Kabul..

 

Molnupiravir

 

 In a potential leap forward in the global fight against the pandemic, drugmaker Merck said that its experimental pill for people sick with COVID-19 reduced hospitalizations and deaths by half.

All other COVID-19 treatments now authorized in the U.S. require an IV or injection. A pill taken at home, by contrast, would ease pressure on hospitals and could also help curb outbreaks in poorer and more remote corners of the world that don’t have access to the more expensive infusion therapies.

Merck and its partner Ridgeback Biotherapeutics said early results showed patients who received the drug, molnupiravir, within five days of COVID-19 symptoms had about half the rate of hospitalization and death.

The study tracked 775 adults with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 who were considered high risk for severe disease because of health problems such as obesity, diabetes or heart disease. The results have not been reviewed by outside experts, the usual procedure for vetting new medical research.

Rikers...

 

De Blasio is now presiding over a humanitarian emergency on Rikers Island, the city’s main jail complex, where a shortage of guards led already poor conditions to collapse into scenes of chaos and death.

His signature Vision Zero initiative, which set the goal of reducing traffic fatalities to zero, fizzled this year as car-related deaths reached their highest point since de Blasio took office nearly eight years ago. 

Labor unions are hauling him into court over his vaccine mandate for city workers. The unions won a victory after a federal court judge put a hold on de Blasio’s inoculation requirement.

Six inches of rain destroy crippled NYC recently and six inches of snow crippled the city last year.  Just a thougght.

Tower...

 

The skyscrapers of New York’s so-called Billionaires’ Row in Midtown Manhattan have something in common besides eye-watering prices: The city still considers them active construction sites, with a range of safety-related requirements that remain incomplete, sometimes years after occupancy.

All eight of the towers were missing final signoff from the Department of Buildings on elevators and plumbing; seven did not have final signoff on fire sprinklers and standpipes; and five were missing approvals from the fire department.

There are at least hundreds of buildings across the city that similarly have not received what is known as a final certificate of occupancy, and the system of temporary certificates that allows buildings to be occupied without these final approvals has been in place for decades.

But the stakes have never been higher. The surge of supertall towers near or above 1,000 feet tall across the city in the last decade is without precedent, and the buildings, skinnier and more complicated than ever before, are exposing gaps in the city’s enforcement strategy that could pose safety risks if left unchecked, according to interviews with engineers, urban planners and former employees of the Department of Buildings.

But as long as donation to the political campaigns going on, the rest such as the quality of life, sewer systems, roads, and diseases, all are put aside.

Dictatorial...

 

Several governors have told us that life after the coronavirus will be the “new normal.” We’ve heard that before for eight long years during the stale economy of Barack Obama.

In fact, those on the left are pretty hopeful this will change our existence; they have made that quite clear. The loss of freedom doesn’t seem to bother most of these folks; it harkens back to the “better red than dead” attitude of the 1960s.

Some governors are willing to suspend rights guaranteed under the Constitution and then, in dictatorial fashion, decide for themselves that for instance you can’t go to Home Depot or purchase grass seed. They suspend elective surgeries, Virginia’s governor is using this crisis to shut down gun stores.

 Quality of life been sacrificed for the collection of higher taxes and more businesses in a small spot. It is a large country, spread it out.

This crisis reveals what could happen in this country if strong central government controlled the states and how many of our fellow citizens would just go along and surrender rights. It illustrates what people outside of the free world experience on a daily basis. It should be a lesson to everyone just how precious our freedoms are.

Diet...

 

Previous research has suggested that various factors — such as age, family history, diet, and environmental factors — combine to influence a person’s risk of Alzheimer’s disease.

Dr. John Mamo, Ph.D. — director of the Curtin Health Innovation Research Institute at Curtin University in Perth, Australia — explained.

“This study,” he added, “shows that exaggerated abundance in blood of potentially toxic fat-protein complexes can damage microscopic brain blood vessels called capillaries and, thereafter, leak into the brain, causing inflammation and brain cell death.”

“[Changes] in dietary behaviors and certain medications could potentially reduce blood concentration of these toxic fat-protein complexes, [subsequently] reducing the risk for Alzheimer’s or [slowing] down the disease progression,” he concluded.

The findings appear in the journal PLOS Biology.

Just a hopeful thought.

Screw You...

 

More divisions in the Party of the Unifier than anticipated earlier. How much to waste?  Just a thought.

Vigor...

 

A review published in the journal Science explains the theory of "hybrid vigor immunity" in which the combination of natural immunity and vaccine-generated immunity results in a "larger-than-expected immune response." 

For the concept of hybrid immunity, the combination would be of two types of stimulation to the immune system in the forms of natural infection and vaccination.

The authors of the review suggest that this could happen with immunity because a broader range of immune cells, including both B and T cells, could get activated.

"With prior infection, their antibodies are able to recognize numerous variants, but with the addition of the vaccine, they are able to generate a large number to have a stronger effect against the virus."  

"Hybrid immunity, timing seems to be an important factor." What we have seen is that waiting six months does mount a better immune response later,"  "It seems that our immune system likes to rest and develop antibodies, and then mount a stronger response when it sees the same pathogen again later on."

When large cities that insists to get larger, here is some plan. Just a thought.

Da Vinci...

 

Several pieces of evidence suggest that the Renaissance Man was vegetarian. Several biographies attribute his diet preferences to his love for animals, in whom he saw “the image of the world”. 

No wonder he was always surrounded by animals and was routinely known to buy caged birds only to set them free.

Issues...

 

Image is not related.

In New York real estate, money can usually buy you a modicum of happiness. But the residents of one of the city’s priciest—and tallest—residential towers are suing its developers for structural flaws they say have made their lives a living nightmare.

According to the board, shoddy workmanship and poor planning has led to flooding, stuck elevators, electrical explosions, and “horrible and obtrusive noise and vibration” caused by building sway.

The suit accuses CIM and Macklowe of “one of the worst examples of Sponsor malfeasance in the development of a luxury condominium in the history of New York City.”

The buildings’ elevators, programmed to slow down during high winds, have repeatedly shut down and trapped residents for hours “on multiple occasions.”

Every 12th floor is an unenclosed space, intended to allow air currents to pass through, decreasing wind resistance and cutting down on stress to the structure. But, according to the lawsuit, even CIM Group chair Richard Ressler, a fellow resident, admitted in “an unguarded moment” that the sound and vibration issues were “intolerable” and made it hard to sleep during bad weather.  Just a thought.