With Kamala Harris's star beginning to wane after shining brightly for the first few weeks after she replaced Biden as the Democratic candidate in the 2024 presidential election, bookmakers are now giving odds of about 50:50 for a Trump win.
But what are the dangers for America and the rest of the world from having a criminal with an acute narcissistic personality disorder running the world’s largest economy, let alone the world's largest nuclear arsenal.
A criminal moreover who's idea of economic management is to lie, cheat and steal from anyone fool enough to lend him money, leave his subcontractors unpaid, then when he can fend off his creditors no longer, have himself declared bankrupt, leaving them to whistle for their money, then start over again with more borrowed money. He is the only business man ever to bankrupt a casino! How do you bankrupt a casino where the odds are stacked in your favour and people queue up to give you money!. His idea of a university is to charge large fees to students them leave them without tutors and pocket the money!
He would undoubtedly turn the Whitehouse back into the organized crime syndicate HQ it was last time he was there, and would revel in the immunity from accountability SCOTUS has granted him to commit whatever crimes he likes, and he can always pardon himself for any crimes and misdemeanors just to be on the safe side.
In the 2012 election against Hillary Clinton, Trump's team came close to arguing that it was safe to vote for him because he wouldn't keep his promises anyway. This time, it really would be better if he didn't. It would be even better if he didn't have the chance to keep them.
He has three populist planks to his platform, none of them intended to make America Great Again, and all three of them guaranteed to make Americans' poorer, and smaller both economically and in the eyes of the rest of the world. They are nothing more than populist appeals to the xenophobic, racist, white supremacist right in the USA, centred on his obsession with China, which is always pronounces in a characteristically exaggerated, deranged way, 'Chay-na!' They can be summed up in two words - xenophobic isolationism.
In the following article, reprinted from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license, Peter Martin, a Visiting Fellow at Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University, cites the non-partisan Peterson Institute for International Economics which says that Trump's package would "[do] more damage to the US economy than to any other in the world", but there are other world economies, not just the target, China, that would be damaged by them:
The article is reformatted for stylistic consistency:
I've often thought, with such a high risk of catching COVID-19 and such a high risk of serious illness, both short and long term from 'long COVID', that people must be mad not to take up the offer of the initial vaccine and the regular boosters.
Now a Swedish team at the Karolinska Institutet have analysed data from seven studies in Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Estonia and Scotland and found a significant correlation between unmedicated mental illness and low vaccine take-up.
Donald Trump, that darling of white evangelical Christians, is a heartless racist who thinks disabled children should be left to die, according to a new book by his nephew, Fred C. Trump III.
Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg … we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain … and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
The USA no longer has the government of the people by the people and for the people that the founding fathers intended to create because the Christian far right have decided to take it away as it was not giving them the privileged access to political power to which they feel entitled.
I can say this because, despite the fact that 63% of people support a woman' right to an abortion for any reason, this is now illegal in many states since SCOTUS reversed the decision in Roe vs Wade which gave them that right.
For America to operate as a democracy, the three branches of government - the executive; the legislature and the judiciary should reflect public opinion, not oppose it, yet Donald Trump stuffed SCOTUS with partisan Repugnican fundamentalist Christians and the Rupugnican Party is in bed with Christian far right evangelicals, resulting in a government which is imposing the will of a radical minority on the majority, despite the constitutional bar on the establishment of any religion.
The latest Pew Research poll shows how far this gap between the will of the people and the actions of the government have diverged in respect of the issue of abortion:
In an article today in Psychology Today, psychologist, Bernard Golden, Ph.D, explains the link between Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and Anger.
Although he doesn't name him, most of his article reads like a description of Donald Trump and his frequent loss of self-control and bouts of angry shouting, which characterised his term in the White House, when aids would frequently be sacked in a fit of rage because they had had the temerity to question him or hint at disagreement.
To us in Europe it often seems America was being run from the bedroom of an over-privileged, petulant adolescent that someone had given a Twitter account to and told him he runs the world, where the most bizarre things were tweeted in the small hours of the morning and the world would wake up to the latest outburst and half-baked policy announcement.
This behaviour is explained by his borderline personality disorder, as described by Dr Bernard Golden
Online spaces attract conspiracy theorists. Social media has helped propagate conspiracy theories faster than was possible with more traditional media. This has driven engagement with political parties that focus on conspiracy theories.
According to a news item carried today by Agence France-Presse (AFP), US antivaxx conspiracists are deliberately spreading fear and disinformation to sell quack medical kits to gullible fools and in doing so are risking the lives of anyone foolish enough to believe them. And a recent paper published by a Japanese research group has shown how extremist parties are trading on growing antivaxx paranoia, originating in Trump-supporting conspiracists in the USA, by incorporating it into the political platforms.
This team of researchers recall how Donald Trump first of all tried to take credit for developing the mRNA vaccines against Covid-19, as though he had personally directed the research and invented the science behind mRNA vaccines, then switched to curry favour with the antivaxxers by casting doubt on the need for boosters. And of course, antivaxxer conspiracy theories became a central theme of the rabidly pro-Trump QAnon conspiracy theorists.
From our perspective in Europe, it seems almost incomprehensible how the political situation in the USA has degenerated to such an extent that Donald Trump may be elected as POTUS again, despite the incompetence, buffoonery and criminality that characterised his earlier term.
What was once the 'shining beacon on the hill', which set the rest of the world an example (albeit more than a little idealised) of how democracy operated to produce a prosperous, egalitarian society where aspiration and enterprise were rewarded and the economy worked for all, has degenerated to warring factions, full of mutual hate and fueled by the most ludicrous and lurid conspiracy theories.
A significant number of adult Americans now believe there is a 'deep state' run by senior Democrats, that operates as a Satanic paedophile cult and that the serial adulterer, insurrectionist and crook, Donald Trump, was personally appointed by God as their saviour, because God obviously takes a keen interest in US politics and would pick someone with a narcissistic personality disorder to do his work for him. This god also promised to ensure Trump was reelected 2020, so the fact that he was kicked out of office must have been due to the same deep state/Democrat conspiracy to steal the election - and then hide the evidence where even God can't guide Trump's supporters to it.
And of course, the serious criminal charges Trump is now facing in a number of different US courts, are all part of that conspiracy, as are the judges, prosecutors and prosecution witnesses, so the more damming the evidence and the more charges he faces are evidence of the conspiracy, not evidence of Trump's guilt and unsuitability to hold elected office, let alone be in charge of a nuclear arsenal and the US public finances, and able to appoint senior members of the judiciary.
The only real conspiracy in the USA is that run by the shadowy and rabidly far-right, pro-Trump QAnon, so how did the QAnon cult lure so many people down their particular paranoid rabbit hole to the extent that they are prepared to take up arms against their fellow countrymen and stage an attempted coup d'etat in the name of patriotism?
About the last thing the politically-motivated, far right antivaxxers covidiots are interested in is protecting human life. With characteristic hypocrisy, many of the same frauds are also active campaigners against legal abortions and a woman's right to choose which, together with COVID-19 denialism and antivaxx conspiracism, have become major talking points in the Trumpanzee far right playlist.
The hypocrisy of these frauds was revealed yesterday in a study which shows there was a huge spike in the number of premature births during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic when women infected with the virus spontaneously aborted their baby. The same study also shows that in those areas where the vaccine uptake was high, the premature birth rate quickly fell back to pre-pandemic levels, but in areas where uptake was low, it took another year to return to pre-pandemic levels.
The study was carried out by Professor Jenna Nobles of Wisconsin–Madison University and Professor Florencia Torche, of Stanford University who have published their findings in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
As the Wisconsin–Madison University press release explains:
In the last 20 years of so, two things have featured in western culture, especially so in the United States, and recent research has shown how these are linked.
Democratization of opinion: Conflation of the belief that everyone is entitled to their opinion on every subject under the sun, as guaranteed to Americans by their constitution, and the belief that this means every opinion should carry equal weight in a debate, regardless of the evidence (or lack of it) on which it is based, or the level of expertise in the subject of the person voicing that opinion.
The attractiveness of this belief to the intellectually lazy and to those who feel alienated by the political and economic forces that shape their lives, is that they can tell themselves that they are at least the equal of the experts, and very probably their better.
For example, I was recently castigated in the social media when I disagreed with the claim that "everyone needs Jesus because without Him life is meaningless". I was informed that "This is America (it was actually Facebook!) where we are entitled to our opinions!", as though a constitutional right in one country mandates the rest of the world to respect dogma and regard it as a statement of irrefutable truth, with the implication that no-one has a right to disagree. The constitution guarantees my right to my opinion (but not your right to yours).
Similarly false claims are made by creationists daily in social media, accompanied by indignation when challenged. Creationists who couldn't define the terms 'evolution' or 'kind' and who assiduously maintain their scientific ignorance, will confidently inform the world that the millions of highly qualified working biomedical scientists who have no difficulty with the science, have it all wrong, and should listen to the creationist who knows best, having completed a 15 minute Google University degree in creationism. And they're all part of a gigantic Satanic conspiracy anyway.
According to a very recent report in the peer-reviewed journal, Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics, the artificial intelligence chat bot, ChatGPT, is helping to dispel some of the myths surrounding vaccines, by providing the factual information that debunks the myths.
Having had all our COVID-19 vaccinations, including any seasonal boosters, and having just recovered from a mild, but unpleasant bout of it which my partner and I probably caught in France or during the flight back, I thought I would put this to the test with a little research of my own:
Figures published in PLOS a few days ago point to an astonishing success rate for the self-inflicted genocide campaign waged by the MAGA/Trumpanzee cult during the COVID-19 pandemic between 2020 and 2021.
Probably as a result of the antivaxx campaign and the evangelical Christian and Repugnican-led campaign against the measures to impede the spread of the virus and lower pressure on health services such as social distancing, prohibiting indoor gatherings and wearing face-masks, the 'excess deaths' gap between Europe and the USA grew even wider.
There has always been little doubt in scientific circles that the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 is a zoonotic virus that evolved in another mammal and then transferred to humans.
The problem this causes for Creationism is that their dogma insists that evolution doesn't happen, and everything is created by their supposedly omniscient, omnipotent god, making this god look like a pestilential malevolence.
Some have tried to rationalise this belief by invoking a process, (or a substance) called 'sin' which also has the powers of sentient creation which their supposedly omnipotent god is powerless to control, apparently. This usually leaves the apologist for creationism floundering to explain how exactly this 'sin' thing creates living organisms which their dogma says can only be intelligently designed.
So, the brighter ones have been hoping to get away with the claim that the virus was invented by Chinese scientists in a laboratory in Wuhan. The problem with that notion is that it clashes with their assertion that science can't create life.
Ah well! You can't have everything!
And that claim, echoing former president Donald Trump's panicky response, calling it a 'Chinese Virus', as though viruses have nationality, and calling them names makes them go away, was given some credence recently when a review by the US Department of Energy [sic] concluded 'with low confidence' (in other words, with a high probability of being wrong, but we'll say it anyway!) that the virus did leak out of the Wuhan laboratory.
Being fully signed-up members of the Trumpanzee cult, most Creationists would love their idol, the serial adulterer, liar and crook, Donald Trump, America's worst ever president, to have been right.
But that 'conclusion' has now been debunked and we are back to the most probable explanation being zoonosis in a Chinese wet market where wild animals are sold for human consumption.
That is the conclusion of Dominic Dwyer, Director of Public Health Pathology, New South Wales Health Pathology, Westmead Hospital and University of Sydney, Australia, who was involved in the initial investigation of the origins of the virus early in the pandemic, writing in The Conversation.
His article is reprinted here under a Creative Commons Licence, reformatted for stylistic consistency. The original me be read here.
China’s only now revealed crucial COVID‑19 origins data. Earlier disclosure may have saved us 3 years of political argy‑bargy
First the US Department of Energy’s review gave more emphasis to the laboratory leak hypothesis than previously, although the confidence for this conclusion was low.
Second, and more importantly, is the release and analysis this week of viral and animal genetic material collected from the Huanan wet market in Wuhan, the place forever associated with the beginning of the pandemic.
It’s a subject close to me. I was the Australian representative on the international World Health Organization (WHO) investigation into the origins of SARS-CoV-2. I went to Wuhan on a fact-finding mission in early 2021. I visited the now-closed market.
Now we have stronger evidence that places raccoon dogs at the market as a possible animal reservoir of SARS-CoV-2, potentially infecting humans.
The debate about the origin of the COVID-19 virus has been fierce. A report released today gives the strongest evidence so far supporting the animal origin, pointing to a specific animal - a racoon dog and even a specific location in the live animal market. @normanswan#abc730pic.twitter.com/oiXII4SWTK
If we’d had this evidence three years ago, we need to ask ourselves how different recent history would have been. We would have reduced the enormous energy, media frenzy and political argy-bargy about less likely hypotheses of the pandemic’s origins. We might have better focused our research attention.
Samples were taken from various places in the market, in January 2020, within weeks of the early COVID-19 cases in Wuhan. SARS-CoV-2 RNA and human DNA were identified in these environmental samples, although no animal swabs were positive for the virus.
This was presented to the WHO team investigating the origins of the pandemic in January 2021, of which I was part.
The work was published as a preprint (posted online, before being independently verified) in February 2022.
The underlying “metagenomic” data to support the conclusions in the preprint – that SARS-CoV-2 and human (but not animal) sequences were present – needed to be provided to allow further analyses. This is something that is generally required by journals and regarded as appropriate in the spirit of scientific openness and collaboration.
However, it wasn’t until early March 2023 that the international community had access to the data.
That’s when there was a “drop” of these environmental metagenomic sequences into the GISAID database, the international open access repository of viral sequences.
This allowed an independent team of international experts to analyse them. In a startling revelation, they identified large amounts of raccoon dog and other animal DNA in conjunction with SARS-CoV-2. Raccoon dogs can be readily infected with SARS-CoV-2 and can transmit it. The international team published their observations as a preprint earlier this week.
Raccoon dogs can be readily infected with SARS-CoV-2 and can transmit it.
Of note was the physical co-location of these virus and animal sequences in the corner of what is a very large market, the corner associated with early human cases. It is now known (but initially rejected by Chinese authorities) that wild and farmed animals were sold in this area of the market.
After the sequences were analysed by the international team, the Chinese scientists who had performed the market testing were contacted for comment and discussion – especially around the important observation that mixed in among the SARS-CoV-2 sequences were a large proportion of raccoon dog and other animal DNA.
The sequences were then withdrawn from the GISAID database within a few hours of the study authors being approached. This is perhaps unusual for an open database such as GISAID, and clarity could be sought why this occurred.
This latest work does not prove raccoon dogs were definitely the source of SARS-CoV-2. Presumably, they are likely to have been an intermediate host between bats and humans. Bats harbour many coronaviruses, including ones related to SARS-CoV-2.
However, the data fits the narrative of the animal/human connections of SARS-CoV-2.
This, along with other examination of animal links to SARS-CoV-2, should be taken in the context of the lack of robust data to support the other SARS-CoV-2 origins hypotheses, such as a laboratory leak, contaminated frozen food, and acquisition outside China. Bit by bit, the evidence supports animal origins of the outbreak, centred on the Huanan market in Wuhan.
The length of time taken for this early work to surface and the difficulty in accessing the raw data are unfortunate, points made recently by the WHO.
Sympathetically, one might say, the wrong analysis of the original data collected in early 2020 was undertaken and the researchers missed the animal links.
Cynically, (and without evidence) one might say that the significance of the data was recognised, but not made readily available. This is a question for the Chinese researchers at the Chinese Center for Disease Control to answer.
The data from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention is no longer available on the GISAID database where it was found by scientists. https://t.co/fXT6zt02dm
If this had been identified in early 2020 then further studies to understand the viral origins in animals could have been undertaken.
Three years on, it is very difficult to do such studies, tracking backwards from the now closed market to the animal sources and the people who handled these animals.
Clearer answers would have taken some of the heat out of the debate around the possible viral origins. Of course, all hypotheses should remain on the table, but some of these could have been much better explored with earlier data.
Would it have changed the course of the pandemic? Probably not. The virus had already spread worldwide and adapted very well to human-to-human transmission by the time this work was available. However, it would have driven research in better directions and improved future pandemic planning.
Lessons for the future are obvious. Open disclosure of sequence data is the best way to undertake scientific investigation, especially for something of such international significance.
Making data unavailable, or not reaching out for assistance in complicated analyses, only slows the process.
The resulting political to and fro by all countries, particularly the US and China, has meant that suspicion has deepened, and progress slowed even further.
Although WHO has been criticised for errors in how it managed the pandemic, and in collating data to understand the origins and progress future research, it remains the best international agency to foster open sharing of data.
Scientists, for the most part, want to do the right thing and find the answers to important questions. Facilitating this is crucial.
Published by The Conversation. Open access. (CC BY 4.0)
That just leaves Creationists with two possibilities: either their putative designer god malevolently designed the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the full, omniscient knowledge of what it would do, or the virus is a zoonotic species which probably evolved out of a bat virus, maybe via another mammal, albeit an evolutionary process facilitated unwittingly by the Chinese cultural practice of consuming a diverse range of wild mammals.
A supporter of President Donald Trump, seen wearing a QAnon shirt, is confronted by Capitol Police officers outside the Senate Chamber during the invasion of the U.S. Capitol
Credit: AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta
It's probably hard for rationl people to understand why some people fall for such ludicrous conspiracy theories as the QAnon hoax that Donald Trump was fighting the Satanic cannibalistic paedophile ring led by Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama that is secretly running the 'deep state', or that the 2020 election was stolen (apparently without leaving a trace of evidence that would stand up in court). The same fruit loops have also been convinced that the odious liar, crook, serial adulterer, and incompetent narcissist, Trump was send by God to fight Satan and that God had told various self-appointed 'prophets' that Trump would win by a landslide in 2020, so he must have done really.
As it became more and more apparent just how badly Trump lost, being the only presidential candidate in American political history to lose the popular vote twice and that Joe Biden had won it by a record margin, so the conspiracy theories became more and more lurid.
So why do some credulous fools fall for these unlikely theories, usually involving vast secret conspiracies such as the entire scientific community together with all their technical and administrative staff and everyone involved in publishing scientific books, periodicals and papers, or senior military leaders and heads of government of even hostile states, together with their advisors and civil service?
In the following article, reprinted from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license, Daniel Jolley, Assistant Professor in Social Psychology, University of Nottingham, UK and Anthony, Lantian, Associate Professor in Psychology, Université Paris Nanterre – Université Paris Lumières, France, explain the psychology and the social causes of this gullibility and readiness to believe the patently absurd. The article, the original of which can be read here, is reformatted for stylistic consistence.
As is entirely predictable from the Theory of Evolution, the SARS-CoV-2 virus that has caused the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, has mutated to produce an even more infectious version - a subvariant of the Omicron variant, given the variant name XBB.1.5 and nicknames 'kraken', under the suggested new protocol of naming significant variants after Greek mythological creatures instead of letters of the Greek alphabet..
This appears to have originated in the USA where a large number of people have resisted getting vaccinated due to the politically-motivated antivaxx campaign by the far right supporters of failed president, Donald Trump,. Trump declared the pandemic to be a hoax and COVID-19 to be a mild illness, early on in the pandemic, when he was out of his depth and panicking over how to cope with the emergency. Having acted out of spite and motivated by racism and a desire to expunge his achievements, Trump had stupidly dismantled the contingencies for just such a pandemic put in place by his hated African-American predecessor, Barak Obama.
Inhibited from doing so by his narcissistic personality disorder, Trump was then unable to admit he got it wrong and his cronies in the Repugnican Party and the evangelical white Christian sects set about campaigning against any measures to mitigate the effects of the pandemic, including establishing the QAnon cult to promulgate disinformation.
The upshot is a high degree of vaccine scepticism in the USA with a significant majority being vaccinated - a recipe for producing lots of new variants in the unvaccinated population which will then find a niche in the vaccinated population, if they can evade the antibodies.
But is this variant anything to be overly concerned about?
In the following article, reprinted from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence, Dr. Grace C Roberts, a research fellow in virology at the University of Leeds, assesses the risks from this new variant for the world in general and the UK in particular. The article has been reformatted for stylistic consistency. The original can be read here.
The ‘kraken’ COVID variant XBB.1.5 is rising quickly in the US – here’s what it could mean for the UK
The heavily mutated omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, was first detected in late 2021.
Due to the many mutations in the spike protein (a protein on the surface of SARS-CoV-2 that allows the virus to attach to our cells) omicron was able to quickly become the dominant SARS-CoV-2 variant. These mutations allowed it to bind to respiratory cells more tightly than previous variants, rendering it more infectious.
Owing to the dominance of omicron, thanks to these mutations, the past several months have seen the emergence of many subvariants of omicron (scientists have identified more than 650 to date).
The latest variant to worry health professionals and virologists alike is XBB.1.5, nicknamed “kraken” by a group of scientists that has been naming new variants after mythological creatures to make the virus’ evolution more accessible to the public. Here’s what we know about it.
XBB.1.5 is a derivative of the XBB variant of omicron. XBB was never designated as a variant of concern by the World Health Organization because data shows that, while XBB’s mutations enable it to evade our immune systems better than previous omicron subvariants, it doesn’t appear to be causing an increase in infection rates.
In addition to the mutations that XBB.1 has, XBB.1.5 also carries a mutation called S486P in the spike protein region. Preliminary laboratory studies, yet to be peer-reviewed, have shown that, similar to XBB.1, XBB.1.5 is less sensitive to antibodies acquired from vaccination than previous variants XBB and BQ1.1. So it’s very good at evading our immune response.
The same preprint showed that XBB.1.5 was able to bind to ACE2 (the receptor the virus uses to infect our cells) more strongly than these earlier variants. This is the characteristic that made the original omicron variant so infectious and so dominant.
Having first been detected in October 2022 in the US, XBB.1.5 has spread rapidly in the country and is now responsible for around 28% of all new infections. Elsewhere, XBB.1.5 has been detected in at least 23 countries, including the UK. But according to the most recent data, it accounts for only 4% of COVID infections in England.
Given what we’re seeing in the US, it’s likely that XBB.1.5 will become the dominant strain in the UK and Europe in time. But as there are always differences in populations (for example, vaccination rates and social behaviour) it’s hard to predict exactly how things will play out.
XBB.1.5 is rife in the US, but not in the UK and Europe at this stage.
Though some of XBB.1.5’s characteristics are concerning, the real-world infection data is not showing an overall increase in infections or deaths globally or in the US (where XBB.1.5. is rife) at present.
It’s too early to tell whether infections from XBB.1.5 are more severe than previous variants, however experts agree that there is no evidence at this stage that it poses any higher risk than variants that have come before it.
Experts also agree that vaccination will continue to protect against serious disease and death from XBB.1.5.
With a new variant, there’s always the risk it will affect clinically vulnerable people more severely. Older people and those with conditions that affect their immune systems mount weaker responses to COVID vaccines, so are less protected than the “healthy” population. This means variants that spread more easily or can better evade our immune system may be more likely to infect these people if they’re exposed.
So, while COVID continues to circulate, it’s best to take extra precautions when meeting vulnerable people such as wearing a mask, washing your hands thoroughly, ventilating the space that you are in (or even meeting outdoors), and not meeting them at all if you are ill.
Published by The Conversation. Open access. (CC BY 4.0)
It almost goes without saying that for a Creationists to claim intelligent [sic] design at work with these new variants is a tacit admission that their beloved creator god is malevolently designing ways to ensure its virus continues to make people sick and die and to disrupt economies indiscriminately across the world. That Creationists prefer us to have this view of their god rather than accept the science of evolution by mutation and natural selection betrays a hidden political agenda behind Creationism that requites people to distrust science and be misinformed about it.
A characteristic of Trumpanzee cultists, is their almost complete dependence on conspiracy theories to sustain their patently absurd belief in Donald Trump as some sort of divinely inspired saviour sent by God to engage with Satanic figures running the 'Deep State'.
These Satanic figures are, of course, because the only important things that happen in the world, happen in America, Democrat politicians, scientists and billionaires such as Bill Gates, led by Hilary Clinton, Barak Obama and assorted cannibalistic paedophiles. The conspiracy Trump was fighting gets ever more lurid, the more preposterous it becomes.
The 'Paedophile Deep State' conspiracy of course involved all the election officials in states where Joe Biden won in 2020, because they helped 'steal' the election from the rightful winner, Donald Trump, and all the judges who refused to overturn the result on the 'spurious' grounds that Trump's advocates could not find any evidence to support their claim, other than Trump's claim that he won really.
Another aspect of this 'Paedophile Deep State' conspiracy is the belief that the COVID-19 pandemic was fake and a pretext for injecting people with mind-controlling vaccines developed by Bill Gates, or as an excuse to stop people going to church, or that wearing face coverings was an attempt at population control because people can't breathe properly with a face covering and die of asphyxia. Of course, government health officials like Anthony Fauci, America's leading epidemiologist, were part of the conspiracy and faked the statistics such as the case numbers and deaths.
The third aspect of Trumpanzeeism is the belief that demands by black people to be treated the same as white people by the police is a conspiracy by political extremists such as anti-fascists [sic], to deprive white Christians of their rightful position as the middle and upper class of a stratified society. A society in which the poor (and Black) only have themselves to blame, welfare is a scam whereby the white middle class is robbed through taxation to subsidise fecklessness and drug dependence, and health care should be preserved for those who can afford to pay for it, the way God intended, in White Christian America.
And we shouldn’t forget the notion that Mexicans are all drug-dealing criminals and rapists who want to destroy America.
But just holding whackadoodle beliefs is itself harmless. What is harmful is the antisocial behaviour that can come from holding them, such as discouraging people from getting vaccinated against a lethal virus, encouraging them to attend super-spreader events where social distancing and wearing face coverings were seen as a disloyal political statement, and such as trying to overthrow a democratic government in a violent insurrection.
Previous research has shown that holders of conspiracy theories are more likely to indulge in criminal activities and other anti-social behaviour and less likely]y to conform to prosocial norms, often regarding laws and social norms as part of the conspiracy.
But there is some hope that at least the more anti-social consequences of holding conspiracy theories, such as those adhered to by Trumpanzees, according to the results of an interesting study by four researchers at the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien, Tübingen, Germany, led by Lotte Plummerer, a PhD candidate.
As described in Psychology Today by Craig Harper Ph.D.:
This is beginning to look like the end times for Donald Trump and his Trumpanzee cult.
The mid-term elections which were supposed to deliver a 'red wave' of Repugnican candidates as Trumpanzees took control of both houses, failed to materialise and scarcely even resembled a dribble. It looks like the Democrats will retain control of the Senate and very many of the candidates publicly endorsed by Trump either lost or won by slim margins. To make matters worse for Trump personally, his arch rival for both the Repugnican choice for the 2024 presidential election and as leader of white right extremism, Ron DeSantis, won the gubernatorial race in Florida by a landslide, setting him up for a run at the presidency.
Estimates of effectiveness are shown by solid curves, and 95% CIs are shown by shaded bands. The steep upward trends seen early in panels A-C, but not in panel D, represent the ramp-up period of vaccination. Each curve is truncated at 15 months or when the number at risk hits 15% of the relevant sample. D, Comparison of prior infection with survival to no prior infection among all participants (vaccinated and not), with 98.6% of all participants surviving the prior infection. Home testing for infection is not included. Further detail can be found in eTable 1 in the Supplement.
More evidence was produces today showing how efficatious the anti-COVID vaccines are at preventing serious illness and death from COVID-19 and, incidentally, how dangerous and reckless has been the pro-Trump campaign to minimise the risks and raise the level of vaccine hesitancy in the US pupulation, led by Trumpanzee far-right loonies, evangelical Chritian preachers and televangelists and politically-motivated conspiracy theorists.
This evidence came in the form of a paper published in JAMA Network reporting on a cohort study of 10.6 million North Carolina Residents between March 2020 and June 2022, which concluded that:
…receipt of a primary COVID-19 vaccine series compared with being unvaccinated, receipt of a booster compared with primary vaccination, and prior SARS-CoV-2 infection compared with no prior infection were all significantly associated with lower risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection and resulting hospitalization and death.
In an editorial in JAMA Network accompanying publication of the paper the editor said:
The authors report that as of June 3, 2022, a total of 67% of the study population had been vaccinated and 2 771 364 SARS-CoV-2 infections were reported, with a hospitalization rate of 6.3% and mortality rate of 1.4%. Based on the analysis and findings, there are several important takeaways from this study. First, the results reinforced that first-generation COVID-19 vaccines were highly and durably effective against severe disease as measured by hospitalizations and deaths, but did not protect against milder infections beyond a few months, even with booster vaccinations. Emerging new variants, including Omicron, are associated with less protection against infection. However, even modest protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection may provide important benefits by reducing surges that can overwhelm health care systems, keeping schools and workplaces open, and protecting vulnerable populations at risk for severe outcomes following infection, including older adults and those with underlying medical conditions.
Second, prior infection was associated with a reduction in risk of infection and severe outcomes among those with or without prior vaccination. Additionally, among people with prior documented infection who had completed a primary vaccine series, booster vaccination was associated with additional protection, including 39.3% vaccine effectiveness against hospitalization after 3 months. Although prior infection alone is associated with lower risk of reinfection, vaccination also provides protection against ongoing transmission and has additional benefits, including attenuating severity of disease and reducing the risk of disabling postacute sequelae of COVID-19.9,14
Third, this study reinforced the growing complexities of COVID-19 and the strengths and limitations of routine surveillance systems. State-based surveillance systems have large sample sizes that allow detection of uncommon events and multiple subgroup analyses. However, they often lack granular details on underlying medical conditions or other factors that allow for better control of confounding or effect modification. Lin et al found that waning of booster dose vaccine effectiveness occurred over 4 to 6 months, but this may be partially due to patients with certain high-risk conditions, such as those who are significantly immunocompromised, getting third doses earlier than the general population. Among individuals who received a primary mRNA vaccine series, understanding comparability between those who received homologous and heterologous mRNA boosters would also be helpful to strengthen inference around benefits of receiving mixed vaccine products that was observed in this study.
In the abstrct to their paper, the authors state:
Key Points
Question How does the association of COVID-19 vaccination and prior SARS-CoV-2 infection with subsequent SARS-CoV-2 infection and severe COVID-19 outcomes change over time?
Findings In a cohort study of 10.6 million North Carolina residents from March 2020 to June 2022, receipt of a primary COVID-19 vaccine series compared with being unvaccinated, receipt of a booster compared with primary vaccination, and prior SARS-CoV-2 infection compared with no prior infection were all significantly associated with lower risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection and resulting hospitalization and death. The estimates for the associated protection decreased over time, especially for the outcome of infection, and varied by type of circulating variant.
Meaning Receipt of COVID-19 vaccines and boosters, as well as prior SARS-CoV-2 infection, were associated with protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection (including Omicron) and severe COVID-19 outcomes, although the associated protection waned over time.
Abstract
Importance Data about the association of COVID-19 vaccination and prior SARS-CoV-2 infection with risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection and severe COVID-19 outcomes may guide prevention strategies.
Objective To estimate the time-varying association of primary and booster COVID-19 vaccination and prior SARS-CoV-2 infection with subsequent SARS-CoV-2 infection, hospitalization, and death.
Design, Setting, and Participants Cohort study of 10.6 million residents in North Carolina from March 2, 2020, through June 3, 2022.
Exposures COVID-19 primary vaccine series and boosters and prior SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Main Outcomes and Measures Rate ratio (RR) of SARS-CoV-2 infection and hazard ratio (HR) of COVID-19–related hospitalization and death.
Results The median age among the 10.6 million participants was 39 years; 51.3% were female, 71.5% were White, and 9.9% were Hispanic. As of June 3, 2022, 67% of participants had been vaccinated. There were 2 771 364 SARS-CoV-2 infections, with a hospitalization rate of 6.3% and mortality rate of 1.4%. The adjusted RR of the primary vaccine series compared with being unvaccinated against infection became 0.53 (95% CI, 0.52-0.53) for BNT162b2, 0.52 (95% CI, 0.51-0.53) for mRNA-1273, and 0.51 (95% CI, 0.50-0.53) for Ad26.COV2.S 10 months after the first dose, but the adjusted HR for hospitalization remained at 0.29 (95% CI, 0.24-0.35) for BNT162b2, 0.27 (95% CI, 0.23-0.32) for mRNA-1273, and 0.35 (95% CI, 0.29-0.42) for Ad26.COV2.S and the adjusted HR of death remained at 0.23 (95% CI, 0.17-0.29) for BNT162b2, 0.15 (95% CI, 0.11-0.20) for mRNA-1273, and 0.24 (95% CI, 0.19-0.31) for Ad26.COV2.S. For the BNT162b2 primary series, boosting in December 2021 with BNT162b2 had the adjusted RR relative to primary series of 0.39 (95% CI, 0.38-0.40) and boosting with mRNA-1273 had the adjusted RR of 0.32 (95% CI, 0.30-0.34) against infection after 1 month and boosting with BNT162b2 had the adjusted RR of 0.84 (95% CI, 0.82-0.86) and boosting with mRNA-1273 had the adjusted RR of 0.60 (95% CI, 0.57-0.62) after 3 months. Among all participants, the adjusted RR of Omicron infection compared with no prior infection was estimated at 0.23 (95% CI, 0.22-0.24) against infection, and the adjusted HRs were 0.10 (95% CI, 0.07-0.14) against hospitalization and 0.11 (95% CI, 0.08-0.15) against death after 4 months.
Conclusions and Relevance Receipt of primary COVID-19 vaccine series compared with being unvaccinated, receipt of boosters compared with primary vaccination, and prior infection compared with no prior infection were all significantly associated with lower risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection (including Omicron) and resulting hospitalization and death. The associated protection waned over time, especially against infection.
Lin D, Gu Y, Xu Y, et al.
Association of Primary and Booster Vaccination and Prior Infection With SARS-CoV-2 Infection and Severe COVID-19 Outcomes. JAMA. 2022;328(14):1415–1426. doi:10.1001/jama.2022.17876
The benefits of vaccination and the risk of not being vaccinated is now unarguable, but the final sentence emphasises the importance of regular boosters as and when they become available, especially of those which have been updated to protect against the latest variants and subvarients. Pending a definitive vaccine against all SARS-C0V-2 virus strains, there is no real alternative but the keep our defences high with these regular boosters, much like we are currently doing with the influenza viruses where anual vaccination is needed because the virus readily mutates to form new varieties which can evade the immunity in the pupulation from the last wave of infections.
In the North Carolina cohort, only 67% of the cohort had been vaccinated. This means that one in three North Carolinans have no protection unless they have survived an earlier infection, which will provide some protection for a few months. These people can act as breeding grounds for new variants and as repositories for the virus ready to infect anyone with waning antibody levels.
The only way to reduce the effects of the pandemic on society is thus to keep the general level of protection in the population as high as possible and to reduce the number of people acting as these breeding grounds through better education to reduce the antisocial effect of the right-wing, Trumpanzee cult antivaxx disinformation campaigns.
A new report a few days ago from the US National Center for Health Statistics shows that life expectancy dropped by 3 years to about 73 for US men and 2.3 years to about 79 years for US women between 2019 and 2021. These are the lowest figures since 1996 after years of steadily increasing life expectancy for new-born babies.
Over the same period, the gap in life expectancy between men and women in the USA, which had been closing, widened again from 4.8 years in 2010 (the smallest recorded) to 6 years in 2021.
Despite the desperate claims of Trump-supporting evangelical preachers, far right extremists and conspiracy loons that COVID-19 was variously a hoax, a mild infection no worse than flu and could easily be prevented or cured with readily available drugs, without the need for 'dangerous' vaccines, three-quarters of over-all life expectancy lost during this period was attributed to COVID-19 deaths, according to a CDC statement.
Possibly due to the measures to combat the spread of COVID-19 such as wearing face covering, social distancing and lockdowns, deaths from influenza and other, non-COVID respiratory infections fell during the period, helping to offset some of the declining life expectancy.
There were also significant racial/ethnic and gender difference in the fall in life expectancy. According to the CDC report:
News of the continuing success for the pro-Trump Repugnicans in their effort to minimise the seriousness of the COVID-19 pandemic to try to cover up Donald Trump's incompetent handling of the crisis when president, comes in the form of a Gallop poll, showing the much lower level of concern about COVID19 exposure at work by Republican voters compared to Democrat voters.
Although overall concern remains fairly high at 33%, there is a wide difference between Democrat and Republican voters. While 51% of Democrat voters were very or moderately concerned, only 14% of Republican votes were, and while only 19% of Democrats were not concerned at all, this figure rose to 61% for Republicans.
Quite obviously, there is a significant risk of contracting the virus when working in close proximity with others and for those without the protection of a vaccination or whose antibody level may have fallen to a low level and in need of boosting.
More evidence of the astonishingly stupid, but highly successful pro-Trump antivaxx campaign against the COVID-19 vaccinations was produced today in the form of evidence that the COVID-19 pandemic death rate in the USA produced a significant fall in life-expectancy in 2021, continuing a sharp fall in 2020. It also showed how there were persistent disparities in life expectancy by race and ethnicity.
The antivaxx campaign came about in support of the then president, Donald Trump, who, realising he was out of his depth with the science, but due to his narcissistic personality disorder, was incapable of admitting it, panicked and set about politicizing the pandemic, threatening and vilifying scientists who tried to advise him and pressurizing officials to supress bad news and provide disinformation.
He first declared the pandemic to be a hoax, then to be a mild illness that would be over by April (2020) and which could be prevented with wackadoodle, untested 'preventative' chloramphenicol. This subsequently turned out to not only be ineffective in preventing infection or minimising the symptoms but was positively dangerous.
At one point, in a comical pretence of medical expertise that would have been funny if it hadn’t been so seriously stupid, the fool even suggested drinking surface disinfectants or inserting a UV light source into the body to cure the disease. Soon, wearing face-covering and social distancing became political acts, as did getting vaccinated when the vaccines were produced. Evangelical preachers preached against face-masks and for the right to continue to hold super-spreader events in their churches, and Trump's election rallies in which face-coverings were discouraged, became serious super-spreader events in their own right.
Consequently, when the Omicron wave hit, the death toll became overwhelmingly of unvaccinated people in Republican-leading areas of America, to the extent that some commentators referred to it as a self-inflicted genocide of the most gullible, as the Republicans Party became possibly the first political party in history with policies seemingly designed to kill their own supporters and with supporters who believed that risking the lives of themselves, their families and society at large was the patriotic thing to do.
