Hello my fellow citizens, friends, family, and acquaintances! I trust your week has been anything but boring, especially to those people who live in the United States that received their “Pandemic Stimulus” this week. Yes, that extra $1400 dollars to spend on getting caught up on their bills. Ahhh yes, if you’re so lucky enough to get caught up on your bills and you have a little bit left over oh, you could go splurge on yourself and buy that really cool piece of electronics that you really wanted to add to your home stereo or television set up, but then you can also save that money and put it toward next month bills. Maybe if you feel frisky enough, you could throw it into the stock market where I hear that stocks like GameStop, AMC movie theaters, and Zomedica are going to explode here pretty soon. Meaning if you got money to invest in the stock market, and you feel like writing the way without for just a little bit longer, you just might make a few extra bucks before the end of the year.
Of course, I’m not a financial guru and I am not offering any financial advice. I just appreciate the due diligence that the folks over at the sub-reddit I like following (https://www.reddit.com/r/Wallstreetbetsnew/) are putting out for simple folks to make a few extra bucks instead of relying on the big hedge funds to tell them what to do. I know that the mainstream media is not really going to talk about it other than just to put the folks on Reddit down because the mainstream media seems to like to kick the underdog lately. Well here’s a safe bet that I’m pretty sure everyone’s heard of before: sometimes the dog bites the hand that feeds. I do find the timing interesting that it parallels with the openings of more states from the lock downs courtesy of the China Virus, Wuhan Flu, the Kung Flu, or just the plain ol’ COVID-19. It’s like watching a rodeo as the rider comes shooting out of the gates on the back of a bucking bronco that most would be too scared to ride as one brave soul who might actually get the full eight seconds on a beast nicknamed “death”, the feel of the roaring of the crowd, and the glory of wearing a belt buckle he or she won’t have to sell at the local pawnshop to make it to the next rodeo across the state. I suppose like anything else, there is that risk of addiction that might come into play. No matter if it’s the stock market, rodeo, everyday life trying to pay your bills and take care of your family, or perhaps, taking an experimental drug that hasn’t had it’s proper testing because of a possible “plandemic”…
Tonight I want to talk to you a little bit about something I feel that is not getting covered in the mainstream media as often as it should be. Something happened this week that really gives me grave concern and I’m worried. Those people who took certain vaccines thinking it’s going to help them but are suffering from things like blood clots and other side effects due to taking the covid-19 vaccine AstraZeneca, there’s a lot of fear coming out of Europe right now and here recently because of the side effects even though the World Health Organization said it’s safe. AstraZeneca, which developed the vaccine in partnership with the University of Oxford, has said the number of cases of blood clotting among the roughly 17 million people in the EU and U.K. who have received the shot is lower than for the general population. The vaccine is given via two injections to the arm, the second between 4 and 12 weeks after the first. The blood clots reported in some people who received the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine are known generally as venous thromboembolic events, and are relatively common. They involve the formation of a thickened clump of blood in a blood vessel, which can cause fatal blockages. Health officials in the U.S. have included thromboembolic events among various types of adverse events of special interest they are monitoring as Covid-19 vaccines get deployed widely. Large-scale human trials also didn’t raise flags about blood clotting as a risk.
To put it in comparison, during a large trial of Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine, which was authorized for use in the U.S. in late February, there were slightly more blood clots among vaccine recipients than among those who received a placebo. The Food and Drug Administration said it couldn’t exclude the possibility that the vaccine contributed to the higher number, and plans to monitor for clots as the J&J shot gets deployed in the larger population. Venous thromboembolism also can occur in people with Covid-19. The International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis, whose members include medical professionals who treat blood clots, issued a statement Friday recommending that all eligible adults continue to get a Covid-19 vaccine because the small number of reported thrombotic events relative to the millions of vaccinations doesn’t suggest a direct link. However, Denmark wasn’t taking any risks as it was the first to suspend the AstraZeneca shots. Ireland, Norway, the Netherlands and Iceland have also said they would wait for Europe’s bloc-wide medicines regulator to investigate a small number of serious blood-clotting issues among people who had received the AstraZeneca shot. Four of Europe’s most populous countries have now suspended the use of AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine after series of reports of blood clots and some of the recently inoculated patients.
The World Health organization’s is trying to convince countries to continue using it. Shortly after Germany said it was going to stop the distribution of the AstraZeneca shots earlier this week, France, Italy, and Spain announced that they would all do the same describing all their moves as precautionary measures while waiting from impending analysis from European regulators (https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/03/15/coronavirus-covid-live-updates-us/). France’s health regulator said there was still not enough data about the effectiveness of the AstraZeneca vaccine for patients over 65 years of age. “These data will arrive in the coming weeks. In the meantime we recommend its use for people under 65 years old,” it said. It recommended the vaccine for health workers and vulnerable people between the ages of 50 and 65. While other health authorities in Sweden and Poland made similar announcements and Belgium’s health minister said the vaccine, for the moment, would only be given to people below the age of 55. Italy’s medicines agency on Saturday also approved the jab for all adults under 55 (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-55901957).
Now these countries join a few other nations that have already pause the use of the vaccine as well. They’re all impending on additional data. The vaccine hasn’t been approved in the U.S. AstraZeneca is expected to apply for authorization for emergency use once it submits results from Phase 3 human trials conducted in the U.S. Those trials are due as early as this month (https://www.wsj.com/articles/germany-becomes-latest-european-country-to-suspend-use-of-astrazenecas-covid-19-vaccine-11615820414). Europe’s vaccination rates are far lower than in the U.S. and the U.K., where Covid-19 cases have stabilized or are falling. But experts say it’s not clear whether the vaccine can be blamed for any of the clotting problems in people who had been recently vaccinated. Meanwhile, in Thailand officials announced a plan to restart vaccinations using the AstraZeneca shots following a brief pause last week. Thailand was the first country outside of Europe to stop using the vaccine following safety concerns.
The sad thing is that the World Health Organization is really more worried about countries not having access to vaccines more than they are blood clots concerns. Yeah the World Health Organization is telling these countries to continue using a vaccine that is known to cause serious blood clot issues which by the way can kill you or the person taking it, but they’re still urging these countries to just go ahead and give out the vaccine. And for some asinine reason, we’re going to go ahead and give the World Health Organization billions of dollars each year. It honestly makes no damn sense. The top WHO scientist reiterates that there have been no documented deaths linked to COVID-19 vaccines. “We do not want people to panic,” a spokesman said on a virtual media briefing, adding there has been no association, so far, pinpointed between so-called “thromboembolic events” reported in some countries and COVID-19 shots (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus/germany-italy-france-suspend-astrazeneca-shots-amid-safety-fears-disrupting-eu-vaccinations-idUSKBN2B722U). There have also been manufacturing delays. Last week, AstraZeneca warned it would fall short of projected vaccine deliveries to Europe in coming months, by 100 million doses, almost two-thirds less than what the continent was expecting based on the company’s earlier pledges.
Again, these moves by some of Europe’s countries will create even more growing concerns about the vaccines in the regions, which has been plagued by shortages due to problems producing vaccines, including AstraZeneca’s. It doesn’t help that the World Health Organization said new coronavirus cases increased globally for the first time in seven weeks, and officials expressed concern that cases could again rise significantly (https://www.voanews.com/covid-19-pandemic/france-reverses-course-using-astrazeneca-covid-19-vaccine-citizens-over-65). This coincides with Germany’s recent warning it was facing a third wave of infections, Italy is intensifying lockdowns, and hospitals in the Paris region are close to being overloaded. Austria and Spain have stopped using particular batches and prosecutors in the northern Italian region of Piedmont earlier seized 393,600 doses following the death of a man hours after he was vaccinated. It was the second region to do so after Sicily, where two people had died shortly after having their shots. If there is any bright side to this, The United Kingdom said it had no concerns, while Poland said it thought the benefits outweighed any risks. The only ones that really not complaining is the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whose Health officials have already approved the AstraZeneca shot, calling it safe and effective.
Just to be perfectly clear before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) determines whether to approve a vaccine or authorize a vaccine for emergency use, clinical trials are conducted to determine vaccine efficacy (https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/covid-19/effectiveness-research/protocols.html). After FDA approves a vaccine or authorizes a vaccine for emergency use, it continues to be studied to determine how well it works under real-world conditions. CDC and other federal partners will be assessing COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness under real-world conditions. Such evaluations will help everyone understand if vaccines are performing as expected outside the more controlled setting of a clinical trial. As vaccine uptake increases nationally, doctors also try to understand how well the vaccines:
- Perform in specific subpopulations
- Reduce the risk of infection (including infection without symptoms)
- Protect against milder COVID-19 illness
- Prevent more serious outcomes, including hospitalization
- Prevent spread of illness (e.g., whether people who have been vaccinated can still spread COVID-19 to others)
- Provide long-term protection (i.e., assess duration of protection)
- Protect against changes in the virus (new variants)
- Protect against COVID-19 when the vaccine is administered using a single dose or when the second dose is delayed, if these dosing regimens occur under real-world conditions
Several factors can affect real-world vaccine effectiveness, including:
- Population host factors (e.g., people not included in clinical trials who may respond differently to the vaccine)
- Virus factors (e.g., variants)
- Programmatic factors (e.g., adherence to dosing schedules or storage/handling of vaccines)
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention will use several methods to study all of these factors, as they can all contribute different information about how a vaccine is working. In the United States, health officials are warning that another surge in cases could be on the horizon, as newer and more infectious variants of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 are growing more frequently. The new upward trend in cases comes as most states are easing coronavirus restrictions. (https://www.voanews.com/covid-19-pandemic/france-reverses-course-using-astrazeneca-covid-19-vaccine-citizens-over-65)
Now I also want to be VERY clear on something else: I am NOT TELLING YOU to skip out on taking the COVID-19 vaccine, nor am I pushing to not take it seriously. I’ve always told you on this show and any other time this discussion has come up that you do what is best for you and don’t push it on anyone else. If you feel like taking the vaccines, then do so under your doctors guidance. If you want to were a mask, please feel free to do so as long as you wear it properly over your mouth and nose, not just one or the other. I’ve seen some just wear it on their chin. Probably just as important, don’t shame others if they don’t want to wear a mask or take the vaccine. It’s not your call to make and they aren’t hurting you as long as you are protected via mask or vaccine. Not everyone’s body is the same and as pointed out earlier, these vaccines are not a “one size fits all” type scenario. Please, you’ve got to keep an open mind on this if we are all going to make it. We have to quit being so narrow minded and shaming the other side.
Personally, I could care less if you are wearing a mask or vaccinated. I only care about my body and family, whom I might add is split on the idea that the vaccination and masks work. Even though I have provided evidence, courtesy of the CDC, last week that the masks don’t work as good as Dr. Fauci claims in protecting us from the virus and death. Keep in mind that Dr. Fauci has stocks in some of the companies that manufacture these vaccines. So yes, he’s going to tell you to bundle up on your masks and vaccines. HE’S MAKING MONEY OFF YOUR FEAR!! Dr. Anthony Fauci made $417,608 in 2019, the latest year for which federal salaries are available. That made him not only the highest paid doctor in the federal government, but the highest paid out of all four million federal employees (https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamandrzejewski/2021/01/25/dr-anthony-fauci-the-highest-paid-employee-in-the-entire-us-federal-government/?sh=68ca2f53386f). Earlier today, it was announced that a tense exchange happened during the Senate Help, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing on the COVID-19 pandemic, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul accused Dr. Anthony Fauci of wearing a mask “for show” since he has already been vaccinated for COVID-19 and questioned why the country’s top public health officials have said Americans may need to wear masks into 2022 if they have developed immunity from the virus. Senator Paul began by citing one study that found that very few people people who have become infected with the virus have been reinfected and another that showed that being infected would provide enough immunity to prevent people from being hospitalized for years.
In an intense argument (https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/03/18/nation/heated-exchange-senator-paul-accuses-dr-fauci-wearing-masks-after-being-vaccinated-show/), Dr. Fauci said he agreed with Senator Paul that if someone is infected with the wild-type, or prevalent strain of the virus, they are likely to be protected from the wild-type for at least six months. But he went on to cite a study that found that for those who had been infected with the wild-type and had then been exposed to the South African variant, it was “as if they had never been infected before, but we in our country now have variants that are circulating,” Fauci said, adding that we don’t have prevalence of a variant yet, but one, the U.K. variant, is “becoming more dominant.” Senator Paul replied “You want people to wear masks for another couple years, you’ve been vaccinated and you parade around in two masks for show. You’re defying everything we know about immunity by telling people to wear masks if they have been vaccinated.” This isn’t the first time these two have verbally duked it out in public, Dr. Fauci and Senator Paul have sparred in hearings for months over COVID-19 measures. To me, it makes sense what Senator Paul is asking and the points he is making. Why, if you are vaccinated, should you have to wear a mask or two at the same time? I think common sense needs to prevail here and more people need to wake up in this “woken” society that seems to be taking shape.
If “Whiteness is a Pandemic” (https://nypost.com/2021/03/18/the-root-accused-of-racism-after-piece-declares-whiteness-is-a-pandemic/), then the lack of common sense is too. Oh wait, you didn’t hear about that? Oh, this is going to be fun. In a piece written by Root Senior editor, Damon Young, he strongly insists that “Whiteness” is a “public health crisis.” The Root is owned by G/O Media, whose outlets include Deadspin, Jezebel, Gizmodo and The A.V. Club. He goes on to say insisting former President Donald Trump and the GOP “
“can and should be blamed for this and the sudden increase of racist violence against Asian Americans. The line doesn’t stop there, though. It extends back 400 years and has tentacles clawing everywhere white [sic] supremacy exists here, in America, which is everywhere,” Young wrote before referencing the 2018 Tree of Life synagogue and the 2015 Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church massacres. But also to gentrification, to red-lining, to racial profiling, to gerrymandering, to voter oppression, to mass incarceration, to the war on drugs, to the subprime mortgage crisis, to the vast disparities in both COVID deaths and who receives COVID vaccinations, to how the men and women who stormed the Capitol just went home and had dinner with their families afterward. White supremacy is a virus that, like other viruses, will not die until there are no bodies left for it to infect. Which means the only way to stop it is to locate it, isolate it, extract it and kill it. I guess a vaccine could work, too. But we’ve had 400 years to develop one, so I won’t hold my breath.”
Wow, makes me want to ask how he really, but I don’t want to get the guy started on a rant where he might say something he would regret. Wait, it’s too late for that. The Twitter-ites already got him, calling his piece “the definition of racism”. Another user called it “Thought provoking racism”. Those are just the nice, family friendly tweets I can share with you.
Now, finally on to something else I wanted to talk to you about. Even though it is a day late, but not a dollar short: St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated annually on March 17, the anniversary of his death in the fifth century. The Irish have observed this day as a religious holiday for over 1,000 years. On St. Patrick’s Day, which falls during the Christian season of Lent, Irish families would traditionally attend church in the morning and celebrate in the afternoon. Lenten prohibitions against the consumption of meat were waived and people would dance, drink and feast–on the traditional meal of Irish bacon and cabbage. Saint Patrick, who lived during the fifth century, is the patron saint of Ireland and its national apostle. Born in Roman Britain, he was kidnapped and brought to Ireland as a slave at the age of 16 (https://www.journalenterprise.com/a-history-of-st-patrick-s-day/article_82eaa573-ffe9-5eff-80c3-86a135ae411d.html). He later escaped, but returned to Ireland and was credited with bringing Christianity to its people. In the centuries following Patrick’s death (believed to have been on March 17, 461), the mythology surrounding his life became ever more ingrained in the Irish culture: Perhaps the most well-known legend of St. Patrick is that he explained the Holy Trinity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) using the three leaves of a native Irish clover, the shamrock.
Since around the ninth or 10th century, people in Ireland have been observing the Roman Catholic feast day of St. Patrick on March 17th. The first St. Patrick’s Day parade took place not in Ireland, but in America (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2018/03/17/the-incredible-story-of-americas-first-st-patricks-day-celebration/). Records show that a St. Patrick’s Day parade was held on March 17, 1601 in a Spanish colony in what is now St. Augustine, Florida. The parade, and a St. Patrick’s Day celebration a year earlier were organized by the Spanish Colony’s Irish vicar Ricardo Artur. More than a century later, homesick Irish soldiers serving in the English military marched in New York City on March 17, 1772 to honor the Irish patron saint. Enthusiasm for the St. Patrick’s Day parades in New York City, Boston and other early American cities only grew from there.
People of all backgrounds celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, especially throughout the United States, Canada and Australia. Although North America is home to the largest productions, St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated around the world in locations far from Ireland, including Japan, Singapore and Russia. Popular St. Patrick’s Day recipes include Irish soda bread, corned beef and cabbage and champ. In the United States, people often wear green on St. Patrick’s Day. Some other fun facts include:
- St. Patrick brought Christianity to Ireland – In 431, before Patrick began preaching in Ireland, Pope Celestine reportedly sent a bishop known as Palladius “to the Irish believing in Christ”—an indication that some residents of the Emerald Isle had already converted by then. One theory holds that the St. Patrick of lore is actually an amalgam of two men: Palladius and the deacon’s son who first visited Ireland as an enslaved man.
- St. Patrick banished snakes from the Emerald Isle – Legend has it that Patrick stood on an Irish hillside and delivered a sermon that drove the island’s serpents into the sea. While it’s true that the Emerald Isle is mercifully snake-free, chances are that’s been the case throughout human history. Water has surrounded Ireland since the end of the last glacial period, preventing snakes from slithering over; before that, it was blanketed in ice and too chilly for the cold-blooded creatures. Scholars believe the snake story is an allegory for St. Patrick’s eradication of pagan ideology.
- Green has historically been associated with St. Patrick’s Day – The Irish countryside may be many shades of green, but knights in the Order of St. Patrick wore a color known as St. Patrick’s blue. Why did green become so emblematic of St. Patrick that people began drinking green beer, wearing green and, of course, dyeing the Chicago River green to mark the holiday he inspired? The association probably dates back to the 18th century, when supporters of Irish independence used the color to represent their cause.
- Corned beef is a classic St. Patrick’s Day dish – On St. Patrick’s Day, countless merrymakers in the United States, Canada and elsewhere savor copious plates of corned beef and cabbage. In Ireland, however, a type of bacon similar to ham is the customary protein on the holiday table. In the late 19th century, Irish immigrants in New York City’s Lower East Side supposedly substituted corned beef, which they bought from their Jewish neighbors, in order to save money. That’s not to say salt-cured beef isn’t a traditional Irish dish; pork, however, has historically been more widely available on the Emerald Isle.
And that about wraps it up for this week, folks. As usual, thanks for joining in and I hope you feel like you learned something more than you did a short while ago. Keep your chins up and I hope God blesses you with all the love and life he has to offer.
