Author: BlackMask Financial

LONDON, Sept 20 (Reuters) – Some of Britain’s meat processors will run out of carbon dioxide within five days, forcing them to halt production, the head of the industry’s lobby group warned on Monday. A jump in gas prices has forced several domestic energy suppliers out of business and has shut fertiliser plants that also produce carbon dioxide (CO2), used to stun animals before slaughter and prolong the shelf-life of food. The shortage of CO2, also used to put the fizz in beer, cider and soft drinks, has compounded an acute shortage of truck drivers in the UK, which has been blamed on the impact of COVID-19 and Brexit.

“My members are saying anything between five, 10 and 15 days supply,” Nick Allen of the British Meat Processors Association told Sky News.

With no CO2 a meat processor cannot operate, he said. “The animals have to stay on farm, they’ll cause farmers on the farm huge animal welfare problems and British pork and British poultry will disappear off the shelves,” Allen said. “We’re two weeks away from seeing some real impacts on the shelves. On the poultry side we’re hearing they’re even tighter supplies so we might see poultry disappearing even sooner.” Allen said the government was working hard to try and resolve the issue and could hopefully persuade a UK fertiliser producer to re-start their plant. The British Retail Consortium (BRC), which represents retailers including the major supermarket groups, said the CO2 crisis added to existing pressures on production and distribution. “Retailers are working with their suppliers to resolve this issue, but government must investigate this issue as soon as possible and work with industry to ensure a solution is found quickly and problems don’t escalate further,” said Andrew Opie, the BRC’s director of food and sustainability. Foreign office minister James Cleverly said the government was looking to address short-term shortages. “We will ensure that we are able to put food on the table, obviously that is a real priority,” Nick Note: When we had the sea food factory industrial gases where critical for our operations. And when the nearest supply was two weeks away by boat and 1,500 miles you learned to pay close attenuation. The majority of our refrigeration were run on ammonia gas with huge compressors. If they went down we would turn 10 million in sea food to cat food or worse yet $1000 of fish-meal.the  Cheap gases we used we would bring from the US in tanks mounted on 20 foot containers We also used a lot of Co2 gas. It was used to flash freeze fish fillets, lobster and shrimp. We had a  IQF (individual quick frozen) Co2 tunnel to process shrimp. The cost of the gases was virtually nothing but you could not operate without it. We purchased from the commercial gas manufactures in Louisianan. All produced as a by product from natural gas. Co2 is used to stun chickens and turkeys before slaughter.  It is used to freeze chicken parts like chicken McNuggets. The chicken, Turkey, fish and meat packers cannot operate without it. You could of course eat veggie burgers…. Or go total vegan….. And their is the option of foods made from ants and worms. Not my cup of tea. I suggest you fill up your freezer and let someone else worry about the shortages. This is not new. We have been urging you to stock up all year. In a food inflation your yielding more on your survival stash of foods then in your treasuries….

https://youtu.be/kLbJvWwmawY

 

 

 

 

United States stock indexes traded significantly lower on Monday amid a global selloff, driven by inflation concerns, as well as the surge in new COVID-19 infections. Over the weekend, media reported that the Washington-held Quad summit should lead to a new semiconductor partnership among participants. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 1.37%, or 473 points at 4:24 am ET, while the Nasdaq lost 1.05%, or 160 points. The S&P 500 plunged 1.18% or 52 points at the same time. Nick Note: This is getting out of hand. Part of the fear in the market is the silence by the Chinese government on its latest wipe out of investors…especially the stupid US funds and investment bankers…. How did they hook them in. Its the classic free money trap. CHASING HIGHER YEILDS. Evergrande bonds were paying 8% in the classic what you see  is what you do not get! And for the record the owners of this debt are US retirement savers who log on to their IRA fund and check the yield……. . China is closed for 2 days another freeging holiday. My read is the Chinese government will intervene and bond investors will take up to a 80% hair cut. Before I jump off the bridge i need to get a read on what is going on. I see a China take over of Evergrande…..  As to the China real estate crises its worse in the US……… And the reaction in the US markets is overdone. Do not get me wrong a wipeout is coming… It will come as the FED raises rates and cut of the 150 billion a month in direct stimulus

Israel’s top COVID-19 experts say that they view the Food and Drug Administration advisory panel’s decision to recommend vaccine booster shots only for Americans over the age of 65 or those in specific risk groups as a vindication of their own country’s massive inoculation campaign. Israel was the first country in the world to begin a widespread booster shot campaign this summer, and Israeli data was used during the FDA panel’s deliberations. Yet while Israel is now offering the booster shot to anyone over the age of 12, the advisory committee decided to limit it to specific high-risk populations for now. Leading experts in Israel have said over the past two days that they view the American panel’s recommendation as an acknowledgment that conditions differ between the two countries. “The FDA in principle confirmed that the third dose is safe,” said Prof. Nadav Davidovitch, director of the School of Public Health at Ben-Gurion University of the Desert, Be’er Sheva, and head of the Israeli Association of Public Health Physicians. Davidovitch added that “we need to remember the FDA did approve it for high-risk people with chronic diseases and also those at high risk because of their profession, such as health care workers of all ages. They have their own priorities and Israel has other priorities, because we started earlier. We also started with older people and then moved down and I think this is a very reasonable decision.” Israel began to offer the third dose to older citizens back in August because of rising concerns, later confirmed by new research, that the effectiveness of the existing COVID-19 vaccines began to wane after approximately six months. An Israeli study published last week showed that booster shots increase protection from infection over tenfold in those over 60, compared to those who received only a second shot of the vaccine months ago. The study used data on 1.14 million Israelis aged 60 and up who had received two doses of the vaccine by the end of August. It divided cases into two groups: one consisting of people who received two doses of the vaccine, and another consisting of people who received a third dose. The researchers found that at least 12 days after the booster shot, the rate of infection in the non-booster group was 11.4 higher than the booster group, while their rate of severe illness was 19.5 times higher. The peer-reviewed study was authored by 11 researchers, including Israel’s director of public health services, Dr. Sharon Alroy-Preis, who also spoke in front of the FDA panel and presented relevant data from Israel. Following the FDA panel’s decision, Alroy-Preis explained how Israel’s considerations differ from those of the United States. “We are three months ahead of the U.S. in the entire vaccination campaign’’, she told the Ynet news website. ‘’They don’t yet see the waning immunity [of the previous doses], but here it’s very apparent.’’ In a statement on Saturday, the Health Ministry also said that the United States is “several months behind Israel” in terms of vaccinating its citizens, many of whom are still within the window of maximum protection offered by the second dose of the vaccine. “At the point in time where Israel is at the moment, it is right for Israel to vaccinate the entire population aged 12 and older with the booster dose,” the ministry asserted. Prof. Ran Balicer, who heads a panel that advises the Israeli government on COVID policies, appeared to agree, tweeting that Israel’s health authorities also debated over several weeks whether to approve the first stage of the booster campaign, which was originally limited to those over 60. “The American decision from tonight is much broader than the one made back then in Israel,’’ he wrote. “I believe they too will gradually expand the recommendation.” In an interview with Channel 12, Dr. Ofer Levy, an Israeli member of the FDA advisory panel, concurred that Israel’s situation was different from that of the United States, where he said more data was necessary, adding that Israelis eligible for a third shot should get one, regardless of what was happening in other countries. On Saturday, the Israeli Health Ministry’s COVID dashboard reported 697 patients in serious condition, 484 of whom were not vaccinated at all. In other words, despite the fact that only 17 percent of eligible Israelis have not been vaccinated at all for COVID-19, the unvaccinated are now more than two-thirds of the country’s severe cases. Meanwhile, there were 158 serious cases of people who received two shots of the vaccine, and only 55 who had received a booster shot. Over the past week, 119 people have died of the virus, and nearly 60 percent of them were unvaccinated. The disparity is even more apparent when calculating per capita: For every death of an Israeli over 60 who received the booster shot, there are roughly 15 deaths of unvaccinated Israelis in the same age group. As of Sunday, 3,040,426 Israelis have received a booster, while 5,576,238 have received two doses and 6,062,338 have only received one. The FDA is expected to make its final decision on the third round of shots soon. It is not bound by the panel’s recommendation but will take it into consideration.

Israel has been one of the focal points of the pandemic in 2021 owing to its rapid rollout of COVID-19 vaccines. By late February, authorities had administered at least one dose to 50% of the population, with much of Israel’s immunisation programme using Pfizer vaccines. Society then in effect reopened across the summer of 2021. However, since then Israel has reported significant outbreaks, with over 10,000 confirmed new cases being recorded each day in early September. A main part of the problem has been vaccine coverage. After its fast start, Israel’s rollout slowed. There have not been any clear interruptions to vaccine supply, so factors such as hesitancy or access to healthcare may have been an issue. For example, there’s evidence of uptake being lower among Arab and ultra-Orthodox Jewish groups. The share of the population having received one dose increased from 50% in February to only 68% in September. Children aged 12-15 have been included in the rollout since June 2021, yet despite this, currently only 62% of the population have had two doses.This has left Israel behind many other countries in terms of coverage, including the UK. Having around 30% of the Israeli population completely unvaccinated means that there’s approximately 2.7 million people who are potentially susceptible to infection and illness.  There are also concerns that the immunity offered by the Pfizer vaccines may be waning over time, although much of the research on this is still at an early stage (meaning it is still awaiting review by other scientists). Israel’s hospital data is, though, showing that vaccinated people are susceptible to infection. Recent reports suggest that nearly 60% of hospitalisations are in the fully vaccinated. However, as experts have suggested, these figures don’t necessarily mean that vaccines have lost their effectiveness. The same sort of trend has been seen in the UK, and may simply reflect the fact that the elderly are more likely to be vaccinated while also being more susceptible to disease – factors which combine to inflate COVID-19 cases and deaths among the vaccinated.

A further factor is the more transmissible delta variant, which has now taken hold in Israel. This form of the virus is driving the current series of outbreaks, and its greater ability to spread may partially explain the rise in cases too.

The other big part of the problem has been Israel ending its restrictions. Dr Asher Salmon, director of the Department for International Relations at Israel’s ministry of health, suggested in July that Israel “may have lifted restrictions too early”. It’s the latest in a long line of examples showing how community transmission can be easily sustained when national policy encourages the mixing of susceptible people with no or few restrictions in place. The tragic consequences of relaxing restrictions in India shows how devastating it can be when decision-making goes awry. The COVID-19 Stringency Index created by Our World in Data is a composite measure of the strictness of the COVID-19 containment policies in each country around the world. As of August 28 2021, Israel’s restrictions score was 45.4, far less strict than New Zealand, where outbreaks continue to be limited in scope (96.3), but comparable with the UK (44.0), which is reporting around 30,000 new cases per day. Countries watched the initial vaccine rollout in Israel, gauging the vaccines’ impact and using this information to inform their own immunisation campaigns. Amid concerns about waning immunity, there are once again reasons to observe what happens next in Israel, as it is now implementing a booster programme, giving third doses of vaccines.

In terms of the effectiveness of boosters, early reports are encouraging. In those receiving a booster, the risk of a confirmed coronavirus infection appears to decrease 11-fold relative to individuals who have received two doses. However, the relevant study is still in preprint, so its findings have yet to be formally reviewed.

The use of boosters is controversial. There have been continuous calls for higher-income countries to share their vaccine stockpiles with lower-income ones. This has not yet happened to any great extent. As of early September, only 5.4% of the African continent has received at least one dose of any COVID-19 vaccine. The World Health Organization has called for a moratorium on booster shots until at least the end of September, but it seems unlikely any country will be altering their policies accordingly – including Israel. Israel’s vaccine rollout, overall, has arguably been implemented very successfully. But the country is also an example of what can happen when restrictions are relaxed too quickly. What it shows is that all countries – regardless of their current vaccine status – need to maintain longer-term plans for how to minimise the impact of COVID-19, during this current pandemic and beyond when controlling smaller outbreaks.

Nick Note: Lets keep our perspective here. This is not about politics. Its not even about who is right and who is wrong. Its about staying healthy and alive.  I am seeing a lot of confusion about the record breaking infections in Israel. The data suggest that is caused by 3 things.

1. the highly infections and more deadly Delta mutation.

2, it is infecting non vaccinated people in droves.

3. To a much lesser extent we are seeing a increase in what is called breakthrough infections among the fully vaccinated as their vaccine wears off in 6 month.

For the record serious infections among the 3rd vaccinated are nill. We are seeing hospitalizations among unvaccinated at a rate 500 cases per hundred thousand. Among (2 shot)  vaccinated  20 cases per 100,000. And among the fully vaccinated with the 3rd shot 1 case, one serious ill person out of 100,000. So why are cases at record highs in Israel. Well the truth is its being driven by two things… The fools unvaccinated and the lifting of ALL restrictions for the high holidays. That represent from the Jewish New Year to Succot weeks of get togethers in big groups. And the festive season is not over yet. So fasten your seat belt. The good news is we will get incredible accurate data. Early indicators will show that triple vaccinated people are not getting infected.

BAGHDAD — OPEC and its allies will try to keep oil prices at $70 per barrel in the first quarter of 2022, Iraq’s oil minister said, adding the group is expected to stick to its current production accord when it meet in October “if prices remain stable.” Iraq total oil exports, including those of the Kurdistan region in the north of the country, should stand at an average of 3.4 million barrels per day in September, the minister, Ihsan Abdul Jabbar, told a news conference in Baghdad on Sunday.

The burden on US hospital ICUs has more than doubled since June.

The current surge of COVID-19 cases driven by the hypertransmissible delta variant is straining hospitals across the US, particularly in the South. Twenty-five percent of hospital intensive care units around the country are now above 95 percent full. That percentage is up from 20 percent in July and just 10 percent in June, according to data tracking by The New York Times.

The spike in critical care follows a surge in cases and hospitalizations. Average new daily cases in the country skyrocketed from around 12,000 a day in late June to 150,000 or so in mid-September. Hospitalizations have likewise risen, shooting up from an average of nearly 17,000 a day at the start of July to around 100,000 now. Though cases and hospitalizations are starting to plateau or decline slightly, they are still extremely high. Deaths, meanwhile, are increasing. In the past two weeks, deaths have increased 40 percent to the current average of nearly 1,900 per day.

Most of the cases and nearly all of the hospitalizations and deaths remain among the unvaccinated. Around 60,000 people in the US have died of COVID-19 since the start of July. With highly effective vaccines freely available, nearly all of the current deaths are preventable.

Now, along with the surge, public health experts fear strain on health care systems will lead to additional suffering and death in non-COVID patients. Hospitals in several states have been forced to ration treatments and enact crisis-care standards.

Hospitals in Alabama have exceeded 100 percent capacity of ICU beds. The Alabama Hospital Association on Tuesday reported that there were 1,592 ICU patients in the state and only 1,549 staffed ICU beds, an excess of 43 patients. The seven-day average of positive tests for the Yellowhammer State is 19 percent, suggesting that transmission is still extremely high. Alabama is one of the least-vaccinated states in the country, with only 40 percent of the population fully vaccinated.  Generally, the hospitals and ICUs most overburdened are in the South, where vaccination rates are relatively low and transmission of delta has soared. In Texas, 169 out of 506 reporting hospitals have ICUs above 95 percent full, which is up from just 69 in June, the Times notes. In Florida, 24 hospitals have reported having more ICU patients than beds in the last week. In Mississippi, 94 percent of the entire state’s ICU beds are full. But the South isn’t the only place where hospitals are becoming overwhelmed. Last week, Idaho’s health department activated its crisis standards of care in 10 northern hospitals. Likewise, Alaska’s largest hospital—Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage—implemented crisis standards over the weekend. The hospital announced the decision in a two-page letter sent Tuesday. “The acuity and number of patients now exceeds our resources and our ability to staff beds with skilled caregivers, like nurses and respiratory therapist,” according to the letter, which was signed by Providence Chief of Staff Dr. Kristen Solana Walkinshaw. “[W]e must prioritize scarce resources and treatments to those patients who have the potential to benefit most. We have been required to develop and enact policies and procedures to ration medical care and treatments, including dialysis and specialized ventilatory support… Due to this scarcity, we are unable to provide lifesaving care to everyone who needs it.” The letter also noted that, with the crush of COVID-19 patients, some people seeking emergency care were sitting for hours in their cars outside of the hospital, waiting to be seen by a doctor.

UK records 164 COVID deaths, 30,144 new cases

Figure brings the total UK death toll to 135,147; Russia reports 20,329 new cases in 24 hours; anti-lockdown protesters clash with police in Melbourne

• Prove your Covid status if you want to party, UK students told
• People with chronic conditions most at risk from Covid even after jabs
• Victoria police and anti-lockdown protesters in violent clashes
• Freshers’ week drive to give Covid jabs to students in England
• See all our coronavirus coverage
• • The UK has recorded 164 new Covid-19 related deaths and 30,144 new cases in the latest 24 hour period, government figures show. It brings the total number of cases to 7,400,739 and the overall death toll to 135,147.
  • Singapore’s health ministry reported 1,009 new Covid-19 cases on Saturday, the highest since April last year. A recent rise in cases after the relaxation of some Covid-19 measures has prompted Singapore to pause further reopening.
  • Around 25,000 people joined a massive outdoor drinking party marking the start of term at a Madrid university without observing safety precautions, police said Saturday, admitting they were caught off-guard.
  • Half-term holiday bookings are up by 200% since the relaxation of travel rules in England.
  • Professor Adam Finn, a member on the JCVI, has warned of “uncertain times ahead” in the coming months, adding it was “sensible” for 12- to 15-year-olds to get the Covid vaccine.
  • Secondary schools in UK have been caught up in the row over Covid vaccines for students.
  • Ronapreve, the Covid antibody drug, is to be given to vulnerable NHS patients.
  • A disaster relief organisation founded by the actor Sean Penn is boosting Georgia’s drive to vaccinate people against the coronavirus.
  • Unvaccinated university students have been urged to get a Covid jab in freshers’ week to protect themselves and their peers against the virus.
  • Two professional dancers on Strictly Come Dancing have reportedly refused to be vaccinated against Covid, causing complications before the show’s return on Saturday night.
  • The night-time economy in Wales needs “clarity” and “simplicity” when it comes to the implementation of Covid vaccine passes, an industry chief has warned.
  • Victoria police clashed with anti-lockdown protesters in Melbourne on Saturday afternoon, as the Australian state recorded another 535 new coronavirus cases and one death.
  • Mexico reported 11,711 new confirmed cases of Covid-19 and  765 deaths on Saturday, Reuters reports. It brings the total number of infections since the pandemic began to 3,564,694 and 271,303 fatalities, according to health ministry data.
  • Boris Johnson is expected to push Joe Biden for a restoration of UK-US travel during a visit to the White House.
  • The US administered 384,911,290 doses of Covid-19 vaccines as of Saturday morning and distributed 466,569,635 doses, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. Those figures are up from 383,994,877 vaccine doses the CDC said had gone into arms by September 17, out of 464,315,725 doses delivered. The agency said 211,489,242 people had received at least one dose, while 181,035,022 people were fully vaccinated as of 6 a.m. ET Saturday, Reuters reports.
  • Those most at risk from Covid-19 in Australia say the easing of restrictions when vaccination targets are met will bring anxiety and danger.
  • A school district in the Canadian province of British Columbia will be locking down schools from Monday due to ongoing anti-vaccine protests. The “hold and secure” protocol was enacted on Friday after people protesting against vaccines and masks, who the district said had been targeting schools all week, entered two school buildings in and around Salmon Arm, British Columbia. The protocol meant that students could not leave or enter the building for the rest of the day. All schools in the district will be under the same “hold and secure” guidance from Monday. Canada has seen a wave of anti-vaccine protests ramp up in recent weeks as the country’s federal election draws nearer, Reuters reports.
  • France has reported 7,414 new coronavirus cases, Reuters reports. The country has recorded more than 6.94 million cases in total.

  • Around 25,000 people joined a massive outdoor drinking party marking the start of term at a Madrid university without observing safety precautions, police said Saturday, admitting they were caught off-guard. Spanish media said it was the biggest such gathering since the start of the coronavirus pandemic when large public gatherings were halted to stop the spread of the virus, AFP reports. “There were thousands of people on the grounds of Complutense University, about 25,000,” a municipal police statement said, indicating the gathering appeared to have been organised online via Whatsapp.

    Images on social media showed vast crowds of beaming youngsters gathered on the campus, drinking, dancing and hanging out with hardly a mask in sight. “Without prior warning from the university or time to prepare an appropriate operation, breaking up a gathering of some 25,000 people is an almost impossible job,” police said, indicating they had only reached the site after midnight. Although Spain has lifted many of its pandemic safety restrictions, people are still required to wear masks outdoors if they are unable to maintain a 1.5-metre (five-foot) safety distance from those around them. And large gatherings remain banned, although the numbers vary from region to region. But some people have dropped their guard given the rapid pace of the vaccination programme, with more than 75 percent of Spain’s 47 million residents now fully vaccinated.

  • Some more data from Italy. Patients in hospital with Covid-19 – not including those in intensive care – stood at 3,958 on Saturday, down from 3,989 a day earlier.  There were 31 new admissions to intensive care units, down from 34 on Friday. The total number of intensive care patients fell to 519 from a previous 525, Reuters reports.

    Some 355,933 tests for Covid-19 were carried out in the past day, compared with a previous 284,579, the he

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted Friday that the company’s Starlink satellite internet network would come out of its open beta phase next month. That’s two months later than the August date Musk gave at Mobile World Congress, when he also said he expected the service to have “possibly over 500,000 users within 12 months The Starlink system calls for a constellation of nearly 12,000 satellites in low-Earth orbits that will beam continuous broadband internet service. A terminal costs $499 and there’s a $99 monthly fee for service. It opened its public beta test in October 2020, and Musk said in August that SpaceX had shipped 100,000 Starlink terminals, which includes a satellite dish and a Wi-Fi router, to users in 14 countries. As the beta ends and more countries are able to get access to Starlink, that 100,000 number is likely to grow, although it’s hard to tell when it might reach the half-million mark that Musk predicted. Starlink’s internet service is planned to be sold directly to consumers in rural areas around the world, among other customers, and it’s touting 100Mbps download and 20Mbps upload speeds. Reviews of the Starlink service so far have been mixed, however. It’s also worth noting that Musk tends to be extremely optimistic when laying out deadlines for his companies’ product releases, as Tesla customers who waited for that company’s so-called “Full Self Driving” software can attest. Nick Note: I urge you to give them a $100 deposit and get on the waiting list. This is a revolution in how internet is delivered….. Its a must for rural users and for city folk a GREAT backup system