Ida is in the southern Gulf of Mexico and is expected to rapidly intensify Saturday and into Sunday. The National Hurricane Center forecasts the storm making landfall in southeast Louisiana Sunday evening as a Category 4 hurricane with winds of 130 mph. There is always advised to plan for a category higher as there is always uncertainty with a tropical system intensity. Regardless of that uncertainty, we need to be prepared for a potentially rapidly intensifying storm in the Gulf of Mexico. The waters are deep and warm and wind shear will relax over the Gulf. That, combined with a decent outflow will allow for the storm to grow in the atmosphere. All of this could lead to a major hurricane by landfall. Wind, rain, and storm surge will all be threats. We are expecting conditions to worsen late Saturday and throughout Sunday into Monday morning. Prepare now. Nick Note: This is a killer category 4 storm. And what makes it really ugly is it will go to the west of New Orleans. Hurricanes spin counter clockwise. It will hit to the west of New Orleans. Which means the powerful side of this storm is the North East quadrant. And will hit the city with its full force, Katrina hit exactly 16 years ago as a category 3 storm to the east of the city. The week side. Ida is a bad girl a category 4 with a storm surge of up to 15 feet. Now if the same people who have managed the covid19 plague and the Kabul airlift New Orleans is in big trouble. This storm could breach the levies and swamp the pumps protecting the city. Billion were spent building the cities defences and i am told the contractors did what contractors always do in Louisianan…… GOD has sent a test….. Nothing like a live demonstration. If you are within 100 miles of the path of this monster…RUN! The mayor of New Orleans said their was not enough time to order a evacuation….. Really. We have been tracking this storm for over a week……..
US conducts drone strike against ISIS in Afghanistan
US conducts drone strike against ISIS in Afghanistan
On Thursday, US President Joe Biden issued a strong statement over the Kabul blasts vowing to avenge the deaths of the 13 servicemen and make those responsible for the incident pay. Addressing the nation from the White House, President Biden also asserted that the US would continue to evacuate its citizens and the mission will go on. The United States military on Friday struck back against the ISIS-K in the aftermath of the devastating twin blasts at the Kabul Airport. As per agency sources, the US launched a drone strike against an Islamic State member in Nangarhar. The ISIS-K member was reportedly involved in planning the attacks against the US in Kabul. The strikes come in response to the death of 13 US servicemen who were involved in the evacuation operations at Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport. At least 169 Afghans including several children, who were lodged at the gates of the airport to escape the Taliban regime, also lost their lives in the attack. Sharing details of the drone strikes that targeted the ISIS-K planner, Pentagon in a statement said that as per initial indications, the target had been eliminated.
Navy Capt. Bill Urban, a Central Command spokesman, said in a statement, “U.S. military forces conducted an over-the-horizon counterterrorism operation today against an ISIS-K planner. The unmanned airstrike occurred in the Nangahar Province of Afghanistan. Initial indications are that we killed the target. We know of no civilian casualties.” Nick Note: See their is nothing to worry about. The US has over the horizon technology to stop the terrorists….. I though this is so cool. Then I started to think about it… Why did they use this whizzbang technology BEFORE the terrorists attack not AFTER it.
Biden vows retaliation after Kabul explosions
On Thursday, US President Joe Biden issued a strong statement over the Kabul blasts vowing to avenge the deaths of the 13 servicemen and make those responsible for the incident pay. Addressing the nation from the White House, President Biden also asserted that the US would continue to evacuate its citizens and the mission will go on.
Biden looks to shorten booster timeline to 5 months
https://youtu.be/8HT-xKJhHeY
President Joe Biden said U.S. regulators plan to give booster shots of Covid-19 five months after their primary vaccinations have ended, increasing the schedule for a third injection by about three months.
Biden, who spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Friday, said health officials plan to follow that country’s lead on boosters.
“We are reviewing the advice you gave that we should start earlier,” Biden said, adding that officials were debating whether the deadline should be shorter. “Should it be as little as five months and that’s under discussion.” Approval for the booster shots is expected to come around Labor Day after federal health officials had time to review data from other countries and vaccine makers that indicated the effectiveness of the drug. a booster dose six months after a previous dose.
In adults 60 years and older, a booster dose of a Covid-19 vaccine provided 4 times more protection against delta variant infection than the previous two-dose regimen, according to the Department of Health. ‘Israel.
Distribution of the booster injections following clearance from the Food and Drug Administration and recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to begin on September 20. The Biden administration and the vaccine makers have indicated that there should be enough doses for any fully vaccinated adult seeking a third dose. Nick Note: They must have hired the bureaucrats running the Kabul airport evacuations to fuck up the booster shot. I guess they though evacuations was close to vaccination. Best to start boosters shots after 5 months 6 months tops that the original science dictated…. So they decided to wait 8th months. Now that all 50 states are seeing a surge in infections and hospitalizations.. a record. They decided maybe they should roll out the vaccines earlier. Do not buy the bullshit “fully vaccinated” 2 shot people are safe. 25% of the people hospitalized and dying were vaccinated twice. So far no one in the US or Israel vaccinated three times has gotten infected/\/
Coronavirus Delta variant doubles risk of hospitalization
https://youtu.be/hBs20mfzIOs
The Delta variant of the coronavirus almost doubles the risk of hospitalization compared with the Alpha variant, according to a study published in British academic journal The Lancet that focused on people who had not been vaccinated.
The study, released late Friday, “confirms previous findings that people infected with Delta are significantly more likely” to require hospitalization than those with Alpha, “although most (NOT ALL) cases included in the analysis were unvaccinated.
Researchers analyzed 43,338 COVID-19 cases in England between March 29 and May 23. Only 1.8 percent of the studied cases had received two vaccine doses, 24 percent had received one shot and 74 percent were unvaccinated. The Delta variant is now dominant in the majority of EU countries, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said in July; it also accounts for 98 percent of all COVID cases in the U.K., Dabrera said. Nick Note: see it takes time for the data to come in. It makes sense, if it is more infectious it would make people sicker. And that is what we are discovering. Each variant that takes hold will be more deadlier then the last….. You know what to do so do it. You really do not want to go to the incubation death ward screaming for a vaccine or relying upon your guardian angels to save you. They are very very busy at this time
$15 drug gets COVID patients off oxygen support in under week – study
Fourteen out of 15 severe COVID-19 patients who were treated in an investigator-initiated interventional open-label clinical study of the drug TriCor (fenofibrate) didn’t require oxygen support within a week of treatment and were released from the hospital, according to the results of a new Hebrew University of Jerusalem study. Fenofibrate is an FDA-approved oral medication. The results were published on Researchsquare.com and are currently under peer review. Specifically, the team that was led by HU’s Prof. Yaakov Nahmias carried out the study at Israel’s Barzilai Medical Center in coordination with the hospital’s head of the Infectious Disease Unit, Prof. Shlomo Maayan, and with support from Abbott Laboratories. The 15 treated patients all had pneumonia and required oxygen support. They were also older with multiple comorbidities, ranging from diabetes and obesity to high blood pressure. In addition to standard of care, the patients were given 145 mg/day of fenofibrate for 10 days. “The results were dramatic,” Nahmias told The Jerusalem Post. “Progressive inflammation markers, which are the hallmark of deteriorative COVID-19, dropped within 48 hours of treatment. Moreover, 14 of the 15 severe patients didn’t require oxygen support within a week of treatment.” The 15th patient was off oxygen within 10 days. When looking at the data on other similar severe patients, less than 30% of them on average are removed from oxygen support within a week. In other words, fenofibrate could dramatically shorten the treatment time for severe COVID patients. “We know these kinds of patients deteriorate really fast, develop a cytokine storm in five to seven days and that it can take weeks to treat them and for them to get better,” Nahmias said. “We gave these patients fenofibrate and the study shows inflammation dropped incredibly fast. They did not seem to develop a cytokine storm at all.” Cytokine storms are aggressive inflammatory responses to illness. In general, patients who do not require oxygen can be treated at home,” he said. “Additionally, despite the high number of COVID deaths in Israel and abroad, the majority of severely sick patients survive.
“If you look over a 28-day period, I would have expected all of them to survive with or without the drug,” Nahmias explained. “The question is how fast we can get them home or how quickly we can get a severe patient to a mild condition.” All of the patients completed a 10-day home treatment after discharge and, according to Maayan, “no drug-related adverse events” were reported. FENOFIBRATE WAS approved by the FDA back in 1975 for long-term use and is considered safe. Moreover, it is an inexpensive pill, Nahmias said. It costs less than $1.50 a day, meaning the entire treatment per patient was around $15. Nahmias has been studying the use of fenofibrate for treating COVID-19 almost since the start of the pandemic. He first ran a pre-clinical trial and then a multi-center retrospective study, both of which supported the effectiveness of the drug. “Viruses are parasites,” Nahmias explained. “They cannot replicate by themselves. They have to get inside a human cell and hijack their machinery to replicate.”
Working with collaborators in the United States, Nahmias demonstrated that the coronavirus prevents the burning of fat in lung cells, resulting in large amounts of fat accumulating inside lung cells – a condition the virus needs to reproduce. Fenofibrate, he hoped, would reverse that effect, and eliminate virus replication. “By understanding how the SARS-CoV-2 controls our metabolism, we can wrestle back control from the virus and deprive it of the very resources it needs to survive,” Nahmias told the Post, noting that this also may help explain why patients with high blood sugar and cholesterol levels are often at a particularly high risk to develop COVID-19. The professor is now involved with a series of Phase III studies being carried out in South America, the United States and Israel. Those studies are placebo-controlled and double-blind. Nahmias said his team had been struggling to get patients enrolled in the study before the onset of the Delta variant, but efforts are now progressing more rapidly. He hopes that results could be available as early as within the next two months. In the meantime, the drug is available, and physicians can decide to give treatment with it based on available data. “There are no silver bullets,” he said, “but fenofibrate is far safer than other drugs proposed to date, and its mechanism of action makes it less likely to be variant-specific.” Nick Note: I do not know much about this. I am checking with my library sources and i will revert back to you. i got a idea… lets not get infected in the first place. It makes things a lot easier
Wuhan’s Covid patients face serious health problems year after recovery
Most symptoms of COVID-19 in hospitalized patients are resolved within 12 months, however, around one half still experience at least one persistent symptom, a study of 1,276 patients from Wuhan, China, published in The Lancet, has found. Around one in three people still experienced shortness of breath and lung impairments persisted in some patients, especially those who had experienced the most severe illness with COVID-19 (at 12 months, 35.7% patients who underwent additional lung health tests had diffusion impairments—reduced flow of oxygen from the lungs to the bloodstream [87/244]). Overall, COVID-19 survivors were less healthy than people from the wider community who had not been infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus (matched for age, sex and pre-existing conditions). Professor Bin Cao, from the National Center for Respiratory Medicine, China-Japan Friendship Hospital, China, said: “Our study is the largest to date to assess the health outcomes of hospitalized COVID-19 survivors after 12 months of becoming ill. While most had made a good recovery, health problems persisted in some patients, especially those who had been critically ill during their hospital stay. Our findings suggest that recovery for some patients will take longer than one year, and this should be taken into account when planning delivery of healthcare services post-pandemic.”
Long-term effects of COVID-19 have been widely reported and are an increasing concern. A previous study (by the same researchers) reporting outcomes from 1,733 hospitalized COVID-19 survivors after six months found that around three-quarters of patients had persistent health problems. The new study includes 1,276 patients from the same cohort to assess their health status after 12 months. Patients had been discharged from Jin Yin-tan Hospital in Wuhan, China, between 7 January and 29 May 2020. They underwent detailed health checks at six and 12 months (taken from the date they first experienced symptoms of COVID-19) to assess any ongoing symptoms and their health-related quality of life. These included face-to-face questionnaires, physical examinations, lab tests, and a six-minute walking test to gauge patients’ endurance levels. The average (median) age of patients included in the study was 57 years. Patient outcomes were tracked for an average (median) of 185 days (six-month check) and 349 days (12-month check). Many symptoms resolved over time, regardless of the severity of initial COVID-19 disease. The proportion of patients still experiencing at least one symptom after one year fell from 68% at six months (831/1,227) to 49% at 12 months (620/1,272). This decrease was observed regardless of the severity of COVID-19 the patients had experienced when hospitalized. Fatigue or muscle weakness was the most commonly reported symptom with around half of patients experiencing this at six months (52%, 636/1,230), falling to one in five patients at one year (20%, 255/1,272). Almost one third of patients reported experiencing shortness of breath at 12 months, which was slightly higher than at six months (30% at 12 months [380/1,271] vs 26% at 6 months [313/1,185]). This was more prevalent in patients who had been the most severely ill and had been on a ventilator during their time in hospital (39%, 37/94), compared to those who had not required oxygen treatment (25%, 79/317). At the six-month check, 349 study participants underwent a lung function test and 244 of those patients completed the same test at 12 months. The proportion of patients experiencing diffusion impairment did not improve from six months to 12 months and this was seen across all groups regardless of how ill they had been when hospitalized (Scale 3, no supplemental oxygen required during hospitalization: 21% at 6 months [12/57], 23% at 12 months [13/56]; Scale 4, required supplemental oxygen: 26% at 6 months [32/124], 31% at 12 months [36/117]; Scale 5-6, required ventilation during hospitalization: 57% at 6 months [39/69], 54% at 12 months [38/70]). Also at the six-month check, 353 study participants given a chest CT scan. Around one half of them showed lung abnormalities on their scan and were offered a repeat scan at 12 months (52.7%, 186/353). Of the 118 patients who completed the scan at 12 months, the proportion of patients with abnormalities decreased substantially across all groups but was still high, particularly in the most critically ill group.
Continue reading “Wuhan’s Covid patients face serious health problems year after recovery”
Biden, Bennett agree Iran must never develop nuclear weapons
https://youtu.be/TH7ZiSUIWwU
One of the few sweets that come with the position of prime minister of Israel is meeting alone with the president of the United States. But for Naftali Bennett, at the head of a party with only 6 of 20 Knesset seats and an unprecedented coalition made up of eight parties, it is a real political and media vitamin to be seen by his own as head of government. Bennett has savored 50 minutes of intimacy in the White House with Joe Biden this Friday even if he has his head in the Kabul airport. In fact, the attack forced the postponement of the meeting scheduled for Thursday with the Israeli who dedicated his first words to the jihadist attack: “On behalf of the people of Israel, I want to extend our condolences.The Americans lost their lives in the mission to save the life of others. It is the definition of will and sacrifice. Israel always unequivocally supports the US. ” Although he is aware that the current and highest priority of his great ally is Afghanistan, Bennett recalled Israel’s number 1 priority in the last decade: Iran. Due to its armed presence in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Gaza and Lebanon and especially its nuclear plan, Tehran is at the center of the concerns of the Government, Army and Mosad. “Iran is the No. 1 exporter of terror and human rights violations in the world. As we sit here, the Iranians are enriching uranium and we must stop them,” Bennett warned, adding: “We live in the toughest neighborhood in the world. We have to around us ISIS, Hezbollah, Hamas, Iranian militias, all of them want to kill Israelis. Therefore, Israel must be stronger and more firm than all its enemies combined. ” After reiterating “the commitment to Israel’s security” and announcing aid for the rearmament of its Iron Dome defensive batteries, Biden said that at the meeting they will discuss “the threat from Iran and our commitment to guarantee that Iran never develops a weapon. nuclear”. He clarified that for this his first option is diplomatic but added: “If it fails, we will be prepared to consider other ways.” Bennett shares the opposition of his former boss, Benjamin Netanyahu , to the Iranian nuclear agreement of 2015 and the return to it as Biden wishes after the withdrawal of Donald Trump, but it differs from his strategy against former President Barack Obama. “We bring a new spirit of cooperation from people who may think differently but work together and with good will,” says the conservative leader. Regarding the practically absent Israeli-Palestinian conflict, The two leaders seem to agree in their disagreement, confirming that given the heterogeneous composition of the new government in Jerusalem, an annexation in parts of the West Bank is not expected, but neither is the two-state solution. Hence, Bennett insists before Biden to focus only on measures to improve the economic situation of the Palestinians. The United States understands the margins of action of the new Government and in order not to make it falter, it will refrain from massive pressure, as for example Obama did on Netanyahu with the colonies. A strange couple, a similar fate For Bennett meeting with the US president is an enormous achievement considering that a few months ago he was just another deputy in the Knesset. For Biden it is also important because of the timing that marks the agitated withdrawal from Afghanistan since, under the rain of criticism and accusations that he is abandoning his allies, he staged with the guest of Israel who remains committed to his old and close friends in the area. “It is an unbreakable relationship,” he described. “We have become close friends. He heads the most diverse government in Israel’s history,” said the American who has dealt with every Israeli prime minister since Golda Meir in 1973. Bennett (49) and Biden (78), who had good chemistry, form a “strange couple.” One of the youngest heads of government in Israel’s history and the oldest tenant in the White House. But the Conservative premier and the “Democratic” president share a curious fate: They came to office unexpectedly in their political careers (one earlier than expected and the other later) thanks especially to deep internal divisions around his predecessors (Trump and Netanyahu). The Biden Administration embraces the rotating Israeli Government -especially with which Yair Lapid will be Prime Minister from 2023- given that it has a decisive representation of the center-left and has achieved the departure of Netanyahu, who they identify with the Republican party and the closely with Trump. For this reason, the meeting will also be remembered as the first since 2009 between an American president and an Israeli prime minister who is not named Netanyahu. Nick Note: Iran must be stopped. I can not help but wonder if this is real or another sound bite. At this poimt their is only one way to stop Iran’s nuclear program… That is to bomb their nuclear sights. I wonder if Biden will grow a hairy set of balls…..
Powell: Inflation is ‘not a problem’
(Reuters) – U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Friday said he remains unconvinced that current high inflation readings will turn out to be permanent, pushing back against a growing number of his more hawkish colleagues publicly fretting about price pressures.
While recent inflation readings are “a cause for concern,” Powell told the Kansas City Fed’s annual Jackson Hole economic symposium, they are more than likely to recede, and responding by tightening monetary policy would be a “harmful mistake.” The remarks appeared calibrated less to an argument against tapering the Fed’s asset purchases and more to make the case against raising interest rates soon after. Indeed, Powell chose the speech to acknowledge that, at least as of last month’s policy meeting, he supported the Fed’s reducing its $120 billion in monthly asset purchases this year, with inflation already meeting the bar to do so, and further progress on the employment front expected. But to raise rates the Fed has said the economy must meet a more stringent test, including not only maximum employment but also inflation that has reached and looks on track to exceed 2% for some time. “Time will tell whether we have reached 2% on a sustainable basis,” Powell said.
In the 12 months through July, the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation – the core PCE price index – rose 3.6% after a similar increase in June, data Friday showed; on a monthly basis, the gain was the smallest in five months.
Powell’s defense of his “temporary” view on inflation drew swift criticism from some quarters, with Harvard University’s Jason Furman saying that while it was an “excellent and coherent case,” Powell was “failing to take seriously any arguments on the other side.” Here’s Powell’s 5-point rundown on why he isn’t perturbed: Nick Note: the dumbest most idiotic statement ever made by a central banker is “inflation is not a problem” Before the fat lady sings he will deeply regret those words. And so will everyone buying into these bubble bond, real-estate and stock-market.
S&P 500, Nasdaq scale new peaks as Powell calms taper fears
(Reuters) – The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq hit record highs in a risk-on-rally on Friday as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled the U.S. central bank would remain patient in winding down stimulus. In prepared remarks for a speech to the Jackson Hole economic conference, Powell defended the view of “transitory” inflation and stopped short of signaling the timing for any reduction in the $120 billion asset purchases program beyond “this year.” “He successfully threaded the needle in communicating that tapering will likely begin this year, while reinforcing the notion that tapering does not mean tightening,” said Cliff Hodge, chief investment officer for Cornerstone Wealth. “We believe that barring further setbacks from the Delta variant, that September will likely produce a blowout jobs number and set the table for the official tapering announcement at the September FOMC meeting.” Data earlier on Friday showed the Fed’s favored inflation gauge, the personal consumption expenditure index, moderated in July. The index rose 3.6% in the 12 months through July, more than the central bank’s flexible 2% target. “With the growth in money supply, you have to anticipate that there are some long-term inflation problems. So any sectors that have the ability to raise prices, those are the sectors you want to stay in so that if we do get inflation in the long term, you have a natural hedge against that,” said Greg Swenson, founding partner of Brigg Macadam.”It’s pretty easy to say at this point in the United States to stay long cyclicals.” All the 11 major S&P sectors advanced, with energy shares jumping 3.1% to lead the gains, followed by materials and communication services. The small-cap Russell 2000 index rose 2.7% to its highest level since July 13. The Cboe Volatility Index, Wall Street’s fear gauge, fell 2.32 points to 16.52. U.S. stocks had fallen from all-time highs on Thursday on concerns over developments in Afghanistan. Still, the three major indexes were set for weekly gains, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq on pace to outperform the S&P 500 and the blue-chip Dow. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 5.43-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 3.88-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq. The S&P index recorded 56 new 52-week highs and 1 new low, while the Nasdaq recorded 97 new highs and 28 new lows. Nick Note: Rock on…..This one hell of a party…. Wait for the hangover…..