>>10393577

Trump to announce emergency authorization of convalescent plasma as ‘breakthrough’ covid-19 treatment

Experts say the blood product is probably beneficial but not a game changer.

By Josh Dawsey, Laurie McGinley, Carolyn Y. Johnson and Seung Min Kim August 23, 2020 at 6:05 p.m. UTC

On the eve of the Republican National Convention where President Trump hopes to revive his flagging political fortunes, he will announce the emergency authorization of convalescent plasma for covid-19, a treatment that already has been given to more than 70,000 patients, according to officials familiar with the decision.

In a tweet late Saturday night, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said the announcement at 5:30 p.m. Sunday involved “a major therapeutic breakthrough on the China virus.” Officials confirmed on Sunday the treatment is convalescent plasma; they spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the issue. The White House declined comment.

Many scientists and physicians believe that convalescent plasma might provide some benefit but is far from a breakthrough. It is rich in antibodies that could be helpful in fighting the coronavirus, but the evidence so far has not been conclusive about whether it works, when to administer it and what dose is needed. On CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday, former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb said the blood product — derived from patients who have survived covid-19 — is “probably beneficial” for covid-19 patients. The issuance of an emergency authorization would make it easier to get in some settings. But he also said it already is widely available, so the change would be “incremental.”

The announcement comes as Trump has put extraordinary pressure on federal agencies to test and approve treatments and, especially, a vaccine against the novel coronavirus which has already killed more than 170,000 Americans. The president’s political advisers believe that having a vaccine by Election Day is key to his prospects for winning.

It also lands a day after the president without evidence accused the FDA of impeding enrollment in clinical trials for coronavirus vaccines and therapeutics for political reasons. McEnany said in her tweet that FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar would appear at the news conference.

“The deep state, or whoever, over at the FDA is making it very difficult for drug companies to get people in order to test the vaccines and therapeutics,” Trump said on Twitter on Saturday. “Obviously, they are hoping to delay the answer until after November 3rd. Must focus on speed, and saving lives!” He tagged Hahn in the tweet.

On Sunday, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows defended Trump’s tweet.

“I can tell you that the announcement that’s coming today should have been made several weeks ago,” Meadows said on “Fox News Sunday,” previewing the administration’s plans. “It was a fumble by a number of people in the federal government that should have done it differently … and having been personally involved with it. Sometimes you have to make them feel the heat if they don’t see the light.”

Convalescent plasma has long has been used for other infectious diseases, including Ebola. The treatment’s effectiveness for covid-19 has appeared promising but has remained unsettled because scientists don’t yet have results from rigorous clinical trials. The tens of thousands of patients already treated have been enrolled in an expanded access program sponsored by the FDA and run by the Mayo Clinic.

Carlos del Rio, executive associate dean of the Emory School of Medicine, said that it was an exaggeration to call plasma a “breakthrough.” He called plasma an “interesting strategy” and said the data so far was a “nice hint” that it could be helpful, but stressed that it was “not going to win the game.”

“The problem is, the President, in my mind, has lost total credibility because of what he’s done with hydroxychloroquine. He’s touted so many things that don’t work,” del Rio said. “The reality is what we have today to treat covid is extremely limited.”

(too long and negative)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/08/23/trump-convalescent-plasma-okay/

>>10393777

22 April 1977

Asimov's Secret: Predicting the Obvious

By BARBARA LOOS

The prolific science fiction writer, Dr. Isaac Aslmov, was greeted with thunderous applause by a large Vassar audience at his chapel lecture last Wednesday evening. After a slow start, the "little over thirty" Asimov gave an intriguing talk concerning the art of science fiction writing. His talk spanned his personal development as a writer, scientist, and prognosticator.

While researching a book for his sociology professor, as an undergraduate at Columbia, Asimov jiscovered the key insight that technological advance is met with social opposition. With a flair for the obvious, Asimov realized that since space travel is a technological advance, it would undoubtedly be met with social opposition.

Asimov uses what he terms a syllogism machine which cranks out "shining truths" from the input of two commonly known premises. Concerning the problem of oil consumption in America, the syllogism machine was fed the two obvious premises that 1) the volume of the earth is finite and 2i the amount of oil in the earth is finite. Not surprisingly, it reached the conclusion that we are going to run out of oil, which according to Dr. Asimov's figures should occur in about 20 years. And yet these facts are so obvious that he has trouble getting people to believe it; - a condition which makes for both unconcerned Americans and good science fiction. For Asimov, the whole secret to science fiction writing is predicting the obvious.

In his predictions, Dr. Asimov relies heavily on history, for "if it happened in the past chances are it will happen again." On the subject of population control, the syllogism machine once again reached an obvious truth. For with 4 billion peoples on this earth, at an annual increase of 2 percent, sooner or later the earth will be over-populated, a condition that will result in mass starvation. Such a condition can be dealt with in only two ways, according to Asimov: you either raise the death rate or lower the birth rate.

In reviewing the times of low birth rate in the past, Asimov discovered that there was a corresponding higher status of women. It would seem that if the interests and opportunities of women are allowed to develop, children do not become the total focal point of women and the birth rate goes down. According to Asimov, the idea of a maternal instinct is worse than a myth. However, granting women their social and economic equality they will involve themselves with the world, which will "double the brainpower and decrease the population." It will also free men from the "macho mystique."

In the question and answer period. Dr. Asimov proved his generous ability to perceive the whole of the problem. One student asked him how one would implement women's liberation in such an ignorant country as India. Dr. Asimov cooly replied that contrary to belief India has had a very complex culture which goes farther back than our entire western civilization. India's high birth rate is due to custom where children are seen as producers for the parents, not consumers of the parents. Asimov feels that in giving women their equality, is the only humane way of lowering the birth rate. The longer we wait the more desperate the measure will be taken to lower the birth rate.

https://news.hrvh.org/veridian/cgi-bin/senylrc?a=d&d=vcmisc19770422-01.2.36&txq=Asimov

>>10393563

"Houston, we have a problem" is a popular but erroneous quotation from the radio communications between the Apollo 13 astronaut John ("Jack") Swigert and the NASA Mission Control Center ("Houston") during the Apollo 13 spaceflight, as the astronauts communicated their discovery of the explosion that crippled their spacecraft.

The words actually spoken, initially by Jack Swigert, were "Okay, Houston, we've had a problem here". After being prompted to repeat the transmission by CAPCOM Jack R. Lousma, Jim Lovell responded, "Ah, Houston, we've had a problem."

Since then, the erroneous phrase "Houston, we have a problem" has become popular, being used to account, informally, the emergence of an unforeseen problem.

>>10394031

Michael Savage on his Friday broadcast "QAnon Exposed + Secret Fish Recipe" asked QAnon "members" to call in and explain what it was all about. There were some good callers, for sure! Seems as though Savage knows all about Q, more than he leads on. Worth a listen.

And the secret fish comms is interdashing.

http://www.westwoodonepodcasts.com/pods/savage-nation/

Trump dismisses secret audio of sister calling him ‘cruel': ‘Who cares?’

“Every day it’s something else, who cares?” President Trump said in a statement, according to the Washington Post. “I miss my brother, and I’ll continue to work hard for the American people. Not everyone agrees, but the results are obvious. Our country will soon be stronger than ever before!”

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-dismisses-secret-audio-of-sister-calling-him-cruel-who-cares

>>10394176

The ancient Irish, too, in more recent than Quaternary times, ate their own dead; and our own Saxon forefathers must have possessed a knowledge of the custom if they did not in early times actually practice it, as is shown by the Saxon word manceta, which occurs not infrequently in their literature.

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:Popular_Science_Monthly_Volume_26.djvu/217

I still don't get how we are dangerous. Besides the Comet Pizza incident in Dec 2016 (before Q's first drop btw), what other "murders" or violence have been committed by QAnons or people claiming to read Q drops?

>>10394267

>>10394316

Hey, Phil, what's happening?