April fool

(c) Maxine

News blues

Among the journal Nature Medicine’s findings from research that deliberately infected healthy volunteers with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, it takes just a tiny virus-laden droplet - about the width of a human blood cell - to infect someone with Covid-19.
Other findings include:

• Covid-19 has a very short incubation period. It takes about two days after infection for a person to start shedding virus.
• People shed high amounts of virus before they show symptoms (confirming something epidemiologists had figured out).
• On average, the young, healthy study volunteers shed virus for 6½ days, but some shed virus for 12 days.
• Infected people can shed high levels of virus without any symptoms.

For those wearing, but chafing about mask mandates: “The study emphasizes a lot of what we already know about Covid-19 infections, not least of which is why it's so important to cover both your mouth and nose when sick to help protect others.”
Read “First human challenge study of Covid-19 yields valuable insights about how we get sick” >> 

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Another round of debunking Ivermectin, popular anti-parasitic medication, as an antidote to Covid-19, a virus.
New England Journal of Medicine's deputy editor recently said that Ivermectin did nothing to help COVID-19 patients: “If there are active treatments, it is better to use those agents than agents that we wish worked."

Ivermectin, an anti-parasitic drug often used to deworm horses and cattle, does not reduce the risk of being hospitalized with COVID-19 despite its questionable rise as an alternative treatment for the disease, according to a large new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The clinical trial, which began in 2020, analyzed more than 1,300 patients in Brazil who were infected with the coronavirus. Half were given ivermectin and half a placebo in the randomized, double-blind study, meaning neither doctors nor trial participants knew what a patient received.
The results confirmed what U.S. health officials have long stressed: Ivermectin did nothing to aid those sickened with the virus or reduce the risk of ending up in the hospital.

Read more >> 

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Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Gauteng government has spent a staggering R1.238-billion of much-needed Covid-19 funds on the construction of four new “field intensive care” hospitals. The money was spent in 2020, but two are still not open. The other two are only partially open and are being repurposed for other aspects of healthcare. The Alternative Build Technology units were controversially commissioned in March 2020 to provide extra bed capacity for the first wave of the pandemic.

Read “Gauteng’s ‘new’ R1.2bn Covid-19 ICU hospitals still lie abandoned, unfinished or underused “ >> 

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Daily Maverick,  an informative progressive South African news outlet, presents updates on Covid:

• SA’s State of Disaster could be lifted by next week [although confusion reigns]. 
• Shanghai, home to 26 million people,  in the fourth day of a new, two-stage lockdown.
• Canada is facing a fresh Covid-19 wave just as authorities ease restrictions. 
• The US is set to end its pandemic-related expulsion policy at the border with Mexico, lifting the hopes of thousands of migrants who have been waiting months for a chance to seek asylum in America.
• Children between five and 11 years old who received the Pfizer vaccine were 68% less likely to be admitted to hospital during the Omicron wave in the US than unvaccinated children, according to a new study. 

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On War:

Before and after photo essay >> 
More harrowing war devastation >>  (8:00 mins)

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The Lincoln Project:
Trump and Russia: Partners in Crime  (0:40 mins)
Trump Loyalties  (1:20 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

A reminder of our beautiful world, in photos >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Yesterday was another big workday: second layer on the pond cracks; sorted through more river rocks to separate out weeds and roots; painted the office. The latter was exhausting, but now done, “finished and klaar.” True, the office needs a new floor since I pulled up to replace old carpeting and discovered two sheets of wood covering an odd, concrete-lined rectangular hole. Until that floor’s laid, I – or someone who knows carpentry – cannot set up the desk that will be affixed to one wall.
Electrician still trying to sort through the cable and wire spaghetti that is this house’s electrical system.
That’s turning out to be a bigger challenge than anyone expected.