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Israeli studies find Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine reduces transmission

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine greatly reduces virus transmission, two Israeli studies have found, shedding light on one of the biggest questions of the global effort to quash the pandemic.

Data analysis in a study by the Israeli Health Ministry and Pfizer Inc found the Pfizer vaccine developed with Germany’s BioNTech reduces infection, including in asymptomatic cases, by 89.4% and in syptomatic cases by 93.7%.

Findings of the pre-published study, not yet peer-reviewed, but based on a national database that is one of the world’s most advanced, were first reported by the Israeli news site Ynet late on Thursday and were obtained by Reuters on Friday. Pfizer declined to comment and the Israeli Health Ministry did not respond to a request for comment. A separate study by Israel‘s Sheba Medical Center published on Friday in The Lancet medical journal found that among 7,214 hospital staff who received their first dose in January, there was an 85% reduction in symptomatic COVID-19 within 15 to 28 days with an overall reduction of infections, including asymptomatic cases detected by testing, of 75%. More research is needed to draw a definitive conclusion, but the studies are among the first to suggest a vaccine may stop the spread of the novel coronavirus and not just prevent people getting ill. Michal Linial, a professor of molecular biology and bioinformatics at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University, said the findings were a big step towards answering one of the most important questions in combating the pandemic. “Whether it is 75 or 90 percent reduction doesn’t matter – it is a big drop in transmission,” Linial said. “It means that not only is the individual vaccinated protected, the inoculation also provides protection to his or her surroundings.” The researchers said further study was needed on asymptomatic transmission among people fully vaccinated because they are less likely to be tested for COVID-19. Vaccine developers have also said more research was needed on transmissibility. In December, Germany’s BioNTech said it would take three to six months more study. Leading the world in its vaccination roll out, Israel’s universal healthcare and advanced data capabilities have provided a nationwide database that can offer insights into how effective the vaccines are outside controlled clinical trials. The Health Ministry/Pfizer study analysed data collected between Jan. 17 and Feb. 6, looking at individuals who had been fully vaccinated, after receiving their second Pfizer shot. To date more than 30%, or 2.8 million of Israel’s nine million population have received both doses. Sheba’s study found that just the first dose of Pfizer’s vaccine was 85% effective, potentially fuelling a debate over the recommended two-dose schedule. Canadian researchers in a letter published this week suggested that the second Pfizer dose be delayed given the high level of protection from the first shot to increase the number of people getting vaccinated. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said in December data from those trials showed the vaccine began conferring some protection to recipients before they received the second shot, but more data would be needed to assess the potential of a single-dose shot. Pfizer has said alternative dosing regimens of the vaccine have yet to be evaluated and that the decision resided with the health authorities. Another caveat is that the cohort studied at the hospital were “mostly young and healthy,” Sheba epidemiologist Gili Regev-Yochay said. Unlike with Pfizer’s clinical trial, “we don’t have many (staff) here aged over 65,” she told reporters. But she also said the Sheba study took place during a surge in coronavirus infections in Israel, which flooded hospitals with new cases. Pfizer declined to comment on the data, saying in a statement it was doing its own analysis of “the vaccine’s real-world effectiveness in several locations worldwide, including Israel”. Both studies’ findings compared with overall efficacy of around 95% in a two-dose regimen 21 days apart. The Health Ministry/Pfizer researchers found the vaccine to be effective against the British coronavirus variant that makes up about 80% of Israel’s confirmed cases. Eran Kopel, an epidemiologist at Tel Aviv University said the Sheba study was important, but it focused on one hospital and a relatively small group of people, so “one could not draw clear-cut epidemiological conclusions from it”. The Health Ministry’s data was encouraging, he said, but further research and regular surveys were needed. “The vaccinations are a very good tool but this is hardly the end. This is a dynamic virus that has surprised the scientific world with its fast pace of change and variety,” he said. Nick Note: The mRNA vaccines is truly a scientific miracle. It is extremely good news that the vaccine may also stop vaccinated people from becoming asymptomatic super spreaders. A little birdy told me that Phizer has given there vaccines a expiration date in August. And they can now cook up a new batch in 3 months. It use to take 6 months. So its good news and good news. The vaccines is well tolerated in huge (populations) numbers of people. It is the most effective vaccine ever and and and its easy to make a completely safe booster shot that will protect from the mutations any RNA based virus can throw at us.

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Gates: Reaching net-zero emissions by 2030 unrealistic

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said on Sunday that he considers efforts to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 “completely unrealistic.” Billionaire and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said on Sunday that plans to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030 are “completely unrealistic.” “It’s completely unrealistic to think we could eliminate emissions by 2030,” Gates told Fox News. “Not seeing that this problem is hard will be part of the difficulty of getting engaged in it,” he added. Gates went on to warn worsening climate issues would affect other geopolitical factors.  “The migration that we saw out of Syria for their civil war was somewhat weather-dependent,” he said. “We’re going to have 10 times as much migration because the equatorial areas will become unlivable, you won’t be able to farm or go outside during the summer.” “It’s all a matter of degree,” he added. “If we wait 10 more years it’s not as bad as if we wait 20 or you wait 30 because the temperature just keeps going up.” Wallace also asked Gates about his view of the rollout of coronavirus vaccines, to which Gates responded, “this is giving us light at the end of the tunnel” but “we do need to get the logistics right.” “I’m hopeful that we’re going to get more schools reopened, by the time we get to the fall we should avoid the wait there because the level of vaccination will be very high,” he added. Gates’s remarks come as the U.S. nears the milestone of 500,000 coronavirus deaths, the highest of any country by far. The nation has also seen declining virus cases and over 10 percent of the country receiving at least their first dose of the vaccine.  Nick Note: in recent weeks the major car companies have all  “PLEDGED”  to go electric and carbon neutral…… What a load of shit. its just plain not going to happen.

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Rope access technicians or ‘Acrobats of wind’ make their living at heights

“When wind turbines were first installed, they are installed with huge cranes and high platforms. As you know, [turbines are installed] in places that are far from the city centre and difficult to reach. Once these turbines are installed, it is not easy to procure a crane for periodic maintenance at points such as wings or shadows of wind turbines. That’s where rope access technicians step in. After reaching that point, the whole operation related to the work is performed in this step.”

Rope access technicians in western Turkey provide services for wind power plants performing maintenance work at hundreds of meters on wind turbines.

They carry out their work in situations which would appear more like ‘acrobatics’ to most people, on the end of ropes, tens of meters above the ground, sometimes above the sea and into really confined spaces.

Increased renewable energy investments in Turkey, has over 3,500 wind turbines. Turbines, where huge cranes and high platforms are used during the installation phase, require routine maintenance and repair work in certain periods. Therefore, the number of rope access technicians who maintain and repair turbines has increased in the growing sector. To become a rope access technician who do not to have a fear of heights and confined spaces, the first step is to get the “Working at Height” certificate issued by organizations with Global Wind Organization (GWO) attending a certificate course. In the certification training, the candidates have to receive hard training and prepare for all scenarios that may occur at height. Candidates get certificated if they pass the exam at the end of the training. After completing technical training, the field mission of rope access technicians begins. The work of technicians climbing the turbines takes about 1 hour on each wing. As turbines are installed in places that are far from the city center and difficult to reach, it is not easy to procure a crane for periodic maintenance at points such as wings or shadows of wind turbines. “That’s where rope access technicians step in.” said Baris Ates, a rope Access instructor of Mira Rope Access company in Izmir province. He added “After reaching that point and reaching that point, the whole operation related to the work is performed in this step. “Excitement mixed with slight fear, of course, I have felt” rope access technician, Ali Basaran, said, sharing his experience on the day he climbed on tribune for the first time. With his seven years of experiences in the sector, he noted “Height is something that can be used. Over time, you can overcome those fears with experience.” Nick Note: wind turbines are located in the most hostile environments in the world like the north sea. Subject to wind, salt, hailstones and birds strikes the blades get chewed up. Requiring constant maintenance and protective coatings. Turbines are really really are unworkable. Do i really want to invest in a machine that takes spider man to do routine maintenance, And  a crain barge to replace the major components? Now don’t get me started on the OFTEN planetary gear and bearing failures. The wind speed has to be just right. To little wind the blades stall. To fast they have to go to free wheeling mode because if you spin the turbine to fast it will fly apart.

 

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Fed’s Williams: Not concerned about stimulus being excessive right now

A top Federal Reserve official on Friday pushed back on persistent worries that the economy’s recovery from the pandemic-recession this year could be derailed by excessive fiscal stimulus from Washington or a sudden reversal of ever-rising asset prices.

New York Fed President John Williams, a close ally of Chairman Jerome Powell, said he thinks the economy is still “in a very deep hole” and has a long way to go to get back to full strength.

In that light, Williams said “I am not really concerned about stimulus or fiscal support right now or anything like that. Really what I want to see is an economy that gets back to full strength as soon as possible.” He spoke in an interview with CNBC. Some economists think the $1.9 trillion Biden fiscal package is too large and could cause the economy to overheat. The yield on 10-year Treasurys has been steadily moving higher this month, and there is some concern it might slow the economy by raising borrowing costs. Williams said rising yields on longer term Treasurys reflects greater optimism about the economy “so it’s not a concern.” A separate report, released earlier Friday from the Federal Reserve, said “asset valuation pressures have returned to or exceeded pre-pandemic levels in most markets, including in equity, corporate bond, and residential real estate markets” Asked for comment, Williams said the rise in asset prices has been driven by optimism about the economy and expectation in financial markets that long-run interest rates will stay low. “The fundamentals kind of tell you that prices should be somewhat higher,” he said. Nick Note: First off their is no inflation and their will be no inflation. And remember i told you over a year ago the FED would step on the yield curve. Like a balloon you squeeze one end the other end gets bigger. As you are seeing the short end is going lower and the higher end is rising. Soon we will begin our ZERO operations. Money has got to find a home. Its like a hooker looking for a dick. When she finds one it makes her money and it feels good and it has another benefit.. it stops her pimp from beating the shit out of her and she has got money for drugs… so even if the dick did not feel good at least she got high. The biggest pimp in the world is your broker…… The biggest whore is the stock market and the Dicks are the “inverters..”. who just like with the whore they are giving her money, getting fucked,,, and the disease they catch is the guaranteed wipe out.

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Cold, lack of water overwhelm Texas hospitals A glimpse of your grenniee winniee future

 

(Reuters) – Texas doctor Natasha Kathuria has practiced medicine in 11 countries, worked through the 2014 “Snowmageddon” storm that ground Atlanta to a halt, and survived the past year’s COVID-19 pandemic crush. But Kathuria and some other doctors in Texas are saying they have never seen a more harrowing week than this one. Record-setting cold weather has cut water and grid energy supplies to hospitals across a wide swath of Texas. Electricity and water services were resuming, but many homes and some hospitals still did not have either on Friday. Half the state’s population was under a “must-boil” order to ensure water is safe. “We’re overwhelmed, way more than we’ve been with COVID,” said Kathuria, who works in several Austin-area emergency rooms. “This system failure has completely rocked us in our ERs – and in our own homes.” Many hospital staffers have stayed in the medical facilities all week – knowing there was no heat or water at home. At least hospitals have generators for basic electricity. Some had water hauled in to fill tanks or hired water tankers. Others had running but not potable water. Doctors in Austin, Houston and the Dallas area called the lack of water their biggest problem. Dialysis machines do not work without water, surgery equipment cannot be sterilized, and hands cannot be washed. Dr. Neil Gandhi, an emergency room physician and the regional medical director for the ER departments at Houston Methodist’s seven hospitals in the area, said those facilities were at 90% operating capacity by Friday afternoon. Earlier in the week, two were able to take only emergency patients, Gandhi added. “On top of the COVID pandemic, this has been a dual trauma event for both our patients and our providers,” Gandhi said. Ambulances struggled to reach people on roads that were not cleared because Texas cities have few snow plows and not nearly enough salt on hand. Doctors in stand-alone emergency care locations who routinely call the 911 emergency number for ambulances to transfer patients to hospitals had to wait more than nine hours for any to arrive – if they were available at all. Gandhi said that in Houston this week there were times when entire neighborhoods simply did not have any emergency medical services. Hospitals set up portable toilets. Inside, patient’s toilets were flushed by tossing in a bucket of water. Less critical dialysis patients delayed treatment, while others limited their time on machines. Rural hospitals across Texas were not only trying to treat patients under tough conditions, but also serving as de facto “warming centers” for the healthy, said John Henderson, president of the Texas Organization of Rural and Community Hospitals. Even with warmer weather forecast for next week there could still be a sea of broken water pipes and other damage. “We worried that when the sun comes out and the temperature goes up,” Kathuria said, “that it’s not necessarily the end in sight.” Nick Note: Arctic winter in the middle of a global warming crises in the south. That was not suppose to happen. Sounds like they need to pump out a lot more green house gases in Texas. Having lived off the grind for the most part since 1985 i think i could be considered a “knowledgeable” user. Especially since i designed and built my systems. I generate on average 100KW of power a day by solar. And i can tell you despite the fact i have massive battery banks that can run the place on full power mode for 3 days. i still need fossil fuel  (LPG and Diesel) generator back up.  And if we see clouds coming  for a 5 day period we go into conversation mode. Which give me up to a week on batteries using the electric cars. What i am trying to explain is during winter bad weather i have to run generators because the solar panels and what is by  solar standards massive battery reserves…. its still not enough. The grennie winnie battery back up for the gird just adds another unworkable solution to a unworkable solution to abandoning  fossil fuel generation.  Its insanity America has some of the biggest cleaning burning natural gas reserves in the world. The infrastructure is in. Go to natural gas as a electric generation and transportation fuel. BOTTOM line the sun does not shine at night and solar does not produce much power through clouds. AND AND AND the wind does not blow all the time and wind generators are a maintenance night mare. I abandoned wind generation years ago. After i did intensive on sight studies of a 7 wind mill farm in Holland that were state of art GE wind turbines…… They could not generate enough power to justify their expense and they constantely broke. Maintenance costs were a killer.  Even if you amortized the capital investment over 100 years they are collossal money losers. As far as computer battery electric cars they are unworkable on a mass scale. Set aside the many many problems with the batteries. The US can barley keep with existing electric demand as you are seeing. The grid and generation facilities often times can not keep up with winter electric heating demand and summer time aircon usage. To move transportation energy demand from fossil fuels is a grennie winnie wet dream but in reality its not going to happen. Now WAY can the US electrical system gear up to charge a hundred million electric cars. It really stupid says a man who has three electric cars ALL charged by solar. The solution is so simple. Switch the transportation fleet to CNG and LPG. The supplies and infrastructure are already in place. Their are currently world wide

   Natural Gas Vehicles:               28,540,819
   Natural Gas Fueling Stations:                      33,383

Now lets look at LPG or Autogas: Autogas is the third most popular automotive fuel in the world, with approximately 16 million passenger cars powered using the fuel. Approximately half of all auto gas-fueled passenger vehicles are in the five largest markets (in descending order): Turkey, South Korea, Poland, Italy, and Australia. For a total of a little over 44 million LNG AND CNG cars. Now when you consider the FACT that their are less then 5 million electric cars in use world wide… You can start to understand they are yanking your dick or pinching you titties. 

The Grennie winnies have a power base and they are pushing a unworkable electric car solution that will bankrupt most countries and in reality be  impossible to implement on a mass scale. Who is going to pay for the infrastructure: the up grade to the grid: the massive increase in generation systems needed? and don’t forget the power hungry charging station that need high amperage connections to the grid.

Conclusion: I have gasoline, LPG gas, Diesel and electric vehicles.  And by far the best solution is LPG or CNG. Electric works for short distances and only if you can charge your car from you own solar system. I have driven my LPG (super charged)  Hummer and CNG Defender all over England and Europe since 2000 with the Defender (Betsy) And since 2006 the Hummer (Bertha) without incident.As far as the electric SHIT. The main one we drive is (Dawn a grenenie hippie name) And she is as useless as a stoned all the time on acid dropping peyote button magic mushroom unshaven unbathed hippie chick. The range is always less then the onboard computer indices. And even short trips are an adventure.” DAD have the flat tow truck get me the battery is dead and i canot find a charging station”  Trips have to be carefully planned (thinking ahead of time is not something Millennials  can do) with the location of the nearest hard to find charging station in mind. And when the sucker runs out of battery plan on spending at least a hour jerking of at the battery destroying fast charge charging station

 

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As power returns, Texas energy firms slowly emerge from deep freeze

HOUSTON (Reuters) – Texas energy firms on Friday began to prepare for oil and gas production after days of frozen shutdowns as electric power and water service slowly resumed at darkened oilfields and refineries. It will take several days for oilfield crews to deice valves, restart systems and begin oil and gas production. U.S. Gulf Coast refiners face five- to seven-day restarts with low water pressure continuing to hamper operations even as power is being restored, said people familiar with the matter. Millions of people across Texas shivered in the dark this week after a severe winter storm laid siege to the state, with demand for natural gas spiking and supplies needed to power electric generators and heat homes drying up. Estimates vary, but the unusually cold weather in Texas and the Plains states curtailed up to 4 million barrels per day of crude oil production and 21 billion cubic feet of natural gas, according to analysts. Texas refiners halted about a fifth of the nation’s oil processing amid power outages and severe cold. The freeze offs, which can occur when water in the gas turns to ice, led utilities to call for conservation measures from California to West Virginia. Ford Motor Co halted production in Kansas City, Missouri, because of a lack of natural gas. Mexico, which imports large volumes of natural gas from the United States, experienced blackouts in northern states bordering Texas, with some factories reporting billions in losses on limited natural gas supplies from Texas. Texas on Wednesday ordered gas producers to halt exports needed by state utilities through Sunday, sparking Mexico to call the U.S. envoy to press for natural gas supplies. But in the U.S., the move did not appear to affect deliveries beyond Texas’ borders. California’s power exchange and the MISO, an exchange that handles 15 U.S. states, both said they had not seen any impact. More natural gas will soon be flowing. Chevron Corp and ConocoPhillips have begun restoring shale output, and Chevron will prioritize natural gas production. Texas oil and gas regulators and a DiamondBack Energy executive also reported that power was being restored to west Texas, where oil production was shut by record snowfall and power outages. “The majority of our Permian and Eagle Ford volumes remain offline,” said Conoco spokeswoman April Andrews, referring to the two major Texas shale fields. Conoco, the top U.S. independent oil producer, is ready to bring back full operations across its U.S. operations outside of Alaska once power and other infrastructure outages end, she said. Nick Note: Their is fantasy and their is reality…. I live in reality and make my living taking money from people living in la la land. Reality is the electric car is nothing new. The electric motor is pretty standard fare. the advantage is a electric motor last for ever and is virtually maintenance free. The problem as we all know is the battery. In an electric car it is literally thousands of lithium cells (like in your computer battery) that are linked together.  But their is another problem… REALITY is most of the worlds electricity is generated by coal. So your greene winnie electric car basically burns the most polluting fuel known to man….. DIRTY COAL. And the cost of grid storage and distribution will be more then the cost of generation. The wet dream of the grennie winnies is solar and wind to power a world wide electric car fleet. Their is a problem. The grid can not handle the distributive load or generate enough electricity to charge 200 million+ cars in America alone. Oh i almost forgot to mention wind and solar generation cannot do the job. At the very time most people will charge their computer battery cars (night time) is when solar panels go to sleep because their is no sun. And usually the wind dies down at night. Natural gas fired turbines is one solution which the grennies reject. And their is nuclear which glow in the dark hysteria reject out of hand. Which means the green revolution is a fraud. And frozen iced solid wind turbines and failed natural gas systems plus solar panels that do not work worth a shit on cloudy winter days  in Texas reveal how fragile the system really is. i have lived off the grin for decades and we come to you from my 100kw installed solar system.  I am an expert. My battery cars are 100% charged off of our solar system. I have wired into our greenoie winnie cars with high tech transformers that take the 500 DCV  output of the car batteries and reduce them to 48VDC ( which is the voltage my 3 phase inverters run) as part of a complicated system where the car batteries become storage for the excess power my solar cells generate. Let me be clear here the America joke grid and generation capacity  cannot support 200 million electric cars. Not now and not in the foreseeable future. Wind does not work… and solar is day time electricity. To hook the US grid to batteries and bulk up on solar panels is a multi trillion dollar endeavor… with no real benefit. For mere billions America could switch to LPG and CNG as a transportation fuel using existing technology and infrastructure. And that will give Scottie time to ramp up the lithium crystals. Oh did i mention their is not enough Lithium in the world to build the batteries to power a global fleet of electric cars.

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GameStop ban wasn’t intended to help hedge funds – Robinhood CEO

(Reuters) – Wall Street hedge fund managers, the chief executives of Robinhood and Reddit and a YouTube streamer known as Roaring Kitty on Wednesday defended their roles in GameStop’s Reddit-fueled stock rally before they face a grilling by lawmakers. They insisted that while the market turmoil around the stock was unprecedented, there was no foul play, according to official testimony published by the House Financial Services Committee a day before a scheduled hearing. (https://bit.ly/3pucdNd) Last month’s Reddit rally drove massive volatility in GameStop and other shares, prompting the post-trade clearing houses that guarantee trades to call for billions of dollars in collateral from Robinhood and other retail trading platforms. In response, many suspended buying in the affected stocks on Jan. 28. This outraged lawmakers, who questioned if the trading platforms were siding with hedge funds that had bet against the shares over Mom and Pop investors. Vladimir Tenev, CEO of online brokerage Robinhood, wrote in his testimony that the decision to halt buying was solely due to the need to meet regulatory capital requirements. Gabriel Plotkin said he was “humbled” when his hedge fund Melvin Capital Management suffered significant losses on the short end of the trade, but insisted his firm did not push Robinhood to suspend trading. Likewise, Ken Griffin, CEO of hedge fund Citadel LLC and majority owner of Citadel Securities, a market maker that handles most of Robinhood’s customer orders, disputed speculation that his firm tried to influence Robinhood’s decision. “I want to be perfectly clear: We had no role in Robinhood’s decision to limit trading in GameStop or any other of the ‘meme’ stocks. I first learned of Robinhood’s trading restrictions only after they were publicly announced,” he wrote. Keith Gill, who touted his GameStop investment for months on his Roaring Kitty YouTube channel and Reddit, insisted his position was solely based on publicly known fundamentals of the business and it was “preposterous” to suggest he sought to entice unwitting investors to buy shares. Reddit CEO Steve Huffman said the company had analyzed traffic on the Reddit sub-feed WallStreetBets where users congregate to discuss stocks. The company found no bots, foreign agents or bad actors played a significant role in a traffic that helped drive interest in GameStop.”WallStreetBets is first and foremost a real community,” he said. On Thursday, the House committee will hear from the five men, as well as from Jennifer Schulp, director of financial regulation studies at the Cato Institute. Lawmakers have directed most of their ire at Robinhood, but Tenev insisted his company had little choice but to suspend buying. He provided extensive detail on demands from clearing houses for the firm to put up billions of dollars in additional collateral to meet regulatory requirements. He also dismissed the idea that Robinhood acted at behest of any hedge funds, calling such speculation “absolutely false and market-distorting rhetoric,” while noting its customer agreement and securities rules give it discretion to freeze trading. Griffin used the opportunity to point to flaws in the post-trade infrastructure, noting that faster settlement times and “transparent clearing house capital requirements,” could help reduce risks to brokers like Robinhood and its customers. Nick Note: What the hell did they expect to happen. Get in a chat room and disclose your positions. I can tell you it could end up no other way but them getting butt fucked!

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Fed to focus on pro-growth, pro-job policies – Brainard

Member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors Lael Brainard (pictured) stated on Thursday the central bank would focus on “sustainable” “pro-growth, pro-job” policies to help the economy recover from the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic. “Those are the kinds of priorities that square very well with our overall framework, which is to ensure the economy is at maximum employment in a sustainable way,” she said.

Earlier in the day, Brainard called for reforms to the system that would add “standardized, reliable, and mandatory disclosures” on how companies are preparing to face the impact of climate change. The Federal Reserve’s emerging focus on climate change won’t lessen its focus on achieving maximum employment, Fed Governor Lael Brainard said on Thursday in response to questions about whether a transition away from carbon-based fuel will kill jobs. The Fed will be focused on long-term risks of climate change but also how the transition to a less carbon-dependent economy “might affect our economic growth over the medium to long term,” Brainard said in comments to an Institute of International Finance summit on climate change. “The focus on investments in a sustainable economy that are pro-growth, that are pro-jobs, those are the kinds of priorities that square very well with our overall framework, which is to ensure the economy is at maximum employment in a sustainable way,” she said. Her remarks were focused on the need for financial firms and their supervisors, including at the Fed, to take more explicit account of the risks climate changes poses to industry business plans and portfolios, and to invest in the complex models and data analysis needed to do so. Nick Note: their only choice is to keep the economy stoked. Its far cheaper to throw a trillion here and a trillion their at the economy. Then have a 100 trillion dollar wipe out…

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Pfizer says South African variant could significantly reduce protective antibodies

(Reuters) – A laboratory study suggests that the South African variant of the coronavirus may reduce antibody protection from the Pfizer Inc/BioNTech SE vaccine by two-thirds, and it is not clear if the shot will be effective against the mutation, the companies said on Wednesday. The study found the vaccine was still able to neutralize the virus and there is not yet evidence from trials in people that the variant reduces vaccine protection, the companies said. Still, they are making investments and talking to regulators about developing an updated version of their mRNA vaccine or a booster shot, if needed. For the study, scientists from the companies and the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) developed an engineered virus that contained the same mutations carried on the spike portion of the highly contagious coronavirus variant first discovered in South Africa, known as B.1.351. The spike, used by the virus to enter human cells, is the primary target of many COVID-19 vaccines. Researchers tested the engineered virus against blood taken from people who had been given the vaccine, and found a two- thirds reduction in the level of neutralizing antibodies compared with its effect on the most common version of the virus prevalent in U.S. trials. Their findings were published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). Because there is no established benchmark yet to determine what level of antibodies are needed to protect against the virus, it is unclear whether that two-thirds reduction will render the vaccine ineffective against the variant spreading around the world. However, UTMB professor and study co-author Pei-Yong Shi said he believes the Pfizer vaccine will likely be protective against the variant. “We don’t know what the minimum neutralizing number is. We don’t have that cutoff line,” he said, adding that he suspects the immune response observed is likely to be significantly above where it needs to be to provide protection. That is because in clinical trials, both the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and a similar shot from Moderna Inc conferred some protection after a single dose with an antibody response lower than the reduced levels caused by the South African variant in the laboratory study. Even if the concerning variant significantly reduces effectiveness, the vaccine should still help protect against severe disease and death, he noted. Health experts have said that is the most important factor in keeping stretched healthcare systems from becoming overwhelmed. More work is needed to understand whether the vaccine works against the South African variant, Shi said, including clinical trials and the development of correlates of protection – the benchmarks to determine what antibody levels are protective.Pfizer and BioNTech said they were doing similar lab work to understand whether their vaccine is effective against another variant first found in Brazil. Moderna published a correspondence in NEJM on Wednesday with similar data previously disclosed elsewhere that showed a sixfold drop antibody levels versus the South African variant. Moderna also said the actual efficacy of its vaccine against the South African variant is yet to be determined. The company has previously said it believes the vaccine will work against the variant.. Nick Note: As i have beeen telling you once they got inventories sold they announce you guys need to pay us for a booster shot. Not a supricse that is the way of RNA viruses. Point in fct they claim 25% effective against new variants. The standard as applied to the yearly flue shot is 50%. I am sure you can do the math. You got to get the vaccines and the booster shot when available and you still got to wear your ugly mask. Of course we told you first!

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Scientists win Nobel chemistry prize for ‘genetic scissors’

Two scientists have been awarded the 2020 Nobel prize in chemistry for developing the genetic scissors used in gene editing – the first time two women have shared the prize. Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A Doudna will share the 10m Swedish kronor (£870,000) prize announced on Wednesday by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm. The researchers won the prize for “the development of a method for genome editing”, according to the formal citation from the Nobel committee. Cheaper, faster and more accurate than other gene editing tools, the harnessing of the CRISPR-Cas9 system has revolutionised the field of genetic engineering, with its impact felt across biomedical research, clinical medicine, agriculture and wider society. However, it is the technology’s potential to treat or prevent human diseases that has generated the most excitement, as well as controversy over attempts to use it to create gene-edited babies. Prof Charpentier is director of the Max Planck Unit for the Science of Pathogens in Berlin. As so often in science, her landmark discovery came out of the pursuit of a seemingly obscure area of research – in this case, into an ancient system which bacteria use to defend themselves against viruses. CRISPR – short for clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats – equips bacteria with the ability to recognise genetic sequences which viruses insert into their DNA, and disable them by snipping the DNA with a set of molecular scissors. Although researchers were aware of this system, Charpentier characterised the components of the scissors, by studying the bacterium Streptococcus pyogenes, which causes tonsillitis, scarlet fever, and other serious human infections. After publishing her discovery in 2011, she began collaborating with Prof Doudna, a biochemist at the University of California, to try and recreate the molecular scissors in a test tube, as well as simplifying their components to make them easier to use. Once this had been achieved, they set about reprogramming the scissors so that, rather than just snipping RNA (a single-stranded messenger molecule that normally delivers genetic instructions from DNA) from viruses, they could be used to recognise and cut any DNA sequence at will. “They had created programmable genetic scissors,” said Claes Gustafsson, chair of the Nobel committee for chemistry. “There is enormous power in this genetic tool, which affects us all.” Soon afterwards, other scientists showed it was possible to do this in cells, and then whole organisms. When cells detects the damage caused by the scissors, they try to fix it, often disabling the gene in the process. This can be useful for turning off harmful genes, but other types of repairs are also possible, such as replacing mutated DNA with a healthy section to correct genetic diseases. Since Charpentier and Doudna began harnessing the scissors in 2012, their use has escalated. Plant researchers have created crops that can withstand mould, pests and drought, while clinical trials of new cancer therapies and techniques for curing inherited diseases are currently underway. The technology has also generated controversy, as scientists have tried to use it to correct genetic defects in human embryos. Doudna has previously admitted to worrying about how the technology she helped develop might be used, including even dreaming that Hitler approached her about potential applications. “Global transparency is a key step in ensuring responsible use of the technology in the future,” she said. Nick Note: Meet Frankenstein the monster that will ravage the human race. I can tell you for a fact that N.Korea, China and Russia have mastered this technology. The Gennie  is out of the test tube. I can tell you as we speak their DNA labs have been unleashed and are literally creating monsters. FOR A FACT THEY ARE SPLICING HUMAN DNA WITH ANIMAL They are creating half man half animals that could end up devouring human kind. Look their is nothing to do about this. And you thought all you had to  worry about GMO corn! We are talking the stuff Armageddon is made of. Top scientists have been quietly disclosing that the Coronavirus may have been a crisper splice and the new variants may represent further genetic engineering of the spike protein. Why? simple you create a variant the vaccines can not detect or stop.