Does the coronavirus merit investment, or personal, concern or consideration?

3385

Health Official Out To Manipulate CDC Reports Has Deep Russian Ties

Caputo, a former top official of the Trump campaign who has no medical or scientific background, has claimed his actions are a defense against the imagined “deep state” to get Trump. But reports of his CDC scheme have renewed fears about his history with Russia, which interfered in the 2016 election to help Trump.

Caputo has attempted to scrub his links to Russia in his Wikipedia bio — and insisted in an interview that his work doesn’t make him a “Putin stooge.” He told his hometown newspaper, The Buffalo News, that “at the time, Putin wasn’t such a bad guy.”

Before he was appointed to his current role, Caputo also scrubbed nearly his entire Twitter history which was riddled with graphic, offensive attacks, outlandish conspiracy theories, and racist comments about the Chinese.

Caputo is also a long-time associate of political strategist Roger Stone, who was found guilty of seven felonies last year, including lying to Congress and tampering with witnesses in the investigation into Russian election interference. He was an aide to former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, who is also a convicted felon."

Caputo admitted to Politico he has attempted to change CDC reports."

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https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2020-09-12/oxford-astrazeneca-to-resume-coronavirus-vaccine-trial

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3387

Great! Maybe they will open their border soon so that I can get some drugs refilled. :sunny:

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Yes. Those ties are so deep that he is entrenched solidly in the D.C. Swamp. President Trump has fought tirelessly to reduce the breadth of the swamp. Nevertheless, there remain a myriad of swampers to feed the gullible a plethora of nonsensical " left-slanted facts". These “facts” are not enough though. In an effort to feed the un/under-educated, they add adjectives and adverbs to somehow make these “facts” more factual. These include , documented, notarized, fact based, fact witness, fact-checked, double-fact-checked, double-triple-fact-checked, certified, undisputed, complete, thorough, and next we will hear about double-triple-secret-fact-checked.

And here is an alternate answer. Deep ties? Yes, his great grandfather was a miner in Kiev. It was a deep mine.

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3389

Fact, fact, fact. Then the one thing remotely relevant to the accusation merely “reportedly” happened. Isn’t that a common tactic when trying to mislead someone? Toss out benign facts to establish credibility, then slip in the unsubstantiated claim where readers just assume it’s another fact.

And of course that’s all dependant on accepting that the premise matters in the first place. It use to be that having “connections” was seen as a benefit.

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3391

Here’s that HK virologist report on why covid was lab made, summary and link to the paper.

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3393

Honestly, I think only epidemiologists could read these papers and be able to find flaws in the logic.

Arguments center around whether the spike protein is a natural evolution or due to gain-of-function research but evidence seems highly contestable either way. Dr. Yan’s argument is that RaTG13 was basically a fabricated red herring and that the actual templates for SARS-COV2 are actually two other viruses ZC45 and ZXC21 isolated by Chinese military labs. It seems coherent in terms of analysis of the RBM and protein spike but the similarity in Orf8 protein is striking. Overall, very coherent argument at least at the level I can read this stuff. So I’m kinda looking forward to epidemiologists taking a closer look at those two viruses to take apart or confirm her theory.

Popcorn worthy indeed but also potentially very rich in conclusions for our general ability to detect lab-made viruses and for what is actually possible in natural mutations. I’m assuming we’ll be hearing more on this very shortly.

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3394

No, our RNA genetic sequence engineering is better than that now. You can make whatever sequence you want, including splicing in a furin cleavage site that’s not present in any of the closely related bat viruses but makes it very infectious for humans.

And the spike protein is completely different from the ones in the bats.

And the bats with the vaguely similar virus are a thousand miles away from the outbreak in Wuhan, so why Wuhan first? It wasn’t the wet market, they have proven cases from before then, although it spread there later. There is that virology lab right there tho…

No proof of course, the Chinese government is busy making sure the WHO isn’t allowed to come investigate before they finish destroying any incriminating samples, and then, well, I guess it’ll just be a mystery.

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3396

Can we be honest even briefly?:

COVID-19 has been a SMASHING success . . . . . . for the CCP (Chinese Communist Party). This is true whether or not that success was the intent from the jump. Stop and think about it:

What a weapon!!!

Even if naturally occurring, unintended, and accidental, COVID-19 has disrupted the free world in its entirely. It has sewn misery, death, division, fear, uncertainty, and all sorts of doubt. If Trump loses in November it will have much to do with COVID-19, and that would be a scintillating victory for the CCP. How wonderful for them to get rid of such a PITA and a tortuous thorn in their side. And the ascension of Biden would be the cherry atop their victory.

COVID-19 is great for the CCP. With each new dawn they awaken to (their equivalent of) Christmas, as their most significant global competitor, the USA, is driven ever deeper into debt and closer to financial ruin. I’m betting, if the Chinese leaders believed in God (which they don’t), they would be certain He is on their side.

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3397

Someone explain what that’s supposed to mean? Because in general it’s people who think they’ve been exposed who are getting tested, so that only indicates that 83% of those people have been proven wrong.

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3398

Breaking news from the AP: A resounding victory for President Trump in Pennsylvania. A Federal judge appointed by our hero has struck down restrictions put into place by the Governor there:

Gov. Tom Wolf’’s administration said Monday it will appeal a federal judge’s ruling that pandemic restrictions that required people to stay at home, placed size limits on gatherings and ordered “non-life-sustaining” businesses to shut down are unconstitutional.

U.S. District Judge William Stickman IV, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, sided with plaintiffs that included hair salons, drive-in movie theaters, a farmer’s market vendor, a horse trainer and several Republican officeholders in their lawsuit against Wolf, a Democrat, and his health secretary.

The Wolf administration’s pandemic policies have been overreaching and arbitrary and violated citizens’ constitutional rights, Stickman wrote in his ruling.

The governor’s efforts to slow the spread of the coronavirus “were undertaken with the good intention of addressing a public health emergency. But even in an emergency, the authority of government is not unfettered,” Stickman wrote. “The Constitution cannot accept the concept of a ‘new normal’ where the basic liberties of the people can be subordinated to open-ended emergency mitigation measures.”

The ruling means that current restrictions, including ones that limit the size of indoor and outdoor gatherings, can’t be enforced, according to attorney Thomas W. King III, who represented the plaintiffs. The state has been enforcing a gathering limit of more than 25 people for events held indoors and more than 250 people for those held outside.

“It’s really 100% in our favor. The court found in all respects that the orders issued by the governor and the secretary of health were unconstitutional. What it means is they can’t do it again, and they should not have done it in the past,” King said.

Wolf’s spokesperson, Lyndsay Kensinger, said the administration will seek delayed enforcement of the ruling while it appeals.

“The actions taken by the administration were mirrored by governors across the country and saved, and continue to save lives in the absence of federal action. This decision is especially worrying as Pennsylvania and the rest of the country are likely to face a challenging time with the possible resurgence of COVID-19 and the flu in the fall and winter,” Kensinger said in a written statement.

At a news conference Monday, the state health secretary, Dr. Rachel Levine, pleaded with Pennsylvania residents to maintain social distancing and avoid crowds despite the ruling. She said of the ruling that “anything that limits our ability and the number of tools we have is a challenge to public health.”

Courts had consistently rejected challenges to Wolf’s power to order businesses to close during the pandemic, and many other governors, Republican and Democrat, undertook similar measures as the virus spread across the country.

Wolf had eased many of the restrictions the plaintiffs objected to in their lawsuit — allowing businesses to reopen and canceling a statewide stay-at-home order — but the judge’s ruling noted that the administration had merely suspended those measures and could reimpose them at will.

While reopening its economy, Pennsylvania limited occupancy to 75% capacity at most businesses and 50% at theaters, gyms, salons and malls. It imposed even more restrictive measures on bars and restaurants, which the Wolf administration blamed for a summer spike in virus cases.

The judge said the plaintiffs did not challenge Wolf’s occupancy limits, and his ruling does not impact those orders. Nor did the lawsuit challenge the Wolf administration’s order requiring people to wear masks in public.

Pennsylvania has reported that more than 145,000 people statewide have contracted the virus since the beginning of the pandemic. More than 7,800 people have died.

This is a victory for freedom over oppression. And it took a Trump judge to make this happen. We need hundreds MORE of these judges!

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3399

I read in one of the newspapers that a vaccine will be able to select people by Nov 1, 2020. Priority is given to first responders, et al. It just happens to be days before the Election (that Trump is running for re-election).

At this point, I think it’s a scam. I wouldn’t trust a vaccine (even if it was available to me) at this point in time. The timing seems too suspicious and I doubt it would be effective very long.

I’m willing to wait and see how it works on the majority first before I jump in.

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Drug makers have been talking hundreds of thousands of doses administered by the end of the year, for quite a while now. It is suspicious timing, but it’s not unexpected timing either.

And frankly, you can think whatever you want about government agencies, but there’s too much at stake for the drug makers. Sure they’re in it for the profits as much as the glory, but a vaccine that is later proven to be unsafe is going to hit them hard in both regards. There’s always going to be some risk, but I think they’ll be as confident as they can be before declaring themselves to have a finished product. This isnt some random drug they can quietly sweep under the rug if it goes sideways, the scenario you typically associate with ‘rushed approval process’.

Of course, one person dies from the vaccine, and we’ll go back to a state of sheer panic while declaring this “rushed” vaccine process a disaster on Trump’s shoulders - ignoring the fact that nearly 200 people die each year from getting the flu shot.

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3401

Seems like I heard this story before. In fact, probably your favorite VP candidate said almost the same words. She (Harris) was talking with CNN & said, she wouldn’t (necessarily) trust a vaccine approved by Trump.

So there you are. You’re right in there with the Democrat Politicians.

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3402

You might be interested to hear that tens of thousands of people have already taken these vaccines in each of the major trials by PFE, JNJ, AZN, MRNA, etc. the phase 3 trials are well underway and we should be seeing results in a few months. In addition, should the interim trial results be particularly compelling, they may be ended sooner and offered to the public and the placebo arm as it would be unethical to keep exposing people to the risk of the virus when we have a effective, scientifically proven vaccine. Pfizer is making some very encouraging noises about the end of next month, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they have strong enough early evidence that we see that one first being available in late Oct / early Nov.

So far across all these trials, there has been a single serious illness, which is quite probably unrelated to the vaccine (it’s a condition that randomly and rarely appears), but each such circumstance is carefully scrutinized. With over 100k people being observed, it’s normal that a few of them will come down with some medical problem in the several months of observation.

Still, it’s very charitable that you’re willing to give up the opportunity for an early vaccine to someone who may need or appreciate it more.

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3403

Ask and you shall receive. The lab made covid hypothesis looks pretty good to me based on my reading of the paper.

“Orf8 is an accessory protein, the function of which is largely unknown in most coronaviruses, although recent data suggests that Orf8 of SARS-CoV-2 mediates the evasion of host adaptive immunity by downregulating MHC-I24. Normally, Orf8 is poorly conserved in coronaviruses25. Sequence blast indicates that, while the Orf8 proteins of ZC45/ZXC21 share a 94.2% identity with SARS-CoV-2 Orf8, no other coronaviruses share more than 58% identity with SARS-CoV-2 on this particular protein. The very high homology here on the normally poorly conserved Orf8 protein is highly unusual.”

“The coronavirus E protein is a structural protein, which is embedded in and lines the interior of the membrane envelope of the virion26. The E protein is tolerant of mutations as evidenced in both SARS (Figure 2A) and related bat coronaviruses (Figure 2B). This tolerance to amino acid mutations of the E protein is further evidenced in the current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic… Consistent with this finding, sequence blast analysis indicates that, with the exception of SARS-CoV-2, no known coronaviruses share 100% amino acid sequence identity on the E protein with ZC45/ZXC21.”

“As elaborated below, the way that SARS-CoV-2 RBM [binding domain] resembles SARS-CoV RBM and the overall sequence conservation pattern between SARS-CoV-2 and ZC45/ZXC21 are highly unusual.“

“consistent with the RBM engineering theory, we have identified two unique restriction sites, EcoRI and BstEII, at either end of the RBM of the SARS-CoV-2 genome, respectively (Figure 5A). These two sites, which are popular choices of everyday molecular cloning, do not exist in the rest of this spike gene. This particular setting makes it extremely convenient to swap the RBM within spike, providing a quick way to test different RBMs and the corresponding Spike proteins. Such EcoRI and BstEII sites do not exist in the spike genes of other β coronaviruses, which strongly indicates that they were unnatural and were specifically introduced into this spike gene of SARS-CoV-2 for the convenience of manipulating the critical RBM.”

“Another unique motif in the Spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 is a polybasic furin-cleavage site located at the S1/S2 junction (Figure 4, segment in between two green lines)… Within the lineage B of β coronaviruses and with the exception of SARS- CoV-2, no viruses contain a furin-cleavage site at the S1/S2 junction (Figure 6)57. In contrast, furin- cleavage site at this location has been observed in other groups of coronaviruses57,58… although some coronaviruses from other groups or lineages do contain polybasic furin-cleavage sites, none of them contains the exact polybasic sequence present in SARS-CoV-2 (-PRRAR/SVA-)… and any coronavirus containing a legitimate furin-cleavage site, the sequence identity on Spike is no more than 40%.

close examination of the nucleotide sequence of the furin-cleavage site in SARS-CoV-2 spike has revealed that the two consecutive Arg residues within the inserted sequence (- PRRA-) are both coded by the rare codon CGG (least used codon for Arg in SARS-CoV-2) (Figure 7)8. In fact, this CGGCGG arrangement is the only instance found in the SARS-CoV-2 genome where this rare codon is used in tandem. This observation strongly suggests that this furin-cleavage site should be a result of genetic engineering. “

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3404

Wait, now it’s masks? I thought it was motorcyclists. Please make up your … uh, oh well , never mind. :grin: I forget the spinner of the day hasn’t yet spun.

A small subset of scientists are ignoring fact checked, undeniable, authenticated data, flying in the face of settled science and saying Covid-19 could not have been made in a lab, but if it was, it could only have been made in a U.S. lab.

There’s something I can get behind, and no I’m not calling you a name.

3405

There was a typo, which I’ve corrected below. This leads me to believe that @argbot had good reason for spitting as much as possible into making the covid-palooza as muddy as it is. Here’s the correction:

SARS-CoV-2 spike has revealed that the two consecutive @Argyll residues within the inserted