All posts by culturecenter

NBA Study Shows Post-COVID Viral Transmission Rare, Even With Positive Test

NBA Study Shows Post-COVID Viral Transmission Rare, Even With Positive Test (Source usnews.com)

Isolated NBA players who recovered from COVID-19 but still tested positive for the virus didn’t infect others after leaving isolation, a new study finds. That someone who has had COVID can infect others has been a persistent fear, but these findings from the professional basketball league suggest that many who recover can return to contact with others without spreading the virus, researchers say.

“COVID-19 reinfection is possible, especially now with new variants, and every positive test should be taken seriously,” said lead researcher Christina Mack of IQVIA, Real World Solutions in Durham, N.C.

This 2020 study, however, showed that sensitive tests such as RT-PCR may continue to yield a positive result after people have recovered from COVID. In the NBA campus setting, however, those folks were not infectious, Mack said. To complete the 2019-20 season, the NBA set up a “bubble” in Orlando, Fla. — a closed campus governed by scientific protocols to guard against COVID-19. More than 3,500 people lived on the campus and were subject to its protocols. All had daily RT-PCR tests. Some had recovered from a previous COVID infection.

“These recovered individuals were not sick and were not observed to be infectious to others, but were instead shedding virus particles at a low level left over from their previous infection,” Mack said.” We observed that individuals could test positive up to 118 days after onset of infection, and that again, many of these individuals had tested negative on most of the days surrounding their positive test or tests,” she said. Among participants, 1% had persistent virus, most were younger than 30 and male. Antibodies were found in 92% of these persistent cases and all were asymptomatic. These people were monitored, and there was no transmission of the virus to others, the researchers reported.

Russian admiral frets over ‘provocative’ NATO drills

Russian admiral frets over ‘provocative’ NATO drills

(Source Associated Press)

Admiral Alexander Moiseyev, the commander of Russia’s Northern Fleet, said that NATO navy ships’ presence in the Barents Sea and the Norwegian Sea have reached levels unseen since World War II. Speaking to reporters onboard the Northern Fleet’s flagship, Peter the Great missile cruiser, at its Arctic base. Adm. Alexander charged that NATO drills have edged closer to Russian borders, and noted increasingly frequent flights by U.S. nuclear-capable strategic bombers. “Such actions are provocative and have a negative impact on regional security,” Adm. Alexander said. He voiced particular concern about the U.S. military assets on the territory of NATO ally Norway that borders Russia, charging that it has led to an “increase of the conflict potential in the Arctic.”

Fully Vaccinated People Can Stop Wearing Masks Indoors And Outdoors, CDC Says

Fully Vaccinated People Can Stop Wearing Masks Indoors And Outdoors, CDC Says (Source npr.org)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that fully vaccinated adults can safely resume activities indoors or outdoors without masks or distancing, in gatherings large or small. The announcement marks a major milestone in the effort to emerge from the coronavirus pandemic in the United States. CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky announced the new guidance. “You can do things you stopped doing because of the pandemic,” Walensky said. The new policy is based on recent real-world studies from Israel and the U.S. on people who’ve been vaccinated, she said. In response to a question, Walensky said the federal mask requirement on public transportation remains in force for everyone, vaccinated or not – including on buses, trains, airplanes and in stations and airports.

U.S. dollar’s status as reserve currency in jeopardy

U.S. dollar’s status as reserve currency in jeopardy

(Source kitco.com)

Even in light of a clearly recovering economy, and new COVID cases on the decline, the government continues to inject liquidity into the financial system through fiscal and monetary stimulus, with the end result being the devaluation of the dollar and losing its global reserve currency status to China, said Danielle DiMartino Booth, CEO of Quill Intelligence. “We are no longer in an emergency situation. If the Fed is going to insist on being an ostrich and sticking its head in the sand, while it’s pumping out $120 billion per month of quantitative easing as if we were in a depression, then yes, I see every reason for China to continue playing its very game with the intention of eventually unseating the U.S. dollar,” DiMartino booth told Michelle Makori, editor-in-chief of Kitco News. Even if the Federal Reserve wanted to turn things around for the dollar, it would not be in a position to do so, Booth said. “If the Fed was to try and normalize policy and the stock market were to take a really big downturn, then you would see that ripple through the economy and we would be back in recession,” she said. “The magnitude of the Fed’s intervention in this particular episode has put an entire economic recovery inside of a time compression chamber.”

The labor market, automobile and other consumer discretionary sectors have all rebounded as a result of fiscal stimulus, facilitated by the central bank, she said, but the Fed has gone on a ‘bridge too far’ and needs to step back and regain its independence from the Treasury. Booth emphasized that should the dollar lose its crown as the world’s defacto reserve currency, the mantle would be taken up by the Chinese yuan.

Palestine and Israel, where fighting is escalating even amid truce effort

Palestine and Israel, where fighting is escalating even amid truce efforts(Source marketwatch.com)

Hamas sent a heavy barrage of rockets deep into Israel on Thursday, and Israel pounded Gaza with more airstrikes. The relentless escalation of hostilities came even as Egyptian negotiators held in-person talks with the two sides, intensifying efforts at mediation. Previous fighting between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers, including a devastating 2014 war, was largely confined to the impoverished and blockaded Palestinian territory and Israeli communities on the frontier. But this round seems to be rippling farther and wider than at any time since the 2000 Palestinian intifada, or uprising.

While some rocket attacks have reached the Tel Aviv area, Arab and Jewish mobs have rampaged through the streets, savagely beating people and torching cars. Flights have been canceled or diverted away from the country’s main airport.

Weary Palestinians, meanwhile, somberly marked the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan on Thursday as militants fired one barrage of rockets after another and Israel carried out waves of bone-rattling airstrikes.

Is the Genetic COVID Vaccine Creating a Hurricane Inside Cells of the Body

Is the Genetic COVID Vaccine Creating a Hurricane Inside Cells of the Body?(Source globalresearch.ca)

Contrary to medical claims, the genetic injection called “COVID vaccination” forces cells of the body to produce not one, but hundreds of DIFFERENT proteins. Some of these proteins launch severe and fatal allergic reactions. Other foreign proteins stimulate the body to produce a powerful and continuing immune response that goes on too long; the person becomes severely ill or dies. Still other proteins, which are inherently needed by the body, are now viewed as evil intruders which must be neutralized.  I want to examine a narrow claim about the COVID RNA vaccine: It instructs cells of the body to manufacture ONE AND ONLY ONE specific protein. In fact, this is touted as THE major action of the genetic vaccine. Supposedly, that protein is similar to a protein in the purported SARS-CoV-2, and it “prepares and rehearses the body for the real thing.”

However, what guarantee do we have that the cells of the body are manufacturing only the one desired protein during the rehearsal?

How do we know the cells are always making the same protein? Where is the proof? Where is the large confirmatory study that has examined thousands and thousands of human cells, from thousands of people who have been vaccinated?

I haven’t been able to find such a study.

Pfizer Vaccine May Cause Heart Inflammation in People Under 30

Pfizer Vaccine May Cause Heart Inflammation in People Under 30, Leaked Study Suggests

(Source Children’s Health Defense)

Details leaked from an Israeli Health Ministry report have raised concerns among experts about a possible link between the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine and myocarditis, according to The Times of Israel and other news outlets. The preliminary report by a committee tasked with monitoring vaccine side effects found 62 cases of myocarditis, including two deaths, in people who received the Pfizer vaccine. Fifty-six of the cases occurred after the second dose of the vaccine, and 55 cases occurred in men — most between the ages of 18 and 30. The two patients who died were reportedly healthy until receiving the vaccine and had no pre-existing conditions. One was a 22-year-old woman, the other was a 35-year-old man. The report noted that 5 million people in Israel have been vaccinated for COVID. Myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart muscle, can lead to cardiac arrhythmia and death.

Israel’s pandemic response coordinator, Nachman Ash, confirmed  “tens of incidents” of myocarditis occurred in vaccinated people, primarily after the second dose, but emphasized the health ministry had yet to draw any conclusions.

The US is tracking an uncontrolled Chinese rocket traveling at 18,000 mph

The US is tracking an uncontrolled Chinese rocket traveling at 18,000 mph that is expected to crash down around May 8 (Source Business Insider)

The Pentagon has said it is tracking a chunk of a Chinese rocket that is expected to come back into the atmosphere in the coming days in an uncontrolled reentry. As of now, it does not know where the debris will land. The exact point where the rocket will enter the atmosphere will be known only within “hours” of its reentry, the US Space Command, a branch of the US military, said in a statement Tuesday. The core of the rocket, which China launched April 29, has been predicted to come back to Earth “around May 8,” Space Command said. Its exact trajectory is still unclear.

South Carolina becomes the second state to cancel federal unemployment benefits

South Carolina becomes the second state to cancel federal unemployment benefits

(Source Yahoo Money)

South Carolina plans to stop some of its federally-funded unemployment benefits to address “ongoing workforce shortages,” according to the South Carolina governor’s office, leaving many out-of-work residents without any support at all. The state joins Montana, which announced a similar move this week. “This labor shortage is being created in large part by the supplemental unemployment payments that the federal government provides claimants on top of their state unemployment benefits,” Gov. Henry McMaster said in a statement on Thursday. “What was intended to be a short-term financial assistance for the vulnerable and displaced during the height of the pandemic has turned into a dangerous federal entitlement, incentivizing and paying workers to stay at home rather than encouraging them to return to the workplace.”

Starting June 30, jobless South Carolinians will lose the extra $300 in weekly unemployment benefits but maintain their regular benefits. Contractors, gig workers, and others will also lose access to the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program, meaning those workers won’t get any benefits. Montana plans to cancel those benefits and programs on June 27.

Beating the coronavirus does not spare someone from possible ‘COVID

Beating the coronavirus does not spare someone from possible ‘COVID psychosis (Source usatoday.com) Neurological and psychiatric experts are seeing more reports of COVID-19 sufferers developing psychotic symptoms, even when they have no prior history of mental illness. While rare, the condition can be severe enough to require hospitalization. Symptoms may include hallucinations, unusual agitation, restlessness preoccupation, paranoid beliefs, decreased need for sleep and impulsive behavior, said Dr. Jonathan Alpert, a professor of psychiatry, neuroscience and pediatrics at Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City.

“When people are psychotic, they aren’t in touch with reality and may do things that harm themselves and other things that are very dangerous,” he said. “It looks like COVID-19 has a somewhat higher risk of causing it than other viral infections that we’ve seen.”