Tag Archives: COVID 19

IT'S BACK:  New COVID-19 Subvariant XBB Is Part of a ‘New Class’ of Omicron

IT’S BACK:  New COVID-19 Subvariant XBB Is Part of a ‘New Class’ of Omicron

COVID-19, Featured, Gay News Domestic & U.S. Politics, Of Interest, , , , ,

Forewarned, forearmed; to be prepared is half the victory. – Miguel de Cervantes

There’s a new kid on the block of COVID subvariants that’s on the rise and one i called XBB—or Gryphon—is getting a lot of attention and there’s a chance it could overtake everything else out there.

Via MSN.com

XBB is one of the “new class” of Omicron variants that are spreading fast right now, says Thomas Russo, M.D., professor and chief of infectious disease at the University at Buffalo in New York. That includes BQ.1.1, BQ.1, BQ.1.3, BA.2.3.20, and XBB.
“XBB is a hybrid version of two strains of the BA.2 form of Omicron,” explains Amesh A. Adalja, M.D., a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. It’s currently “spreading efficiently in Singapore,” he adds.
The variant was first detected in August 2022 in India, and has been detected in more than 17 countries since then, including Australia, Bangladesh, Denmark, India, Japan and the U.S., per Singapore’s Ministry of Health.

XBB is thought to be able to evade antibody protections of these newly emerged COVID variants, according to a pre-print study from researchers in China. That study said that the new strains of Omicron, and XBB in particular, “are the most antibody-evasive strain tested, far exceeding BA.5 and approaching SARS-CoV-1 level.

“These variants are evolving to evade protection,” Dr. Russo says. The bivalent booster is “likely going to be protective against severe disease” with XBB, but will be “imperfect against preventing infection,” Dr. Russo says. “Even with immune-evasive variants, vaccine protection against what matters most—severe disease—remains intact.

It’s not over and probably won’t be for a very long time.

IT'S BACK:  New COVID-19 Subvariant XBB Is Part of a ‘New Class’ of Omicron

NYC Residents Life Expectancy Drops 4.5 Years Due to COVID

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Losing an hour every spring wasn’t enough?

Via The Gothamist:

“The COVID-19 pandemic shortened average life expectancy for New Yorkers by more than four years, hitting the city’s minority populations hardest, according to a report released on Friday.
The study by the city’s health department looked at trends in births and deaths in New York City during 2020, the year when COVID-19 arrived. The analysis found that from 2019 to 2020, life expectancy in New York City fell to 78 years — a staggering 4.6 year drop.
The mortality rate in 2020 was 241.3 deaths per 100,000 New Yorkers, according to the health department. A rise in unintentional drug overdoses also played a role in the 42.2% increase in deaths in 2020 over the year before.

Population density surely has something to do with it. And let’s not forget the 2nd largest mass murderer in history next to Adolph Hitler. Donald Trump whose inaction and stupidity caused hundreds of thousands or useless deaths.

IT'S BACK:  New COVID-19 Subvariant XBB Is Part of a ‘New Class’ of Omicron

REMINDER: COVID Is Not Over! – 12,500 Americans Died Of COVID-19 In July.

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Told you so.

Via USA Today: “COVID is over” might trend within social media circles, but weekly U.S. death tolls tell a different story. The pace of COVID-19 deaths has remained relatively steady since May, despite an uptick in July to about 400 a day, according to a USA TODAY analysis of Johns Hopkins University data. In July, more than 12,500 Americans died of COVID-19, according to the USA TODAY analysis. “We’re sitting on this horrible plateau,” said Dr. Daniel Griffin, an infectious disease specialist with Pro Health Care in New York and a clinical instructor of medicine at Columbia University. “It’s been this way for the past couple of months, and we’re getting used to it.”

Translation: “We’re done trying to fix the problem, we now are being “groomed” to live around it.” stage of how we handle all problems in this country.

See also: Homelessness, gun violence, poverty, domestic terrorism and the rising tide of Republican fascism among other things.

Patti LuPone Bashes the GOP Christian Right "No different from the Taliban" on 'The View'

Patti LuPone Puts Anti-Masker Karen Audience Member In Her Place “Get the fuck out!”

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Patti LuPone who has never been one for mincing words and calling out theatergoers who fail to follow proper theater etiquette, did it again on Tuesday when she exchanged blue words with an anti-mask attendee during a production of “Company” on Broadway.

The reading extraordinaire occurred after the show, when LuPone — appeared with the rest of her cast in a post-show Q&A hosted and filmed by the American Theater Wing no less. 

During the Q&A, LaDiva rightfully called out the audience member who wasn’t wearing a mask properly. Currently, the Broadway League’s COVID safety protocols requires all audience members to wear a mask inside theaters.

Via Variety:

“Put your mask on over your nose, that is the rule,” LuPone says in a viral Twitter video. “That’s why you are in the theater, that is the rule. If you don’t want to follow the rule, get the fuck out!” I’m serious. Who do you think you are, if you do not respect the people that are sitting around you?” After a woman in the audience told LuPone “I pay your salary,” LuPone responded by telling her “You pay my salary? Bullshit. Chris Harper pays my salary,” referring to the producer of “Company.” “Who do you think you are? Just put your mask over your nose.”

The woman in the audience had the nerve to talk back to our Broadway Legend Supreme?

Bitch please.

Village Idiot GOP Sen. Ron Johnson: The COVID Vaccine Might Give You AIDS.

Village Idiot GOP Sen. Ron Johnson: The COVID Vaccine Might Give You AIDS.

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Republican idiot Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) suggested in a recent interview that Covid vaccines “may” give people AIDS. Johnson sat down with Todd Callender, whom the Wisconsin Examiner described as an “anti-vaccine attorney”.

Via Mediate:

Callender shared a wild theory with the senator: Covid shots are intentionally spreading HIV/AIDS to people who receive them. Callendar called the actions of the FDA “criminal,” and suggested action be taken against public health authorities. Johnson replied, “You’ve gotta do one step at a time, everything you say may be true, but right now the public [wrongly] views the vaccines as largely safe and effective, that vaccine injuries are rare and mild.”

This is not the first time Johnson, who is up for re-election this fall, has spread conspiracy theories about COVID-19 or connected the pandemic to AIDS. In December, on world AIDS day, Johnson said in an appearance on Fox News Host Brian Kilmeade’s radio show that Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, “overhyped” the AIDS crisis in the 1980s.

Congrats Ron for winning Most Hated Republican of the Day, surprisingly taking it from Samuel Alito.

It was tough but you did it. Scumbag.

Sharon Stone Goes All Basic Instinct on “A**hole” Joe Rogan

COVID-19, Entertainment, Featured, , ,

Actress Sharon Stone who has worked in front of and behind the scenes in AIDS activism and research has weighed in on controversy surrounding podcast host Joe Rogan and Spotify, the parent network of his show.

“He should put a disclaimer that he’s an a**hole and that his behavior is dangerous and affecting people’s lives and deaths. COVID is not an opinion-based situation and Mr. Rogan thinking that his opinion or disclaimer for the lives he personally has affected and caused losses of — it’s not an opinion. Mr. Rogan is risking people’s lives with his idiocy and his professing that his thoughts about COVID are opinions, infectious diseases are science, and they are fact-based situations, so the pretense that these are opinions is dangerous.

Sharon Stone

You can watch Ms. Stone’s interview with TMZ below.

Death Reported on Atlantis Events Gay Cruise

Death Reported on Atlantis Events Gay Cruise

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There has been a death reported on the much discussed Atlantis 30th Anniversary Cruise on Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Sea’s. Reporter Chris Wiggins tweeted news of the death. He also reported on several “Code Alpha” (medical emergency) announcements broadcast on the ship.

Atlantis Cruise and it’s operators have come under scrutiny the past few days as pictures and video’s released by passengers show the cruise sailing at 100% capacity with no social distancing or masking in place. Atlantis which had bragged about the safety restrictions before the cruise has remained silent about the sudden disappearance of all of these, on a full ship while Omnicron rips through the population affecting both non-vaccinated and in some cases vaccinated Americans alike. Ironically, in a separate move Royal Caribbean and other cruise lines have cancelled many of it’s cruses going out these past 2 weeks on ships sailing at 50% capacity or less.

Of course Atlantis and fellow gay vacation VACAY are trying to frame the backlash as a homophobic attack by those complaining which of course it is not since many of the complaints are coming from within the LGBT community itself.

Other than the obvious concern over the spreading of the Omnicron variant this cruise has also shined the spotlight on past Atlantis Events cruises which have been plagued by drug use, passengers going overboard and shipboard deaths over the years.

*In January 2020, a member of the Atlantis technical crew went overboard from the Oasis of the Seas.

*In February 2019, federal agents arrested two men trying to board the Allure of the Seas at PortMiami for possession of a large quantity of drugs which they were intending to sell on the cruise ship which had been chartered to Atlantis Events.

*In January 2018, Storm Chasers’ star Joel Taylor died of a suspected overdose on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship, Harmony of the Seas, which had been chartered by Atlantis Events.

*In February 2012, an Atlantis Events attendee went overboard from the Allure of the Seas operated by Royal Caribbean. His body was never recovered and he is presumed to be dead.

*In January 2011, cruise passenger, Barry Krumholz, was arrested for selling large quantities of ecstasy pills, methamphetamine, ketamine and other drugs aboard the Royal Caribbean Allure of the Seas chartered by Atlantis Events. There were reportedly a half-dozen drug overdoses during the cruise.

And these are just some issues over the years.

After the death of Joel Taylor in 2019 it has also come to light that Atlantis Events hires it’s own medical team for the cruise and does not use Royal Caribbean’s. Weather a gay or a straight cruise  cruise ships are notorious for the limited nature of the cruise ship’s medical facilities and no place to have a medical emergency,

So while Atlantis Events cries homophobia to cover it’s blatant disregard of health and safety protocols for COVID perhaps we should also talk about the dangerous and deadly institutionalization Atlantis Events has made of supporting the gay drug underground.

Anti-Vax GOP/Libertardian Rep Thomas Massie (KY) Has The RONA! (Covid-19)

Anti-Vax GOP/Libertardian Rep Thomas Massie (KY) Has The RONA! (Covid-19)

COVID-19, Gay News Domestic & U.S. Politics, , ,

BREAKING NEWS! Plague rat gets plague!

“Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) announced on Thursday that he has tested positive for COVID-19. Massie, who is not vaccinated, wrote in a tweet that he was experiencing cold and allergy symptoms for one day “but seem[s] to be over it.” He said he will not be voting, attending in-person meetings or making public appearances until next week. – Rep Thomas Massie (R/L – KY)

Massie a notorious anti-vaxxer, anti-LGBT, anti Voting Rights Libertarian (or so he says) but runs as a Republican Massie is part of the infamous extreme right group named GANG GREENE comprising of, Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert, and Marjorie Taylor Greene as the over-used Beaver.

Thoughts and prayers Tommy. Thoughts and prayers.

#COVID19 – Comatose Anti-Vaxxer Flown To Texas After Minnesota Hospital Decides To Turn Off Ventilator.

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Via The Minneapolis Star-Tribune

Scott Quiner, 55, of Buffalo, was flown from the Twin Cities to Texas over the weekend, an attorney representing the family said. Scott Quiner’s case drew widespread attention last week after Mercy Hospital said it would disconnect the ventilator on Thursday. Quiner, who was unvaccinated, had been in the hospital’s ICU since Nov. 6 with critically low oxygen levels and had shown little signs of improvement since his arrival.

Quiner’s wife, Anne, went to Anoka County court seeking an emergency restraining order to prevent Mercy from disconnecting the ventilator. Without a judge’s decision, “my husband will die,” Anne wrote in her petition seeking the court’s action. A GoFundMe has pulled in more than $28,600 as of Monday morning. A second fundraiser on the Christian crowdfunding site GiveSendGo was seeking to raise $100,000. As of Monday, the effort had brought in $41,000

Of course anti-vax extremists and QAnon/Trump loons are besides themselves and Quinner’s wife wants to keep giving him futile care while taking up an ICU bed in a pandemic so she can give him ivermectin and vitamins.

I’m sure everything will turn out just fine. (No it won’t)

Veteran General Hospital Actor Fired Over Anti-Vaxx and Transphobic Statements

Veteran General Hospital Actor Fired Over Anti-Vaxx and Transphobic Statements

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Australian actor Ingo Rademacher who has portrayed the character of Jasper Jax on “GH” for over 25 years has been fired over his numerous anti-vaxx and anti-trans comments.

Rademacher who has been an out-spoken anti-vaccine nutjob on Instagram is not vaccinated, and doesn’t believe in it, . even after co-star Steve Burton (Jason) disclosed that he had tested positive for COVID and claimed to have been exposed to the virus at work. (GH has since become the only soap opera with a vaccine mandate.)

Rademacher posted a video to Instagram in which he called his fans “Bigots” and “morons” for criticizing him.

In November, Rademacher shared to his Instagram a hateful anti-trans meme; it did not go unnoticed. “I am aware of a transphobic post shared by a fellow General Hospital actor,” tweeted Cassandra James, the transgender actress who plays Terry. “Shame on you. You have some serious unlearning and education to do. I feel deeply disappointed that such a public display of ignorance could come from our General Hospital family.

Rademacher has not directly commented on his firing but has doubled down posting an Instagram message yesterday stating, “I will stand with you to fight for medical freedom.”

Well he’ll have a lot of free time to do that now. Won’t he.