Once every four days. Wow.
A scientific journal published by Elsevier has reportedly posted a stunning 101 expressions of concern on studies connected to Didier Raoult, a disgraced French microbiologist who gained international prominence amid the pandemic by promoting, with little evidence, that the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine could treat COVID-19—a claim that has now been firmly debunked.
Essentially, critics claim Raoult and the institute that he led until 2021, the Hospital Institute of Marseille Mediterranean Infection (IHU), conducted hundreds of studies on humans without appropriate ethical approval or oversight or adequate consent from all participants, the Science investigation found. The IHU work spanned a wide variety of research topics, which involved collecting a variety of biological samples from patients, including vaginal swabs, feces, blood, urine, and breast milk.
The North Carolina State Senate on Wednesday voted 30–15, along party lines, in favor of a Republican bill that would make it illegal for people in the state to wear a mask in public for health reasons.
That seems incredibly shortsighted and cruel, but maybe they have a good reason…
The proposed ban on health-based masking is part of a larger bill otherwise aimed at increasing penalties for people wearing masks to conceal their identity while committing a crime or impeding traffic. The bill was largely spurred by recent protests on university and college campuses across the country, including North Carolina-based schools, against the war in Gaza. In recent months, there have been demonstrations in Raleigh and Durham that have blocked roadways, as well as clashes on the nearby campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Some demonstrators were seen wearing masks in those events.
Oh, I see. It’s about being able to punish people for expressing an unpopular (to them) opinion in a way that they deem to be inconvenient. Well, fuck all of that then.
Prior to 2020, laws dating back to 1953 largely prohibited public masking. The prohibition was part of a crackdown on “secret societies” at the time, or more specifically, an attempt to curtail the activities of the Ku Klux Clan in the state. Exemptions only existed for things like holiday costumes, theater productions, gas masks, and members of public parades or ceremonies that had obtained permits.
While I can appreciate and support the intention of limiting or eliminating groups like the KKK, I fail to see how prohibiting masks is much of a deterrent for anyone already planning to commit a crime. This feels like legislation that either exists to present the appearance of trying to do something about a problem, or it exists so that charges can be layered onto a suspect in order to increase their punishment. Neither of these reasons is worth more than public health, in my opinion.
On Wednesday, North Carolina residents with compromised immune systems spoke—while masked—during a public comment section. Simone Hetherington told lawmakers that masking was the only way to protect herself in public from illness and feared passage of the bill would prevent her from doing so, according to reporting by the Associated Press.
But, according to The News & Observer, Republicans were dismissive of that possibility, arguing that in the decades prior to the pandemic, when public masking was largely illegal, they couldn’t recall anyone being prosecuted for wearing a mask for health reasons.
In other words, this law that specifically criminalizes the behavior you just described will never be used in the way that we specifically wrote it, but rather in an entirely different way. If your law is badly written, write a better law. It’s almost as if laws written to broadly hurt people are a side effect of lazy or uncaring lawmakers, because writing a more specific law is either too difficult or too difficult to get passed.
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-covid-propaganda/
Pentagon ran secret anti-vax campaign to undermine China during pandemic
Good grief, America is a nightmare, no wonder so many hate us, and they are not wrong!
“Some of you may die, but that is a price I am willing to pay to support the surveillance state.”
Overall, the study points to a welcomed decline in the rates of long COVID among the infected, particularly for those who are vaccinated. But, it also makes clear that long COVID isn’t a thing of the past: “a substantial residual risk of PASC remains among vaccinated persons who had SARS-CoV-2 infection during the omicron era,” Al-Aly and his colleagues conclude.
The study also has some limitations, leaving lingering questions for further study. One is whether the type or number of vaccines affect the risk of long COVID—that was not included in the study. The study also didn’t allow researchers to assess whether repeat infections increase the burden of long COVID.
Some experts have recommended getting a COVID-19 vaccine to protect against the summer surge. “Now is the time to get a dose with this surge,” Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, told CNN on Sunday.
However, the only vaccines currently available target last year’s strains (related to the XBB.1.5 omicron variant), which are long gone and may not offer strong protection against current strains (JN.1 and KP.2 omicron variants). Even if the 2024–2025 KP.2-targeting vaccine is approved by the FDA this week and hits pharmacy shelves next week, a dose takes two weeks to produce full protection. By that time, the summer wave will likely be declining. In fact, it looks to have already peaked in some parts of the country, including in some southern and western areas.
The other thing to consider is timing for maximum protection for the likely winter wave. For healthy people five years old and above, the CDC recommended getting only one shot last year. The shots offer peak protection for around four months. If you get your annual shot at the beginning of September, your protection may be on the decline if COVID-19 peaks again at the turn of the year, as it has the past two years.
So you should get a shot now, but it won’t be available for at least a week, and then by the time it’s effective the Summer surge will likely already be over, and it won’t last long enough to cover the next (Winter) surge, so maybe hold off on getting the shot yet. 
All this, plus hurricanes, and somehow Florida continues to exist.
Someone should explain to FL Dept of “Health” that clinical trials are stopped if the treatment is so clearly better than whatever the alternative is.
I think that was the original theory I hear back in the winter-spring 2020
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanam/article/PIIS2667-193X(24)00236-9/fulltext
In this population of healthy young adult US Marines with mostly either asymptomatic or mild acute COVID-19, one fourth reported physical, cognitive, or psychiatric long-term sequelae of infection. The Marines affected with PASC showed evidence of long-term decrease in functional performance suggesting that SARS-CoV-2 infection may negatively affect health for a significant proportion of young adults.
Just in case all of those sick Olympians didn’t convince you, Covid is still quite serious.
Just had my first ever bout starting 3 weeks ago after 4 years of decent luck. It was “clinically mild”, but I’m still not quite right. The sprog who brought it home was feeling quite guilty, but I assured the child that “basically anywhere right now” was where he got it.