Pestilence: Another Consequence of Losing the Cryosphere and the Permafrost

The Corona 19 virus has had an unprecedented effect on our complex, interlinked global economy. It is merely a forewarning of what we have unleashed as the cryosphere and the permafrost melts.
“For the past 15,000 years, a glacier on the north-western Tibetan Plateau of China has hosted a party for some unusual guests: an ensemble of frozen viruses, many of them unknown to modern science.”

“Scientists recently broke up this party after taking a look at two ice cores from this Tibetan glacier, revealing the existence of 28 never-before-seen virus groups.” Only two ice cores uncovered 28 new viruses.

Investigating these mysterious viruses could help scientists on two fronts: For one, these stowaways can teach researchers which viruses thrived in different climates and environments over time, the researchers wrote in a paper posted on the bioRxiv database on Jan. 7. Ancient never-before-seen viruses discovered locked up in Tibetan glacier

From an article in Popular Mechanix titled “Welp, Scientists Found 28 New Virus Groups in a Melting Glacier

  • “Scientists have unearthed 28 previously undiscovered viruses, which were trapped in glacial ice from 15,000 years ago.
  • The team collected the samples from the Guliya ice cap in Tibet, and published their work to the pre-print website, BioRxiv.
  • As glacial ice and permafrost around the world continues to thaw, scientists are concerned that ancient pathogens and toxic chemicals may be released into the environment.”

“When reindeer started dying in Siberia, at first scientists blamed the heat. But there seems to be a more insidious cause: Anthrax.”
“After an investigation, scientists have determined that the culprit is anthrax, which hasn’t been seen in the country since 1968. Scientists believe the source of the anthrax is an old reindeer carcass that was frozen during the last anthrax epidemic 75 years ago. The current heatwave thawed the carcass, allowing the dormant bacteria to spread.” Thawed Reindeer Corpse May Have Triggered Russian Anthrax Outbreak

“Mammoth bones are surfacing in the Russian Far East — so many that people have begun selling the tusks as a substitute for elephant ivory. And in 2016, more than 70 people in western Siberia were hospitalized for exposure to anthrax, likely spread from a decades-old reindeer carcass that thawed from frozen ground.”
Thawing Permafrost: “25% of the Northern Hemisphere is permafrost”

Ignorance is our enemy

“In my darkest moments, I see a really horrible future for Homo sapiens because we are an animal, and when we extend our borders things will happen to us,” said Birgitta Evengard, a researcher in clinical microbiology at Umea University in Sweden.”
“Our biggest enemy is our own ignorance,” she added. “Nature is full of microorganisms.”
“Microorganisms can survive in frozen space for a long, long time,” said Vladimir Romanovsky, a professor of geophysics at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks.

Climate change may bring back viruses that were long thought to be dormant

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q39M-CkbBTY
“There is zero guarantee that this set of living arrangements will hold together much longer considering the threats we know it is under with the next ‘Black Swan’ hovering in the wings about to appear.” This is the End, Beautiful Friends, The End

So much to look forward to, so little time. Brace for imminent impact. These are the ‘Good Old Days’, they certainly aren’t going to get better. Every single last analogue is heading in the wrong direction, and our predicament can only be worse than we know.
“The Path of Increase is Slow but the Road to Ruin is Swift” Lucius Seneca
Seneca








Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” Dylan Thomas.
The accompanying peer reviewed paper and source article from the BBC article Professor McPherson quotes below can be found at Guy’s Substack post titled: Science Snippets: Climate Change Drives Increased Arsenic in Rice
Climate Change Facilitates Spread of Deadly Fungus.
“Anthropogenic climate change has several consequences. Many of these consequences are negative. Now that Earth is amid the most rapid climate change in planetary history, and also bearing in mind that this rapid change is irreversible, additional outcomes are beginning to appear. It’s not only the heat and the rapid loss of habitat for a variety of species. It’s every imaginable outcome, and some that I couldn’t imagine.”
Climate Change Facilitates Spread of Deadly Fungus

Unknown's avatar

I'm an anti-imperialist, environmental activist and blue ocean sailor, who is passionate about the earth and all it's inhabitants without favour. Brace for imminent impact as we bare witness to the non-linear unraveling of the biosphere and habitability disappearing for most if not all complex life on the only habitable planet we know of. To quote President Niinistö in North Russia: ‘If We Lose the Arctic, We Lose the World’. Folks we have lost the Arctic.

Posted in Arctic, permafrost, Pestilence, Viruses
184 comments on “Pestilence: Another Consequence of Losing the Cryosphere and the Permafrost
  1. sealintheselkirks's avatar sealintheselkirks says:

    A thousand a week dying in the US, and nobody I’ve talked with knows about it.

    Two native elders (in their 80s) friends just went through their first bout of it three weeks ago. It was bad, they aren’t dead. They had Paxlovid on hand just in case which helped.

    I keep them abreast of what I know so they are aware of the new findings that ANY covid infection cuts down human IQ points significantly, and ups the chances of Long Covid. If they catch it again, even more of a chance as it is cumulative.

    And they’ve been so damn careful, too, as I have.

    https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2024/03/28/We-Ready-Next-Pandemic/
    ___

    The answer is definitely no, and the world is actually LESS fucking ready for the next one. Not that Covid is gone ‘away like a miracle’ as the Trumpenfuhrer proclaimed a few years ago anyway because a thousand a week dead would empty out the largest town in this county in… 4 1/2 weeks. Empty the entire county in 50 weeks.

    Wonder when the next strain will hit?

    The intermittent rain of this week is backing off for this religious holiday weekend when christians celebrate rabbits who lay colorful eggs…at least in my neck of the woods. Down south is about to be hit by a beautiful comma low pressure storm…

    sealintheSelkirks

    Liked by 1 person

  2. Kevin Hester's avatar Kevin Hester says:

    An article published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases describes how climate change may influence the transmission efficacy of several vector-, water-, and food-borne infections and to what extent these changes can impact socioeconomically deprived and vulnerable populations.

    https://www.news-medical.net/news/20240401/Climate-change-boosts-infectious-disease-spread-hits-the-vulnerable-hardest.aspx?fbclid=IwAR3sAVk2NI44LurAIsMXuo_osidwXKiCuN1PMxvhsUYNy8Mq_-UGpXol-7Q

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  3. sealintheselkirks's avatar sealintheselkirks says:

    Second human in the US catches Avian Influenza:

    Texas Patient Contracted Bird Flu From Infected Cows

    https://weather.com/health/cold-flu/video/texas-patient-contracted-bird-flu-from-infected-cows

    ___

    sealintheSelkirks

    Liked by 1 person

  4. sealintheselkirks's avatar sealintheselkirks says:

    I’m guessing that the post yesterday didn’t go through because WP made me sign in again and then it disappeared. Unfortunately I didn’t save it but luckily the windows were still open this morning when I started the computer.

    This is NOT good news:

    Tests confirm avian flu on New Mexico dairy farm; probe finds cats positive

    https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/avian-influenza-bird-flu/tests-confirm-avian-flu-new-mexico-dairy-farm-probe-finds-cats-positive

    ___

    And this came from another article that mostly was a reprint of the one above…except for this little tidbit:

    “Vets are being advised to wear full PPE (personal protection) if seeing a cat with neurological symptoms, after forty cats died on a dairy farm in New Mexico. The virus has proved 100% fatal and cats die within 24-48 hours…”

    “THIS IS A HIGH-RISK VIRUS. Globally, from 1 January 2003 to 26 February 2024, 887 cases of human infection with avian influenza A(H5N1) virus were reported from 23 countries. Of these 887 cases, 462 were fatal (CFR of 52%) — Source, the W.H.O.”

    ___

    We’ve been wondering what comes after the on-going SARS/CoVid-19 and this may be it. Note: I just had two more friends go down with Covid 6 weeks ago, both 80 yr old Inupiat native folk, and he brought it home from a doctor’s office in Spokane after showing up without his ever-present N95 and went in anyway even though the office didn’t provide one for him.

    Three days later he went down sick, and she followed two days later. Both were up to date on the shots, and had Paxlovid on the shelf so they both said it wasn’t as nasty a bug as they had feared though it kicked both their asses for two weeks.

    Dr. Catherine (who endorsed my book on the back cover) is showing signs of Sequelae/Long Covid with extreme shortness of breath with maybe half her speaking voice working, still has a rough cough from her lungs-that congested sound, and dealing with extreme fatigue. Also a noticeable loss of energy that she admitted to feeling. She still cooked an Easter supper with the help of her son who had nursed them the first two weeks (masked up of course!) and still is helping them for the last month

    They picked my brain about what is going on in the world and I tried to not overload them. He wanted to hear about the latest climate, and she wanted the latest on Covid, so I sent them a large email with links and observations a couple days later. None of it was good news of course, and now I’ll be sending this link to them.

    sealintheSelkirks

    Liked by 1 person

  5. sealintheselkirks's avatar sealintheselkirks says:

    Another warning from WHO about Avian today on weather:

    WHO: Bird Flu Spread To Humans Of ‘Enormous Concern’

    https://weather.com/health/video/who-bird-flu-spread-to-humans-of-enormous-concern

    ___

    With an over 50% death rate in humans that catch it? Yeah, wow, doesn’t take much imagination to guess what the packed warrens of New Delhi or Shanghai or Mexico City or Sao Paulo or New York would look like if this breaks out like Covid (that is, of course, still going on), eh?

    sealintheSelkirks

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  6. sealintheselkirks's avatar sealintheselkirks says:

    New Vaccines Could Give Lifelong Protection From Covid, Flu

    https://weather.com/health/cold-flu/video/new-vaccines-could-give-lifelong-protection-from-covid-flu

    ___

    sealintheSelkirks

    Like

  7. Kevin Hester's avatar Kevin Hester says:

    “The avian flu situation is evolving daily now. Farmers and ranchers are starting to show “bird flu-like symptoms,” but they aren’t getting tested. Nobody is forcing them, either. The USDA is inspecting ground beef, but only in states with outbreaks in dairy cows, and only because other countries started rejecting our beef. As one epidemiologist told Scientific American, “We don’t have a good sense of the spread because testing is voluntary and certainly not being done in a systematic way.”

    We’re Watching The Elite Panic in Real Time (okdoomer.io)

    Like

  8. sealintheselkirks's avatar sealintheselkirks says:

    And here’s what USA Today news is saying to calm down those in the population who are at least somewhat paying attention:

    https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2024/05/01/bird-flu-worry-government-preparedness-update/73519443007/?utm_source=pocket-newtab-en-us

    ___

    Yep, I’m sure people are breathing a huge sigh of relief that if you cook your eggs and don’t leave them gooey and runny, you have little to worry about…

    This country is still dealing with (last I read) 1,000 deaths a month from Covid but you don’t hear a single peep out of the mainstream media about it. It is completely dropped out of the news cycle, and few people here are still wearing N95 masks when they walk into stores. Crowds of people gathering everywhere with millions suffering from the Long Covid Sequelae are shoved back into the shadows so they don’t exist to disturb the ignorant.

    Last year, Jan 2023 to Jan 2024, the ‘official Covid death rate’ was 85,000 in the US. But that doesn’t count those that died from the debilitating after effects and subsequent 205 other diseases that vectored off the infection.

    And, as this article states, “Our surveillance is inadequate to know where this virus is and where it isn’t,” but that is rather ingenuous when there is nearly zero budget for tracking this much less on finding a ‘get less sick’ shot like the gov-funded covid shots. I wish the media would stop talking about vaccines until there actually is a vaccine. Polio and Smallpox have vaccines because you can never catch it again. I know people that caught Covid who were fully up to date on their shots. And I’m not as I have to go to Spokane to get the latest booster and haven’t had the cash for it. Yeah, no more free shots and if you can’t afford corporate for-profit insurance it out of pocket.

    ____

    4000 a day hospitalized in the US according to a NY Times article dated March 2024, but it states that it is no longer being tracked by anyone. “Since the end of the public health emergency on May 11, 2023, data that has been crucial to understanding the spread and impact of Covid is reported by government sources less frequently, or is no longer reported at all.”

    Somehow I doubt Avian, once it mutates to a human to human form, is going to be tracked until it wildfires.

    ou’ll notice that there’s a quote in the USA today article that is…rather pointed:

    “If I were a betting person, I would say there have probably been more human infections than what we’ve detected already in this country,” she said. “I would bet part of my retirement on that.”

    ___

    Not good.

    sealintheSelkirks

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  9. sealintheselkirks's avatar sealintheselkirks says:

    Another weather.com tidbit:

    Climate Change Raising The Risk Of Another Pandemic

    https://weather.com/science/environment/video/climate-change-raising-the-risk-of-another-pandemic

    Unfortunately there were no links to the study this based on so I couldn’t follow up the source.
    ___

    In other personal news, I am waiting for the Covid NovaVax booster to show up at the one place down in the city (a 55 mile drive south) that is on the federal program that still giving them out. ONE pharmacy! It doesn’t store long, delivery is spotty, comes in and out quite quickly, and I was told to call back weekly to check for an appointment. If a delivery came in, I’d have to drop everything and get down there that day.

    The program de-funds in December. That’s how much this government cares for public health. But then Covid was declared over with by President Biden. He did what Trump couldn’t, he found a way to quit counting how many people are still getting infected. Just give out ‘free’ test kits (that tax dollars paid for so yes we ARE paying for them). Worked like a charm.

    sealintheSelkirks

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  10. sealintheselkirks's avatar sealintheselkirks says:

    This virus is infecting dolphins to penguins, cows to cats, but don’t worry it isn’t really a problem because it hasn’t mutated to person to person…YET. Gee, only two people have caught it that they know of.

    Besides, we beat COVID. Like Trump said it would and don’t pay any attention to the daily deaths, hospitalizations, “Like a miracle.”

    Except there are questions now arising about the safety of cow’s MILK used for human consumption, in an enormous number of products, and does the pasteurization process used in the US actually kill the virus? Which they don’t really fucking know!! Oops.

    What if some corporate-operated dairy decides to save money to increase shareholder income and CEO pay? And machines that do all this never break down because they are inspected and repaired so often under the vigilant FDA, right?

    Why aren’t we vaccinating birds against bird flu?

    It’s not as complicated as it seems, but there’s one key hurdle.

    https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/24155545/bird-flu-vaccines-h5n1-avian-flu-cows

    Hell, we can’t even get humans to get shots, and the species is getting stupider all the time. Now there a fairly large group of evangelicals, right winger Republicans/MAGA Trump Lunatics that are saying they don’t want their kids getting ANY vaccines at all. And they are claiming discrimination for them not being allowed in what they consider the god-less public school systems…

    ___

    sealintheSelkirks

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  11. sealintheselkirks's avatar sealintheselkirks says:

    Latest on current Covid mutated strains, and update on Avian:

    UCSF infectious disease specialist explains new COVID variants

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8y0lyRc5b0

    ___

    Not Even Antibiotics Work Against this Bird Flu Strain w/ Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gHHILX-knw

    ___

    Still waiting for the pharmacy in Spokane to receive a new shipment of the NovaVax 2-shot booster through the only Federal program ‘free to old people’ still in effect. Been trying for a couple months as deliveries are spotty and not regular it seems. Now two news ones have popped up but that is no surprise, is it? About 40% of the US population, the rest don’t care because it isn’t going to affect them.

    sealintheSelkirks

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  12. sealintheselkirks's avatar sealintheselkirks says:

    Dr Birx, who worked under the USA’s moron president during the early stages of the Covid Pandemic that we ARE STILL DEALING WITH, lets loose about the Avian Flu. She is pretty much saying here we go again (unless we are very lucky?) because those in charge are making the same mistakes again.

    Nobody wants to upset the Capitalist applecart I’m guessing. The wealthy MUST get richer no matter what, eh?

    Why America could fail again: Dr. Birx’s stark pandemic warning

    ___
    I remember her standing behind Trump with her mouth dropping open when he was talking about injecting Clorox, or maybe it was drinking the horse de-wormer. Or else it was sticking a bright light up your ass? I forget which piece of insanity it was…

    Somehow I don’t think there are any gods gonna save us…

    sealintheSelkirks

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  13. sealintheselkirks's avatar sealintheselkirks says:

    This came yesterday, and I talked with my oldest friend last night when he called from their home on Windward Side after Janice went to bed. To refresh the memory: She is five years older than him, and he was a high school biology teacher back in the late 80s before shifting to a Masters in ECE Special Ed for the next 30 years helping the indigenous Hawai’ian families & children…

    This is the first time they’ve had guests in their house since Covid hit as being an ex-biologist he absolutely knows what Covid is doing. State gov held yearly seminars on what teachers will do when an expected pandemic comes to Hawai’i,

    Her family failed to take Covid tests before they showed up even though they were asked to. Probably caught it on the plane flight as breathing the same recirculated air for 5-6 hours definitely does it. I wonder how many of the other passengers have gone down with it? Instant refreshing of the Pandemic in Hawai’i and that’s been happening over and over because the Islands keep getting huge surges of Covid. So here’s his email:

    “Hey dude,

    Janice’s brother and her niece and family are on island.  They were going to stay with us, but decided our guest full-size mattress was too small, so decided to stay in Waikiki with the rest of the family.  On Thursday, we  met them for a quick tour of our home, then to the newly re-opened Crouching Lion Inn restaurant (after 9 years closed).  The food was great.  Then on to sightseeing Kahana Bay, Laie Point, and finally for an afternoon on the beach at a nearby beach park in Hauula.  We made sure we ate outside, drove in separate cars, and more-or-less socially distanced.  Then surprise, that night her niece comes down positive with Covid.  We dosed with Zicam that night, which coats the nasal and throat with Zinc so viruses don’t stick easily.  Then first thing the next morning we headed straight into Kaiser for Covid boosters. No, there is no protection against the JN, KP, or Flirt variances with the current vaccine, but we figured it might shock our immune systems into some kind of antiviral response. Then both her husband and Janice’s brother’s girlfriend came down with it too.  They were sharing the communal van and hotel rooms, and so far (after 3 days) we are still symptom free and testing negative.

    That’s all the time we’ll spend with any of them, and of course we’re fully masking again at Kaiser and the store.  We dodged a bullet, but just barely.

    Keep a good thought.”

    So my best friend and his wife are now 4 days into the wait period and so far so good. Her brother who is ten years older (almost 80) is very sick down at a hospital in Honolulu quarantined, and the rest of the family are also in quarantine in their Waikiki hotel rooms not allowed to fly back to the Mainland. The 10 yr old daughter of the niece has also gone down sick with it (remember when kids were supposedly immune?).

    DP and Janice will not let anyone else in their place again. The risk to us older folks is far too sketchy, and the science on the subsequent Sequelae from Covid continues to get ever more scary.

    ___

    https://www.okdoomer.io/biggest-threat-bird-flu/

    ___

    sealintheSelkirks

    Liked by 1 person

  14. Kevin Hester's avatar Kevin Hester says:

    “‘More unzipping of the landscape’: Arctic permafrost could crumble into rivers, unleashing devastating feedback loop”.
    Unzipping of the landscape!
    Now that’s appropriate description of the phenomenon & our predicament!!
    One more issue I would bring up regarding the melting permafrost is the release of ancient pathogens many of which we have no immunity against!

    Science Snippets: Water Disappears as Earth Warms (substack.com)

    Like

  15. sealintheselkirks's avatar sealintheselkirks says:

    copied from:

    https://www.okdoomer.io/updates-2/

    CDC approves Covid vaccine for old variant

    The FDA has approved a monovalent vaccine for this fall focusing on the JN.1 variant, while declining to include other variants like KP.2. They say they want to offer better protection against “the dominant variant.” There’s an obvious problem here. The KP.2 variant is now dominating, and a KP.3 variant now makes up 25 percent of cases. Bottom line, Covid is now mutating far faster than vaccines can keep up. The CDC and FDA continue to ignore the data while pretending they can roll out vaccines for last year’s variant. These lackluster efforts won’t protect anyone from Long Covid, and they won’t restore the public’s confidence.

    That ship has sunk.

    It’s long overdue for the FDA and CDC to abandon this wrecked strategy and start pushing for Gen 2, pancoronavirus vaccines while implementing better mask guidance and clean air.

    FDA Recommends New Monovalent COVID-19 Vaccine for 2024-2025

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/fda-recommends-new-monovalent-covid-19-vaccine-for-2024-2025/ar-BB1nXIGe?ref=okdoomer.io

    ___

    So the US ‘health’ protection agency has decided to…kill off more old people since, as it says, the mutations are happening faster than the ‘maybe won’t die’ shots can keep up with. And here in the US, it’s the older folks that are really getting slammed because our immune systems are already running out of steam naturally. I’m 70 at Winter Solstice this year…so me, too, running out of steam.

    I wonder just how many senior citizens are suffering from various forms of the Sequelae of Long Covid that aren’t counted? But since nobody is keeping track of anything at this point, it’s likely that there is a fairly large number hidden from view.

    Also, I’ve looked but I can’t seem to find any studies on if the variants are actually mutating faster now than they were before. The US gov has de-funded the research obviously. Welcome to Capitalism.

    I guess the CDC is now the ‘Corporate Disease Control’ for fun and profit. Holy fuck, Kevin, wait until the Avian (or whatever is next) slams the world. Nobody is ready for that. We’re not even able to deal with the current on-going Pandemic of SARS II CoVid-19.

    sealintheSelkirks

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  16. sealintheselkirks's avatar sealintheselkirks says:

    This just published.

    This is criminal.

    ‘Truly Shameful’: Pentagon Ran Secret Anti-Vax Campaign Against China at Height of Covid Pandemic

    https://www.commondreams.org/news/pentagon-anti-vax-campaign

    ___

    Wouldn’t this be considered a Crime Against Humanity under the UN Charter that the US is signatory to?

    sealintheSelkirks

    Like

  17. Kevin Hester's avatar Kevin Hester says:

    This is a fantastic overview of the largest desert on the planet! The drone footage of the ice caps is breath taking!

    For my “Peak Oil” cohorts, the levels of discovered reserves down there (From the 23min mark) are phenomenal and ominous!

    I applied for a job at McMurdo Station and didn’t get it, 🙂 but I’ve always had a fascination with the region because when I served my apprenticeship, one of the tradesmen, I worked with, had worked at McMurdo. He signed my application for the role as a reference. He said they would boil a pot of water, throw it out of a window and it would hit the ground as ice, and break!

    What’s Hidden Under the Ice of Antarctica? – YouTube

    Like

  18. sealintheselkirks's avatar sealintheselkirks says:

    Still spreading, hasn’t ‘gone away like a miracle’ as Trump predicted for Covid. That it hasn’t really blown into the human population in the US yet is just luck that a mutation hasn’t happened I’m guessing…

    Bird Flu’s Alarming Jump To Cats, Raccoons

    https://weather.com/health/cold-flu/video/bird-flu-spreads-beyond-cows-in-concerning-first

    ___

    Not much news on this from MSM sources, but I did read that if it crosses with a swine flu mutation it could be very bad due to already being a 51% death rate in humans that have caught this strain so far.

    sealintheSelkirks

    Like

  19. sealintheselkirks's avatar sealintheselkirks says:

    In other words, they have NO IDEA how to stop this new bug, are scared shitless it’s going to mutate into something that will scream through the population which is also going through another goddamned surge of Covid at the moment. How many mutations in the last four years and still going strong???

    So now it’s try anything since there is zero funding for developing anything even close to the SARS II Covid-19 not-a-vaccine shots that hopefully lessen the likelihood of hospitalization & death. Which they admit doesn’t really stop the Sequelae of Long Covid.

    The Covid shots are now $135 apiece at Costco and you need two 8-weeks apart (Novavax). That’s 4+ months electricity bills for me…

    Can The Flu Shot Stop Bird Flu?

    https://weather.com/health/cold-flu/video/flu-vaccine-bird-avian-farm-workers

    ___

    It really sounds like the ‘ones in charge’ aren’t, again, listening to the virology experts…

    sealintheSelkirks

    Like

  20. sealintheselkirks's avatar sealintheselkirks says:

    Courting The Next Pandemic
    A primer on bird flu.

    https://www.okdoomer.io/courting-the-next-pandemic/
    ___

    This isn’t a fun read.

    sealintheSelkirks

    Like

  21. sealintheselkirks's avatar sealintheselkirks says:

    Canada has finally give up even though they admit that 1 out of every 50 Canadians are sick with this disease. The US doesn’t even bother with that…there is NOTHING in the MSM that covid is still ripping through the US population

    No Longer an Official Emergency, COVID Remains a Crisis Experts say the evolving virus still poses a serious threat to British Columbians.

    https://thetyee.ca/News/2024/08/05/No-Longer-Official-Emergency-COVID-Remains-Crisis/

    ___

    But Senator Bernie Sanders still has it together because he keeps trying:

    The Long Covid Moonshot

    It’s not enough.

    https://www.okdoomer.io/the-long-covid-moonshot/

    ___

    Still wearing a mask and last week I was at Home Base to help Kathy get her kitchen cabinets and there were exactly 5 people also in masks, two couples and a single woman besides me. We were all white-haired in our 60s…and we all nodded at one another. The ‘Summer Surge’ is blowing through this country but nobody cares. Even President Biden caught it again and I wonder if he’s got Long Covid because that debate sure gave rise to questions in my mind…

    sealintheSelkirks

    Liked by 1 person

  22. sealintheselkirks's avatar sealintheselkirks says:

    Covid is screaming across the world again and in this county Biden and Trump are both absolutely complicit in killing people directly due to their policies, but Biden has far more effective at smashing flat at any chance at even a modicum of control of this Pandemic we are still suffering from.

    So are the rest of the world’s governments for that matter, and the so-called ‘leaders’ and wealthy ruling them because economies are most important…

    Funny that the world’s wealthiest who meeting to plan more awful economic futures for the rest of us REQUIRE heavily enforced mash and shot mandates for anybody getting through the gates. But that’s because they matter, and YOU DON’T. How many athletes caught Covid at the Olympics in Paris? They don’t matter, either.

    Notice that Biden dropped out of the presidential race after he went down with his second infection (that we know of) since 2022.

    Covid is surging. Again. Read the links embedded:

    The US Government Has Abandoned Us to Endless COVID. We Can Do Better.

    The pandemic isn’t over. Why is it so hard to find accurate information about it?

    https://truthout.org/articles/the-us-government-has-abandoned-us-to-endless-covid-we-can-do-better/

    ___

    WHO: Governments unprepared to combat global COVID-19 surge

    https://www.voanews.com/a/who-governments-unprepared-to-combat-global-covid-19-surge/7732307.html

    ___

    The stupidity and ineptitude is astounding, isn’t it?

    sealintheSelkirks

    Liked by 1 person

  23. sealintheselkirks's avatar sealintheselkirks says:

    Kev, it’s not just in the Permafrost we’ve got this worry to ponder:

    Russian Soldiers in Ukraine Ordered to Dig a Trench but Got a Horrible Surprise

    This may be the weirdest story from the war

    https://creativetech.consulting/russian-soldiers-in-ukraine-ordered-to-dig-a-trench-but-got-a-horrible-surprise-fe57d508ade0

    It’s been well over two years since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began and in all that time the international media has been inundated with terrible stories from the horrors of war. But few of those stories were as weird as what happened to a group of soldiers ordered to dig a new trench line near the frontlines in 2023.

    A simple order to dig a new trench produced an unsettling surprise for a group of Russian soldiers in April 2023. Hidden deep underneath the dirt they were digging up was something they weren’t expecting.

    Two soldiers were reportedly infected with anthrax and taken to a hospital exile after their unit was ordered to dig defensive trenches over what they would quickly learn was a burial site for cattle.

    “No, this is not an episode from a horror movie,” wrote the exiled mayor of Melitopol Ivan Federov, who relayed the details of the situation on his public Telegram channel at the time.

    continued at link

    ___

    And here is the latest info on the new Covid shot:

    Why the new COVID shot is a game-changer (and why the term ‘booster’ is obsolete)

    The latest vaccine formula is available in local pharmacies now. Experts say it will be like the annual flu shot: one and done. Here’s why.

    https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/covid-flu-vaccine-questions

    ___

    sealintheSelkirks

    Like

  24. sealintheselkirks's avatar sealintheselkirks says:

    Interesting that the farther back we look (with DNA), the more we see how hard pandemics and epidemics continually crushed and crashed our species:

    The plague may have caused the downfall of the Stone Age farmers

    https://news.ku.dk/all_news/2024/07/the-plague-may-have-caused-the-downfall-of-the-stone-age-farmers/

    ___

    sealintheSelkirks

    Liked by 1 person

      • sealintheselkirks's avatar sealintheselkirks says:

        Oh hahahaha I’ve got the Matrix collection and remember that scene well. It struck a nerve back then, and now it’s just…of course!

        But the reality is that it’s not just ‘humans’ that do this, it’s all living critters (which virus’ are, too). Mammals are good at this of course as we fill up areas until we run out of food, die back, our dead bodies feed the bugs and other organisms, and the cycle starts all over again.

        I see it here. The rabbits will suddenly be everywhere eating the greenery, and then the coyotes and bobcats will have bigger litters because of the growth in their food supply, then the bunnies will die back and then the coyotes will die back and start having smaller litters again until the cycle repeats.

        It’s not just us.

        But the real problem is that we are such inventive little primates. Imagine what would have happened if the ant population of this little planet suddenly figured out how to industrialize, built machines and pumped oil to burn and all the other extractive behaviors we have done. This planet would have become a dried-out husk dead desert planet a LONG time ago!!!

        We’re just much better at feeling guilty about our behavior because we have the capacity to understand how destructive we are. The gift and curse of these big brains that have these fore-brains stuck on the front I think. The worse part is that we KNOW better and we’re destroying ourselves anyway because…that it seems is what life does. Cycles.

        Big sigh. The curse part is with those cognitive processes roiling around in our heads we can see the future and it scares the crap out of a lot of us.

        The good part is that the majority of our species DON’T understand how this works and will happily continue eating and f&&king our way to extinction without a care in the world at what we could change if we wanted to. We’re content to be, for the most part, mindless biological machines following our instinctual patterns.

        Ain’t that a bitch?

        sealintheSelkirks

        Liked by 1 person

  25. Kevin Hester's avatar Kevin Hester says:

    “How climate change is expanding the reach of EEE, a rare and deadly mosquito-borne illness Eastern equine encephalitis, a mosquito-borne disease with a high mortality rate, has been spreading in the Northeast as temperatures rise.”

    How climate change is expanding the reach of EEE, a rare and deadly mosquito-borne illness | Grist

    Like

  26. sealintheselkirks's avatar sealintheselkirks says:

    So Avian continues to creep around the mammal populations but it hasn’t quite hit the mutation to become person-to-person. Yet. Infected beef, milk, your pet cat, dolphins…it sure is trying, isn’t it?

    The Bird Flu Outbreak Takes a Mysterious Turn

    US health officials say they don’t know how a patient in Missouri contracted bird flu.

    https://www.wired.com/story/the-bird-flu-outbreak-takes-a-mysterious-turn-missouri-avian-influenza/

    ___

    And, seemingly, a huge majority of people in the US are flat ignoring that Covid surges continue to sweep across the country infecting millions, but only killing ‘a few.’ With last year having an ‘official’ government count of 85,000 dead in the US but even less funding from government sources to pay attention to this disease, I’m morbidly curious what the Jan ’23-to-Jan ’24 count will add up to? We’ll know in another couple of months after winter comes and people start crowding inside to keep warm again.

    As the Covid shot numbers keep dropping in the population, it wouldn’t take much to flare up if a more virulent and dangerous strain suddenly appeared out of the Omicron family. It keeps mutating every single time and we know this.

    I know other older people who finally caught it this year after being so careful since it hit. One 80 yr old forgot his mask for a doctor’s appointment and there weren’t any in the office for him to use. He went down in 3 days… But only one death that I knew the person which brought my ‘dead of covid’ list up to 23. But also younger people I know who have had it more than once now, too, in the last four years.

    Bluntly, few are paying attention any longer though it seems, with Covid circulating, the ‘flu season’ has become year ’round now instead of just in Fall.

    So we watch, and wait with hopium, yes?

    sealintheSelkirks

    Liked by 1 person

  27. sealintheselkirks's avatar sealintheselkirks says:

    Is it time to freak out about bird flu?

    The answer is not as straightforward as one might like

    https://www.statnews.com/2024/10/16/bird-flu-pandemic-overall-risk-low-continued-h5n1-outbreak-dairy-cattle-worrisome/

    ____

    In 27 years of it being around, half of the 900 people that caught it have died. Looking at what SARS II Co-Vid 19 is still doing, it won’t take much of a mutation to really start screaming through the crowded population that a large percentage of has ‘renounced’ science in favor of stupid.

    sealintheSelkirks

    Liked by 1 person

  28. sealintheselkirks's avatar sealintheselkirks says:

    I had this from my oldest friend in my inbox the other day:
    Wahiawa Bird Sanctuary Decimated by Hawaii’s First Confirmed Avian Flu Outbreak, Over 70 Birds Lost
    https://hoodline.com/2024/11/wahiawa-bird-sanctuary-decimated-by-hawaii-s-first-confirmed-avian-flu-outbreak-over-70-birds-lost/
    ___

    So I wrote him back with this:
    I didn’t want to say anything to bum your out even worse, but since you sent me this…

    In last Thursday’s paper:

    Avian Influenza Confirmed in Stevens County Backyard Flock (chickens & geese)

    Along with an additional case reported in Okanogan County confirmed last Friday…the CDC considers the risk to the general public to be low…first human cases in WA were reported in October…to date there has been no transmission person to person…Self-Report If In A Surveillance Zone: Flock owners within 10 kilometers (or approximately 6 miles) of a detection are in a surveillance zone and are encouraged to self-report the health of their flock using the online surveillance self-reporting tool.
    ____

    Kevin: And of fucking course there is NO MENTION OF WHERE THIS FLOCK IS!!! From the Canadian Border to the top of Spokane County is way goddamned more that 6 miles!!!

    No mention of the reality that 51% of the humans who have caught this in the last 25 years since it started spreading HAVE DIED. No mention about the 100% death rate of cats, or the infected milk in dairy cattle. That raccoons can catch it as are dolphins, etc etc etc.

    So let’s just fucking ignore it just like we are doing with covid since Biden ‘declared victory’ over covid and dropped every precaution, and shots now cost $135 fucking bucks for people like me that don’t have some form of shitty crappy insurance.

    And in two months Trump will be in charge of a new virus emergency. With his pick of anti-vaxxer RFK Jr. to oversee Health & vaccines in the US?

    How’s that going to work out do ya think?

    And here’s the icing on the cake to mull over. The latest on Covid in the US:

    Look Out for These COVID XEC Variant Symptoms as Cases Surge

    ___
    Oh, and the latest info on this ‘Election’ shows Trump has, again, lost the popular vote as ballots continue to be counted. He is below 50%. Some ‘mandate,’ eh? And there is a mounting evidence pile of voter suppression, dumped ballots, etc etc that one would expect from people who support a Fascistic wanna-be dictator

    But the keep-white-male-slave-owners-in-power Electoral College anointed him President again.
    ___
    I guess that’s enough ranting about the insanity all around me for today! Did listen to Guy’s latest post. Boy is he a bundle of good news on top of the rest of all this increasingly dismal reality. Can’t say he didn’t warn us.

    Last squeal: The Bomb Cyclone hitting the West Coast is dumping heavy rain on me here east of the Cascades, but I’ve been spared the massive windstorms that have been decimating coastal towns with hurricane wind speeds. Guess the mountains are keeping that stalled monster at bay. The snow that fell three days ago is completely gone, and I have a roof that has sprung two leaks in two rooms of the upstairs in back of the A-frame-style front portion of the house. Water is literally dripping off the ceiling light fixtures in both the little bathroom and the small north bedroom. That’s a bad sign and obviously I’m not flipping any switches on!

    sealintheSelkirks

    Liked by 1 person

  29. sealintheselkirks's avatar sealintheselkirks says:

    USDA orders testing across nation’s milk supply amid rising bird flu cases

    https://www.npr.org/2024/12/06/nx-s1-5220272/testing-usda-bird-flu-raw-milk-california

    ___

    State Health sent a HAZ-MAT crew into the nearby outbreak which was 10 miles N/E of me/6 miles south of Chewelah right off the 395 highway from Spokane. I actually know the property/farm/house and pond where they went in and stripped the place right down to scooping up the dirt/bird poop/feathers/ and the chicken coop, and then set a quarantine boundary around everything. There is another ‘Surveillance Zone’ south of Spokane in or near a State Conservation Area that includes the lake I think.

    I also found out about nearly a million chickens dying at a single poultry farm in the S/E side of my state in October. State slaughtered the live birds and a full-on HAZ-MAT decontamination there, too. Didn’t even know that happened.

    The west coast, Puget Sound, is covered with gray circles of the current outbreaks. Holy hell it looks bad out there.

    Here is the State map of current outbreaks going on:

    https://www.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=5bb22df733ae49b29ac7b3cc3c7fc3e3

    ___

    I have ceased filling the suet feeder for the little birds in the front yard apple tree. Been doing that in winter for years but I don’t think it’s a good idea at this point. The half-feral Tigerkitty is also banished to being outside for now, too, since cats are extremely susceptible to bird flu and she’s an outside cat who does catch and eat birds like all cats do. Good mouser, too, and I have no idea if mice are catching Avian yet. Only a matter of time I guess.

    The Canadian teenage girl that’s been in quarantine on death’s doorstep for weeks has different genotype in her variant of it and nobody has any idea where she caught it from.

    Another Canadian, a teenage boy, is sick with what might be the first human-variant. He’s also in quarantine of course.

    A human bird flu case is thought to be found in Canada for the first time

    https://www.npr.org/2024/11/11/nx-s1-5186467/bird-flu-human-canada

    Not seeing much about either in the news…but Idaho is the #3 producer of dairy in the US and their herds are full of Avian flu infections as is Montana.

    ___

    And in 40 days or so Trump will be back in charge just like he was for Covid in 2020, but this time with RFK Jr. as his Minister of Health!! The anti-vaccine promoter and guy with a brain worm that actually ate part of his brain. Oh, and he’s a fucking lawyer not an MD. So I guess it’ll be back to injecting Clorox bleach, drinking horse de-wormer, and shoving a bright light up your butt to kill the virus again I guess.

    I’m betting that you can guess the political views of those who are still currently the most likely to die of Covid.

    On top of all this, childhood vaccination rates are still dropping in this country and you can guess the demographic of those people, too.

    There is no escaping the stupids, dude. Even though it was Trump that threw federal money at the rapid search for Covid shots, instituted the mask mandates and closure of schools etc etc, but that was because he had intelligent medical people around him trying to direct his crazy shit-for-brains ramblings in productive directions. Don’t think that’s going to happen if Avian takes off because he’s surrounding himself with lunatics that are only loyal to him personally. The Cult Leader learned, didn’t he?

    Covid is still killing in the US, too, by the way though it isn’t really mentioned much anymore. The next official 12 month count of US dead comes out in January. Will it be less or more than the 85,000 of last January?

    ___

    Raining on Pearl Harbor Day out my window. Raining on top of the ski hill, too, for their third weekend open for business. The entire hill is in cloud and they report ‘raining lightly.’ So much for, ya know, winter, eh?

    sealintheSelkirks

    Liked by 1 person

  30. sealintheselkirks's avatar sealintheselkirks says:

    Covid Ends?

    https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/12/13/covid-ends/

    ___

    It’ll never freaking stop as it’s gone endemic now. I’m practically the only one I see wearing masks in stores now…

    And Avian continues to pop up all over the US, and in these mountains more outbreaks are happening but at least there is an online Washington State tracker available to see where. The MAGA idiots running Idaho next door aren’t even bothering to test the humans that work in the chicken and turkey ranches. Or the milk industry workers for that matter, where nearly all the herds tested are infected.

    sealintheSelkirks

    Liked by 1 person

  31. sealintheselkirks's avatar sealintheselkirks says:

    How the U.S. Lost Control of Bird Flu, Setting the Stage for Another Pandemic

    As the bird flu virus moved into cows and people, sluggish federal action, deference to industry and neglect for worker safety put the country at risk

    https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/bird-flu-has-spread-out-of-control-after-mistakes-by-u-s-government-and/

    ___

    So here it comes it sounds like. Great. Another pandemic with just a few more mutations needed to make the change to human-to-human.

    And we have the idiot moron-in-chief Trump as ‘president’ again in 28 days, the same shithead that let Covid get loose and told people to shoot Clorox, eat horse de-wormer, and stick bright lights up their ass to kill it.

    We are SO screwed.

    By the way, I’m now 70 years old. Never expected to live this long. Grandma was correct, it already sucks a hell of a lot of time especially when cutting and unloading trailerloads of firewood! Oh my aching back!

    sealintheSelkirks

    Liked by 1 person

  32. sealintheselkirks's avatar sealintheselkirks says:

    What could possibly go wrong?

    As Biolabs Multiply, Concerns About Oversight Grow India’s policymakers have ambitious plans for pathogen research.

    Can safety infrastructure keep up?

    https://www.truthdig.com/articles/as-biolabs-multiply-concerns-about-oversight-grow/

    ___

    sealintheSelkirks

    Liked by 1 person

  33. sealintheselkirks's avatar sealintheselkirks says:

    Under Communications Freeze, CDC Updates Some Important Health Data but Not Others

    Rob Stein / NPR

    https://www.rsn.org/001/under-communications-freeze-cdc-updates-some-important-health-data-but-not-others.html

    ___

    The insanity continues to grow in Week 2 of the Fascist Trump Regime. It’s 1933 Germany here, Kevin, and even the Germans are screaming warnings at the US about it.

    Too bad that Trump-supporting MAGA boy was such a lousy shot at that rally, eh?

    And by the way, the fat-ass frat boy was NOT hit by a bullet. He was hit by a tiny piece of flying plastic from his teleprompter screen. He can’t help but lie about everything that comes out of his mouth, but the billionaires that are pulling his strings are in complete control though he’s obviously and rapidly losing his mind to prefrontal cortex dementia as the idiocy he talks about is even more unhinged that it was six months ago. Sure, invade Greenland? Take over the Panama Canal? 25% Tariffs are now in effect on Mexico and Canada imports? When a majority of oil comes in from both countries, and Mexico is about 50% of veggies & fruit?

    The Guilded Age of Robber Barons II is upon us up here. It sucks.

    Yep, too bad that kid was such a lousy shot but then he couldn’t even make it on the rifle team at his high school a couple years earlier, so his daddy bought him an AR-15. That’s how fucking smart the right-wingers are!!!

    ___

    Now they have cancelled access to anything to do with health, and bird flu is here though it hasn’t quite mutated to a human-to-human strain yet. Though there have been interesting mutations in a couple of young people that point in that direction, it probably means it’s coming.

    I took a friend down to Spokane last week for her biopsy, and I was the ONLY person excepting hospital personnel wearing an N95. Masks should be required to enter a hospital don’t ya think? You know, where sick people are?

    This country is fucking stupid.

    sealintheSelkirks

    Liked by 1 person

  34. sealintheselkirks's avatar sealintheselkirks says:

    Still rocking the US, popping up all over the damned place, but honestly we’ve got the wealthy Frat Boy HERO of the China Virus in charge to save us, right?

    Ahahahaha, “prudent steps” they say!!

    New York shuts down live poultry markets after bird flu detected

    Officials said the shutdowns are prudent steps.

    https://abcnews.go.com/US/ny-poultry-markets-shut-precaution-bird-flu/story?id=118567626
    ___
    So far we’ve been lucky, no human to human transmission reported.

    Yet.

    And local governments in the US is OUTLAWING the wearing of masks because…well, you know, they are all criminals trying to get away with shit don’t ya know?

    Stupidity rules.

    sealintheSelkirks

    Liked by 1 person

  35. sealintheselkirks's avatar sealintheselkirks says:

    I live on Long Island and Dead Birds are Everywhere on the South Shore

    https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/2/27/2306718/-I-live-on-Long-Island-and-dead-birds-are-everywhere-on-the-South-Shore

    ___

    Human to human is only a matter of time at this point I’m afraid. Too many species of mammals and birds are being affected.

    Wear an N95, folks. I still do anywhere that I walk into. Fuck their ‘no masks allowed’ bullshit.

    sealintheSelkirks

    Liked by 1 person

  36. sealintheselkirks's avatar sealintheselkirks says:

    It seems that we are extremely close to a new Pandemic, and this time it has a 50%+ kill rate in humans.

    Mutations, Misinformation and the Mother of All Pandemics

    There are worrying signs that pathogenic bird flu is poised to break through soft spots in our defense, from house cats to Trump administration science policy.

    https://www.truthdig.com/articles/mutations-misinformation-and-the-mother-of-all-pandemics/

    __

    In other news, I have been down with a virus since walking into a store on 17March with no signs that it is going to let go yet. My mistake as I was paying more attention to keeping a 6 yr old from getting herself run over in a grocery store parking lot by stupid drivers, and literally forgot to grab my mask off my dashboard before I walked in with her. I didn’t realize my mistake until I was deep in the store and passed a woman wearing a mask…

    First time in 5 years that I was NOT wearing an N95 or a surgical mask in a public place.

    I have been extremely sick starting three days later with no sign that is about to cease. At least it was NOT SARS/Covid-19 according to the tests I’ve taken since, but one of the multiple strains of influenza circulating in the the US.

    I have not been sick since another virus hit me in 2018. This is just fucking miserable. But it looks like I won’t be adding myself to my ‘Dead of Covid List’ that now numbers 23 family/friends/acquaintances. I guess that is somewhat of a consolation.

    ___

    sealintheSelkirks

    Liked by 1 person

  37. sealintheselkirks's avatar sealintheselkirks says:

    Update: 19 days with a mean case of what was probably Influenza A from the symptoms. Kicked me into the dirt these last couple of weeks, but I’m on the mend.

    At least it wasn’t Covid.

    ___

    In my state, dude, on the west coast:

    In Western Wildlife, Bird Flu Deaths Highlight Uncertainties

    The closely-spaced deaths of two cougars in Washington state suggest the virus is likely more widespread than thought.

    https://undark.org/2025/04/07/bird-flu-western-wildlife/?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us

    __

    Is it getting closer to the necessary mutation to be human to human? Sure are a LOT of different species of mammals catching and dying of this.

    sealintheSelkirks

    Liked by 1 person

  38. sealintheselkirks's avatar sealintheselkirks says:

    Watched this tonight, from 2010 before SARS II Covid-19. In some ways it’s quite realistic, in other it’s wildly optimistic. A swine flu combines with an Avian…and the world dies within weeks.

    What happens when those nuclear engineers they talk about all die an 500 nuclear reactors start spewing endlessly…because there is nobody left to turn them off or the infrastructure to manage that?

    But this was still realistic enough to give me a shiver down the spine…

    After Armageddon 1 1/2 hours

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QbAehUwuz0

    __

    sealintheSelkirks

    Liked by 1 person

  39. sealintheselkirks's avatar sealintheselkirks says:

    This is how insane the stupidity continued by Musk, RFK Jr., and their boss Trump:

    https://www.youtube.com/shorts/18P-oU2XG3E?feature=share

    __

    So nobody is screening airline travelers for Ebola… Then there is the problem of firing all the scientists working on Avian flu…

    This is not going to end well. If it ever does…

    __

    sealintheSelkirks

    Liked by 1 person

  40. sealintheselkirks's avatar sealintheselkirks says:

    The largest amount of Sargassum seaweed ever recorded is coming in from the Atlantic, stretching all the way across the Atlantic to Africa! It will make the beaches of Florida unbearable, and full of sick people it sound like. Luckily I’ve never been surfing in Florida when that stuff showed up so I’ve never experienced it…

    https://weather.com/news/climate/video/florida-braces-for-record-bloom-of-sargassum-seaweed
    __
    So not only has Trump killed the freaking tourist trade for the US with his lawless Fascist Gestapo tactics, his ‘no such thing as climate chaos’ attitude is bound and determined to make the world a much hotter place…including the oceans.

    sealintheSelkirks

    Like

  41. sealintheselkirks's avatar sealintheselkirks says:

    This guy jumps from one likely disaster to another so fast it makes your brain feel like it’s a stuffed potato. All under Trump makes it worse because he’s incompetent AND ignorant/stupid. But it’s a worrisome list.

    https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/05/23/best-weather-for-end-times/

    __

    sealintheSelkirks

    Liked by 1 person

  42. sealintheselkirks's avatar sealintheselkirks says:

    This is insane.

    White House Restricts Access to COVID Shot

    The new guidance aligns with the vaccine skepticism of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and has patients and health advocates concerned.

    https://www.truthdig.com/articles/white-house-restricts-access-to-covid-shot/

    __

    As if the only people who died/are still dying of SARS II Covid-19 were over 65? These people running this government are literally idiots but intelligent people already know that.

    And EVERYBODY who is over 65 has pre-existing conditions!! It’s called aging as you walk (or hobble as the case may be) towards death…body breaks down. Duh.

    __

    Why are more than 300 people in the US still dying from COVID every week?

    Experts say there is low vaccine uptake and people are not accessing treatments.

    https://abcnews.go.com/Health/300-people-us-dying-covid-week/story?id

    __

    The only upside of this policy that I can find is that I’m quite sure that it’s still mostly white MAGA supporters of Trump who are the largest percentage of dead. Those that never took the shot.

    The downside of this is that the rightwinger GOP Fascists are going to cause the deaths of people who did, and incidentally didn’t vote for the fat fuck rapist sociopath.

    Part of the plan?

    sealintheSelkirks

    Liked by 1 person

  43. sealintheselkirks's avatar sealintheselkirks says:

    I posted this yesterday but I think it cleared it as it ‘signed back in’ and disappeared. Apologize if this is a double posting but it is relevant!

    Been a while since I posted a Covid update, but with the recent appointment of our illustrious Health & Human Services Director (who has zero medical training) and this deranged anti-freedom agenda he is putting in place about vaccinations, it seemed appropriate.

    Here is the most recent information on how SARS II/Covid-19 is surging in other parts of the world, and the current US weekly death rate, then a link to what he has now done with his anti-vaccine agenda:

    Is COVID Making a Comeback? Asia Sees Surge in Cases | Vantage with Palki Sharma | N18G

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETGvYHSZQVA

    __

    Why are more than 300 people in the US still dying from COVID every week?

    Experts say there is low vaccine uptake and people are not accessing treatments.

    https://abcnews.go.com/Health/300-people-us-dying-covid-week/story?id=122068959

    __

    This is, bluntly, insane behavior but what do we expect from an incompetent?

    RFK Jr. Puts Severe Limits On Who Can Receive COVID Vaccine

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFTPsZaUbKE

    Doesn’t he know that ‘healthy’ people under 65 die from Covid, too? What is wrong with these people?

    __

    Masks work!

    sealintheSelkirks 

    Liked by 1 person

  44. sealintheselkirks's avatar sealintheselkirks says:

    Oh hell, I just posted it again and it popped up after I did, so it is a re-written double post.

    Apologize, Kevin!

    sealintheSelkirks

    Like

  45. Kevin Hester's avatar Kevin Hester says:

    Coming up a webinar on pestilence!
    Seal try and join us.
    Webinar Registration – Zoom

    Like

    • sealintheselkirks's avatar sealintheselkirks says:

      I don’t have Zoom nor ever had a computer with a camera or microphone attached to one. Old machines…

      The first time I have EVER been on a Zoom meeting was last week with the IT webuilding guy who is putting my shop web page together on WIX at the moment. He sent me a ‘guest’ invitation since I wasn’t signed into the program when his guy finished putting the ‘bare bones’ site together.

      It was weird. I could see him once we went through the ‘how to’ do this or that on my new site after he switched it to him being visible in his home office. But he couldn’t see me but I was talking with him on the phone, had it on speaker, so we were conversing in real time and he could see what I was doing on my computer.

      Not really a Zoom call I guess, but it was close to being one. It was very strange to be talking with someone I could see on the screen in real time.

      So anyway I don’t think it would work but I am interested in listening in to what these people will have to say. Is there a way I could possibly do that?

      …not that I need to absorb another mass of bad news at this point, ya know? Ha! I have a damned good idea where this is going just like you do, but I’m a sucker for different viewpoints in the genres that are listed on the link. I’m assuming a roundtable discussion?

      Let me know if I can listen in!

      Thanks for offering me the chance, Kevin. I guess this means I’m not dead yet, eh?

      sealintheSelkirks

      Liked by 1 person

  46. sealintheselkirks's avatar sealintheselkirks says:

    9am this coming Friday. I’ll be sure to be up and have the computer on. Be good to listen in on intelligent people discussing the reality of our world for a change.

    Not that I think it will be good news…

    sealintheSelkirks

    Liked by 1 person

  47. sealintheselkirks's avatar sealintheselkirks says:

    Well, this isn’t good news:

    A new COVID subvariant spreads rapidly as Trump pivots away from vaccines

    https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-05-30/a-new-covid-subvariant-spreads-rapidly-as-trump-pivots-away-from-vaccines

    __

    Why are more than 300 people in the US still dying from COVID every week?

    Experts say there is low vaccine uptake and people are not accessing treatments.

    https://abcnews.go.com/Health/300-people-us-dying-covid-week/story?id=122068959

    __

    And the conversation on pestilence starts Friday…

    sealintheSelkirks

    Liked by 1 person

  48. sealintheselkirks's avatar sealintheselkirks says:

    So no link to the Zoom meeting yet? Be kind of hoping I’ll get to hear it but if not, thanks for trying!

    Another 100’F expected today. Like yesterday at 5:30 in the afternoon. New alert today with a ‘Heat Advisory’ into next week. A month earlier than last year.

    sealintheSelkirks

    Liked by 1 person

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Kevin Hester

Kevin Hester is currently living on Rakino Island, a small island in the Hauraki Gulf near Auckland, New Zealand, monitoring the unravelling of the biosphere and volunteering at the Rakino Island Nursery is currently developing a proposal to create a marine reserve near by. The Island has no grid tied electricity or reticulated water.  I catch my own water from the roof and generate my electricity from the ample solar radiation on the island.

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