NASA says a “potentially dangerous” asteroid worth nearly $5 billion will enter Earth’s orbit next week Living science

Elliott buys more than $200 million in Twitter stock on dips Bloomberg

The influential Koch network is shaken by alleged extramarital affairs scandal, donor resignation and discrimination lawsuits CNN

Covid-19 makes Americans super savers. Now they are hoarding cash. Wall Street Journal

Debt collectors can now text you, email and DM on social media NPR

After Wakashio, MOL established the Blue Economic Fund for Mauritius Maritime Executive

climate

New research links Australia’s forest fires to climate change Wildfire today

Battle of the Forest science

“Agricultural Mafia” Takes Over Brazil’s Amazon Rainforest France24 (Re Silc).

Concrete is not necessarily an ecological nightmare contain

#Coronavirus disease

Omicron variant “We are playing with fire” researchers Der Spiegel Weekly (Re Silc). Very good summary.

COVID-19 reinfection study from South Africa yields ominous data on Omicront science

Natalie Dean, a biostatistician at Emory University, said: “Although there are many uncertainties in the paper, it seems that the protection of Omicron from earlier infections is only the protection of Delta. Half of it. [Juliet Pulliam, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the South African Centre of Excellence in Epidemiological Modelling and Analysis] I agree that this is a good estimate. “The exact numbers are fraught with questions,” said William Hanach, an epidemiologist at Harvard University’s Chen Zengxi School of Public Health. “But this is not the point,” he added. “This is the first pass, and it provides a good enough comparison to show us that, as we might expect, re-infection is a big deal for Omicron.”

With the surge in COVID in South Africa, Omicron expands its global footprint Infectious Disease Research and Policy Center

Omicron’s outburst at a Norwegian Christmas party is the largest outside of South Africa-Authorities Reuters

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The impact of community sheltering on COVID-19: a cluster randomized trial in Bangladesh science.The team originally published on National Bureau of Economic Research; 5/13 linkThe trial also includes interventions to encourage the wearing of masks. From the discussion:

“We showed the results of a cluster randomized controlled trial of scalable interventions aimed at increasing the wearing of masks and reducing COVID-19. Our estimates indicate that the number of people wearing masks has increased by 28.8 percentage points, corresponding to the intervention in villages. It is estimated that 51,357 adults wear masks, and the effect persists even after the active mask promotion is stopped. The intervention reduced the symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence rate by 9.5% (equivalent to a decrease 105 symptomatic seropositives) and reduced the prevalence of COVID-like symptoms by 11.6%, which is equivalent to a reduction of 1,541 people reporting these symptoms.”

The Missouri Department of Health found that the mask regulations were effective, but did not disclose the results of the investigation Missouri Independence

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Scalable live attenuated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidate demonstrates preclinical safety and effectiveness National Aeronautics and Space Administration. From July 2021, it is still closely related. From the summary:

This work proved the feasibility of rationally designing and synthesizing candidate vaccines to deal with emerging diseases under real-world conditions. In addition, the use of live attenuated codon pairs to optimize the virus method ensures that all components of the host immune system are involved, and avoid potential effects from the vector sequence of the hybrid live virus. Evidence from other codons to optimize viruses indicates that COVI-VAC will resist reversal and loss of effectiveness due to antigen drift. The ease of large-scale virus growth under permitted conditions, combined with this makes COVI-VAC an attractive candidate for clinical testing possible for large-scale immunization programs.

(More information about COVI-VAC is here.) Lambert is here (please correct me): The intramuscular vaccine will not activate the nasal immune system, nor will it prevent the virus from multiplying in the nasal cavity (just like the “Bear Week” study conducted by the CDC in Provincetown As shown in). Therefore, current vaccines can prevent serious illness, hospitalization, and death, but cannot prevent transmission, because the virus is usually breathed out before symptoms appear. A nasal vaccine that prevents the virus from multiplying in the nose is the only potential way to obtain a sterile vaccine. One can only wonder why the Biden action warping speed equivalent does not pursue them. Unfortunately, Cuba’s nasal vaccine Mambisa, Is still in clinical trials, so we cannot simply place an order.

Extend the immunogenicity of mRNA SARS-CoV-2 vaccine administration interval (Research Letter) JAMA. From the discussion: “Longer mRNA vaccine dosing intervals indicate increased immunogenicity, which is consistent when the response is measured based on the time of the first or second dose. These data indicate that extending the dosing interval may change Delta It is particularly beneficial for the body. When vaccine supply is limited, the strategy of delaying the second vaccination can provide faster partial protection for a larger proportion of the population.”

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A chewing gum that can reduce the spread of SARS-CoV-2 Medical Xpress (RM). Has not yet entered clinical trials.

Drops of Coronavirus New York Times. When referring to aerosols, the poor title reinforces the droplet theory, but the visualization is impressive.

More on fear:

Congratulations on my new position! This is the fetal position, I will stay in it for a while.
— Laura Spoonie ?? (@LauraSpoonie) December 2, 2021

China?

Why the rise of ultra-left nationalism is the biggest threat to China’s development South China Morning Post

Local government financing platform buys land to supplement the treasury Caixin Global. Comment: “The local government has the responsibility…”

4/4
More importantly, this must happen in the context of a long-standing struggle between Beijing and very powerful local governments. I have always thought that this is why the centralization policies under the Xi Jinping government, no matter what problems they may cause, may be necessary.
— Michael Pettis (@michaelxpettis) December 4, 2021

China cracks down on financial fraud explosion Financial Times

Fan Zhongyan-a great Chinese politician and poet Everything is Chinese.

“If someone treats you well and helps you block opinions you don’t like to hear, there is no doubt that this person must be a sinister conspirator.”…
Fan Zhongyan-a great Chinese politician and poet https://t.co/TBq2lm7Jex
— CM — Zero Covidista (@xuchuanmei) December 4, 2021

Myanmar

Hundreds of telecommunications towers collapsed in Myanmar’s coup resistance Reuters

The Burmese army is fighting a multi-line war Diplomats and The new pattern of conflict in Myanmar Oslo Institute for Peace.Reminder: “When you play a Game of Thrones, you either win or die.”-Cersei Lannister

UK/EU

UKHSA efficacy statistics death observation: week 48 Ugibius (JD).

The new “command government” bypasses parliament altogether Financial Times

New cold war

US intelligence agencies warned that Russia plans to launch a large-scale military offensive against Ukraine, involving 175,000 soldiers Wabo. Breaking news. If you guess that all sources are anonymous, then you are right. By the way, “The U.S. Intelligence Service has found that “is right”The British government has learned. “Can anyone here not play this game?”

Russia’s greatest weapon is not a weapon Cheetah (ctlieee).

Caribbean

Western media: Venezuelan elections must be undemocratic, because Chavezism won Fair

Biden Administration

Rebuilding Better’s gift to the natural gas industry Daily poster

Interior Ministry’s new oil and gas lease roadmap evades climate action Highland News

In the transition to the International Space Station, NASA allocated $415 million for the private space station Spacenet

Gate of Russia

Hangout for a limited time is coming Lee Smith, tablet

Democratic Party Disabled

In addition to Sanders, two Harris assistants left Hill. There is no chaos in Harris’ actions, no sirree. Speaking of Willie Brown and “Our Democracy”——

Past explosion: PG&E continues to privatize San Francisco’s electricity Yasha Levine

I am the governor of Montana. My fellow Democrats, you need to leave this city more. now

Our famous free media

Solving the power imbalance between news publishers and digital platforms: implementing a legislative proposal for competitive payments to newspapers (PDF) Hal J. Singer, McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University. “The best way to correct this market failure is for the government to allow news publishers (individual newspapers or all news publishers) to coordinate payment terms and conditions with digital platform transactions…”

Gonz

After the vehicle was found in Detroit, the parents of the defendant killer in the Michigan school shooting were arrested USA Today and The prosecutor laid out a disturbing timeline to explain why the parents of the suspect in the school shooting were charged CNN. I will not provoke moral panic by quoting timetables, but holy Morey…

case Joffrey Epstein

“She is not Jeffrey Epstein”: Meet the lawyer who tried to free Gislain Maxwell Vanity Fair. Mirror:

This court sketch in which Ghislaine Maxwell stared at the artists and drew them back made me completely irrational pic.twitter.com/La8sh4c9Pq
-Jelly Bea Arthur (@DJWillMartin) December 2, 2021

supply chain

Major transportation organizations warn that the government’s subconscious response to Omicron Variant puts the supply chain at greater risk Greek shipping news. Your “subconscious reaction” is my “precautionary principle”.

Empire Folding Watch

The U.S. as a tax haven: it is becoming part of U.S. foreign policy CEPR

Class struggle

Auto workers win direct democracy in referendum Labor notes

What is a “great resignation”?Expert explanation World Economic Forum

Love lie air mail

Today’s antidote, bird (pass through):

Reward antidote, dog:

Double reward antidote, cat:

Not sure what the “nanopore sequencing” joke is about. Perhaps a scientifically minded reader can explain it.

See yesterday’s link and antidote du Jour here.