID-19 vaccine in speeches, reported Canadian Global News.
https://www.rawstory...rtur-pawlowski/
An Ontario farm where an outbreak of COVID-19 affected more than 200 workers, including a man from Mexico who later died, now faces 20 charges following an inspection by the provincial Labour Ministry.
Charges filed with the Ontario Court of Justice under the Occupational Health and Safety Act say Scotlynn Sweetpac Growers Inc. and its owner, Scott Biddle, failed to take "every precaution reasonable" to protect workers from COVID-19 infection on the vegetable farm in Vittoria, located about 75 kilometres south of Hamilton.
Scores of workers tested positive for COVID-19 in an outbreak in the spring of 2020. Juan Lopez Chaparro, a 55-year-old from Mexico, died in June that year after working at the farm.
The charges, which have not been proven in court, say the farm and its owner failed to protect workers in the following ways:
- Workers weren't informed about the need to wear face coverings.
- Workers didn't have access to hand hygiene facilities.
- There was a lack of cleaning on touch surfaces.
- Workers with a higher likelihood of transmitting COVID-19 and those showing symptoms weren't given information or instructions to self-isolate.
CBC News called Scotlynn group for comment on Monday after 5 p.m. ET and was told by an employee who answered the phone to call back on Tuesday.
https://www.cbc.ca/n...fines-1.6191405
A team of international researchers, including McGill Professor Stéphane Laporte, have discovered the working mechanism of potential drug targets for various diseases such as cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, and even COVID-19. The findings published in Molecular Cell uncover the inner workings of cell receptors that are involved in cancer progression and inflammatory diseases.
https://www.alphagal...y/ItemId/212976
The most complete studies on the variants of the coronavirus that dominated the first waves in Spain have just been published in Nature Genetics. The study was carried out by the SeqCOVID consortium, which includes more than 50 Spanish institutions led by the University of Valencia, the Institute of Biomedicine of Valencia (IBV, CSIC) and the Fisabio Foundation.
A year and a half after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the most complete scientific study on the variants of the coronavirus that circulated in Spain during the ‘first wave’ has been published. The study identifies nine variants of the virus that dominated the pandemic between the months of March and June 2020. Among them, the two most common came from a lineage of SARS-CoV-2 abundant in Asian countries at that time, although the virus arrived mainly by contacts from European countries with more than 500 introductions, according to the study published by Nature Genetics. The work concludes that the imposed confinement served to drastically reduce the transmission of these variants, even the most contagious ones, which were replaced by others as of the summer of 2020 when control measures were eased.
The study used 2,500 samples of patients diagnosed in Spain during the first wave of the pandemic, collected by 40 hospitals and sequenced by the SeqCOVID consortium, a research team made up of more than 50 Spanish institutions and hundreds of researchers who lead the University of Valencia, the Institute of Biomedicine of Valencia (IBV, CSIC) and the Foundation for the Promotion of Health and Biomedical Research of the Valencian Community (Fisabio). The samples analysed represent 1% of all cases diagnosed in the first wave (14% before lockdown).
The research team identified 9 variants of the virus (called SEC, English Spanish Epidemic Clades), which were the ones that dominated this first wave in Spain. Two of them (SEC7 and SEC8) were the first detected in the country and the predominant ones during that period, and are associated with at least two known super-dispersion events: the Atalanta-Valencia match of the Champions League and a funeral in Vitoria, although Early foci are identified in other parts of the country. There was not a single introduction of the virus in Spain, but rather multiple independent entries (at least 500), from different international origins. These occurred mainly during February and March 2020, before the implementation of the control measures.
https://www.alphagal...y/ItemId/212973
HERSHEY, Pa. — A type of drug already used to treat obesity and Type 2 diabetes, when taken six months prior to the diagnosis of COVID-19, was associated with a decreased risk of hospitalization, respiratory complications and death in COVID-19 patients with Type 2 diabetes, according to researchers at Penn State College of Medicine. The team, which analyzed electronic medical records of patients with type 2 diabetes, concludes that the drugs, called glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor (GLP-1R) agonists, should be further evaluated for potential protective effects against COVID-19 complications.
“Our results are very promising as GLP-1R agonist treatment appears to be highly protective, but more research is needed to establish a causal relationship between the use of these drugs and decreased risk for severe COVID-19 outcomes in patients with Type 2 diabetes,” said Patricia “Sue” Grigson, professor and chair of the Department of Neural and Behavioral Sciences.
https://news.psu.edu...severe-covid-19
https://www.scienced...10927132058.htm
Specific and dynamic changes on electrocardiograms (EKGs) of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 or influenza can help predict a timeframe for worsening health and death, according to a new Mount Sinai study. The work, published in the September 24 online issue of the American Journal of Cardiology, shows that shrinking waveforms on these tests can be used to help better identify high-risk patients and provide them more aggressive monitoring and treatment.
“Our study shows diminished waveforms on EKGs over the course of COVID-19 illness can be an important tool for health care workers caring for these patients, allowing them to catch rapid clinical changes over their hospital stay and intervene more quickly. With COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations continuing to rise again, EKGs may be helpful for hospitals to use when caring for these patients before their condition gets dramatically worse,” says senior author Joshua Lampert, MD, Cardiac Electrophysiology fellow at The Mount Sinai Hospital. “This is particularly useful in overwhelmed systems, as there is no wait for blood work to return and this test can be performed by the majority of health care personnel. Additionally, the EKG can be done at the time of other bedside patient care, eliminating the potential exposure of another health care worker to COVID-19.”
https://www.mountsin...luenza-patients
https://www.scienced...10924182525.htm
A Daily Pill to Treat Covid Could Be Just Months Away, Scientists Say
At least three promising antiviral treatments for COVID-19 are being tested in clinical trials, with results expected as soon as late fall or winter.
https://www.govexec....sts-say/185629/
1 in 5 Dutch youth faced domestic abuse in 1st year of COVID-19: Report
12% of young people aged 16-24 suffered violence, 5% subjected to sexual violence, says Statistics Netherlands report
https://www.aa.com.t...-report/2377032
A Kaiser Permanente analysis of more than 100,000 pregnancies in Northern California found a 25% increase in the rate of cannabis use early in pregnancy after the pandemic began in spring 2020.
https://www.bostongl...uring-pandemic/
Nearly half the world’s population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. But figures vary widely between countries. Many low and middle-income countries have barely started their vaccination campaigns.
But the tiny Himalayan nation of Bhutan isn’t one of them. By the end of July, it had fully vaccinated 90% of its adults. Despite having few doctors and nurses, across just three weeks in the summer it delivered a second vaccine dose to nearly every adult in the country. This is a remarkable success story for one of the least developed countries in the world.
Health minister Dechen Wangmo credits solidarity, Bhutan’s small size and its science-based policymaking for its success. Its achievement highlights how logistical challenges and vaccine hesitancy can be overcome.
https://theconversat...-rollout-168341
Year 2020 was the worst for the Palestinian Authority (PA) since its establishment in 1994 due to the Israeli occupation and the coronavirus pandemic, the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said on Tuesday.
https://www.aa.com.t...2020-un/2377020
On Monday, The New York Times reported that the wife of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro stirred outrage in her home country following reports that she got vaccinated in New York City during the United Nations conference.
https://www.rawstory...w-york-vaccine/
French vaccine giant Sanofi announced positive results of a Phase 1/2 clinical trial of its first mRNA vaccine on Tuesday, saying the early findings with a Covid-19 vaccine give the company confidence to shift gears on its mRNA program to pursue vaccines for other pathogens. The first in its sights is an influenza vaccine Sanofi hopes to begin testing in clinical trials next year.
Sanofi will not be developing an mRNA Covid-19 vaccine, Thomas Triomphe, global head of vaccines, told STAT in an interview. By the time the company could bring a Covid mRNA vaccine through the authorization process, that market will have been saturated, he said.
If Sanofi were to pursue a Covid mRNA vaccine, it would have clinical trial results to apply for a license by, at best, the last quarter of 2022 or the first quarter of 2023. By then other manufacturers could have produced in the range of 40 billion doses of Covid vaccines — enough to vaccinate everyone on earth several times over, Triomphe said. Trying to get into the market at that point “doesn’t make sense,” he said.
https://www.statnews...ther-pathogens/
Un premier lot de vaccins russes Spoutnik V produit au Vietnam
http://www.newspress...SS-FR-NP-0.aspx
Russia spends around $4.1 bln on coronavirus treatment in hospitals in 2021
https://tass.com/world/1343337
1,000 makeshift quarantine rooms to be built by Wednesday amid COVID-19 resurgence in Fujian (Gallery)
http://www.ecns.cn/h...pe0572091.shtml
US President Joe Biden received a Covid-19 vaccine booster on Monday and told Americans still resisting the shots that they are damaging the country.
Biden rolled up his left sleeve in the White House and got a third Pfizer dose in line with the recently approved health guidance, which allows boosters for those 65 or older.
"I know it doesn't look like it, but I am over 65," Biden, 78, joked.
https://english.alar...ne-booster-shot
As Congress launched a historic bailout to keep businesses afloat at the outset of the pandemic, government officials stressed that the loans were for mom-and-pop operations that didn’t have another easily available lifeline.
“This was a program designed for small businesses,” then-Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said, as companies like Shake Shack and Potbelly made headlines for grabbing millions from the newly created Paycheck Protection Program. “It was not a program that was designed for public companies that had liquidity.”
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy was even clearer. “We will go after those big companies that cheat the system,” he told Fox News that spring.
But the tough talk hasn’t translated into action. Instead, a ProPublica review has found, the government gave out generous loans to companies that may not have needed them. And it has often forgiven the loans, despite having said that publicly traded companies would be unlikely to merit such generous treatment.
https://www.propubli...em-not-to-apply
Homicides in the United States rose nearly 30 percent in 2020 from 2019, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)'s Uniform Crime Report for 2020 published on Monday.
"In 2020, there were an estimated 1,277,696 violent crimes," the agency said in a statement. Among them, 38,520 reported cases were homicides. The homicide rate per 100,000 people in the country was 6.5 in 2020.
The 2020 jump in homicides marked the "largest single-year increase" that the FBI has seen since it began collecting the data in the 1960s, according to a CNN report.
There were more than 21,500 murders in 2000, the biggest number since the mid 1990s, said the report, noting the murder rate in 2020 was about 6.5 per 100,000 people, about 40 percent below what it was in the 1980s and 1990s, when homicides peaked in the country.
Violent crime in the United States went up by 5 percent from 2019 to 2020, while overall crime fell 6 percent during the same period, the FBI data showed.
http://www.ecns.cn/n...pe0571805.shtml
https://theconversat...-in-2020-168823
U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said on Monday that he had tested positive for COVID-19.
http://www.ecns.cn/n...pe0571902.shtml
Flags in Kansas to fly at half-staff to mark 6,000 COVID-19 deaths
https://thehill.com/...covid-19-deaths
More recently, the racial gaps — while still existing — have narrowed. The partisan gap, however, continues to be enormous. A Pew Research Center poll last month found that 86 percent of Democratic voters had received at least one shot, compared with 60 percent of Republican voters.
*snip*
Because the vaccines are so effective at preventing serious illness, Covid deaths are also showing a partisan pattern. Covid is still a national crisis, but the worst forms of it are increasingly concentrated in red America.
As is often the case, state-by-state numbers can understate the true pattern, because every state has both liberal and conservative areas. When you look at the county level, the gap can look even starker.
Below is a set of charts, created by my colleague Ashley Wu, that offers a close-up of one typical red state, Wyoming, and one typical blue state, Maryland:
https://www.nytimes....ccinations.html
via https://www.dailykos...etting-stronger
American conservatives’ fixation with far right foreign leaders continued on Monday night, as Newsmax host Grant Stinchfield and guest Dennis Prager praised President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil.
Stinchfield said the United States needs to “take cues from Brazil” when it comes the policies regarding Covid-19 mandates, namely, that there shouldn’t be any. The Newsmax host aired multiple clips of Bolsonaro giving lip service to notions of individual freedom, throughout which Stinchfield peppered the far right leader with praise.
“In Trump-like fashion, he has turned his nation around by embracing freedom,” he said, while also lying that hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin have been “quite effective” against Covid-19.
Stinchfield’s guest also heaped praise on Bolsonaro.
“I am going to go on the internet right after your show, and I am going to get the transcription of his talk. and then edit it and play it on my show,” said Prager. “It is remarkable to hear what the man says. I hate to say this because I so love this country; it makes me want to learn Portuguese and move there.”
https://www.mediaite...ler-took-power/
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