By Lambert Strether of Corrente.
Chook Music of the Day
American Goldfinch, Hyland-Bush Lakes Park–Customer Middle, Hennepin, Minnesota, United States.
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In Case You May Miss…
(1) Mandy Cohen et al. write a paywalled article within the NEJM that erases Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions from public well being, and warns aerosol scientists and air flow engineers that their work received’t be funded.
(2) Biden poll entry struggle in Ohio and Alabama.
(3) Trump at Chick-Fil-A.
Politics
“So most of the social reactions that strike us as psychological are in actual fact a rational administration of symbolic capital.” –Pierre Bourdieu, Classification Struggles
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Biden Administration
4 years after the beginning of an airborne pandemic:
In the present day, @ARPA_H introduced the BREATHE program to revolutionize how we monitor and enhance indoor air high quality.
The Biden-Harris Administration has prioritized bettering indoor air high quality as an efficient device for protecting folks wholesome. https://t.co/YioYQLXimi
— White Home Workplace of Science & Expertise Coverage (@WHOSTP) April 10, 2024
Sounds spectacular, till you understand that CDC — our premier public well being company — simply threw aerosol scientists and air flow engineers underneath the bus and erased Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions from the general public well being lexicon. So you must marvel what “revolutionize” and “prioritized” actually imply.
2024
Lower than a 12 months to go!
RCP Ballot Averages, April 5
Right here is Friday’s RCP ballot. Trump remains to be up in all of the Swing States (extra right here), however nonetheless main with one exception: PA. I’ve highlighted it once more, (1) as a result of BIden is now up there, and (2) it’s an outlier, has been for weeks. Why isn’t Trump doing effectively there? (I’ll work out a greater approach to do that, however for now: Blue dot = transfer towards Biden; pink dot = transfer towards Trump. No statistical signficance to any of it, and state polls are unhealthy anyhow!)
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Trump (R): “Prosecutor assigned to probe Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones in Trump election interference case” [The Hill]. “A Georgia prosecutor has been assigned to criminally examine the state’s Republican lieutenant governor, Burt Jones, for his alleged function in former President Trump’s try and subvert the state’s 2020 election outcomes. Pete Skandalakis, government director of the Prosecuting Attorneys Council of Georgia, tasked himself with the probe 21 months after the Fulton County district legal professional’s workplace was disqualified from Jones’s case. The workplace was disqualified as a result of Fulton County District Legal professional Fani Willis (D) headlined a fundraiser for a Democratic candidate who went on to face Jones in his race for lieutenant governor. The choose overseeing the matter described Willis’s resolution to partake as a ‘what are you considering?’ second.” And never for the final time! Extra: “In a short assertion Thursday saying his appointment, Skandalakis’s workplace stated ‘no additional feedback will probably be made at the moment.’ Jones was one in all 16 pro-Trump electors who falsely signed paperwork claiming the previous president received the state in 2020. Whereas he was a state senator, he additionally tried to convene a particular session of Georgia’s Legislature with the purpose of overturning President Biden’s win. Jones stated in a press release to The Hill that he appears ahead to a ‘fast decision’ of the matter, slamming Willis for making a ‘mockery of this authorized course of.’”
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Trump (R): “Can I’ve thirty milkshakes?”
President Trump bought milk shakes for everybody at a Chick-fil-A in Atlanta.
This President has a lot charisma! pic.twitter.com/hGCjND0rSc
— Brigitte Gabriel (@ACTBrigitte) April 10, 2024
I don’t care of it’s a photograph op. After all it’s a photograph op!
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Biden (D): “GOP-run states are warning that they may maintain Biden off the poll” [Business Insider]. “All of it comes all the way down to deadlines that fall earlier than Biden is formally nominated, and each Ohio and Alabama officers say Biden could possibly be too late…. [T]he state of Alabama requires political events to offer their certificates of nomination no later than 82 days earlier than the election, which is ready for November 5. The Democratic Nationwide Conference — the place Biden would get the formal nod — is scheduled to start 4 days after that deadline, on August nineteenth. The identical challenge arose in 2020 when the Republican Nationwide Conference, the place Trump was formally nominated, occurred after Alabama’s deadline. However Trump was nonetheless allowed on the poll that 12 months as a result of the state’s Republican-controlled legislature handed a particular invoice making a one-time exception to its deadline. Alabama officers might do the identical factor once more this 12 months for the Democrats — in the event that they needed to. The state of Ohio, run by GOP Gov. Mike DeWine, has additionally flagged that the Democratic conference is going on after Ohio’s personal August 7 deadline. Like Alabama, Ohio requires political events to present their official nominations earlier than the deadline in the event that they wish to seem on the poll. And forward of the 2020 election, the state additionally made a one-time exception to that rule as a result of each the DNC and RNC that 12 months had been scheduled for after the deadline, a spokesperson for the Ohio Secretary of State confirmed to BI.” However: “‘Joe Biden will probably be on the poll in all 50 states,’ a spokesperson for the Biden marketing campaign stated in a press release shared with BI. ‘State officers have the power to grant provisional poll entry certification previous to the conclusion of presidential nominating conventions.’ ‘In 2020 alone,” the assertion continues, ‘states like Alabama, Illinois, Montana, and Washington all allowed provisional certification for Democratic and Republican nominees.’”
Biden (D): “Joe Biden marketing campaign hints at litigation if Alabama retains president off poll” [Alabama Reflector]. “In a letter to Mike Jones, common counsel for the Alabama Secretary of State’s workplace, Birmingham Legal professional Barry Ragsdale, representing the marketing campaign, stated the celebration might provisionally certify Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris as Democratic Social gathering’s nominees by an Aug. 15 deadline…. [Alabama Secretary of State Wes] Allen on Thursday doubled-down on his stance. ‘On January 16, 2023, I took an oath to uphold Alabama legislation and that’s what I’m going to do. My workplace will settle for all certifications that adjust to Alabama [law]. That statute doesn’t present for ‘provisional certifications’ or another exceptions,’ he stated in a press release to the Reflector.
Biden (D): “Ohio and Alabama Are Taking part in Poll Video games With Biden” [Bloomberg]. “Kyle Kondik, a political analyst on the College of Virginia Middle for Politics, informed Cleveland.com that no major-party presidential nominee, not to mention the incumbent president, has ever been excluded from a state poll over what is actually a technicality. Intentionally leaving the Democratic nominee off the poll as a result of a deadline was missed by two weeks or much less is a cynical and offensive strategy to what needs to be a principally nonpartisan workplace. Secretaries of state, irrespective of their celebration, are charged with administering elections on behalf of all voters. Most take a good and scrupulously impartial strategy to the job…. Guidelines for thee however not for me is seldom a good suggestion — particularly on the subject of what needs to be the neutral administration of elections which are the very basis on which our democracy rests.” • On this case, “our democracy” just isn’t used cynically….
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“How Taxpayers Will Closely Subsidize Democrat Boots on the Floor This Election” [RealClearInvestigations]. • As a result of tax-exempt Democrat NGOs optimize for demographics that may assist them. Maybe we should always take out the demographic side and goal based mostly on sortition….
Pandemics
“I’m in earnest — I cannot equivocate — I cannot excuse — I cannot retreat a single inch — AND I WILL BE HEARD.” –William Lloyd Garrison
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Covid Assets, United States (Nationwide): Transmission (CDC); Wastewater (CDC, Biobot; consists of many counties; Wastewater Scan, consists of drilldown by zip); Variants (CDC; Walgreens); “Iowa COVID-19 Tracker” (in IA, however nationwide information). “An infection Management, Emergency Administration, Security, and Basic Ideas” (particularly on hospitalization by metropolis).
Lambert right here: Readers, thanks for the collective effort. To replace any entry, do be at liberty to contact me on the tackle given with the vegetation. Please put “COVID” within the topic line. Thanks!
Assets, United States (Native): AK (dashboard); AL (dashboard); AR (dashboard); AZ (dashboard); CA (dashboard; Marin, dashboard; Stanford, wastewater; Oakland, wastewater); CO (dashboard; wastewater); CT (dashboard); DE (dashboard); FL (wastewater); GA (wastewater); HI (dashboard); IA (wastewater stories); ID (dashboard, Boise; dashboard, wastewater, Central Idaho; wastewater, Coeur d’Alene; dashboard, Spokane County); IL (wastewater); IN (dashboard); KS (dashboard; wastewater, Lawrence); KY (dashboard, Louisville); LA (dashboard); MA (wastewater); MD (dashboard); ME (dashboard); MI (wastewater; wastewater); MN (dashboard); MO (wastewater); MS (dashboard); MT (dashboard); NC (dashboard); ND (dashboard; wastewater); NE (dashboard); NH (wastewater); NJ (dashboard); NM (dashboard); NV (dashboard; wastewater, Southern NV); NY (dashboard); OH (dashboard); OK (dashboard); OR (dashboard); PA (dashboard); RI (dashboard); SC (dashboard); SD (dashboard); TN (dashboard); TX (dashboard); UT (wastewater); VA (dashboard); VT (dashboard); WA (dashboard; dashboard); WI (wastewater); WV (wastewater); WY (wastewater).
Assets, Canada (Nationwide): Wastewater (Authorities of Canada).
Assets, Canada (Provincial): ON (wastewater); QC (les eaux usées); BC (wastewater); BC, Vancouver (wastewater).
Hat tricks to useful readers: Alexis, anon (2), Art_DogCT, B24S, CanCyn, ChiGal, Chuck L, Festoonic, FM, FreeMarketApologist (4), Gumbo, hop2it, JB, JEHR, JF, JL Joe, John, JM (10), JustAnotherVolunteer, JW, KatieBird, LL, Michael King, KF, LaRuse, mrsyk, MT, MT_Wild, otisyves, Petal (6), RK (2), RL, RM, Rod, sq. coats (11), tennesseewaltzer, Tom B., Utah, Bob White (3).
Keep secure on the market!
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Transmission: H5N1
“CAFOs, novel influenza, and the necessity for One Well being approaches” [One Health]. That is very dense and I can’t summarize it (although it’s value a learn, clearly). APHIS, in its mission assertion, helps One Well being. Here’s a diagram of the “One Well being Triad”:
Elite Maleficence
“Integrating Public Well being and Well being Care — Defending Well being as a Workforce Sport” [Charlene A. Wong, M.D., M.S.H.P., Debra Houry, M.D., M.P.H., and Mandy K. Cohen, M.D., M.P.H., NEJM]. Right here, in its entirety, is the Summary: “Defending well being is a workforce sport — but the general public well being and medical care methods meant to advance this aim have been siloed for too lengthy.” • I assume the general public isn’t on the workforce, the article is paywalled. (Unusual that Mandy didn’t get the paywall lifted, as a result of NEJM has been fairly good at making Covid articles open entry). Happily, some type soul imaged the article:
It isn’t the clearest excessive res, nevertheless it’ll do … pic.twitter.com/EyOZXTRCbk
— 4x💉 I’m, in line with Tшiттeг, a 13-54 y/o ♀🤣 (@ImmunoNucMed) April 10, 2024
And guess what! There are different folks Mandy doesn’t need on her workforce moreover the general public! Desk 1:
(For the panel at prime left: CDC doubles or triples down on Covid as a seasonal respiratory virus, when (a) Covid just isn’t seasonal, and (b) is respiratory in transmission however not in its results, that are vascular, neurological, and long-lasting, in contrast to RSV, say. After all, CDC desires to place all these infections in the identical cubes and on the identical lanyards again in Atlanta, so right here we’re.)
Extra importantly: Notice the three-times repeated mantra: Vaccines, testing, therapy. Mandy erases non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) totally, since NPIs are none of these there. Apparently, going ahead as we are saying, air flow, masking, and quarantine are to be erased from the general public well being lexicon (quarantine regardless of its use for the reason that mid-Seventeenth century). Discover additionally that vaccines, testing, therapy don’t embrace prevention (“higher than remedy”), which is what NPIs accomplish; so not solely are NPIs erases, however the personnel who might design and implement preventive methods for airborne illnesses are comprehensively rejected. CDC desires no enter from aerosol scientists or air flow engineers (like ASHRAE or, for that matter, NIOSH). That is additionally proven within the textual content of the doc:
The scope of “collaborative efforts” with “well being care companions” is outlined by Desk 1. Therefore, no funding for “information, lab, or workforce” that features NPIs, air flow, or aerosol tranmission usually. Evidently, this doesn’t bode effectively for the upcoming HICPAC steerage, the place hospitals tried to ram by way of lowering NPIs till a public outcry stopped them, a minimum of temporariliy.
Lastly, “vaccines, testing, therapy” can also be a complete rejection of the “Swiss Cheese Mannequin” of a number of layers of safety. Going ahead, these are to be outdoors the scope of “public well being” totally.
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TABLE 1: Each day Covid Charts
LEGEND
1) ★ for charts new in the present day; all others are usually not up to date.
2) For a full-size/full-resolution picture, Command-click (MacOS) or right-click (Home windows) on the chart thumbnail and “open picture in new tab.”
NOTES
[1] (Biobot) Our curve has now flattened out at a stage far above valleys underneath Trump. Not a fantastic victory. Notice additionally the world “underneath the curve,” moreover taking a look at peaks. That space is bigger underneath Biden than underneath Trump, and it appears to be rising steadily if inconsistently.
[2] (Biobot) No backward revisons….
[3] (CDC Variants) As of Might 11, genomic surveillance information will probably be reported biweekly, based mostly on the provision of constructive check specimens.” “Biweeekly: 1. occurring each two weeks. 2. occurring twice every week; semiweekly.” Seems to be like CDC has chosen sense #1. In essence, they’re telling us variants are nothing to fret about. Time will inform.
[4] (ER) CDC appears to have killed this off, for the reason that hyperlink is damaged, I feel in favor of this factor. I’ll attempt to verify. UPDATE Sure, go away it to CDC to kill a web page, after which announce it was archived a day later. And heaven forfend CDC ought to clarify the place to go to get equal information, if any. I preferred the ER information, as a result of it appeared actually exhausting to sport. And talking of Emergency Departments:
Who’s going to the emergency division most with covid, its children, blue line ages 0-1, orange 2-4, and pink 5-11, so be certain that all of us understand, covid places children within the emergency departments, once we select to not make colleges covid-threat-safe-zones, chart care of Louisiana DOH pic.twitter.com/iROnhCARP1
— Justin Lee (@DailyJLee) April 10, 2024
[5] (Hospitalization: NY) Seems to be like a really gradual leveling off to a non-zero baseline, to me. I suppose to a tame epidemiologist it appears like “endemicity,” however to me it appears like one other tranche of lethality.
[6] (Hospitalization: CDC) Nonetheless down. “Maps, charts, and information offered by CDC, updates weekly for the earlier MMWR week (Sunday-Saturday) on Thursdays (Deaths, Emergency Division Visits, Take a look at Positivity) and weekly the next Mondays (Hospitalizations) by 8 pm ET†”.
[7] (Walgreens) Leveling out.
[8] (Cleveland) Flattening.
[9] (Vacationers: Posivitity) Now up, albeit within the rear view mirror.
[10] (Vacationers: Variants) JN.1 dominates completely.
[11] Seems to be just like the Occasions isn’t reporting loss of life information any extra? Perhaps I would like to return to The Economist:
The pandemic’s true loss of life toll is 4x the formally reported quantity. 28.2 million useless. The magnitude of this human tragedy is tough to grasp. A lot of this carnage was preventable however for the laissez faire angle of our leaders. https://t.co/asiTYR8YvT
— Dr. Dick Zoutman (@DickZoutman) February 1, 2024
Stats Watch
Employment State of affairs: “United States Preliminary Jobless Claims” [Trading Economics]. “The variety of folks claiming unemployment advantages within the US fell by 11,000 to 211,000 within the week ending April sixth, the bottom in a single month, and under market expectations of 215,000. The decline countered the rise introduced by the upwardly revised, two-month excessive within the earlier week so as to add additional proof of a good labor market within the US economic system, in keeping with the power within the newest jobs report, so as to add leeway for the Fed to carry charges increased for longer to fight inflation.”
Inflation: “United States Producer Costs” [Trading Economics]. “Producer Costs in the USA elevated to 143.69 factors in March from 143.47 factors in February of 2024. Producer Costs in the USA averaged 116.59 factors from 2009 till 2024, reaching an all time excessive of 143.69 factors in March of 2024 and a file low of 100.20 factors in November of 2009.”
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Finance: “Credit score-card delinquency charges had been worst on file in Fed research” [Yahoo Finance]. “Virtually 3.5% of card balances had been a minimum of 30 days late as of the tip of December, the Philadelphia Fed stated. That’s the best determine within the information sequence going again to 2012, and up by about 30 foundation factors from the earlier quarter. The ‘Stress amongst cardholders was additional underscored in fee habits, because the share of accounts making minimal funds rose 34 foundation factors to a sequence excessive,’ in line with the report.” • Finest economic system ever!
Tech: We personal our personal search information:
Court docket says: “Certainly, Google’s licensing settlement makes clear that it doesn’t personal its customers’ content material. As a substitute, customers personal their Google content material, which, in line with testimony from a Google coverage specialist, consists of their search histories.”
— Brent Skorup (@bskorup) April 11, 2024
So, does that imply the NSA has to disgorge all Google search histories from its Utah Information Middle?
Manufacturing: “Amid cover-up of whistleblower John Barnett’s ‘suicide,’ new Boeing whistleblower exposes security violations in manufacture of 787 Dreamliner” [WSWS]. “Like Barnett, Salehpour informed the Occasions he had been repeatedly retaliated towards for citing his issues in regards to the shortcut strategies employed by Boeing on Dreamliner jets. The engineer’s legal professional, Debra S. Katz, stated that when Salehpour approached his supervisors together with his issues or tried to deliver them up at security conferences, he was silenced and transferred to a different product line, the 777.” • Surprisingly, WSWS omits that Salehpour was threatened with violence by his superiors. Hat tip to alert reader Automotive Burglar for noticing this passage within the Seattle Occasions piece:
“At one level, his [787] boss threatened him with bodily violence,” [Salehpour lawyer Debra Katz] added. “That was documented. That really was in writing. He turned the specter of bodily violence over to HR and HR didn’t self-discipline the offending supervisor.”
Given the specter of violence, little doubt the Charleston police are diligently interviewing Boeing’s managers. Though the truth that the supervisor feft free to place a menace of violence in writing suggests a way of impunity…
In the present day’s Worry & Greed Index: 54 Impartial (earlier shut: 61 Greed) [CNN]. One week in the past: 63 (Greed). (0 is Excessive Worry; 100 is Excessive Greed). Final up to date Apr 10 at 2:00:01 PM ET.
Zeitgeist Watch
“As bans unfold, fluoride in ingesting water divides communities throughout the US” [USA Today]. “In February, the Board of County Commissioners in Union County, whose seat is Monroe, voted 3-2 to cease including fluoride to ingesting water on the Yadkin River Water Therapy Plant, the one water supply wholly owned and operated by the county. However the resolution got here after heated discussions amongst residents and county officers. ‘My kids had the blessing of rising up with fluoride of their water and … they’ve little or no dental points,’ stated Commissioner Richard Helms forward of the vote. A fellow commissioner noticed it in a different way: ‘Let’s cease placing one thing within the water that’s meant to deal with us, and provides folks the liberty to decide on,’ stated David Williams.” • For individuals who got here in late:
I’ve usually thought that Basic Ripper was directionallly right — flouride, no; however PFAS, Endocrine Disruptors, and heaven is aware of what else.
The Gallery
“Pompeii: Breathtaking new work discovered at historic metropolis” [BBC]. “A 3rd of the misplaced metropolis has nonetheless to be cleared of volcanic particles. The present dig, the largest in a era, is underlining Pompeii’s place because the world’s premier window on the folks and tradition of the Roman empire. Park director Dr Gabriel Zuchtriegel offered the ‘black room’ solely to the BBC on Thursday. It was doubtless the partitions’ stark color was chosen to cover the smoke deposits from lamps used throughout entertaining after sundown. ‘Within the shimmering gentle, the work would have nearly come to life,’ he stated.” • For instance:
Class Warfare
Information of the Wired
“Watch your backyard glow with new genetically modified bioluminescent petunias” [NPR]. “The petunia with vibrant, white flowers appears like one thing you’d purchase in spring at a backyard nursery. However, when the lights are turned out, the petals slowly begin lighting up with a greenish, white glow. The plant is at all times glowing, it’s simply our eyes that want to regulate to see the sunshine. The most recent buds are the brightest and punctuate the glowing flowers. ‘That’s why we name it the Firefly Petunia. As a result of these vibrant buds resemble fireflies sitting on prime of the plant,’ [Keith] Wooden [of Light Bio] defined. And regardless of its identify, this plant doesn’t have any firefly genes, fairly 4 genes from a bioluminescent mushroom and a fifth from a fungi.” • Maybe a sort reader wish to check?
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Contact data for vegetation: Readers, be at liberty to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, to (a) learn how to ship me a test if you’re allergic to PayPal and (b) to learn how to ship me photographs of vegetation. Greens are advantageous! Fungi, lichen, and coral are deemed to be honorary vegetation! In order for you your deal with to seem as a credit score, please place it initially of your mail in parentheses: (thus). In any other case, I’ll anonymize through the use of your initials. See the earlier Water Cooler (with plant) right here. From A:
A writes: “Listed here are a few wintry milkweed views. They arrive from a neighbor’s sidewalk backyard simply east of the Union Avenue bridge over the Gowanus Canal. Having no outside area to domesticate, I’m most grateful to those that gladden my eyes by their city gardening.”
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