News roundup for Fri, Sep 3, 2021

3 Comments on News roundup for Fri, Sep 3, 2021
Are there car shortages

The FBI says hate crimes rose significantly in 2020—the highest number of incidents (nearly 7,800) in 12 years.

Good Samaritans rescued scores of cows from Hurricane Ida floodwater.

It could take up to six weeks to restore power to hundreds of thousands of Gulf Coast residents—Hurricane Ida did some serious damage.

There have been 80 actual firestorms (otherwise known as a pyrocumulonimbus) in the Northern Hemisphere this summer alone. A pyrocumulonimbus is a thunderstorm caused by a wildfire. Lightning caused by these storms can self-perpetuate the system by creating more wildfire and more firestorms. Lovely.

While the West burns, the East is getting slammed by Tropical Storm Ida. There’s terrible flooding in NY, NJ, and PA. More than a dozen have died from the flooding in the East Coast, and hundreds if not thousands of cars have been submerged and destroyed:

Speaking of cars, good luck finding a replacement:

The US is making its own penicillin again—self-sufficiency for the win:

There are 44 container ships languishing off the California coast near the port of Los Angeles—an all-time high. Labor shortages and the doubling to tripling of the size of the ships are both contributing to the problem.

A Lake Tahoe community fled the Caldor Fire together and got everyone out safely. The community had previously earned a National Firewise Designation, and folks were ready. Many had go-bags.

The world has 219.8 million COVID cases. The world has gained 4.4 million cases in the last seven days. There have been nearly 4.6 million deaths in total. The US has had a cumulative 40.5 million cases. Over 661,000 Americans have died—10,000 in the last week. The US added over 185,000 new cases on Wednesday, and over 1,400 deaths that day as well. The US is still leading global daily case gain.

A few senior officials in the FDA resigned, citing choices by CDC and the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) to roll out booster shots for COVID prophylaxis when the FDA has not yet finished its review process on the matter. The White House responded to the kerfuffle by noting that the booster roll out still depends on the results of the pending FDA review.

The pandemic virus can seriously damage the tissues of the heart. For those worried about like side effects from COVID vaccines, understand that the rates of myocarditis from the actual virus are much, much higher:

The Lambda variant has not taken off in the US, thankfully—it might be an actual escape variant. But the new variant kid on the block is Mu. Hopefully that one won’t take off, either. Mu might partially evade immune responses as well. Mu cases are growing in Columbia and Ecuador.

Why do some die from COVID when others don’t even get sick from it? Rogue, self-targeting antibodies might have something to do with it. These autoantibodies also seem to increase with age:

Stephanie Arnold | cosmicpixle

Stephanie Arnold is an advanced practice psychiatric nurse and a doctoral candidate in UA Tuscaloosa’s DNP program. Stephanie moonlights from time to time at UCLA teaching mental health nursing. She also likes making cold-process soap.

  • 3 Comments
    • Bill Masen September 3, 2021

      This service is very good cumulative Intel and very useful thanks.

      7 |
      • Stephanie ArnoldContributor Bill Masen September 3, 2021

        Much obliged. Glad to be plugged into the community that helps me source this info, too. 

        4 |
    • Hardened September 3, 2021

      Yeesh, not a good year for the FDA.

      3 |