The WHO is “very disappointed” in China denying their team entrance to investigate the origins of the Wuhan Flu.
That’s even after the WHO lapdog investigation wouldn’t even be going to the Wuhan lab and is being headed by the China-approved US gain-of-function virologist who’s been saying how no one should be assigning blame and had been collaborating with WIV before. No doubt he doesn’t want to find evidence for another 4-5 year ban on his branch of research. And still China won’t let them in…
China is also blocking access to the bat caves were they try to claim it came from (when they’re not saying it’s a US military plot or came from an Italian origin via frozen food!), because viral sequences from there might show evidence of modifications vs covid that would reflect badly on their propaganda efforts. Those supposedly related bat viruses were supposedly found in the caves far from Wuhan, but given there was some very shady reporting on that related virus by the Wuhan Virology lab (they reported that viral RNA sequence much much later than they found it, with no samples or research on it, or citations), this suggested the similar viral sequence may well have been made up as a pretext to show similarity to a natural one and deflect suspicion from their lab.
Many doctors signing a letter to encourage governments to adopt widespread Vit D supplementation to reduce the harm from covid.
In particular, see the signatures at the end which include both their recommended dose and their personal dose of Vit D. From those numbers, the avg of the 180ish doctors was a 3500 IU recommended dose (2000-4000 range), while they were personally taking about 5000 on average (0-50k range).
Unlike the strain first noticed by the UK, the S Africa discovered strain looks like its immune or at least resistant to the antibody treatments and post-infection antibodies from the other strains. TBD on vaccines.
Award judges cited Moderna’s pricing of its COVID-19 vaccine, which was developed with $1 billion in federal funding. Still, despite the tax-payer backing, Moderna set the estimated prices for its vaccine significantly higher than other vaccine developers.
In August, the company set the estimated price range of $32 to $37 per dose, making the two-dose regimen $64 to $74 per person. At the time, pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and its partner BioNTech—which now have the other US-authorized COVID-19 vaccine—had inked a deal with the US government to supply doses at $19.50 each, for a two-dose regimen of $39 per person. Notably, Pfizer and BioNTech developed their vaccine without any federal funding. Also, Johnson & Johnson had a deal to supply the US government with doses of its vaccine—still in the works—at a rate of $10 per dose.
In November, amid criticism, Moderna reportedly lowered its estimated cost to range in price from $25 to $37 per dose. And, in the end, it signed a deal with the US government to provide the vaccine at a price of $15 per dose, or $30 for a two-dose regimen per person.
Still, the Lown Institute’s judges wrote that, “given the upfront investment by the US government, we are essentially paying for the vaccine twice.”
Not the concept; socialism doesn’t assign the profits to the investors, it redistributed the proceeds to others. Sure, in this case it’s the government, but it was the government making the investment. Argue they shouldn’t have made the investment in the first place, but being entitled to a return on the investment is a function of good old American capitalism.
The mental impacts are real, but that wasn’t a great article.
The reason wasn’t congestion. Somehow, the SARS-CoV-2 virus appeared to be affecting nerves that carry information from the nose to the brain.
This seems not to be true, since the smell returns much faster than the neurons would regrow. What is happening is the adjacent lining cells to the smell neurons are effected and interfere with the smelling process.
It is now well established that most of the olfactory receptor neurons do not express the virus entry proteins, ACE2 and TMPRSS2
The mechanism for brain related impairments are not understood, but inflammation and small clot related strokes would be high on my list of suspects.
See the above article as well for interesting presumably genetic variation in loss of smell, half as likely in Asia, esp East Asians, vs in the West. There are genetic differences in the level of ACE2 receptor expression among races/populations, and this may well explain some of the differential viral impacts we’re seeing.
/ communism / marxism / whatever other scaremongerism keyword spam shinobi likes to add.