Science has recently found out that your nose is home to many microorganisms, like your gut, like your brain, just like your entire body.

If you breathe through your nose, your nasal cavities are the first line of defense against airborne pathogens. As you breathe in air the molecules swirl around your nasal cavities before going into the lungs. Hairs filter out dust, pollen, spores, viruses, and bacteria. The microbiome of your nasal cavities can protect you from pathogens just like it does throughout your body.

The inspiration for this new study came from the mother of one of the researchers, who was having problems with headaches and chronic rhinosinusitis – a condition that causes pain and swelling in the sinuses and nasal cavity.

“My mother had tried many different treatments, but none worked,” says microbiologist Sarah Lebeer, from the University of Antwerp in Belgium. “I was thinking it’s a pity that I could not advise her some good bacteria or probiotics for the nose. No one had ever really studied it.”

Lebeer and her team analysed nose bacteria from 100 healthy volunteers and 225 people with chronic rhinosinusitis, characterising 30 different families of bacteria in all. One family in particular stood out: lactobacilli.

These bacteria were more abundant in the healthy group of study participants – up to 10 times more abundant in some cases. One particular strain of Lacticaseibacillus identified appeared to have adapted for nasal life, having evolved unique genes to manage the high oxygen levels in the cavity, and using thin tubes called fimbriae to help cling on.

Science Alert

A healthy gut microbiome will eventually result in the entire body having a healthy microbiome. The only way to create and sustain a healthy microbiome is to feed it right. Your microbiome is the most important part of your immune system. For more, check out How To Heal Your Gut. 

For those looking for that perfect pollinator plant to grow, look no further than hemp. While Cannabis sativa (industrial hemp) lacks the nectar that bees typically collect, a study published in the journal Environmental Entomology found that the pollen produced by male plants was able to attract up to 16 different bee species.

Because of its temporally unique flowering phenology (the study of cyclic and seasonal natural phenomena), hemp has the potential to provide a critical nutritional resource to a diverse community of bees during a period of floral scarcity and thereby may help to sustain agroecosystem-wide pollination services for other crops in the landscape.”

Environmental Entomology

Taller hemp plants were more successful than the shortest plants in attracting bees, drawing in 17 times more of the insects. This is likely due to the increased pollen production of taller plants and their increased visibility.

Recommended: How to Eliminate IBS, IBD, Leaky Gut 

Sources:

• Bees Absolutely Love Cannabis and It Could Help Restore Their Populations – Vegnum
• Environmental Entomology Study Confirms Bees Love Hemp – PSNet

The Cook County Board of Commissioners has voted yes to a resolution to share the addresses of positive COVID-19 patients with suburban first responders. The board claims they voted to pass this motion in an effort to protect first responders against the virus, but this raises serious concerns about the privacy of citizens.

Chicago Mayor, Lori Lightfoot

Today, to my great astonishment and disappointment, nine members of the Cook County Board of Commissioners voted to capitulate to ignorance and bigotry by voting to force the disclosure of the addresses of every patient who has tested positive for COVID-19.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot via Twitter

Mayor Lightfoot later went on to say that the sharing of addresses would never become law in Chicago. Cook County is not the first municipality to discuss the sharing of COVID-19 patients’ addresses. Recent events in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic go to show how little our personal freedoms matter to those in power, and just how little people care when they’re scared.

President Trump has introduced a new initiative called “Project Warp Speed” with plans to get the coronavirus vaccine ready by January 2021, through science and medicine experts and resources in the military and private sector. At the time the president released this plan, he also stated that the coronavirus vaccine would not be mandatory. “Not everyone is going to want to get it,” he said.

President Donald Trump answers questions from reporters at the White House on Tuesday. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Anxiety about possible medical strong-arming by the military easily piggy-backed on top of wide speculation that legislation introduced in Congress earlier this month, known as the TRACE Act – the “COVID-19 Testing, Reaching, And Contacting Everyone Act” –  would result in massive assaults by government agents against the constitutional rights of Americans.

Trump Says Coronavirus Vaccine will be Voluntary ‘Not everyone is going to want to get it’

Previously, Trump had brought up the idea of mobilizing the military to deploy the new vaccine, which raised fears that the vaccine would be mandatory. It should be pointed out that Trump’s statement does not guarantee that the vaccine will not be mandatory. In recent weeks, nearly half a million people have signed a petition addressed to world leaders opposing a mandatory coronavirus vaccine.

Related: How To Detoxify and Heal From Vaccinations – For Adults and Children

In a recent podcast, Alberta’s energy minister stated that “Now is a great time to be building a pipeline because you can’t have protests of more than 15 people.” Sonya Savage made the statement on Friday during a podcast hosted by the Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors in response to a question she was asked about the progress of the Trans Mountain Expansion project. 

Environment Minister Jason Nixon and Energy Minister Sonya Savage announce the review of the Alberta Energy Regulator at the McDougall Centre in Calgary. Credit: Tom Ross

Savage later went on to imply that the pandemic will favor the pipeline construction saying:

“People are not going to have tolerance or patience for protests that get in the way of people working. People need jobs and those types of ideological protests that get in the way are not going to be tolerated by ordinary Canadians.” 

Alberta minister says it’s a ‘great time’ to build a pipeline because COVID-19 restrictions limit protests against them

Savage’s spokesperson later clarified that they “respect the right to lawful protests” additionally saying “I would note that the limitations to public gatherings have benefited no one, including project proponents and any opposition groups”.

The CDC recently admitted to combining coronavirus test results with coronavirus antibody results, in their tally for COVID-19 testing. A positive coronavirus antibody test means that someone has built up antibodies due to previously coming into contact with the virus. A positive coronavirus test means that someone is currently infected with the virus. The CDC has been combining negative antibody test results with negative viral tests. Doing this can both lower the accurate percentage of currently infected people and overlook the fact that many more people have already had the virus.

Related: A Coronavirus Vaccine Won’t Save Us

Image: Shutterstock: An epidemiologist runs PCR tests to detect specific genetic regions of SARS-nCoV-2 virus.

Even if traces of COVID-19 are found in an antibody test, those results are not logged by states or by the CDC as “positive” results for an acute infection. Grouping the two together could make it seem that a smaller percentage of people who have received tests are positive with COVID-19, since antibody tests do not measure acute infections at all.

CDC’s National Dashboard Includes COVID-19 Data That Expert Says Mixes ‘Apples To Oranges’

Related: Coronavirus – Your Guide to the CoVID-19 Pandemic

A CDC employee speaking on the condition of anonymity said that [combining test results] “would make it difficult to assess the actual number of infections at a given point in time.” Additionally, they pointed out that CDC infection rate website does state that some states may combine testing results. This information, however, is not entirely accurate. As recently as May 18th, the CDC tracker website claimed that the testing data reported was data from viral testing only.

Statistics have come out that show antibody numbers are radically higher than originally thought, meaning many people have already had the virus (with or without symptoms), making the death rate much lower than currently reported.

Sources:

• ‘How Could the CDC Make That Mistake?’ -The Atlantic
• CDC’s National Dashboard Includes COVID-19 Data That Expert Says Mixes ‘Apples To Oranges’-WLRN
• Scientists Warn CDC Testing Data Could Create Misleading Picture Of Pandemic -NPR
• CDC acknowledges mixing up coronavirus testing data -The Hill

Bayer AG has reached verbal agreements with 50,000 to 85,000 plaintiffs in Roundup cancer lawsuits in the United States. The agreements have not yet been signed, and some of them will need the approval of California Judge Vince Chhabria, the judge responsible for reducing an $80 million award to $25 million. Chhabria suspended a trial scheduled for March 23rd without setting a new date, and brought in settlement negotiator Kenneth Feinberg.

Related: How to Eliminate IBS, IBD, Leaky Gut 

There are talks with various lawyers around the nation who have significant inventories of Roundup cases. I’m optimistic we can reach a comprehensive settlement of this litigation.”

Kenneth Feinberg, mediator

These negotiations represent a significant chunk of the 125,000 of the Roundup lawsuits in California and Missouri (where Monsanto headquarters were located), though Bayer has only acknowledged about half of those. Settlements are preferable to high-exposure jury trials, like the three California cases last year that resulted in significant awards against the pharmaceutical and life sciences company. Roundup litigation has plagued the German company since it purchased Monsanto in 2018.

Bayer has said official settlements will likely be announced in June.

Related: Foods Most Likely to Contain Glyphosate

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