week 24 and week 25

Trump's new pandemic doctor with zero experience in epidemiology is pushing the 'herd immunity' concept. Herd immunity is just another word for 'survival of the fittest'. So what that means is let everyone get sick, let the weak die, and the strong survive. The only problem with this though is that just because you don't die doesn't mean your health won't be compromised as a result and neither is there any proof of long lasting immunity if you contract and recover from covid-19. This is the approach Sweden pursued to disastrous results with a higher per capita death rate than the US.

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Turns out covid-19 really likes your nose. A study published by Cell (a cell press journal) reports that the nasal regions are far more susceptible to covid-19 infections than the mouth and exhales from the nose also contain more infectious particles. From the nose it moves into the lower respiratory tract via respiration. So if you don't cover your nose when wearing a mask you aren't really protecting yourself or anyone else. 

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MSN reports the CDC has notified all 50 states to begin preparing for distribution of a covid-19 vaccine to frontline workers and other high risk groups by late October or early November as Dr. Fauci and the head of the FDA Dr. Hahn have reported that a vaccine might be available before the completion of clinical trials if the data is overwhelmingly positive. Public health officials all agree that agencies at all levels of government should prepare in advance for what will be a huge task of vaccinating the American public but they also have concerns about how fast these vaccines are being rushed for approval and how much politics plays into it to get them released before election day in November as opposed to concern for the safety of the vaccine and the public health. The two vaccines being rushed both utilize gene slicing of RNA. I personally will not take any vaccine produced by this method, especially ones rushed through clinical trials and testing. They have no idea what the long term implications are of changing a person's RNA and those changes will be inherited down the line. 

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Here's the link to the NYT vaccine tracker again. 

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Several drug makers working on vaccines are coming together and signing a pledge not to seek government approval of any vaccine candidate without having undergone stringent safety and scientific protocols that prove them to be safe. ““We believe this pledge will help ensure public confidence in the COVID-19 vaccines that may ultimately be approved and adherence to the rigorous scientific and regulatory process by which they are evaluated,” the draft statement says.” This appears to be in reaction to Trump's political pressure and promises to have a vaccine by October. 

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Trump has declined to allow the US to join an international cooperative effort to develop and distribute a covid-19 vaccine, insuring that everyone no matter where they live will have access to it no matter which country first succeeds in developing one, because it is connected to the WHO, the organization that Trump has withdrawn the US from because they don't support Trump's misinformation about the virus. More than 150 countries are setting up the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access Facility, or COVAX. Trump, as usual, prefers to go it alone to reap whatever profits he can from it which leaves America at the risk of not getting a vaccine until the US develops one. 

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From Medium, researchers utilized a supercomputer to crunch data on more than 40,000 genes from 17,000 genetic samples in an effort to better understand Covid-19. Once researchers analyzed the results they found “The computer had revealed a new theory about how Covid-19 impacts the body: the bradykinin hypothesis. The hypothesis provides a model that explains many aspects of Covid-19, including some of its most bizarre symptoms. It also suggests 10-plus potential treatments, many of which are already FDA approved.” A few excerpts follow but I recommend everyone read the entire article. 

“According to the team’s findings, a Covid-19 infection generally begins when the virus enters the body through ACE2 receptors in the nose, (The receptors, which the virus is known to target, are abundant there.) The virus then proceeds through the body, entering cells in other places where ACE2 is also present: the intestines, kidneys, and heart. This likely accounts for at least some of the disease’s cardiac and GI symptoms...Covid-19 isn’t content to simply infect cells that already express lots of ACE2 receptors. Instead, it actively hijacks the body’s own systems, tricking it into upregulating ACE2 receptors in places where they’re usually expressed at low or medium levels, including the lungs...it causes the body’s mechanisms for regulating (the chemical) bradykinin to go haywire...The end result, the researchers say, is to release a bradykinin storm — a massive, runaway buildup of bradykinin in the body. According to the bradykinin hypothesis, it’s this storm that is ultimately responsible for many of Covid-19’s deadly effects."

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Texas is still second in total number of cases with more deaths than California which has the most number of cases.

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Current US statistics as of today 9/6/20, 14:58 GMT: cases – 6,434,526, deaths – 192,886.