OT the PIT - reincarnation

I dont suppose you have heard this on CNN:
From the WSJ Opinion section
Here is information on the author, note the place of work:

www.hopkinsmedicine.org/profiles/results/directory/profile/0018306/martin-makary


Amid the dire Covid warnings, one crucial fact has been largely ignored: Cases are down 77% over the past six weeks. If a medication slashed cases by 77%, we’d call it a miracle pill. Why is the number of cases plummeting much faster than experts predicted?

In large part because natural immunity from prior infection is far more common than can be measured by testing. Testing has been capturing only from 10% to 25% of infections, depending on when during the pandemic someone got the virus. Applying a time-weighted case capture average of 1 in 6.5 to the cumulative 28 million confirmed cases would mean about 55% of Americans have natural immunity.

Now add people getting vaccinated. As of this week, 15% of Americans have received the vaccine, and the figure is rising fast. Former Food and Drug Commissioner Scott Gottlieb estimates 250 million doses will have been delivered to some 150 million people by the end of March.

There is reason to think the country is racing toward an extremely low level of infection. As more people have been infected, most of whom have mild or no symptoms, there are fewer Americans left to be infected. At the current trajectory, I expect Covid will be mostly gone by April, allowing Americans to resume normal life.

Antibody studies almost certainly underestimate natural immunity. Antibody testing doesn’t capture antigen-specific T-cells, which develop “memory” once they are activated by the virus. Survivors of the 1918 Spanish flu were found in 2008—90 years later—to have memory cells still able to produce neutralizing antibodies.

Researchers at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute found that the percentage of people mounting a T-cell response after mild or asymptomatic Covid-19 infection consistently exceeded the percentage with detectable antibodies. T-cell immunity was even present in people who were exposed to infected family members but never developed symptoms. A group of U.K. scientists in September pointed out that the medical community may be under-appreciating the prevalence of immunity from activated T-cells.

Covid-19 deaths in the U.S. would also suggest much broader immunity than recognized. About 1 in 600 Americans has died of Covid-19, which translates to a population fatality rate of about 0.15%. The Covid-19 infection fatality rate is about 0.23%. These numbers indicate that roughly two-thirds of the U.S. population has had the infection.


In my own conversations with medical experts, I have noticed that they too often dismiss natural immunity, arguing that we don’t have data. The data certainly doesn’t fit the classic randomized-controlled-trial model of the old-guard medical establishment. There’s no control group. But the observational data is compelling.

I have argued for months that we could save more American lives if those with prior Covid-19 infection forgo vaccines until all vulnerable seniors get their first dose. Several studies demonstrate that natural immunity should protect those who had Covid-19 until more vaccines are available. Half my friends in the medical community told me: Good idea. The other half said there isn’t enough data on natural immunity, despite the fact that reinfections have occurred in less than 1% of people—and when they do occur, the cases are mild.

But the consistent and rapid decline in daily cases since Jan. 8 can be explained only by natural immunity. Behavior didn’t suddenly improve over the holidays; Americans traveled more over Christmas than they had since March. Vaccines also don’t explain the steep decline in January. Vaccination rates were low and they take weeks to kick in.

My prediction that Covid-19 will be mostly gone by April is based on laboratory data, mathematical data, published literature and conversations with experts. But it’s also based on direct observation of how hard testing has been to get, especially for the poor. If you live in a wealthy community where worried people are vigilant about getting tested, you might think that most infections are captured by testing. But if you have seen the many barriers to testing for low-income Americans, you might think that very few infections have been captured at testing centers. Keep in mind that most infections are asymptomatic, which still triggers natural immunity.

Many experts, along with politicians and journalists, are afraid to talk about herd immunity. The term has political overtones because some suggested the U.S. simply let Covid rip to achieve herd immunity. That was a reckless idea. But herd immunity is the inevitable result of viral spread and vaccination. When the chain of virus transmission has been broken in multiple places, it’s harder for it to spread—and that includes the new strains.


Herd immunity has been well-documented in the Brazilian city of Manaus, where researchers in the Lancet reported the prevalence of prior Covid-19 infection to be 76%, resulting in a significant slowing of the infection. Doctors are watching a new strain that threatens to evade prior immunity. But countries where new variants have emerged, such as the U.K., South Africa and Brazil, are also seeing significant declines in daily new cases. The risk of new variants mutating around the prior vaccinated or natural immunity should be a reminder that Covid-19 will persist for decades after the pandemic is over. It should also instill a sense of urgency to develop, authorize and administer a vaccine targeted to new variants.

Some medical experts privately agreed with my prediction that there may be very little Covid-19 by April but suggested that I not to talk publicly about herd immunity because people might become complacent and fail to take precautions or might decline the vaccine. But scientists shouldn’t try to manipulate the public by hiding the truth. As we encourage everyone to get a vaccine, we also need to reopen schools and society to limit the damage of closures and prolonged isolation. Contingency planning for an open economy by April can deliver hope to those in despair and to those who have made large personal sacrifices.

Dr. Makary is a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Bloomberg School of Public Health, chief medical adviser to Sesame Care, and author of “The Price We Pay.”

Where is LeChuck?

EXCLUSIVE: Oberlin College is facing fresh criticism for continuing to give a platform to a so-called "professor of peace," Mohammad Jafar Mahallati, who as Iranian ambassador to the United Nations urged the elimination of the Jewish state.

A Fox News Digital investigation can reveal for the first time that Mahallati, a professor of Islamic Studies at the liberal arts college in Ohio, declared to the U.N. in 1988: "The adoption, by the General Assembly in 1947, of resolution 181 (II) on the partition of the land of Palestine and the establishment of the Zionist entity was itself in violation of provisions of the United Nations Charter, as well as of the rules of international law."

Mahallati's letters and speeches, reviewed by Fox News, covered the 1980s, particularly while he served as the Islamic Republic's envoy to the United Nations from 1987 to 1989. Mahallati denied the right of Israel to exist as a state, according to human rights and anti-Semitism experts.

At the U.N. in 1989, Mahallati defended the first Palestinian intifada — a series of violent protests and riots against the Jewish state — as "the heroic uprising of Palestinians."

Palestinians are setting an example for Arabs and Muslims across the world with respect to the "holy struggle against oppression and Zionism," Mahallati said at the U.N., also in 1989.

In his speeches, the academic appears to reference the entirety of Israel as Palestinian territory.

"Palestine is an Islamic territory, an Islamic heritage, and it remains an Islamic point of identity. The land of Palestine is the platform of the ascension of the Prophet Mohammad; its significance is that it contains the first kiblah direction−towards which Muslims prayed. Its occupation by Zionist usurpers is a transgression against all Muslims of the world and its liberation is therefore a great religious obligation and commitment," Mahallati said at the U.N. that same year.

"The Iranian regime engages in what I call an 'obsessive anti-Semitism,' and Iran's former ambassador to the UN is no exception," Ellie Cohanim, the U.S. State Department's former deputy special envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism, told Fox News. "The fact that Oberlin College would hire such a person, never mind give him tenure, is a stain on an institution that is meant to educate young Americans."

Cohanim, who fled the Islamic Republic as a young child due to widespread regime-sponsored anti-Semitism, added that Mahallati's "1989 statements at the UN glorify terrorism and what he calls 'martyrdom,' he denies the Jewish people the right to live in any part of their ancient homeland, and he attempts to revise history by calling Israel an "Islamic land," knowing very well that Judaism predated the rise of Islam by thousands of years and that Israel is the birthplace of the Jews.

"This man is no 'Professor of Peace.' He is in fact a professor of propaganda and Oberlin College holds a responsibility to fully investigate Mahallati's anti-Semitic statements and his knowledge of the 1988 Massacre in Iran," Cohanim said.

Mahallati has also faced questions from critics about what he knew about the 1988 executions of political prisoners. He has denied knowledge of or responsibility for the killings.

I am sure #metoo will be all over this:

A former aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo is accusing the embattled New York leader of sexually harassing her -- including unwanted kissing and touching -- and says his top female staffers "normalized" the behavior.

Lindsey Boylan, the former deputy secretary for economic development and special adviser to the governor, said Cuomo constantly sought her out and had staffers arrange meetings with her, where he made inappropriate comments.
"Let’s play strip poker," Boylan said Cuomo remarked on a flight from an event in October 2017, according to an essay she wrote on Medium published Wednesday.

In another encounter in December 2016, Boylan said Cuomo arranged through a handler to meet her in his Albany office, to which she agreed reluctantly. She said he gave her a tour of his office, "smirked" and showed off a cigar box he said was given to him by former President Bill Clinton while he served as the secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

Boylan said she interpreted that to be an innuendo referencing the affair between Clinton and his then-intern Monica Lewinsky in the mid-1990s.

She said she was warned by other staffers when she joined Cuomo's administration in 2015 to "be careful around the Governor."

Boylan said his behavior "was all so normalized — particularly by Melissa DeRosa and other top women around him — that only now do I realize how insidious his abuse was."
She also alleged that shortly before the office incident, that made her feel uncomfortable, Stephanie Benton, director of the governor’s offices, told her in an email that Cuomo suggested she look up images of Lisa Shields — his rumored former girlfriend — because "we could be sisters" and told Boylan she was "the better looking sister."


"The Governor began calling me 'Lisa' in front of colleagues. It was degrading," Boylan wrote, including screenshots of the email exchange between her and Benton.

Boylan said in another incident, this time in Cuomo's New York City office, he kissed her on the lips.

"I was in shock, but I kept walking," Boylan wrote.

The bees are getting suspicious (C)

I assume they’ll be pulling books by Angela Davis, Malcolm X, Etc any day now. I canceled Amazon prime last year after their support for Burn Loot Murder. I’m sure they don’t care...but makes me feel better  

I am shocked the party to protect women has been so silent in the Cuomo sexual harassment accusation. "I believe all women"?

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a longtime Cuomo ally, did not respond to Fox News' request for comment. Neither did House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who last week joined GOP critics of Cuomo in calling for an investigation into the nursing home crisis, did not respond to a Fox News' requests for comment.

The National Organization for Women also kept mum.

No go zone:

The city of Berkeley, California, is implementing a series of sweeping police reforms in an effort to tackle racism in the criminal justice system.

On Tuesday night, the city council voted to end police traffic stops for low-level offenses, such as not wearing a seat belt or having an expired license. Police will also need written consent for vehicle searches, except under circumstances where consent is not legally required, and cops can no longer conduct warrantless searches of people on parole or probation. The city council also voted to fire officers found to have published racist content online.

The reforms follow protests against racist police violence across California and the country last summer.

I guess it was a real Hot Potato issue ehh.  

Lots of press regarding violent crime against Asians but for some reason there is a very common component to these that gets to mention. Here is yet another example:
www.yahoo.com/news/kind-generous-pizzeria-owner-56-165317312.html

Reminds me of a story my oldest told me. When he was competing for his USMC scholarship he was required to do a certain amount of pull ups (I think it was 20) but a woman he was competing against only had to hang from the pull up bar for a bit. When he asked why the standards were different, he was told that any more questions like that...forget any chance of a scholarship.  

He would be green with envy.

This is gold: