WHO Says Virus Lab Cleared of Possible Leak

Authorities from the World Health Organization investigating the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in Wuhan, China say that the novel corona virus originated in bats, but it is extremely unlikely that a virology lab operating in Wuhan allowed the virus to escape into the community. Wuhan Virology Institute was experimenting with a strain of corona virus at the time the virus responsible for the pandemic entered the human population at large. Since Wuhan is not near likely bat habitat, the scientists hypothesize that the bat virus was present in an animal host first. The location for the jump to humans was probably made in the Huanan Seafood Market, an open air market that also sells and processes wild animals. The market, now closed, displayed meat in the open air in close proximity to workers and customers who crowded into narrow allies to purchase food products including civet cats, bamboo rats, rabbits, and pangolins. Some of these animal products can be traced to regional farms that bats inhabit. Possibly the virus infected frozen seafood products since it can survive for long periods in freezing temperatures.

A fact inconsistent with the market infection route is that COVID-19 infections also circulated in clusters beyond the market at the same time, indicating community transmission as early as December 8, 2020, and possibly earlier. Huanan seafood market could have been infected by a person already carrying the virus. Chinese national health authorities did not declare a health emergency until some fifty days later. By that time, the virus has already spread across the country and overseas to neighboring countries. The exact location of the animal resevoir in not yet known, but researchers are focusing on Southeast Asia. Chinese health authorities may be relieved that the search is shifting away from China, which has officially maintained that it was not the source, and has cooperated fully and transparently with international health authorities, a claim disputed by international experts.

Call These Witnesses

Update: Senate voted today to uphold the constitutionality of trying the former president after leaving office. His defenders relied on the argument that the Senate did not have the authority to try a former official, a position rejected by numerous scholars of constitutional law.  Despite the widely held opinion of legality, forty-four Repugnants voted against trying Killer for inciting insurrection.

Now that the second trial of the man who instigated an insurrection has started in the Senate, House managers should consider calling two witnesses. A former White House aide has told the press that Killer was “loving watching the Capitol mob” storm the Capitol on television. There are indications that he also rebuffed calls from senior officials aksing him to intervene in the violent events. Such testimony under oath would go a long way towards proving his malicious state of mind and rebut claiims that the mob acted independently of his weeks of unfounded, public claims that the election was being stolen, so "fight[ing] like hell" was necessary to reclaim the country from a usurper. (Several rioters have stated in their prosecutions they were summoned by the President to assault the capital building )

The other witness should be William Barr, the former Attorney General, who told Killer at one point in the lead up to the January 6th Insurrection that there was no evidence of election fraud sufficient to overturn the election results. The basis and circumstances of that advice should be revealed to the public and senators to rebut the BIG LIE of a fraudulent election. Useless US Person is aware of the pressure to wrap up an impeachment trial that many consider a foregone conclusion quickly, but is not the future of this Republic worth another day or even two to present the entire story to those sitting in judgment and sworn to protect the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic? US Person thinks so.

Ooooh, the pain!

A "Uniquely American" Whale

In the time of the Sixth Great Extinction, new species are discovered regularly, which is a good thing. Without knowing they exist we cannot hope to protect them from extinction. A new species of whale, named the Rice whale, after American biologist Dale Rice, lives in the north eastern Gulf of Mexico. Previously believed to be Bryde's whales, genetic analysis and morphological studies reveal they are a separate species that feeds in the great depths of the DeSoto Canyon, about 60 miles south of Mobile, Alabama. Consequently they are rarely seen at the surface. Only 100 individuals are estimated to exist, so they are already endangered. [photo credit: NOAA]

Researchers have long known that a group of whales inhabited this corner of the Gulf of Mexico. Drs. Patricia Rosel and Keith Mullen began studying this species baleen whale in the 90's. Significantly, their subject did not mingle with other Bryde's whales, and their feeding habits were different. Bryde's are found all over the planet, whereas these whales tend to stay at home in the Gulf. Because they look very similar, their distinctiveness was unconfirmed by genetic analysis. Prompted by signs of uniqueness, NOAA scientists began collecting tissue samples in 2000, eventually obtaining samples from 36 individuals. In January 2019, an eleven meter specimen washed ashore on an Everglade key. Examination of the skull revealed differences in structure from both Bryde's and Eden's whales, another close relative. Although some in the taxonomic community might want more genetic evidence of a new species, enough evidence exists already to warrant the designation according to researchers involved in the study.

Rice's whales have been protected under the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Act since they were listed as a unique population of Bryde's whale in 2019. Living in the Gulf of Mexico, these whales face threats from oil spills, ship strikes, ocean noise and entanglement in fishing gear. It is unknown whether the massive deep water oil spill by the Deepwater Horizon platform affected the population. The species is also subject to ship strikes since it has an unfortunate habit of sleeping at night just under the surface. Ships would have a difficult time seeing the sleeping giants in time to avoid a collision.

Give 'Em the Byrd!

One of the conundrums in the Swamp that annoys US Person is why the Senate is so loath to discard a rule that is clearly anti-democratic. Reconciliation is a kludge--a desperate work-around of gridlock caused by the required super-majority of sixty votes--that only makes current legislative process a Rube Goldberg device of inane complexity. The plain fact is that the Senate can eliminate the filibuster with a majority vote, and they have done that before. You would think that vote would be high on the priority list of tasks for the new majority, given that the COVID relief bill and other progressive legislation do not have Repugnant support. But NOT! The Senate worked into the early morning hours jimmying the reconciliation budget bill to set up passage of the rescue plan. Vice President Harris exercised her raison d'être around 5:30am EST, Friday. The joint budget bill passed after defeating hundreds of amendments in a fifteen hour "vote-a-rama" marathon, 51-50. Good thing the esteemed lawmakers held the votes in the middle of the night because such an arcane process is simply too embarrassing for a "great democracy".

Some Senate Democrats, including the lone socialist, Bernie Sanders, do not want to eliminate the filibuster. Instead he has a plan to blow up the Byrd Rule in order to allow passage of more progressive legislation such as the the Fifteen An Hour bill, which was tossed during the early morning law-making. What is the Byrd Rule you ask--a good question. Former Senator Byrd of West Virginia suggested the rule to prevent abuse of the reconciliation process--using it as a means to avoid the filibuster for legislation that is only tangentially related to fiscal issues--such as immigration reform, and federal voting standards. Byrd sets two basic requirements for items to be included in a joint budget resolution: it changes the overall level of spending or revenue where such a change is not merely ‘incidental,’” and it does not “increase deficits outside the 10-year budget window.” Who decides what is proper legislation under the rule--the Senate parliamentarian. But the parliamentarian only makes recommendations to the Senate's presiding officer, the Vice President. Ordinarily, the VP follows the parliamentarian's advisory. So, here is the clever part: Bernie would want Ms. Harris to reject any challenge to legislation under the Byrd Rule, something within her discretion under the Senate's arcane procedure. This strategy has been floated before—Ted Cruz and Rand Paul proposed using it during the debate over Obamacare repeal—but never actually used, because encouraging unchecked discretion could be dangerous in all sorts of other situations perhaps less appropriate.

Perhaps the underlying reason for not wanting to simply eliminate the filibuster and make passage of legislation subject only to majority vote is fear of being in the minority at some point. Senators do not call it the "nuclear option" for nothing. But there is little doubt the current rule is a fundamental roadblock to democratic action. A collective lack of conviction among senators creates an arcane, Frankenstein process giving disproportionate power to self-styled "moderates" who freeze the institution into dysfunction. There is nothing moderate about the modern Senate, as one observer said, "it is radical in its inanity, a legislative chamber designed by Dadaists." No wonder Mr. Smith was confused!

Killer Goes Ahead With Gutting Migratory Bird Act

Update: The Biden administration has delayed the immplementation of the last minute rule change exempting incidental "takes" of migratory birds from the MBTA. The new rule was set to go into effect Monday. The Department of Interior said the pause would allow the agency to determine the next steps to take. A department spokesperson said the rollback by the previous regime "sought to overturn decades of bipartisan and international precedent in order to protect corporate polluters,” Environmental groups filed a federal lawsuit to block implementation of the regime's rollback. Conservationists want to see a new rule making to make legal protection of migratory birds stronger.

{28.11.20}The regime announced its final environmental impact findings on the rollback of the 1918 Act, which protects migrating birds. The US Fish and Wildlife Service said the changes would negatively impact many species previously protected. The new rules would limit federal enforcement actions to those instances when harm to birds is intentional. Millions of migrating birds are killed each year by passive hazards such as buildings, power lines oil field waste pits and wind turbines. Industry operations kill an estimated 450 million to 1.1 billion birds annually, out of an estimated total population of 7 billion. Two days after his election defeat by Joe Biden, his minions sent the treaty changes to the Very White House for Killer's approval. The president of the National Audubon Society said he was in a "frenzy to finalize his bird-killing policy" Bird advocates called for the immediate restoration of the law by the Biden administration should the changes become law. Bird population declines that have swept North America since the 1970s. A federal judge in New York rejected the administration’s legal rationale for the changes in August.

'Toontime: The G-Man Cometh

credit: M. Wuerker, Politico

Next week in the Swamp is all about accountability. Killer goes on trial in the Senate because he was impeached WHILE IN OFFICE. The Constitution says that the Senate "shall have the power to try all impeachments", with no exception for those trials occurring after a term of office expires. Democratic prosecutors have drolly referred to this puerile strategy as the "January exception". The Repugnants are fixating on this to excuse their jarring, partisan denial of conspicuous facts on record because they cannot plausibly endorse Killer's BIG LIE that the election was fraudulent. The Russian asset will not testify under oath because to do so would expose him to charges of perjury. Meanwhile™ the FBI is knocking on the doors of violent insurrectionists* who stormed the Capitol as they are rounded up to answer for various federal offenses.

Speaking of mendacity and delusion: the Repugnant party in its slavish support of a malignant narcissist is loosing its soul, if it ever had one. The party of principled conservatism, of Lincoln, Eisenhower and Reagan, has descended to the level of a lunatic personality cult. It even refused to penalize a House member who spouts crazy conspiracies, bigoted memes, and white hate for profit. So the Democrats did the job for them. Repugnants have one last chance to redeem themselves from the Faustian bargain they struck with Killer by convicting him of incitement and barring him from future public office.

credit: P. Bagley, Salt Lake Tribune

*Interestingly, the feds are tracking some of these miscreants via metadata from their own cell phones. Eric Snowden is cooling his heels in Russia because he warned US of the dangers of mass digital surveillance. Personal data is being used to find the insurrectionists, which is a good thing. But what about innocent bystanders observing the events unfold before them? Are they being tracked too? You betcha. So the next time you bloviate about the 1st and 2nd Amendment or plan to attend a political rally, think about the sophisticated tracking device you carry in your pocket almost all the time. US Person does not carry one, and if he can help it, he never will.

COTW: Mutant Viruses

These charts from the science journal, Nature, show the number of genetic sequences of the SARS-CoV-2 virus provided to a global database. The South African varient (501.Y.V2) is more virulent that the original, able to reinfect persons who have recovered from a previous COVID-19 infection and presumably have antibodies still in their circulatory system. There are also indications that avaiable vaccines are less effective agains this strain.

This discovery of this variant underscores the important role genomic sequencing plays in monitoring virus mutations. Only a few mutations of a virus infecting humans prove problematic, so some surveilance mechansim must be set up to categorize variants. When researchers at Eastern Cape noticed a suspiciously high number of COVID-19 infections in South Africa they created a database of genomic sequences on a random basis. Combing through their data, they discovered a variant that accounted for 90% of the new infections in some regions. The variant has eight mutations of the spike protein that unlocks several types of human cells and allows the virus to take control and replicate itself.

British virologists used a similar but much larger database of mutations set up in a few weeks to uncover B.1.1.7, a variant that has increased infection rates alarmingly in the UK. Coronaviruses mutate slowly compared with influenza, so it was a tough sell to convince public health authorities to fund a program that could end up collecting a lot of useless information. But the investment of $27 million has proved worthwhile as vaccine manufacturers are modifying their vaccines* to better counteract the new virus mutations.

Because of the Untied States' capitalistic adherence to for-profit, private health care, its efforts to set up a national database of virus variants has been less successful. There is a program called SPHERES, which hopes to enlist the aid of private organizations to report gene sequencing, but that voluntary system has not evolved into a national database available to all medical establishments. Most gene sequencing in the US is done at academic institutions for research purposes, not public health emergencies. Genomic coverage overall is low and varies from state to state. The number of SARS-CoV-2 genomes that the United States has shared on GISAID is less than 0.3% of its total number of COVID-19 infections. That compares with nearly 5% for the United Kingdom, 12% for Denmark, and almost 60% for Australia, all countries with robust socialized healthcare systems.

USCOVID-19 DEATHS (est.): 450,000

 

 

*The British medical journal, Tne Lancet, announced that the Russian developed vaccine, Sputnik 5, has proven 92% effective in clinical trials. Russia received criticism from western authorities for administering its vaccine before clinical trials were completed. High profile individuals including Putin's daughter received the vaccine without serious incident. The Russian vaccine, which does not require extreme refrigeration and is popular in Latin America and Asia, is the fifth effective vaccine to be developed in a short period of time.