One of the joys of blogging is connecting with like minded folks. Some bloke from the U.K. caught one of my blogs on Omicron and offered up a bit of his work. He describes himself as a retired Chartered Building Surveyor with no medical background other than dealing with his own ailments. He blogs under the impressive name of Baldmichael Theresoluteprotector’sson. He’s composed a guide to all the “variants” that’s informative and hilarious. Did you know that “Omicron” is an acronym for “moronic”?. I’ve never tried to make a link like this. Let’s see if it works https://alphaandomegacloud.wordpress.com/2021/12/02/various-variants-covid-19/.
We diehard Michigan fans are stuck waiting the weeks till New Year’s Eve and the Orange Bowl. This is uncharted territory for us, who haven’t tasted a Rose Bowl since 2004 (back when it mattered). Now we wait and see if Aidan Hutchinson can win an improbable Heisman and cower in anticipation of our SEC opponents. Fortunately, there’s Pete the Plumber with his heartening predictions. Yes, we are pissed off. https://fb.watch/9O2URs4tAM/
I’ve always enjoyed those newsletters some send for Christmas. This year, I decided to create my own.
2021
I’ve always enjoyed receiving these Christmas letters from those who bother to write them. So this year I’m trying my hand at it, seeing if I can bore you silly with recountings of some of the antics Kathy and I pursued over this past year. While it may seem we’re nuts for travel and sports (we are), home is what we love best, and from the hearth of Harbal we toast you this greeting.
So that’s Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. That’s Fritz, our stuffed. wolverine, in the foreground. He says “Go Blue”.
January
No bowl for the COVID-afflicted Wolverines, so the year started quietly. A planned trip to LaJolla fell victim to COVID, heralded by a call from the AirBnB saying we couldn’t come because of the lockdown. COVID would screw up a couple more California attempts, Spring Break, a trip to London to see Eric Clapton at Royal Albert Hall, and one to Edinburgh after Christmas ’21 to take in Hogmanay. But we still managed to have some fun.
February
No fans could get into Crisler, but Juwan’s boys gave us joy nonetheless, dominating play en route to winning the Big 10 championship and missing the final 4 by a bucket.
Dr. Schlissel cancelled spring break, so Kathy took her “well being” day and added a few more for a long weekend in Clearwater Beach. My brother John, his wife Karen and son Ian live in Clearwater. The highlight was our assault on the breweries of nearby Dunedin; what a fine way to pass a sunny Florida afternoon https://theviewfromharbal.com/2021/03/03/drink-down-dunedin/
March
Kathy takes joy from the non-revenue sports. Girl’s basketball makes sweet sixteen and woman’s gymnastics wins the national championship, their first ever. Kathy has players on both teams. A student of hers from 2 years ago was last performer at the gymnastics meet and her score nailed down the championship, as Kathy watched real time from the big screen on our dining room table – same one she teaches over – this time crying her eyes out.
Last weekend in March it was off to Santa Fe, which Kathy’s brother Bob would be vacating after 20 years. We met Bob’s lawyer friend Ana who’s moved from medical liability to “medical freedom”, aiding those finding themselves on the wrong end of COVID restrictions. So even with Bob gone, we’ll have friends when we go back.
April
It was a year for golden anniversaries, and April 17 marked 50 years since I broke into Hill Auditorium to see Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen for the first time. Since I have all their records, all it took was the suitable intoxicants and two triple cheese side order of fries from Krazy Jims to make a proper celebration. Too much fun https://theviewfromharbal.com/2021/04/17/two-triple-cheese/
.
May
Once commencement was finished, it was time to push west. We would meet up with June Rodgers, my late friend Sam’s https://theviewfromharbal.com/2020/01/12/goodbye-sam/, https://theviewfromharbal.com/2020/01/14/see-sam/ widow, for a few days at Garden of the Gods Resort. I got to know Colorado Springs as a kid visiting my Uncle Bob, but am only starting to appreciate the place as an adult. The year before, we’d spent a couple days in Broadmoor’s Cloud Camp, high on Mt. Manitou. We’d looked down at Garden of the Gods and several campers were going there next. Glorious red rock, Pike’s Peak views, mountain air, great food and excursions into the city for a Skirted Heifer https://skirtedheifer.com/, a walk around Manitou Springs with drinks from all, and a dinner train through the Royal Gorge stoked that Rocky Mountain high.
Back 2 weeks with Memorial Day a week away, we took the train to Chicago to stay in the South Loop for jazz, food, and good times
June
Deb and Jeff from St. Louis weren’t with us in Chicago this time, but we’d been planning an escape to Lake Michigan for a while. We found Tony, a 747 pilot who rents out his luxury beach house when he’s away flying, giving us a beautiful week on the beach at South Haven. When Deb and Jeff went South, we continued north on a leisurely voyage home with friends and family through Macatawa, Muskegon, Grand Rapids, and Stanwood.
July
All Kathy was expecting was a little birthday party. I wasn’t able to keep the entire cat completely in the bag as I planned a much bigger event, so she knew it was going to be at our favorite spot, Dominick’s. The retirement party a year clearly exceeded expectations https://theviewfromharbal.com/2021/07/17/wasnt-that-a-party/.
Fewer than two weeks would pass before it was time for my big event, another “golden”, the 50 plus one reunion of Vicksburg High’s class of ‘70, preceded by a few days seeing some obscure Kalamazoo sites, like the Frank Lloyd Wright designed Parkwyn Village and “Kalamazoo’s Stonehenge” out by the ballpark. I’d helped with the planning, finding “lost” classmates, and in the process assembled a mighty database. I’d been running monthly Zooms since the reunion had been postponed a year ago. Old friends are the best friends, and it sure felt good to be among a whole bunch of them.
August
Another week and it was time for the Big California trip, finally happening. NoCal for family and friends, drive down the coast through Carmel and Santa Monica to La Jolla, with a week on Windnsea Beach.
September
September marked some welcome returns: students to campus and classes, and 110,000 of our closest friends to Michigan Stadium to watch our Wolverines start what was going to become a very special season. Harbaugh’s team was running the ball like a young Bo’s would.
I managed a quick day trip to the ‘burg to see friends and classmates Forrest and Sandy take their places at the winner’s table at the Tournament of Writers.
October
Executing this year’s road trip, we headed to Muskegon for a couple nights on the beach before boarding the ferry to Milwaukee, tarrying there a night, then onto Madison where the Badgers awaited, although I don’t think they expected what hit them. We hadn’t won there in 20 years, another way this season is different.
On a trip that had been in the works since February, it was back to California, this time to Novato, in Marin County, home of rich old hippies, to see what’s left of the Lost Planet Airmen. Enough to approach Too Much Fun. One of my good ol’ Barnes’ buddies Dave practices in nearby Petaluma, so we met up, even for the weekly “safety meeting” he holds with some of his misfit friends in the back room of the hardware store one of them owns. Made it to Pescadaro to be with the fam https://theviewfromharbal.com/2021/10/21/nocal/
November
We hadn’t been to Chicago for a while and with Penn State away, that second weekend looked good. We landed in a different neighborhood – Lakeview, between Lincoln Park and Uptown – plenty of eateries and watering holes, but nicely residential. We found a new jazz spot – Le Piano – and were both made to lay under the piano while being played to. When we walked up to the bar Saturday that the Alumni Association said hosted game viewing parties and found it closed, a nice young man in an Oklahoma sweatshirt directed us a mile down Clark to Duffy’s, which was wall-to-wall maize and blue, all several decades our juniors. After a half of standing, we headed back to our loft to enjoy the dominant second half. Two train rides the next morning and we were in Hyde Park for breakfast and services at the magnificent Rockefeller Chapel, thankful for yesterday’s victory and grateful for God’s blessings.
From today’s perspective it’s easier to say we felt something would be different about this year’s version of The Game. Naah, we were expecting to get creamed, like usual. But that’s not what happened! The best highlight video was put together by some kids https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ak9Uxtntfk&t=3s. The song playing in the background is the one they play ever 3rd quarter, to which the kids go nuts. It’s “Mr. Brightside” by the Killers, which features a gloriously decadent video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGdGFtwCNBE, first released in 2003 and judged by UK radio stations Absolute Radio and XFM as “song of the decade”. It certainly has staying power with the young folks nearly 20 years on. Maybe it’s the reason they don’t play “Sweet Caroline” in the 3rd quarter any more. Hassan Haskins runs o.k. to it. Indianapolis brings us closer to to what could be very special. In Bo’s days ,the Big 10 championship was the pinnacle, and now we are there. Those 6 touchdowns finally convinced the annoying boring Hawkeyes they couldn’t beat us. Now comes the heady exercise of ratings and rankings as we ascend into the college football playoffs. I’ll be happy if Aidan Hutchinson gets the Heismann. Our TV viewing is locked into New Year’s eve and Orange Bowl, so our New Year’s date may be abrogated. My butt will be in the couch and not on LIVE’s dance floor.
December is quiet time in Ann Arbor. We have 20 events slated for the month, only half sports related. We even have a New Years Eve date, headed to LIVE on First to hear “Invasion”, a bunch of boomers who play (well) the songs of the British Invasion. Kathy might even get me out on the dance floor as we usher in 2022.
The grind goes on for Kathy, with one half-time term left as she satisfies her 20 years at the U, waiting the time she can return to her children’s books, sewing, gardening, and time as an adjunct research scientist in the Department of Aerospace Engineering. Bob happily has not answered the 8AM Monday clinic call for 3 years, amusing himself this year by cranking out 11 peer-reviewed publications (with 2 additional under review), 6 books (& a chapter), 7 YouTube uploads, and 112 posts to his blog (so far this year).
Merry Christmas to all and wishes for a Big Blue New Year
Still shameless. I’ve just sent Jeff Bezos Musing through a Pandemic. On the Sidelines. Volume IV. Then play on. This grew out of a discovery that all the posts on sports I’d intended to include in Volume III. Indulgences didn’t make it in. I added the few more I’d written since June and presto, a 139 page book with 23 essays/stories touching on sports, which may be our greatest distraction from Mr. Corona. The cover will look familiar to those who have seen any of the previous 3 books
That’s the Kindle cover. And the Kindle version is till being processed, having trouble uploading my files.
So it’ll be about 3 days till it’s up on Amazon. Just search for “Robert Ike”, and use the quotes unless you want a lot of stuff on Eisenhower.
Available now! (12/9/21, 5 PM EST). Maybe not on Amazon just yet, but Jeff let me buy some paperbacks!
“Not the Bee” circulated a government document containing excellent advice about what to do in a viral pandemic. The document is from the Division of Sanitation of the Department of the Navy. It concerns what to do in the face of the Spanish Flu, which in 1918 infected 500 million people or one-third of the world’s population, killing at least 50 million worldwide with about 675,000 occurring in the United States. Now that’s a pandemic.
Kathy and I have had a recent taste of influenza A. It’s taken a real toll on our students at U of M, with so many cases even the CDC poked its nose in (1). Our students are all masked and vaxxed, but clearly out and about. Remember, flu numbers were way down last year, probably because of the isolation. So if flu is coming your way, this 103 year old document isn’t bad advice. For coronavirus too.
Reference
Delahoy MJ, Mortenson L, Bauman L, Marquez J, Bagdasarian N, Coyle J; Sumner K, Lewis NM, Lauring AS, Flannery B, Patel MM, Martin ET. Influenza A(H3N2) Outbreak on a University Campus — Michigan, October–November 2021. Morb Mort Weekly Rep (MMWR) December 3, 2021. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7049e1.htm?s_cid=mm7049e1_w
I’m usually not one to post extensive work from someone else. But this piece addresses concerns about the new variant (1). Bottom line, it isn’t even going to be very infectious. Prior vaccines aren’t going to help much. Boosters are nonsense and probably dangerous by instigation of antibody dependent enhancement (ADE) (2)
Here’s the post:
French Research and Real-World Data Counter Omicron Hysteria
So much talk about Omicron; so much fear-mongering; so much talk about science. Most is nonsense. The best research has received little attention. It comes from esteemed, senior French scientist: Dr. Jacques Fantini, Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Aix-Marseille.
You are about to learn what senior people in the public health establishment need to use, especially Fauci who claims he speaks for and represents “science.” If he knows the French research, he is not sharing it with the public, nor is the mainstream media.
The key scientific achievement by Fantini is the calculation of one key parameter he calls the index of transmissibility (T) of a COVID variant. The key work was published in June 2021 with the title “Structural dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 variants: A health monitoring strategy for anticipating Covid-19 outbreaks.” This research is very sophisticated, detailed and challenging. Genomic sequence data are used in the analyses of variants.
The molecular details of variants are analyzed to calculate T values for COVID variants. Originally, T values for known variants or strains of the COVID virus were determined. The T value for the Delta variant done in early 2021 accurately predicted the surge of Delta throughout the world, making it the dominant variant in many countries, including the US.
The T value accurately describes to what extent a variant is or is not very transmissible. The higher the value of T, the greater is the ease at which a variant is spread from one person to another. The higher the value, the more contagious is the variant. Fantini said how T values could serve a critical need: “T-index can be used as a health monitoring strategy to anticipate future Covid-19 outbreaks.” At this moment, the question is “Is the T value for Omicron of concern?”
So, now look at the following table that gives T values for the original five variants published by Fantini, plus what he has just released for the new Omicron variant.
Variant
T-index
Initial Wuhan
2.16
UK – Alpha
3.59
Brazil – Gamma
3.65
South Africa – Beta
3.82
Delta
10.67
Omicron
3.90
Delta stands out for having an extremely high T value compared to previous variants.
No surprise that it quickly became the dominant variant globally.
And equally impressive is the relatively low T value for Omicron, just 37% of the Delta value. Omicron should not be of high concern by people and nations. It is in line with most pre-Delta variants. It is not exceptional. There is no scientific basis for all the hysteria about Omicron. As shown below, most people assessed with Omicron were vaccinated and got breakthrough infections showing vaccines offer little protection.
Additional observations
Note that the higher the T value it is also likely the less effective are current vaccines for defending against the variant and protecting people from it (as real-world data given below show). However, the higher T value does not imply greater lethality. As is known by virologists, variants are smart enough to not kill their victims, which would also kill them and prevent them from spreading. Thus, high T value variants spread easily, can cause health impacts but do not necessarily kill people at a high rate.
Fantini said this: “For Omicron, the mutations go in all directions, without any particular logic, some annihilating each other. The mutational profiles …suggest that neutralizing antibodies [from vaccine immunity] will have very low activity on this variant. …This analysis of the Omicron variant suggests that this variant will not supplant Delta.” In other words, with far less spreading potential, Omicron is not likely to replace the much higher transmissible Delta prevalent globally. Even though reports keep coming in from different nations that Omicron has been found.
More positive insights had to do with the more than 30 mutations and exactly where they were located in the molecule. “The affinity of the Omicron … for ACE-2 [cellular material that causes infection] is decreased compared to all other variants analyzed to date, probably as a consequence of this accumulation of mutations.” Fantini is saying that Omicron is not only not as highly transmissible as Delta, it is also not as infectious.
Worth remembering is that all the current COVID vaccines were designed to address the earliest COVID virus molecule. Thus, they do not protect very well against later variants that have considerable mutations. Is protection zero? No. Current vaccines offer limited defense against variants because they only aim at a small fraction of the virus molecule components.
Vaccine problems
In a more recent article, Fantini and an associate said: there is a “progressive loss of immunity induced by the two doses of vaccines directed against the spike protein” because current vaccines are not designed to defend against recent variants, including Delta and Omicron. Moreover, “the third vaccine [booster] dose can have serious long-term side effects due to the “ADE” phenomenon (Antibody-dependent enhancement: facilitation of infection by antibodies). The benefit/risk ratio would be unfavorable.” In other words, like other researchers, they see the negative impact of current COVID vaccines that reduce protection offered by a person’s immune system. What is being said is that antibodies not only offer little protection but, instead, facilitate viral infection and promote release of new mutations or variants.
This is consistent with considerable data showing correlations between higher vaccination rates and higher death rates at the nation level.
This too was noted: “The immune response to SARS-CoV-2, whether natural or vaccine-induced, produces antibodies directed against the spike protein. In the case of mRNA vaccines, the only molecular target is the spike protein. In the case of natural infection with the virus, the immune response [natural immunity] is directed against several viral proteins, including the spike protein. In all cases, the spike protein is therefore crucial. However, SARS-CoV-2 is an RNA virus that mutates a lot, and many mutations affect the spike protein, which disturbs its recognition by antibodies.” The bottom line is that vaccine immunity is inferior to natural immunity, because the former was designed for the earliest strain and only targets a small fraction of the complex COVID molecule.
Real world data show no severe illness and no protection from vaccines
The forecast by Fantini about Omicron is consistent with information flowing in. Specifically, vaccines will have little impact on Omicron transmission or infectivity.
For example, Reuters reported: “Four people in southern Germany have tested positive for the Omicron COVID-19 variant even though they were fully vaccinated against the coronavirus said officials.” Moreover, “All four showed moderate symptoms.”
Previously it was highlighted, according to the Botswana government, the Omicron variant was first detected in four people who were fully vaccinated. And information from South Africa is that Omicron caused mild symptoms and no patients needed hospitalization, and that the European Union’s public health body said that they’ve found 44 cases containing the omicron variant in 10 of their member countries, all of which had mild or asymptomatic illness.”
Also reported was that “Two quarantined travelers in Hong Kong who have tested positive for the variant were vaccinated with the Pfizer jab. All three initial confirmed and suspected cases reported from Israel occurred among fully vaccinated individuals. And an Israeli doctor revealed that he had been infected with Omicron despite being triple vaccinated also wearing a mask.
In Australia, “New South Wales state authorities reported that two travelers from South Africa to Sydney had become Australia’s first omicron cases. Both were fully vaccinated, showed no symptoms.” A person in San Francisco was reported to have traveled from South Africa, had mild symptoms and had been vaccinated.
Interestingly, officials said they had contacted everyone who had close contact with the person and they had all tested negative.
Meanwhile, everything that Fauci has said is completely inconsistent with actual data as well as what Fantini has forecast. Everything he has said seems clearly aimed at instilling fear about Omicron so that invasive, authoritarian government actions and continued push for vaccines could be justified.
Conclusions
A review of studies found unequivocally that COVID vaccines do not stop viral transmission, with no difference between vaccinated and unvaccinated people. So, all real-world evidence is that Omicron cannot be effectively addressed by COVID vaccines. Together with Fantini’s work the proper conclusion is that Omicron will not be very transmissible nor be more infective than Delta.
Because mutations will continue to produce variants, it is critically important to use the work of Fantini. To accurately assess whether or not a new variant should evoke the fears and government responses that have sprung up so quickly for Omicron.
By Dr. Joel S. Hischhorn
And of course, we can always stand to hear the comments of Bobby McFerrin (3).
Dr. Joel S. Hirschhorn, author of Pandemic Blunder and many articles and podcasts on the pandemic, worked on health issues for decades, and his Pandemic Blunder Newsletter is on Substack. As a full professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, he directed a medical research program between the colleges of engineering and medicine. As a senior official at the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment and the National Governors Association, he directed major studies on health-related subjects; he testified at over 50 US Senate and House hearings and authored hundreds of articles and op-ed articles in major newspapers. He has served as an executive volunteer at a major hospital for more than 10 years. He is a member of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, and America’s Frontline Doctors.
Kathy’s classes today will be special. Not just because her students haven’t seen her in person since she fell ill with influenza A Sunday before last, and not just because this will be her last class of the term. But today she’s bringing ‘em a treat, something she whipped up yesterday. No, it’s not a batch of whupp-ass. Coach Harbaugh, Aidan Hutchinson, Hassan Haskins, Andrew Vastardis and the rest of the boys did a pretty good job of that Saturday afternoon. She hasn’t brought this treat to class for a decade, back after Denard led Brady Hoke’s magic 2011 team over Luke Fickell’s sanctioned Buckeyes. And that’s the treat she’s bringing to class, from an old family recipe: buckeyes
What better way to celebrate our glorious victory over the scarlet-and-gray but eating up once again what our Wolverines so ravenously devoured last Saturday? Only these buckeyes are sweet, just like that victory was, and still is. If you want to relive highlights of that afternoon, check this video out that some of the kids made, featuring their favorite song “Mr. Brightside” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ak9Uxtntfk&t=5s. If you want to hear “Mr Brightside’ unfiltered, here’s the video in its full decadent glory https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGdGFtwCNBE. The kids go absolutely crazy when this is played in the 3rd quarter. They know all the words. The song was released in 2003, so it must be one of their generation’s “classics”. Is “Mr. Brightside” Jim Harbaugh?
Should you want to try some yourself, here’s the recipe. We still play them 2 times in basketball, two days before Valentine’s day and last game of the regular season. And our women take ‘em on New Year’s Eve at Crisler and January 27 in Columbus. You can’t get enough of beating Buckeyes. Eating them either.
To church on a morning last year before the first shutdown, I wore a tie, the once daily obligation for work that is now a rare treat in retirement. Among the 240 or so of our still rather conservative congregation in attendance, only 8 guys sported neckwear, including me and the young visiting pastor. All but 2 of the rest were older than me, so the future of the tie at our little church is in peril. The tie, which all us doctors used to wear as a symbol of seriousness, professionalism, and respect for our patients, has become a potentially dangerous piece of cloth collecting bacteria and spreading disease. So wearing a tie to clinic nowadays identifies the wearer not only as hopelessly old school but negligent of the risks he poses to others. No wonder they wanted to get rid of me.
But the attachment to the cravat is strong. Fumbling with the knot getting ready for a “serious” occasion even in the pre-teens cuts deep, and that feeling of getting ready for something special runs strong, well into adulthood. The interview, the big date, the prom, all punctuations until you actually have a job. Since I’ve always been a doctor, the expectation has always been there for something around the neck. Sometimes I slobbed by wearing flannel shirts and knit ties, but that four-in-hand still started every day if not a half or even full Windsor. The times in E.R. or ICU wearing scrubs were a respite, but now are pretty much the standard. The bland stale male has few chances to spring life into ones appearance, but a lively tie is one of them. “Molecular expressions”, showing the colorful microscopic appearances of chemical phenomena was one of them, as was the “Cocktail Collection”, with spills made art, and of course Jerry Garcia’s works. Kathy snuck in some space ties, and of course were the requisite U of M cravats. In the early 90s I crafted from a plant holder and some dowels a ties holder of which I remain immensely proud. Stuck against the wall of my closet, it holds 105 ties.
Into a shoe box I consigned most of my 34 knit ties. Scattered about are some bow ties – I was told years ago that a man wearing a bow tie is uncertain of his sexuality – and I never could master that knot. Events requiring tux and tie are always white knuckle challenges.
So whence goith this colorful collection of cloth? Men have tied cloth around their necks since 2nd century Roman legionnaires tied bands of cloth about their necks, likely a ward against the weather (1). Maybe even before them were Chinese warriors of Xi’an of 3rd century B.C. where terra-cotta statues showed them wearing neck scarves in the belief that they were protecting the source of their strength, their Adam’s apples. But most experts date the initial appearance of the modern precursor of the tie to 1636. Croatian mercenaries, hired in Paris by King Louis XIV, wore cloth bands around their necks to ward off natural elements, which in their line of work included sword slashes. Parisians translated the Croats scarf to a fashion accessory.
Fast forward to COVID America. Those who actually went to work rarely put on a tie. Haberdashers have reported a small surge of interest in ties as people felt the anticipation of going back to the office (2). Yet, ties still sell. Like them or not, neckties are the Father’s Day gift. Americans spend more than $1 billion each year to buy a staggering 100 million ties. That’s roughly one tie for every male over the age of 20 in the United States. If you’re wondering if that dusty hanger is stylish, here’s where we are in 2021. It’s simple: the width of your tie should be roughly as wide as the lapel on your jacket. Your classic notch lapel is typically around 3 3/8″ wide, and classic ties are in that ballpark. They tend to be anywhere between 3 1/4″ and 3 1/2″.
All this fuss suggests maybe men will be wearing ties after all. Demise of the necktie has been predicted before, in similar circumstances. As America struggled to recover from a global pandemic, a shattered economy, and record unemployment levels, headlines despaired: “neckties doomed.” (3) Men were “slashing their clothing bills” to retailers’ chagrin, the Associated Press reported. Those who continued to wear ties were downgrading from colorful, expensive silk to plain, cheap cotton. The year was 1921, and reports of the tie’s death were premature, to say the least.
As Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell in the Atlantic wrote “throughout its history, the tie has often stood in for its wearer’s personality” (3). As men blend into generic personhood, that urge to burst out with a display of individuality is always going to be there Perhaps that’s why predictions of its death are premature (4,5). While I’ve blended into the generic retiree in sweats, I do not wish to surrender chance to be the peacock again. The ties stay, along with suits, tux and sport coats. Maybe none will be touched till they lay me away. But I want to go out with a nice tie. Kathy wants to make ‘em all into a quilt. Couldn’t strangle me anymore then. Smothered, more likely.
So the latest player on the world coronavirus stage is B.1.1.529 (1). The B.1.1. traces its genetic lineage directly to the original Wuhan strain. The WHO, continuing its practice of assigning a Greek letter to the isolate had to go through some contortions. Delta had been followed by 8 variants, all of which fizzled out. “Nu (n)” was next up, but that suggests something “new”, which is the last thing this COVID weary world needs. A committee has to pass on these things – WHO’s Technical Advisory Group on SARS-CoV-2 Virus Evolution – but next they faced the Red Dragon. Xi (Ξ). I’d like to think that the parents of premier Xi Jinping had embraced the Greek classical tradition, but I think it’s coincidence his name landed at #14 in the WHO naming sweepstakes. I suppose Premier Xi has earned a prize for bringing the world to its knees, but naming a minor coronavirus variant after him seems a bit wimpy. So on to the 15th Greek letter, the very bland omicron (O) (2). I thought they could sex up the intro by bringing in a vixen from Trump’s “The Apprentice”, Omarossa
I’m not sure I want protection from that!
So what about this puppy? As expected for a coronavirus many steps down the line, the virus is heavily mutated from the original. At least 50 mutations in the virus compared to the original Wuhan strain, and 30 mutations in the spike protein alone. Chances that immune systems targeted against Wuhan might whiff are substantial. The monoclonals infused to the infected might whiff too. The doc who first reported this variant in South Africa said the disease was mild, a few aches and pains, some fatigue, maybe some cough, but no loss of smell and taste. On the flip side, it’s much more contagious. Typical progression of coronavirus: less morbidity higher infectiveness. Evolving to a nuisance.
While the establishment stands ready to wield all the heavy handed measures its applied only to fail in the past: travel bans, lockdowns, mandates, passports, masks, all the while ratcheting the fear of yet another assault on our health. The two-faced, flip-flopping, fawning, figurehead of our nation’s effort against fight against COVID – admitting he’s 2 weeks away from understanding this situation – recommends more boosters. More spike protein, more clots, more heart attacks, more autoimmune neurologic syndromes, more deaths (3). And who knows about the long term consequences of harboring spike protein everywhere. I’m disappointed that my hero Francis Collins has joined the ramparts here and is recommending more boosters. He’s a short timer and could speak his mind. I longed for him to join the fray earlier but he kept quiet. We’ll have to wait for the book.
Dr. Houmann Hemmati, a Ph.D immunologist from Cal Tech and USC has pointed out this strain could be our salvation ( 4). By infecting widely, but lightly (nobody gets too sick), we all get natural immunity, that elusive “herd immunity” – never achievable with the mRNA “vaccines”- comes into play. So I say we toss the masks, snuggle up to each other, and get a little sick. The vaxxed can participate, as omicron has mutated beyond any thing their mRNA infused immune system can recognize.
Your desire to participate in this endgame to our pandemic can be an excuse to throw every BS measure you’ve been told to “protect yourself” to the wind, as you’re going to protect yourself by facing up to this wimpy offspring of the generations removed bioweapon that’s changed our lives. But no more as we move ahead into the normal times we all deserve.
But be cautious if omincron tries to take over your body entirely. We know how that worked out last time (5)
Bob Ike's blog 