The Bureau of Land Management Continues to Lease Public Land to Oil and Gas Companies During Pandemic
While the majority of Americans find themselves shut-in during the pandemic, the Department of Interior (DOI) through the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has offered more than 200,000 acres of public land to oil and gas companies in five different lease sales. These sales have continued with little to no opportunity for public oversight, other than the mandatory 10 day protest period. The duration of that protest period was shortened to 10 days from 30 days in January 2018. That year generated $1.1 billion in revenue for the BLM, nearly tripling the previous annual sales record ($408 million in 2008) and almost equaling the bureau’s budget. According to the BLM Deputy Director for Policy and Programs, that’s a good thing.
This was a historic year for oil and gas, and clearly illustrates what is possible when public lands are put to work using innovation, best science, and best practices…Our sound energy policy continues to ensure reliable, safe, abundant, and affordable energy for all Americans, without putting unnecessary burdens on industry. In fact, this policy generated nearly as much revenue as the BLM’s $1.1 billion budget for 2018.”
Oil and gas leases are nothing new for the DOI as the BLM is required to offer these competitive leases quarterly. Of the 213,000 acres offered by the BLM, 89,000 were sold at the competitive sale. The remaining acres will continue to be offered by the BLM for 10-year non-competitive leases, a process that allows oil and gas companies to control large portions of public lands for incredibly cheap. Companies with non-competitive leases, which are issued on a first-come, first-serve basis, pay $1.50 an acre for the first five years of the lease. Yet 55% of these leases are terminated early, and only 3% of them are under production at the termination at the end of their 10-year term. Those defaulted leases are returned to the BLM so they can sell them again.
The noncompetitive leasing program resembles a hamster wheel in which the BLM reviews parcel nominations; holds an auction; issues unsold oil and gas leases noncompetitively; terminates the leases when the companies fail to pay rent—and then repeats the cycle, often recycling the same parcels over again.”
Constantly listing, selling, managing, repossessing, and relisting public lands for oil and gas leases takes time and resources. These are time and resources that could be spent doing things that are less beneficial for the fossil fuel industry, like environmental impact reports. A judge in Montana recently ruled to vacate 287 oil and gas leases because they were improperly issued. According to the judge, his decision…
…largely relates to the absence of analysis rather than to a flawed analysis. In other words, the Court does not fault B.L.M. for providing a faulty analysis of cumulative impacts or impacts to groundwater, it largely faults B.L.M. for failing to provide any analysis.”
Oil and gas companies don’t care if these leases default. The amount spent on the leases is virtually equal to the Bureau of Land Management’s yearly budget. While the department is meant to represent public lands and public interests, fossil fuel money is what keeps it operating. The money spent on leases that don’t yield significant oil or gas deposits pays off in diverting resources and influence.
The BLM is spending taxpayer money on an ineffective and unnecessary program. Furthermore, Americans are losing out on a fair return for the use of their resources, and the BLM’s hands are tied from actively managing the public lands for conservation, recreation, or other beneficial purposes. The BLM is already stretched thin, lacking adequate staff and resources to fulfill its complex multiple use mission on public lands, of which oil and gas development is a fraction. Devoting significant time to this program that, for all intents and purposes, appears to mainly benefit companies looking to pad their books or engage in speculative practices, takes away much-needed resources that the BLM could better use for public benefit elsewhere.”
Center for American Progress
This not a new practice from either the government or the fossil fuel industry. The government makes its decisions based on the resources they have available. These resources are provided by the interests the government is elected to regulate. The pandemic has not changed their businesses at all, essential or not. In fact, the pandemic and subsequent shutdown have served to further remove roadblocks for the massive corporations that rule our nation.
Reusable Grocery Bags Are Being Banned as Plastics Industry Takes Advantage of COVID-19
States and cities are rolling back plastic bag bans at the grocery store and enacting bans on reusable grocery bags as the plastics industries ramps up lobbying during the COVID-19 pandemic. San Francisco, the first municipality to ban plastic bags, has banned customers from bringing reusable grocery bags while the state of California has lifted their plastic bag ban for 60 days. Oregon has lifted its plastic bag for the same period, and cities like Bellingham, WA, and Albuquerque, NM have announced they will allow the bags during the pandemic. Massachusetts, Illinois, New Hampshire, and Maryland are among the states that have banned or strongly discouraged the use of reusable grocery bags due to coronavirus fears.
It is critical to protect the public health and safety and minimize the risk of Covid-19 exposure for workers engaged in essential activities, such as those handling reusable grocery bags.”
There is evidence to suggest that efforts to stop the spread of coronavirus by banning reusable bags don’t actually work any better than using plastic bags does. Scientists have found that coronavirus can linger on hard surfaces like stainless steel and plastic, where the novel coronavirus can survive for 2-3 days. Meanwhile, there is no evidence to date that coronavirus can survive on what we wear and most reusable bags lack the hard buttons and zippers that clothes have.
At the grocery store, plastic bags don’t reduce exposure for customers or essential workers any more than reusable bags do. Plastic bags have been received, stocked, and distributed by a person who has likely not been tested for COVID-19 for a multitude of reasons. Cashiers wear gloves, but many haven’t received proper training on how to limit the spread of disease while wearing gloves.
So those workers are constantly touching food, people’s money, people’s hand, carts and touch screens–without cleaning their hands or changing their gloves. But we know that the gloves can carry a bioburden and increases the risk for transfer of germs.”
Your grocery store clerk is touching money, their workstation, the plastic bag carousel, every bag they gave you, and every single item you and everyone else in store give them. Simply using plastic bags doesn’t stop that.
Properly washed reusable bags eliminate points of exposure for everyone. The cashier doesn’t need to touch the bag carousel. The customer isn’t handed bags that have been touched by multiple people. The cashier doesn’t need to touch the plastic bag carousel that has been repeatedly handled and doesn’t even need to touch the reusable bag if the customer holds it open while grocery items are dropped in. Reusable bags are touched by one person and can be washed for reuse immediately upon returning home. So why would governors ban them? The answer lies in the plastics industry.
Influence Infrastructure
Plastics makers have capitalized on coronavirus fears, including heavy pushes from lobbyists to end all plastics bag bans. Groups like Bag the Ban and American Progressive Bag Alliance have been especially active in overturning bans and promoting single-use plastics as a way to maintain public safety. Tony Radoszewski, president and CEO of the Plastics Industry Association, recently penned a letter to Alex Azar, the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
We are asking that the Department of Health and Human Services investigate this issue and make a public statement on the health and safety benefits seen in single-use plastics. We ask that the department speak out against bans on these products as a public safety risk and help stop the rush to ban these products by environmentalists and elected officials that puts consumers and workers at risk.”
Plastic bag sales in the U.S. were projected to reach 1.4 billion dollars this year. Thanks to the lift on bans during the pandemic, those numbers will likely be higher than expected. In addition to the rollback of previously instated bans, pending bans have also taken a hit. A proposed ban of plastic and paper bags and polystyrene food containers in New Jersey died in January. The plastics ban proposed in New York has been held since February by a lawsuit filed by Poly-Pak Industries Inc., Green Earth Food Corp., Green Earth Grocery Store, Francisco Marte, The Bodega, and the Small Business Association. Meanwhile, the plastics recycling industry is seeking a 1 billion dollar bailout due to the coronavirus. The U.S. system is notoriously bad at processing plastics with only 10% of plastics actually being recycled.
Plastics Are Not Here to Make Friends
The plastics industry is having a party, and the American people will be left with both the bill and the cleanup. Senator Tom Udall (D-NM) has proposed the Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act.
By asking for a billion-dollar handout, Big Plastic is trying to maintain what already is the status quo: that is, taxpayers funding and taking responsibility for the waste of plastic producers…When we surface from this pandemic, plastic pollution will still be at crisis levels — and matters may be even worse, as industry tries to exploit this pandemic to leverage more marketing for single-use products.”
Coronavirus is a well-known pathogen that primarily targets the human respiratory system. Previous outbreaks of coronaviruses (CoVs) include the “severe acute respiratory syndrome,” (SARS, SARS-CoV) from 2003 and the “Middle East respiratory syndrome,” (MERS, MERS-CoV) from 2012.
The coronavirus may spread from person to person much more easily then initially thought. Bars, restaurants, and many “non-essential” stores are closed all around the U.S. and the world. Restrictions could last for months. Also, we’re out of toilet paper.
What is the coronavirus? Should you be concerned? What can you do to stay well? Isn’t this just the same virus that causes colds? Did the Chinese government create this virus in a lab in order to quell the protests? Or did the Democratic establishment create the virus and send it to China just in time to have it come back to America to win the election for Bernie Sanders by propping up Medicare for All? Some of those are great questions. Let’s dive in.
Linfa Wang directs the emerging infectious diseases program at Singapore’s Duke-NUS Medical School. He says the coronaviruses are named so because when seen under a microscope the spiky surface of the virus resembles a crown. The caption for the image above comes from the CDC’s website:
This illustration, created at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), reveals ultrastructural morphology exhibited by coronaviruses. Note the spikes that adorn the outer surface of the virus, which impart the look of a corona surrounding the virion, when viewed electron microscopically. A novel coronavirus, named Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), was identified as the cause of an outbreak of respiratory illness first detected in Wuhan, China in 2019. The illness caused by this virus has been named coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).”
Coronavirus – A group of related viruses that infect mammals and birds
SARS – A disease called “severe acute respiratory syndrome” caused by the SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV)
SARS-CoV – The strain of virus that causes SARS
MERS – A disease called “Middle East respiratory syndrome” caused by MERS-CoV.
MERS-CoV – The Middle East respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus is distinct from SARS coronavirus and the common-cold coronavirus
Coronavirus pandemic – The current pandemic of COVID-19 in 2019 and 2020 caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)
CoVID-19 – The illness caused by SARS-CoV-2
SARS-CoV-2 – Previously known as “2019 novel coronavirus” (2019-nCoV), this virus is behind (2019-2020) coronavirus pandemic (ongoing at the time of publishing)
Zoonotic – Refers to a disease transmitted from animals to people, or more specifically, a disease that normally exists in animals that can infect humans
Pandemic – WHO defines as “an epidemic occurring worldwide, or over a very wide area, crossing international boundaries and usually affecting a large number of people”
Before SARS, the world had little concern for the coronaviruses, mostly known for causing common colds. The 2003 SARS outbreak started a global search for animal viruses that could find their way to humans. For the first time, scientists were aware of a deadly coronavirus with pandemic potential.
The emergence of SARS-CoV heralded a new era in the cross-species transmission of severe respiratory illness with globalization leading to rapid spread around the world and massive economic impact3,4. Since then, several strains—including influenza A strains H5N1, H1N1, H7N9, and MERS-CoV—have emerged from animal populations, causing considerable disease, mortality, and economic hardship for the afflicted regions.
SARS-CoV caused 775 world-wide deaths in 2003. MERS-CoV caused 79 world-wide deaths in 2012. As of March 15th, 2020, at 10:20 am, SARS-CoV-2 has killed 5,984. The United States reports 3,046 cases with 60 deaths at this time.
On March 24th Word Meter reports 414,661 coronavirus cases worldwide with 18,552 deaths and 108,293 recovered. Click here for current statistics.
Coronavirus Timeline
Coronaviruses were not worrying scientists before 2003; they were only known to cause mild upper respiratory tract infections.
SARS-CoV emerged in 2003 as a pandemic. It originated in Guangdong Province, China and spread to 37 different countries, causing 8,273 confirmed cases of infection, of which 775 (9%) were fatal. It disappeared as inexplicably as it started.
Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) was identified in 2012 in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia leading to 182 total confirmed cases, of which 79 (43%) were fatal. Epidemiologists initially feared it could become a massive, deadly pandemic; the death rate started out at around 30%. But the virus remained geographically restricted.
December 30 – Dr. Li Wenliang, an ophthalmologist at Wuhan Central Hospital, messaged his college-classmates telling them about the “unspecified coronavirus.”
December 31– China alerted The World Health Organization (WHO) to dozens of cases of an unusual pneumonia being treated in Wuhan, a port city of 11 million people in the central Hubei province. The virus was unknown.
January 1– Many who worked at Wuhan’s Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market were sick, so the market was shut down. The market is known as a “wet wild-animal market.” A “wet market” sells meat, fish, produce, and other perishable goods. A “wild-animal market” sells… you guessed it!
January 2 – Li was summoned to a police station. He was told his warning was illegal and had “severely disturbed the social order.” He signed a statement that he says read, “We solemnly warn you: If you keep being stubborn, with such impertinence, and continue this illegal activity, you will be brought to justice — is that understood?” Li capitulated and was not detained. He returned to work.
January 12 – the first confirmed United States case was reported in Washington State – a man in his 30s developed symptoms after returning from a trip to Wuhan.
January 20 – President Xi Jinping issued a statement on coronavirus, vowing to “resolutely curb the spread of the epidemic.”
January 23 – China stopped allowing planes and trains to leave the city of Wuhan and suspended buses, subways, and ferries. At this point, at least 17 people had died and more than 570 others had been infected, including in Taiwan, Japan, Thailand, South Korea and the United States. No deaths had outside of China had occurred.
January 30 – WHO declared COVID-19 a “public health emergency of international concern”. Also, the U.S. State Department warned travelers to avoid China.
January 31 – 213 people had died and nearly 9,800 had been infected worldwide. The Trump administration suspended entry into the United States for foreign nationals who had visited China within the previous two weeks.
Dr. Li Wenliang told the New York Times that officials should have shared information about the coronavirus at the beginning of the outbreak. “I think it would have been a lot better. There should be more openness and transparency.”
February 2 – A 44-year-old man in the Philippines died after being infected. Officials believe he was the first to die of the disease outside of China. At this point, more than 360 people had died from COVID-19, 359 of them in China.
February 5 – In Yokohama, Japan, more than 3,600 passengers were quarantined aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship. The number of people who tested positive for the virus was the largest cluster of coronavirus cases outside of China.
A total of 621 people aboard the ship were infected.
February 7 – Researchers in Guangzhou, China suggested that pangolins sold at the Wuhan’s Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market were a potential source of the coronavirus outbreak. Pangolins were not listed as inventory sold at the market. Pangolin sales are illegal, which could explain the omission. Dr. Li Wenliangdied from contracting the coronavirus. He was hailed as a hero by many for trying to ring early alarms that a cluster of infections could spin out of control.
February 10 – the death toll in China hit 908, with the number of confirmed cases up to 40,171.
February 14 – An 80-year-old Chinese tourist died in Paris – the first coronavirus death outside of Asia.
February 21 – After the Shincheonji Church of Jesus in South Korea was linked to a surge of infections in the country, the government shut down thousands of kindergartens, nursing homes, and community centers and ended all political rallies in the capital, Seoul.
February 19 – Iran announced two cases, then hours later reported that both patients died.
February20 – Global coronavirus cases reached nearly 76,000, according to W.H.O.
February 22 –Iran announced two additional deaths. The source of the virus in Iran is not known.
February 23 – Italian officials confirmed a third death. Local authorities closed the Venice Carnival and suspended sporting events.
February 24 – The Atlantic published an article, “You’re Likely to Get the Coronavirus. Most cases are not life-threatening, which is also what makes the virus a historic challenge to contain.“
February24 – The Trump administration asked Congress for $1.25 billion for coronavirus response. At this time, 35 confirmed cases and no deaths had been reported in the U.S. Iran announced it had 61 coronavirus cases and 12 deaths, more than any other country except China. In Italy, 800 people had been infected. The death toll in China rose to 2,595 with 77,262 confirmed cases. Italy reported its 7th death.
February26 – Health officials in Brazil reported that a man who returned from a business trip to Italy tested positive for the coronavirus. This was the first known case in Latin America.
February27 – Germany had nearly 60 cases and France reported 57. Both England and Switzerland reported additional cases, while Belarus, Estonia, Denmark, Northern Ireland, the Netherlands, and Lithuania all reported their first infections.
February 28 – Nigeria confirmed its first case. The patient was an Italian citizen who had returned to Lagos from Milan.
February 29 – South Korea reported 813 confirmed cases, bringing the total to 3,150 with 17 deaths. Iran reported its cases had jumped from 388 cases to 593 in a 24 hour period, with the death toll at 43.
The United States recorded its first coronavirus death as the number of global cases rose to nearly 87,000. The Trump administration issued its highest-level warning, known as a “do not travel” warning, for areas in Italy and South Korea, the areas most affected by the virus, barred all travel to Iran, and denied any foreign citizen U.S. entry if they had visited Iran in the previous 14 days.
March 2 – Saudi Arabia’s health ministry announced its first coronavirus case.
March 3 – Italy announced their death toll reached 77, equalling the total deaths in Iran, and the W.H.O reported that coronavirus has infected more than 90,000 around the globe, killing about 3,000.
March 7 – The coronavirus caused nearly 3,500 deaths and infected another 102,000 people in more than 90 countries.
March 8 – Italy imposed a strict quarantine in the state of Lombardy and 14 other areas, affecting a total of 16 million people.
March 9 – Iran released an estimated 70,000 prisoners, without specifying if or when those released would need to return. Germany reported its first two deaths, with more than 1,100 confirmed cases.
March 14 – South Korea had tested more than 248,000 people and identified 8,086 cases.
A hospital in Seattle area has sent out a note to staff, shared with me, suspending elective surgery and warning that "our local COVID-19 trajectory is likely to be similar to that of Northern Italy." The hospital is down to a four-day supply of gloves.
March 15 – New York reported 950 cases, Washington is the second hardest hit with 769, and California is a distant third with 375. California ordered 7 million residents to “shelter in place”. The White House urged older Americans to stay home and for everyone to avoid groups of more than 10 people.
March 16 – A study shows coronavirus can survive in the air in some settings. And the U.S. death toll rose to 69 across 12 states. The total number of confirmed cases in the U.S. climbed to 3,774. The worldwide death toll was more than 6,500. Restaurants and bars closed around the country. Restrictions could last months. Canada closed its border.
March 18th – Trump Invokes The Defense Production Act to force American industries to manufacture medical supplies. Hospitals and other health workers are running out of M95 masks, gowns, gloves, and ventilators.
March 19th – Trump wants direct payments of $1,000 for adults, $500 for kids in the coronavirus stimulus bill.
March 20th – U.S. Tax Deadline Extended is extended to July 15th, Illinois, New York and California have ordered all residents to stay home, and Washington D.C. reported its first death from the virus.
March 21st –300K cases worldwide, 195,000 Americans who are symptomatic have been tested.
March 22nd – Fifteen states in the U.S. have “stay at home” executive orders in place.
March 23rd – 2020 Tokyo Olympics postponed until 2021 and Trump wants to get the economy moving again, saying he may scale back closures despite worsening outbreak.
March 24th – The death toll in Italy’s Lombardy is around 400 in a day.
Coronavirus Transmission
The Wuhan Seafood Market was believed to be ground zero for the zoonotic CoVID-19. The market sells not just fish, but also snakes, raccoon dogs, porcupines, deer, and more. Hundreds of dead animals were inside cages at the market within close proximity to other food and humans. But now reports are coming in that the market was not the epicenter.
Scientists believed the Wuhan market was where the virus first spread to humans. It should be noted that the Wuhan market was not unusual. There are hundreds of similar markets in mainland China that offer a wide range of exotic animals for many purposes. It is unclear which animal transferred the virus to humans — bat, snake, and pangolin have all been suggested, with the pangolin being the most likely culprit.
These animals have their own viruses. These viruses can jump from one species to another species, then that species may become an amplifier, which increases the amount of virus in the wet market substantially.”
Poon says that when a large number of people visit these kinds of markets, the risk of the virus jumping from animals to humans rises sharply. Poon was one of the first scientists to decode the SARS coronavirus during the 2003 epidemic. That outbreak was linked to civet cats used as food in a Guangzhou market.
China May Have Found Patient Zero
New government documents from China say they found an earlier case of COVID-1. They say a 55-year-old man from Hubei province contracted the virus on Nov. 17, 2019. The documents suggest the disease was spreading, undetected, for weeks before anyone was aware of the impending outbreak.
Chinese authorities have so far identified at least 266 people who were infected last year, all of whom came under medical surveillance at some point.
Some of the cases were likely backdated after health authorities had tested specimens taken from suspected patients.
Interviews with whistle-blowers from the medical community suggest Chinese doctors only realised they were dealing with a new disease in late December.
It seems to be very contagious. With new research, it’s now believed that the virus can spread much more easily then initially thought.
Initially, the experts thought that the virus seemed to be spreading mainly from person-to-person, with those who come in close contact with one another, within about 6 feet. They said that transmission was happening when a previously uninfected person breathes in respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes.
The virus is transmitted through droplets, or little bits of liquid, mostly through sneezing or coughing. When you do an aerosol-generating procedure like in a medical care facility, you have the possibility to what we call aerosolize these particles, which means they can stay in the air a little bit longer.”
Scientists calculate how easily a virus spreads and give it a “basic reproduction number,” or R0 (pronounced R-nought). This number predicts how many people are likely to catch a given pathogen from a single infected person.
Currently, SARS-CoV-2 (yes, that’s the one causing the COVID-19, the current coronavirus), was estimated to have an R0 at around 2.2. This means a single infected person will infect about 2.2 others, on average. The flu typically has an R0 of 1.3. These numbers are likely to be revised as this article is written.
New studies in several countries along with a large coronavirus outbreak in Massachusetts have shown that the virus does spread much more easily than previously thought. A Massachusetts coronavirus cluster with at least 82 cases appears to have been started by people who were not yet showing symptoms. More than half a dozen recent studies show that people without symptoms are causing substantial amounts of infection.
We won’t know how contagious it is until we have much better testing. More on that clusterfuck of a situation below.
Can Someone Spread the Virus Without Being Sick?
It was initially believed that coronavirus does not seem to be very contagious until a person is symptomatic, coughing and sneezing near others. But now we believe the virus probably does spread before people show symptoms, as there have been many reports of this happening, but it is not thought to be transferred as easily this way.
Of course, this could change at any moment. The virus could become much more virulent and contagious, or it could become less dangerous with a mutation or two.
Can Coronavirus Spread From Contact With Contaminated Surfaces Or Objects?
The CDC believes it’s possible for a person to contract COVID-19 by touching a surface or object that has the virus on it and then touching their own mouth, nose, or possibly their eyes, like with gas pumps and the transfer of money.
It’s not the most contagious pathogen we’ve seen, but it is very contagious and can be quite virulent, and at any moment it can become more even contagious by mutating.
Coronavirus Symptoms
Symptoms of COVID-19 manifest after an incubation period of an average of 5.2 days. For those who died, the onset of symptoms to death ranged from 6 to 41 days with a median average of 14 days, depending on the patient’s age and immune system.
The most common symptoms with COVID-19 and SARS are similar. They include fever, cough, sore throat, and fatigue. COVID-19 is unique in that it targets the lower airway, often causes lots of sneezing, and many patients (especially sicker ones) show sputum production, headaches, hemoptysis, dyspnoea, lymphopenia, and intestinal symptoms including diarrhea (few patients with MERS-CoV or SARS-CoV had diarrhea).
Update: Loss of smell and taste could be the earliest symptoms of the novel coronavirus.
Doctor groups are recommending testing and isolation for people who lose their ability to smell and taste, even if they have no other symptoms.
Isn’t This the Same Virus That Causes the Common Cold?
Yes and no. Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that cause illness ranging from the common cold to more serious illness.
Pretty much everyone has heard of E-Coli contaminating spinach or some other leafy vegetable. E-Coli can make us sick and it can kill immunocompromised people, like the elderly. But you also probably have E-Coli in your gut right now. It’s part of your beneficial bacteria.
To say that coronavirus is the same pathogen that causes the common cold is an ignorant simplification.
Is This Just Like a Bad Flu?
It is very similar to a bad flu pandemic in a lot of ways, but the influenza virus should not be underestimated. See the list below of the most deadly pandemics. Two of them were the flu. Coronavirus is more dangerous than the average flu. For instance, it can cause some pretty severe, potentially long-term lung damage.
Flu caused by the influenza virus can be serious one year and relatively inconsequential another year. 80,000 people died from the flu in 2014 (supposedly, but flu death numbers are often grossly inflated).
Who Is Most At Risk and Why?
Update: People who travel and people who are in crowds are more likely to get it. The elderly, people with another underlying illness or a history of illness, and older males are at higher risks of dying from the virus.
The effect of sex on susceptibility to Covid-19 is less clear than the age effect, but preliminary data suggest men might be more susceptible. China CDC found that 106 men had the disease for every 100 women, while the WHO mission found that men make up 51% of cases. A study of 1,099 Covid-19 patients in Wuhan through Jan. 29 found a greater imbalance: 58% were male, the China Medical Treatment Expert Group for Covid-19 reported last week in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Immunocompromised people are susceptible to more serious symptoms, or death. Younger people are much less likely to die or suffer more serious symptoms. The healthier you are, the less likely you are to contract a coronavirus infection or any other pathogen.
Researchers are looking at the discrepancy of serious cases and deaths between areas within the Hubei Province, where the outbreak initiated, and the rest of the world. In other words, the rest of the world isn’t dying at nearly the rate people were dying in the Hubei Province. It seems the disease is less fatal as it moves away from where the outbreak initiated. And the mortality rate is much lower in healthier and less dense populations.
Severe cases tend to occur in men and many suffer from one or more co-morbidities such as cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease as well as diabetes. Several sequelae have also have been observed including cellular immune deficiency, coagulation activation, myocardia injury, hepatic and kidney injury, and secondary bacterial infection.
The phrase “one or more co-morbidities” means the person is already very sick. In other words, if you have diabetes or poor kidney function or if there’s anything else not working properly in your body, you are more likely to get the worst symptoms.
That’s not to say that seemingly healthy people have nothing to worry about. People of all ages, some without known previous complications, are dying. But we doubt anyone with a healthy immune system could die from this. Though, keep in mind, there are lots of unhealthy people who think they’re healthy – in fact, that may be the majority of the younger population.
What Can One Do to Avoid Infection?
People who travel and people who are in crowds are more likely to catch it. Avoid traveling, avoid crowds. A mask may be a good idea if you’re concerned. If you are in a public place, make sure you wash your hands before touching your hair, eyes, nose, or mouth. If you’re at home, quarantining yourself and you’re washing your hands every hour, that’s not helping. And neither is hand sanitizer. But it makes sense to wash your hands often if you’re in public places and especially before touching vulnerable parts of your body if you may have come in contact with a contagion.
But mostly…
Stay healthy! The above advice is very important for anyone who spends time with others who may be more at risk but staying healthy is by far the best defense. There are supplements you can take (see below), but if you’re already healthy, you have much less of a chance of getting infected with anything. To understand how this works, check out How To Heal Your Gut. If you are older or otherwise have a weaker immune system, now is not the best time to go out to eat. If you have a weak immune system, now is the time to eat healthy, whole-food, home-cooked meals and take care of yourself.
Does Hand Sanitizer Work?
Not really. The coronavirus has caused a massive shortage of hand sanitizer, but they don’t work nearly as well as washing one’s hands. Click on the image below for more information about how to wash your hands.
Also, just stop buying hand sanitizers! There is mounting evidence that the chemical antimicrobial ingredients are harmful, and they could lead to antibacterial resistance. The best defense is a healthy gut. Everything else, from handwashing to taking supplements, doesn’t compare to the power of a healthy gut.
Yes! If you want to walk around like that, sure. But in Atlanta, they’re not having any of that, as you can see below. Then again, Georgia has the 8th most coronavirus cases in the U.S. at 99 (at the time of this writing) so maybe not such a good idea…
In all seriousness, if you are concerned and want to ensure that you won’t catch an airborne virus, or you want to make sure you don’t transmit it to your more vulnerable loved ones, a mask makes sense, regardless of the B.S. the CDC is saying.
Wearing a face mask is not a guarantee you won’t get catch it. Coronavirus can transmit through the eyes. Also, tiny viral particles, known as aerosols, can penetrate masks, making them much less effective in some situations. Plus, as mentioned previously, the virus is much more contagious than we initially suspected. However, masks are effective at capturing droplets, which is the most likely method of transmission and they may also catch some airborne contagions.
If you think you might be infected, the best thing you can do for others is to wear a mask and change them frequently (don’t touch the face-part of the mask when removing). And then get healthy so you don’t catch this kind of crap anymore. You owe it to yourself and others.
Update: N95 masks are much more likely to stop spread but there is a shortage around the country so we donated all but a few of ours to a hospital. Homemade masks are recommended and being used all over the country including in hospitals.
Elbow Bumps?
Ugh… I suppose it makes sense, but I ain’t doing it! Then again, I’ve never been a fan of touching people anyways.
Should I Cancel Routine Doctor Appointments?
The mainstream media is saying to avoid public places, but when you Google the question, “Should I Cancel Routine Doctor Appointments?” the answer from the experts is to keep the appointments. But the “experts” work for big-pharma and their answers don’t make sense. Now is obviously not the very best time to be around other sick people if you don’t want to risk exposure.
What Is The Death Rate For Coronavirus?
Some media is reporting that the death rate may be as high as 3.8%, but that’s not accurate. If you look at all of the people who have died and you divide that by all of those who have tested positive for the virus you may get over 3% (though that number is dropping). But this math does not account for the many more people who contracted the disease and did not get tested or did not have symptoms serious enough to warrant medical assistance. Also, the death rate seems to decline when it gets farther away from ground zero.
So far, it appears the coronavirus is more deadly than the flu, but, there’s still not enough information to know the mortality rate of the virus. The annual flu typically kills at around 0.1% in the U.S. CoVID-19, so far, is showing a 0.05% mortality rate within the U.S. this year, according to the CDC as of March 16th. Also, while CoVID-19 numbers are skewed due to poor testing, flu death statistics are radically inflated (when people die for unknown causes the flu is often written as cause of death, and when flu vaccines cause complications leading to death the deaths are often labeled as flu as well).
We probably won’t have good estimates for a while. I think it’s less than 1%, maybe 2% at the highest. But it’s pretty high; it’s probably higher than the average flu death rate. It’s enough to overwhelm hospitals – not because we can’t handle 100,000 people dying, but because we can’t handle an additional 100,000 people dying on top of the mortality we already deal with every day.
Can I Get Tested For Coronavirus?
If you’re in a country with decent medical care, yes, most likely.
If you’re in America, or some other third-world country, the answer is a bit more complicated.
Our testing kits that our country was planning to use did not work properly. We did not have a backup in place. Other countries use test kits that work.
On February 12, the CDC announced that the problem was the result of a faulty reagent. The third primer, the one that picks up the whole family of coronaviruses, wasn’t working properly. CDC officials told labs to sit tight, new kits were coming. As a result, for weeks, only a handful of laboratories in just a few states had the ability to test for Covid-19. Everywhere else, health departments with suspected cases on their hands had to send samples directly to the CDC for testing. And under the CDC’s narrow testing guidelines at the time, only people with symptoms and a history of travel to China were eligible to receive a test. This meant many infectious people were missed during the crucial early days of the virus’s spread to the US, as The New York Timesreported.
As of March 14th, South Korea tested more than 248,000 of its citizens, identified 8,086 cases, and 72 had died (or 0.9% of those infected). In Hubei (ground zero), the fatality rate stands at approximately 4.5%.
As of March 9th, The U.S. has reported testing 8,554 people. Instead of using the template approved by the World Health Organization, the CDC set out to create its own test kit from scratch, and it was “plagued by delay and dysfunction…”
As of March 16th, some states have seen a big increase in coronavirus tests but the “U.S. still lags far behind.”
As some states are ramping up testing, there is an issue of cost:
Going forward, tests will be conducted at sites including hospitals. And those sites will most likely want to bill an insurer, Kates said. So how much will it cost patients to get the coronavirus test? “It is going to be a function of whether or not they are insured and what kind of coverage they have,” Kates said. “They could face the cost of a doctor’s office or hospital outpatient or ER visit — a particular issue for those who are uninsured or have a high deductible.”
That might depend more on the stock market than anything (because our financial system is stupid – obviously, if a little cold can ruin us this badly). Trump indicated that he is just waiting for the weather to get warmer, and it’s true that this could knock out the virus, but he’s starting to come around to the severity of the situation. “Trump says coronavirus upheaval could last beyond August.”
Some researchers believe the virus will infect as much as 80% of the U.S. population. The prevailing “optimistic guess” among the experts is that the outbreak will last about two months. But it could be much worse.
Epidemic experts from around the world conferred with officials from the CDC last month about what might happen if SARS-CoV-2 “gained a foothold in the United States.” The CDC’s worst-case scenarios would be “staggering” if the right actions aren’t taken soon.
One of the agency’s top disease modelers, Matthew Biggerstaff, presented the group on the phone call with four possible scenarios — A, B, C, and D — based on characteristics of the virus, including estimates of how transmissible it is and the severity of the illness it can cause. The assumptions, reviewed by The New York Times, were shared with about 50 expert teams to model how the virus could tear through the population — and what might stop it.
Between 160 million and 214 million people in the United States could be infected over the course of the epidemic, according to a projection that encompasses the range of the four scenarios. That could last months or even over a year, with infections concentrated in shorter periods, staggered across time in different communities, experts said. As many as 200,000 to 1.7 million people could die.
The true danger of coronavirus will probably not be the death toll from the virus itself. Experts say health systems may be overwhelmed by the number of cases requiring hospitalization. The calculations based on the CDC’s scenarios suggested, 2.4 million to 21 million people in the United States could require hospitalization, potentially crushing the nation’s medical system, which has only about 925,000 staffed hospital beds. Fewer than a tenth of those are for people who are critically ill.
The number of available beds is not as critical as the lack of equipment. Ventilators and ecmo machines are crucial for critical patients with this disease, and hospitals are not equipped to handle large numbers requiring them. They will be faced with deciding who receives life-saving treatment and who is left to die.
Let’s look at the context. The ebola virus outbreak in 2014 caused 2,337 deaths internationally but none in America. In the 2017-2018 flu season, 80,000 people died from influenza. As of March 17, 2020, the U.S. death toll for CoVID-19 tops 80, but it’s hard to say if things are slowing down or if things are just getting started in the U.S.
As the pandemic spreads and the death toll mounts, more data shows a particular danger to the elderly. A March 4 analysis of the first 105 deaths in Italy had an average age of 81. If 70% of the U.S. population gets it (which is likely by some respected estimates) the United States death toll could reach up to 1.7 million. This is why some are calling it the “Boomer Remover“.
Surgeon general: “If you are a child or young adult, you are more likely to die from the flu, if you get it, than you are to die from coronavirus. So, there is something about being young that is protective.” https://t.co/mwpcexQZkhpic.twitter.com/IepUqFDQXH
Right now, much of the United States is reporting stores being out of toilet paper and hand sanitizer, bottled water is running out, and it’s difficult if impossible to find toilet paper or hand sanitizer online right now. Panic is setting in while the stock market is crashing. All over the country stores, especially restaurants and bars, are closing – some by mandate and some by choice. People are working from home, but this is taking a massive toll on the service industry and many other areas of the economy. Welcome to the recession, and maybe the soon revolution. The United States of America has run out of toilet paper.
An Oregon police department is asking residents to stop calling 911 because they’ve run out of toilet paper
What Is Trump’s Administration Doing About Coronavirus?
It seems the government is doing what it usually does, which is trying to protect the money of the wealthiest. On Thursday, March 12, the Federal Reserve Bank announced a $1.5 trillion in short-term loan to banks to “address highly unusual disruptions in Treasury financing markets associated with the coronavirus outbreak.” Interest rates have been cut to zero.
Vice President Mike Pence said, “No American worker should worry about missing a paycheck if they’re feeling ill. If you’re sick with a respiratory illness stay home.”But when Pelosi’s coronavirus relief bill was passed it was made so that only small companies have to pay for sick leave. Large corporations were exempted from this requirement.
So companies with 50 employees must provide for paid sick leave, but the companies with MORE THAN 50 employees don’t have to (and you and I know they won’t). So with people in the U.S. dying, it’s politics as usual in Washington D.C. But don’t put someone like Bernie Sanders into the presidency. Gimme a break. And I included the (R) next to Pence’s name because when it comes to issues like these, there are more sociopathic Republicans than sociopathic Democrats.
Trump spent the initial phase of the outbreak trying to convince the public that there is nothing to worry about. Then he slammed the previous administration for how they handled the swine flu.
…. Their response to H1N1 Swine Flu was a full scale disaster, with thousands dying, and nothing meaningful done to fix the testing problem, until now. The changes have been made and testing will soon happen on a very large scale basis. All Red Tape has been cut, ready to go!
This twitter thread below is a very interesting discussion on how Trump’s administration ignored previous warnings of a potential pandemic and fired the senior staff members with the experience needed to handle such an outbreak.
BREAKING: A week before Inauguration Day 2017, Trump team participated in a tabletop exercise with outgoing Obama team about preparing for a "major domestic incident"
One incident discussed was a pandemic. I participated in that exercise.
The White House got rid of its global health security team in a 2018. There was no top-ranking White House official to respond to the coronavirus crises. Last month a reporter asked Trump about why he consistently called for “enormous cuts to the CDC, the NIH, and the WHO.” Trump said, “I’m a businessperson. I don’t like having thousands of people around when you don’t need them. When we need them, we can get them back very quickly.”
Trump’s administration is fully responsible for the testing failures.
The government’s incapacity to conduct widespread testing slowed diagnoses, creating chains of infection. It also deprived epidemiologists of a map that could have told them how far and how fast the virus was traveling and where they should concentrate efforts to slow it down.
There’s a lot of good ones. While there is plenty of misinformation, it’s important to know that accidental leakage of the virus by the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) has not been ruled out.
And while we very much doubt that any pharmaceutical company has a hand in creating or intentionally releasing the virus, that doesn’t mean big pharma isn’t going to capitalize on this pandemic at our expense.
“Pharmaceutical companies view Covid-19 as a once-in-a-lifetime business opportunity,” said Gerald Posner, author of “Pharma: Greed, Lies, and the Poisoning of America.” The world needs pharmaceutical products, of course. For the new coronavirus outbreak, in particular, we need treatments and vaccines and, in the U.S., tests. Dozens of companies are now vying to make them.
Richard H. Ebright, a U.S. molecular biologist, expressed concern in 2017 when WIV expanded to become mainland China’s first biosafety level 4 laboratory. Ebright brought up previous times the SARS virus got loose at other Chinese laboratories. He refuted several conspiracy theories regarding bioweapons research and that the virus was engineered, but he told BBC China that we can’t “completely rule out” that the virus entered the population due to a laboratory accident.
Without a doubt, Covid-19 has emerged as the result of decades of laboratory experimentation with virus technology and vaccines. We do know with certainty that the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which specializes in researching Coronaviruses transmitted by bats, formally conducted intensive studies, making alterations to the SARS-Corona viral template in December, 2015. The level 4 bio-lab is situated adjacent to the market epicenter of the recent outbreak, where a majority of serious cases of Corona were first documented.
In January The Washington Times posted two articles that stated the virus was may have been part of a Chinese biological weapons program. The Washington Post later published an article debunking the conspiracy theory, citing U.S. experts who explained that most countries had abandoned bioweapons as fruitless, and there was no evidence that the virus was genetically engineered.
Iranian Accusations
According to Radio Farda, Iranian cleric Seyyed Mohammad Saeedi says U.S. President Donald Trump is targeting Qom with coronavirus “to damage its culture and honor”. Saeedi claimed that Trump is fulfilling his promise to hit Iranian cultural sites if Iranians took revenge for the U.S. airstrike that killed off Quds Force.
Iranian TV personality Ali Akbar Raefipour claimed that the coronavirus was part of a “hybrid warfare” programme waged by the United States on Iran and China.
Brigadier General Gholam Reza Jalali, head of Iranian Civil Defense Organization, claimed that the coronavirus is likely a biological attack on China and Iran with economic goals.
Ruin China
The CIA created CoVIN-19 to keep take China down a few notches. Multiple conspiracy articles in Chinese from the SARS era resurfaced during this outbreak. Details were alterterd to fit the times. On January 26, Chinese military news site Xilu published an article detailing how the virus was artificially combined by the U.S. to “precisely target Chinese people”.
Population Control Scheme
According to the BBC, Jordan Sather, a conspiracy theory YouTuber supporting the far-right QAnon conspiracy theory and the anti-vax movement, claimed the outbreak was done as a population control scheme created by Pirbright Institute in England and by Bill Gates.
They’ve Launched the Zombie Apocalypse!
Buzzfeed News reported on the conspiracy theory regarding the logo of the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) and the “Umbrella Corporation.” The claim is that the logos look similar and so, obviously, the agency that made the virus that started the zombie apocalypse like in the game Resident Evil. The supposed WIV logo was not the institute’s actual logo.
Bill Gates Planned the Coronavirus Outbreak
A video the pushed a conspiracy theory that Bill Gates created the coronavirus was shared by some prominent black celebrities including Cedric the Entertainer, D.L. Hughley, and professional fighter, Derrick Lewis. This video was viewed more than 2.2 million times. “Bill Gates either predicted or planned the coronavirus outbreak,” the video states before playing a clip from a 2015 TED Talk in which Gates explains that a virus could be more deadly than war.
The U.S. Army Brought the Coronavirus To China
A spokesman for China’s foreign ministry, Zhao Lijian, tweeted “it might be the US army” that brought the coronavirus to China.
Back To The Gold Standard
QAnon is always good for some mind-bending theories:
The stock market needs to adjust down in order to do a complete reset and move us to a gold-backed currency and get rid of the Fed. The stock market has been falsely inflated for awhile. The CV is the perfect “crisis” to make a lot of it work.
This Is Just a Trick To Get Vaccine Mandates Passed
That’s highly unlikely. But mandates may be the result. There is no vaccine for CoVID-19 at this time, regardless of what some conspiracies allege. But it will probably be developed soon, and it will probably have some issues, and if enough Americans die, this could be the beginning of nationwide vaccine mandates. Only time will tell.
Conventional Treatment Options
A report by the French government claims thatNSAIDs — non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs — may cause “grave adverse effects.”
Popular NSAIDs include Ibuprofen, Motrin®, Advil®, Motrin IB®, Aspirin, Naproxen, and Nabumetone.
⚠️ #COVIDー19 | La prise d'anti-inflammatoires (ibuprofène, cortisone, …) pourrait être un facteur d'aggravation de l’infection. En cas de fièvre, prenez du paracétamol. Si vous êtes déjà sous anti-inflammatoires ou en cas de doute, demandez conseil à votre médecin.
Taking anti-inflammatories (ibuprofen, cortisone…) could be an aggravating factor for the infection. In case of fever take paracetamol. If already on a course of anti-inflammatories or if you are in doubt then consult your doctor.”
At present, there are no specific antiviral drugs or a vaccine for the COVID-19 infection. The only options available are using broad-spectrum antiviral drugs and HIV-protease inhibitors. There are a number of other drug compounds in development.
More research is urgently needed to identify novel chemotherapeutic drugs for treating COVID-19 infections. In order to develop pre-and post-exposure prophylaxis against COVID-19, there is an urgent need to establish an animal model to replicate the severe disease currently observed in humans. Several groups of scientists are currently working hard to develop a nonhuman primate model to study COVID-19 infection to establish fast track novel therapeutics and for the testing of potential vaccines in addition to providing a better understanding of virus-host interactions.
It may surprise you that my #1 recommendation for preventing the coronavirus, or even for fighting it off, is SF722.
If you want to prevent any kind of infection, the way to do that is to have a very healthy gut microbiome. A healthy gut produces so much beneficial bacteria that it gets pushed out of the gut and circulates throughout the entire body. This beneficial bacterial activity leaves little to no room for infection to set in. Science has not yet caught on to this fact, but they’re close. Regardless, it’s 100% true. A healthy gut is your first and best defense against the coronavirus or any other pathogen.
The number one supplement that virtually everyone needs to help balance the gut and boost the immune system is SF722. It kills any and all things fungal. Almost everyone living in a first-world country has too much fungal activity in their bodies to be healthy. Even if you avoid processed foods and never eat refined sugars, and even if you also avoid all those terrible anti-bacterial products, our fruits and vegetables are hybridized for more sugar and less fiber. SF722 should be in everyone’s home. Anytime you don’t feel well or your body is not healing as well as it should from an injury, you need SF722.
My second recommendation is Mother Earth Organic Root Cider. Like other coronaviruses and influenza, CoVID-19 usually takes up initial residency in the sinus pathways. If you’re a mouth breather, it may set in your tonsils first and then move into your sinuses, but if you breathe through your nose as a healthy person does, it will most likely infect the sinuses first. So while the most important prevention is good gut health, the second most important supplement is the root cider. Sip it a few times a day as a preventative measure and gargle (and swallow) if there is any sign of throat or sinus infection setting in. This stuff is amazingly good at killing anything that shouldn’t be in our body! And it also feeds the most robust infection-fighting beneficial bacteria.
Those are the two most important supplements for preventing a viral infection. If you are fighting it off, or just want to be prepared, I have my usual recommendation list for any virus, including colds and flu, in order of most to least important:
Vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin E, and vitamin C (vitamin C is sold out almost everywhere right now, and you can and should get most of these vitamins from your foods anyway)
The links to the supplements go to Green Lifestyle Market, an online store that I own. If you have any questions, we’ll be available on chat as much as possible.
H1N1, a flu virus originating from birds and commonly identified as swine flu, has been discovered in dogs from the Guangxi region of China. These animals were brought to the vet after showing symptoms consistent with canine influenza, and researchers published their analysis of the 16 strains of flu they found. The most notable discovery was H1N1, the swine flu strain responsible for the 2009 pandemic that resulted in more than 200,000 deaths. Study co-author Adolfo García-Sastre, director of the Global Health and Emerging Pathogens Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, says there is a reason to be cautious.
In our study, what we have found is another set of viruses that come from swine that are originally avian in origin, and now they are jumping into dogs and have been reassorted with other viruses in dogs. We now have H1N1, H3N2, and H3N8 in dogs. They are starting to interact with each other. This is very reminiscent of what happened in swine ten years before the H1N1 pandemic.”
Adaptable Influenza
The continuing battle to correctly guess the dominant flu strain of the season showcases how adaptive and varied the flu is. Often pandemics originate in animals, usually birds or swine. While dogs have never been considered a significant carrier of the virus, more varied and potentially strains have been showing up in canine tests. The potential for a devastating flu pandemic that we aren’t prepared for is high in man’s best friend. There have been documented instances of viruses from avian, porcine, and equine sources successfully jumping to dogs, and that’s a potential flu cocktail that humans don’t have immunity against.
Can It Affect Us?
Does that even matter? There is no case of a human ever being infected by canine flu.
Humans have previously been infected by the strain of flu found in the dogs, H1N1, but previous exposure has come from birds, who were the original carriers. Of course, H1N1 is now more closely identified with pigs, after 2009 swine flu outbreak. H1N1 became the dominant strain of flu in 1998, and the virus was seriously affecting humans within ten years. Before then, the idea that humans would be suffering from swine flu was farfetched.
It’s important to note that vaccination efforts were unsuccessful in both pigs and humans, primarily due to how fast the virus evolves. H1N1 also showed resistance to Tamiflu, the controversial antiviral drug. Healthcare professionals in the U.S. ended up using vaccines nearly identical to the seasonal flu vaccine, which is a daunting prospect in light of how poorly that immunization performed this year. If the discovery of an adaptable H1N1 virus in dogs follows the same trajectory as H1N1 did in pigs, do we have any good solutions? In cases of avian flu, farmers eliminate diseased birds from the flock immediately. Is that even an option when many Americans consider their dog a member of the family?
Scientists repeatedly mention how diverse canine flu strains are becoming, and there isn’t a push to figure out why. Perhaps part of the answer is the proximity of the animals to the ultimate disease incubators – us.
The further we continue down the rabbit hole of our health care system, the more it becomes clear that we have dramatically underestimated our opponents. Our answers to the problems posed by bacteria and viruses have seemed to inspire those pathogens to greater and more creative heights at a speed not seen in nature.
In this day and age, you’re either pro-vaccine, or you’re an “anti-vaxxer.” And if you have one problem with one vaccine, or even just one vaccine ingredient, you are labeled not only anti-vaxxer but also anti-science.
Consider a person in the “pro-vaccine” camp. Let’s say this person approves of all of the vaccines from the CDCs Immunization Schedule page, and of course, they also get the flu shot.
Would said person mind, say… “drinking” additional vaccines? Not a specific amount or at a specific time, and not in any way that can be measured. Would it be ok if those vaccine concoctions were developed for livestock, and deemed not fit for humans?
Of course, we’re not drinking vaccine ingredients, but chances are very good that meat eaters are eating them.
If you’re anti-GMO, you can get organic meat. If you’re anti-antibiotics, that’s another good reason to buy organic meat (supposedly). But what if you don’t want to consume vaccine ingredients?
So what kind of animal vaccines are you eating? It depends.
The amount and type of vaccines given to an animal depend on what animal is it. Currently, there are vaccines on the market for pigs, cows, sheep, goats, poultry (chicken, ducks, and turkeys), and fish. There a few different vaccine delivery systems, from injections to spray droplets and through drinking water.
There’s also a difference between modified live viruses (MLV) and killed viruses.
MLVs are a vaccine consisting of a live virus, usually freeze-dried. They provoke a stronger immune response, are less likely to contain adjuvants, and result in fewer lesions at the injection site. They are designed to be a single dose. The downside of these immunizations is a lack of stability, as they must be used within 1-2 hours of being reconstituted and are susceptible to heat and sunlight. These vaccines also shed and must be carefully monitored when given to female cows so as not to interfere with pregnancy.
Killed viruses are seen as safer than MLVs. They don’t shed and are safer for pregnant or immunocompromised animals. But without a live vaccine to provoke an immune response, killed vaccines frequently have adjuvants designed to increase that response, like oils, formalin (formaldehyde), thimerosal, and aluminum hydroxide. These are more likely to cause lesions at the injection sites and require the animal to be dosed twice. Most farmers prefer the one shot advantage offered by the modified live vaccines.
The average calf receives a minimum of three vaccines in their first 2-3 months. One of these vaccines is always a 7 or 8 shot for clostridial viruses, and another is a shot for 3-5 different bovine respiratory disorders. They receive boosters shortly before weaning. Other commonly given cattle vaccines include pinkeye, Pasteurella, Brucellosis, tetanus, and scours. Pigs are supposed to be immunized for Leptospirosis, Parvovirus, Erysipelas, E. coli, and Atrophic rhinitis. For poultry it depends, there’s chicken, turkey, and duck.
A Google search for livestock vaccines shows how easy it is to obtain these vaccines. This also makes it easier to check the ingredients, although some products are still reluctant to list anything not considered an active ingredient. Many livestock vaccines actually have antibiotics as preservatives, whereas as others use various forms of aluminum, formaldehyde, and thimerosal.
Thimerosal is particularly of note, as the human vaccine debate frequently centers around thimerosal and its role in the development of autism and other developmental disorders. There is no such debate in livestock vaccines. After all, no cares if your cow is unable to function properly in society or experiences random seizures.
The preservatives in animal vaccines also make them very toxic to humans. Workers who are accidentally injected with these vaccines deal with side effects from the oil-based adjuvants in livestock vaccines (particularly cattle vaccines) for months after an accidental injection. A dose meant for a 1,000-pound animal is clearly too much for the average person, but the vaccine is specifically designed to stimulate a response in the cattle for a period of weeks to months. Removing the oil-based preservatives from the human body can sometimes involve surgery.
The adjuvants in animal vaccines are what make them dangerous to people. Still, most of us won’t be handling livestock anytime soon. Many of the companies that make livestock vaccines make people vaccines, but those meant for people are not oil-based, even if some of the other preservatives are the same.
Livestock Vaccines Are Not Safe for People
Any insert will tell you that livestock vaccines are not safe for people.
Each year, livestock producers give thousands of injections to calves and cows. The vast majority of those injections go off without a problem. However, there are times when producers may accidentally inject the vaccines or antibiotics into themselves or other helpers. So what happens when a product, meant for a 1,000-pound cow, winds up inside a 200-pound human? The results can be deadly.” – The Prairie Star
So, vaccines given to humans are perfectly safe, vaccines given to animals are dangerous to humans if taken accidentally, but ingesting livestock vaccine ingredients randomly is acceptable.
Self-injection with veterinary vaccines is an occupational hazard for farmers and veterinary surgeons. Injection of vaccine into a closed compartment such as the human finger can have serious sequelae including loss of the injected digit. These injuries are not to be underestimated. Early debridement and irrigation of the injected area with decompression is likely to give the best outcome. Frequent review is necessary after the first procedure because repeat operations may be required.” – NCBI
We don’t value the life of livestock the way we do humans. This is why they get differing grades for feed. But beyond the stray injection or accidental interaction suffered by a handler, no one is being exposed to these vaccines. Except when we ingest the meat. The same with antibiotics being fed to farm animals. We were told that we didn’t have to worry about those… but now we have microbial revolution consisting of antibiotic resistant superbugs we are unprepared to deal with.
The extent to which veterinary vaccines pose a health hazard to humans is unclear. The increased use of veterinary vaccines may be accompanied by an increase in human exposure to the vaccine strains, thus increasing the potential for adverse effects. Also, new methods of vaccine administration may result in an increased likelihood of inadvertent exposure. For example, increased use of aerosol administration may result in greater human exposure to animal vaccines. For some animal vaccines, such as those administered to prevent “kennel cough” in dogs, aerosol administration is becoming the preferred route. Also, oral administration of vaccines that contain live agents is becoming more common. Orally administered vaccines have been developed for rabies prophylaxis in wildlife, and millions of baits have been distributed. The administration of live vaccines to animals destined for the human food supply may result in human exposure to a vaccine strain. Illness subsequent to such an exposure is unlikely to be recognized by the patient or the physician as a potential consequence of an animal vaccine exposure.” – Oxford Academic
Conclusion
What’s a meat eater to do? My wife and I shop at the local farmers market. We know our vendors. They are the farmers. We buy ground beef for our dog and the farmer is about as fond of vaccines as we are. I recommend that everyone grow as much of their own food as they can and get to know everything about the people involved in growing and processing anything else you consume.
The Zika Epidemic – What You Should Know, Without the Hype
Zika History and Current Spread
The Zika virus was first identified in 1947 by scientists who were researching yellow fever in Uganda. They placed a caged rhesus macaque in the Zika forest. After it became sick with a fever, the researchers isolated the virus from its blood. In 1954, in Nigeria, the virus was first isolated from a human. Up until 2007, confirmed human infections were rare and were limited to Africa and Southeast Asia.
In 2007, an outbreak in Micronesia resulted in 49 confirmed cases and 59 unconfirmed cases. The infections were relatively mild with no associated deaths or hospitalizations. In 2013, the disease reached French Polynesia. In 2014, it reached Brazil and has continued an explosive spread through South America, Central America, and the Caribbean.
In most cases, the infection is mild. However, a possible, perhaps probable, link between the virus and microcephaly, a severe birth defect whereby an infant is born with an abnormally small head and incomplete brain development, has catapulted this disease from obscurity to the status of a public health emergency and worldwide headline news. Brazilian health authorities have reported more than 3,500 microcephaly cases between October 2015 and January 2016.
…genetically modified mosquitoes are responsible for either the spread of the virus or the rise in birth defects is baseless…
On their website, the World Health Organization states, “Agencies investigating the Zika outbreaks are finding an increasing body of evidence about the link between Zika virus and microcephaly. However, more investigation is needed before we understand the relationship between microcephaly in babies and the Zika virus. Other potential causes are also being investigated.” However, Colombia’s President, Juan Manuel Santos, says there is no evidence that the virus has caused an increase in microcephaly in his country, though they have diagnosed 3,177 pregnant women with the virus.
In January, 2016, The CDC issued a level 2 travel alert to areas where virus transmission is active: Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Martinique, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Suriname, Venezuela, and the U.S. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. By February, the virus has been found in 20 countries in the Americas.
On February 1, 2016, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that Zika is now considered a public health emergency of international concern. They estimate that the virus will spread throughout the Americas and will infect up to 4 million people by the end of 2016.
How is Zika Spread?
The primary method of transmission is through mosquito bites. There have also been confirmed cases of sexual transmission. The virus is found in saliva, urine, and semen. Semen has been proven to spread the virus. It is not known whether the virus can be transmitted from females to males during unprotected intercourse or through body fluids other than semen.
Some are suggesting the birth defects are due to Brazil’s practice of vaccinating pregnant women with both the DTP and the MMR…
Symptoms of Zika Disease
The Zika virus is typically a mild infection. Up to 80% of those afflicted do not exhibit symptoms. General symptoms are a mild fever, a skin rash, conjunctivitis, headache, muscle and joint pain, and general malaise lasting for 2-7 days. More serious cases can involve neurological and autoimmune complications including Guillain-Barre syndrome, an autoimmune illness in which the immune system attacks the nervous system causing paralysis. (Most people afflicted with Guillain-Barre syndrome recover, though some retain muscle weakness.)
The treatment for most cases is the same as another other mild virus – rest and plenty of fluids.
Spread of Zika Virus to the United States
To date, all of the reported cases of Zika disease in the U.S. are from travelers who contracted the disease outside of the country and brought it home. One man was exposed and infected but had not yet exhibited symptoms before coming home and engaging in unprotected sex with his wife. Both tested positive for Zika when they become ill. A woman in Hawaii gave birth to an infant with a small head after catching the disease while visiting Brazil. There are no known cases of infections due to mosquito bites occurring in the U.S. as of February 7, 2016.
How to Protect Yourself from Catching Zika Disease
The same protocols for eliminating the threat of any mosquito bites apply. First, eliminate breeding grounds. Clean, cover, or get rid of containers that capture standing water. Use screens on windows, keep doors closed, and if you live in an area with a lot of mosquitos, consider sleeping under a mosquito net.
Long sleeves, long pants, and light covered clothing are helpful. You will be told to use insect repellent. Rather than cover your body with insecticide, make your own safe, mosquito/tick repellent.
If your partner has been exposed and you are pregnant or have been trying to become pregnant, use condoms. Scientists do not yet know how long the virus can be contracted after an infection, but this information should be common knowledge soon.
Genetically Modified Mosquitoes and the Zika Virus
Spraying reduces mosquito populations by 30%-50%. The recent release of GM mosquitoes in the CECAP/Eldorado district in Brazil resulted in a 90% reduction in the mosquito population. The release, made before the sudden Zika virus explosion, was targeting mosquitos that carry dengue and chikungunya. These are the same mosquitos that carry Zika. The dengue infection plummeted from 144 cases the previous year to only 1 case after the release of the mosquitos.
The popularity of the belief that genetically modified mosquitoes are responsible for either the spread of the virus or the rise in birth defects is baseless. Male mosquitoes feed on flower nectar; females feed on blood. Only male mosquitoes are genetically modified before being released into the wild. They are equipped with a “kill switch” that successfully kills their offspring before the larvae reach maturity (and can feed on anyone).
It is expected that millions of GM mosquitos will be released to combat the current epidemic.
Conclusion
The Zika virus is a mild virus, one that usually results in no symptoms at all or a low fever and a mild rash. Suddenly this disease is linked with causing a devastating birth defect. This correlation may or may not be causation. Many critics are questioning the probability, especially when comparing Brazil’s outcomes against Colombia’s. Some are suggesting the birth defects are due to Brazil’s practice of vaccinating pregnant women with both the DTP and the MMR vaccines and reminding us that rubella and pertussis components in the DPT vaccine are known to cause microcephaly. Other doctors suggest that a pesticide, Pyriproxyfen (manufactured by Sumitomo Chemical, a Japanese ‘strategic partner’ of Monsanto), which has been added to drinking water tanks to kill mosquito larvae since 2014, may be the source. And of course, some continue to blame the new genetically modified mosquitoes. Although it seems unlikely that genetically modified mosquitoes are a factor, the outcome of these experimental practices remains unknown. What is clear is that something is not adding up. As always, we need to follow the money and see who is benefitting from the situation or who has something to hide. Unfortunately, the list of possible suspects continues to grow.
