Health & Fitness

01/28/21

New catalyst moves seawater desalination, hydrogen production closer to commercialization

Seawater is abundant and cheap, making it a tempting resource to meet the world's growing need for clean drinking water and carbon-free energy. Now researchers have reported a new catalyst that can be made quickly and inexpensively, bringing the technology closer to commercial reality.

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Putting bugs on the menu, safely

The thought of eating insects is stomach turning for many, but new research is shedding light on allergy causing proteins which could pose serious health risks for those suffering from shellfish allergy. The research identified 20 proteins found in cricket food products which could cause serious allergic reactions.

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Malaria threw human evolution into overdrive on this African archipelago

Malaria is an ancient scourge, but it's still leaving its mark on the human genome. And now, researchers have uncovered recent traces of adaptation to malaria in the islanders of Cabo Verde -- thanks to a genetic mutation, inherited from their African ancestors, that prevents a type of malaria parasite from invading red blood cells. The findings represent one of the speediest, most dramatic changes measured in the human genome.

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Rebel Wilson noticed ‘how other people treat you’ after losing weight

Unlocking PTSD: New study reveals why trauma-focused psychotherapy treatment works

Healthy lifespan analysis using nematodes

Researchers have developed an automated measurement system to assess healthy lifespan using nematodes. This system performs a mini-population analysis to classify specific populations of nematodes based on qualitative differences in lifespan. Since there are many similarities between the mechanisms that determine the lifespan of nematodes and humans, this system could make it easier to develop drugs and find foods that extend the healthy lifespan of humans.

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Detecting trace amounts of multiple classes of antibiotics in foods

Widespread use of antibiotics in human healthcare and livestock husbandry has led to trace amounts of the drugs ending up in food products. Long-term consumption could cause health problems, but it's been difficult to analyze more than a few antibiotics at a time because they have different chemical properties. Now, researchers have developed a method to simultaneously measure 77 antibiotics in a variety of foods.

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Making wheat and peanuts less allergenic

Researchers develop technique to replicate bone-remodeling processes

A multidisciplinary research team has developed a technique to replicate bone tissue complexity and bone-remodeling processes. This breakthrough could help researchers further their study of bone biology and assist in improving development of drugs for osteoporosis.

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Two anti-viral enzymes transform pre-leukemia stem cells into leukemia

Hypertension symptoms in women often mistaken for menopause

The Most Important COVID Research Is a Fake Investigation

In January 2021, after months of political tension and red tape, a 10-person team from the World Health Organization arrived in Wuhan, China to investigate the origins of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.¹ Wuhan is known as the epicenter of the global pandemic and, arguably, the most important research into COVID-19, outside of finding a cure, is how the pandemic started.

There are currently two such investigations underway — one by WHO and another by The Lancet's COVID-19 commission² — but both are essentially “fake,” as they’re riddled with conflicts of interest.

Namely, Peter Daszak, EcoHealth Alliance president, is part of both of these investigations, despite working closely with the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) — the laboratory in question that possibly leaked the virus — and dozens of others on controversial gain-of-function research, which involves manipulating pathogens, including coronaviruses, to make them more infectious or lethal.

Daszak told The Associated Press in November 2020 that SARS-CoV-2 could have passed from a wildlife poacher to a trader who brought it to Wuhan.³ He also has openly and repeatedly dismissed the possibility of the pandemic being the result of a lab leak.⁴

WHO Has No Plans to Investigate Possible Laboratory Leak

Will the WHO team thoroughly investigate WIV and its potential role in COVID-19? A scientific audit and review of safety measures would seem to be a routine activity, according to Mark Woolhouse, an epidemiologist at the University of Edinburgh speaking with The Associated Press.⁵

But, the AP noted, “According to WHO’s published agenda⁶ for its origins research, there are no plans to assess whether there might have been an accidental release of the coronavirus at the Wuhan lab.” Taking it a step further, GM Watch reported that Daszak “has already poured cold water on calls for a forensic investigation”:⁷

“An article in Science quotes him as saying, ‘Some of the more anti-China rhetoric that's out there, about, we need to go into the lab and look at the video cameras, this sort of thing, that's not realistic, that's not what happens.’⁸

This prompted Richard Ebright of Rutgers to comment, ‘Daszak's claim that calls for a thorough and credible investigation, as opposed to a cursory and conflict-ridden investigation, are ‘anti-China rhetoric’ is self-serving nonsense.’”⁹

Although the Chinese government already approved WHO’s 10-member investigatory team, some were initially denied entry into Beijing, prompting WHO to issue a “rare” criticism. Still, their “investigation” is centered on reports from Chinese scientists rather than an actual independent investigation. As The Wall Street Journal reported:¹⁰

“Given that Chinese authorities have been slow to release information, penalized scientists and doctors who shared clinical and genomic details of the novel coronavirus, and have since demonstrated a keen interest in controlling the narrative of how the virus emerged, this is not a promising foundation for WHO’s investigation.

… critics are concerned that it doesn’t have the expertise for an investigation that would examine possible lab origins. Dr. David Relman of Stanford University, who raised the possibility early on that the virus might have leaked from a lab, told us:

‘Based on the scant information that has been shared publicly about the WHO investigation, it doesn’t appear that WHO has adequately represented the range of views and perspectives of key stakeholders or incorporated all needed forms of expertise.’”

WHO Investigator Wants to Karaoke With Wuhan Lab Director

Another clue that WHO’s investigation won’t touch WIV is Daszak’s close ties to Shi Zhengli, Ph.D., the director of WIV’s Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases, also known as “bat woman.” She has been studying bat-borne viruses since 2004, including SARS-like coronaviruses.

According to the World Society for Virology, “One of her great contributions is to uncover genetically diverse SARS-like coronaviruses in bats with her international collaborators and provide unequivocal evidence that bats are natural reservoirs of SARS-CoV.”¹¹

As reported by Alexis Baden-Mayer, political director for the Organic Consumers Association, Daszak’s EcoHealth Alliance lists WIV and the Wuhan University School of Public Health as subcontractors under a $3.7 million NIH grant¹² titled, “Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence.”

EcoHealth Alliance also used millions of dollars of a sub-grant^13,^14,¹⁵ from the University of California at Davis to fund a gain-of-function experiment by Shi and colleague Ralph Baric from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, involving the use of genetic engineering to create a “new bat SARS-like virus … that can jump directly from its bat hosts to humans.”

Now here’s where it gets really interesting. According to Baden-Mayer in the previously linked gain-of-function research article above:

“The work, ‘A SARS-like cluster of circulating bat coronaviruses shows potential for human emergence,’¹⁶ published in Nature in 2015 during the NIH’s moratorium¹⁷ on gain-of-function research, was grandfathered in because it was initiated before the moratorium … and because the request by Shi and Baric to continue their research during the moratorium was approved by the NIH.

As a condition of publication, Nature, like most scientific journals, requires¹⁸ authors to submit new DNA and RNA sequences to GenBank, the U.S. National Center for Biotechnology Information Database. Yet the new SARS-like virus Shi and Baric created wasn’t deposited¹⁹ in GenBank until May 2020.”

In case there were any doubt of their close ties, The Sun,²⁰ a tabloid paper in the U.K., featured a Twitter conversation in which Daszak “appears to say he is looking forward to an alcohol-fueled karaoke party in a bat cave with Shi Zhengli,” GM watch noted.²¹

Daszak tweets, “Looking forward to that special moment when we hit the baiju and the karaoke with Zhengli & Linfa [likely referring to Wang Linfa, aka ‘batman,’ another bat researcher and WIV’s chairman of scientific advisory²²].” He adds, “Right now a party in a bat cave sounds just right to me!!”²³

Daszak Calls Lab Leak ‘Conspiracy Theory’

Is it a coincidence that when SARS-CoV-2 first emerged in Wuhan, China, the EcoHealth Alliance was providing funding to WIV to collect and study novel bat coronaviruses — and now Daszak has been the primary expert chosen by the mainstream media to explain the origin of the pandemic as being zoonotic in nature?²⁴

You be the judge, but in November 2020, U.S. Right to Know (USRTK), an investigative public health nonprofit group, reported that emails obtained via Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests prove Daszak played a central role in the plot to obscure the lab origin of SARS-CoV-2 by issuing a scientific statement in The Lancet condemning such inquiries as "conspiracy theory."^25,²⁶

Five other members of The Lancet Commission also signed the February 18, 2020, Lancet statement,²⁷ which puts their credibility in question as well. Meanwhile, a number of government officials have given credence to the lab-origin theory, including U.S. deputy national security adviser Matthew Pottinger, who in January 2021 stated that the lab-escape theory is the most credible, based on a growing body of evidence.²⁸

A fact sheet released by the U.S. Department of State on January 15, 2021, further calls on WHO investigators to access WIV’s records that related to research on bat and other coronaviruses prior to the COVID-19 outbreak:²⁹

“The U.S. government has reason to believe that several researchers inside the WIV became sick in autumn 2019, before the first identified case of the outbreak, with symptoms consistent with both COVID-19 and common seasonal illnesses.

This raises questions about the credibility of WIV senior researcher Shi Zhengli’s public claim that there was ‘zero infection’ among the WIV’s staff and students of SARS-CoV-2 or SARS-related viruses.”

The previously undisclosed information in the fact sheet notes that accidental laboratory infections have cause several previous virus outbreaks and the Chinese government has prevented investigators and journalists from interviewing WIV researchers. What’s more, WIV researchers have been conducting experiments involving the bat coronavirus RaTG13 — the closest known relative to SARS-CoV-2, with 96.2% similarity — since at least 2016.

An Ongoing Cover-Up?

Alina Chan, a molecular biologist at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, has been outspoken about China’s apparent efforts to hide information about the source of SARS-CoV-2.³⁰ According to Chan, the database on bat and mouse viral pathogens, which had been managed by Shi, has been taken offline, restricting scientists and researchers’ ability to analyze the potential origins of SARS-CoV-2.³¹

The U.S. Department of State fact sheet also states, “As part of a thorough inquiry, they [WHO investigators] must have a full accounting of why the WIV altered and then removed online records of its work with RaTG13 and other viruses.”³²

Other reports claim that WIV was carrying out research infecting humanized mice with a novel bat SARS coronaviruses in 2019, and years earlier video was released showing WIV scientists working with little or no protective gear while working with live viruses. According to GM Watch:³³

“The Chinese news report was meant to showcase the work of Shi Zhengli and her WIV team but what comes across … is ‘a shocking disregard for safety when handling potentially infectious bats both in the wild and in the lab.’ As a result of this lax attitude, WIV bat researchers end up getting bitten and scratched by virus-laden bats, as is clear from the video, which even shows one researcher's arm swelling after a bat bite.”

Given the glaring need for a thorough and independent investigation into a possible laboratory leak, many have called for Daszak to step down from the WHO investigatory team,³⁴ as evidence ramps up that a laboratory leak cannot be ruled out.

In an editorial published in the Journal of Human Security, Colin Butler of the Australian National University, a former WHO adviser who not only worked in China but also previously worked with Daszak, argued there is “striking” evidence that COVID-19 may have leaked from a lab.^35,³⁶

If the theory is proven, Butler concluded, “then it should be considered an equally powerful, indeed frightening, signal that we are in danger, from hubris as much as from ignorance.”³⁷ As for Daszak, Butler noted, “He probably sincerely believes in his work but he has built an empire around the idea that zoonoses [animal to human infections] are the most important thing in the world.”³⁸

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Miami Obstetrician Dies After Getting COVID-19 Vaccine

Dr. Gregory Michael, an obstetrician in private practice at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach, received a first dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech experimental mRNA COVID-19 vaccine on December 18, 2020 and died 16 days later of a cerebral hemorrhage (stroke).¹

Within three days of taking the shot, he developed symptoms of a severe autoimmune bleeding disorder, idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), often referred to as immune thrombocytopenia.² According to his wife, the 56-year old OB/GYN physician was healthy when he received the COVID-19 vaccine and began exhibiting symptoms of bleeding under the skin within 72 hours.

He was hospitalized in the intensive care unit but none of the treatments were able to stop the internal bleeding.³ The case is being investigated by the Miami-Dade County medical examiner, which is working with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Florida Department of Health.⁴

According to the Miami Herald, as of January 7, 2021, a Pfizer official said Michael died of a “highly unusual clinical case of severe thrombocytopenia, a condition that decreases the body’s ability to clot blood and stop internal bleeding.”

The Pfizer spokesman added, “We are actively investigating this case but we don’t believe at this time that there is any direct connection to the vaccine.”⁵ A CBS report quoted the Pfizer spokesman as saying:⁶

“There have been no related safety signals identified in our clinical trials, the post-marketing experience thus far or with the mRNA vaccine platform. To date millions of people have been vaccinated and we are closely monitoring all adverse events in individuals receiving our vaccine.

It is important to note that serious adverse events, including deaths that are unrelated to the vaccine are unfortunately likely to occur at a similar rate as they would in the general population.”

Wife: Gregory Michael ‘Loved by Everyone in the Community’

The well-known and popular obstetrician, who was a Miami native, Michael had operated a private OB/GYN practice in Miami Beach for 12 years and also worked as a clinical instructor and faculty member for the physician assistant program at Barry University and Miami Dade College. He was the father of a 15-year-old daughter.

His wife, Heidi Neckelmann, made a heartfelt post online⁷ calling her husband “the love of my life” who was “loved by everyone in the community, delivered hundreds of healthy babies and worked tirelessly through the pandemic.” When informing her friends about his death, she asked them to share her post so the public is more aware that the COVID-19 vaccine is not risk-free. She said:

“He was a pro vaccine advocate and that is why he got it himself. I believe that people should be aware that side effects can happen, that it is not good for everyone and, in this case, destroyed a beautiful life, a perfect family, and has affected so many people in the community. Do not let his death be in vain, please save more lives by making this information news.”

CDC: ‘Potential Benefits’ of COVID Vaccines ‘Outweigh Risks’

A CBS report quoted Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, as saying, “The known and potential benefits of the current COVID-19 vaccines outweigh the known and potential risks of getting COVID-19. That doesn’t mean, however, that we couldn’t see potential serious health events in the future.”

Reportedly, CDC officials told reporters they had not seen any serious reactions beyond 29 cases of severe allergic reactions — or about 11 cases of anaphylaxis per 1 million doses of COVID-19 vaccinations administered.⁸

ITP Caused by Autoantibody-Mediated Platelet Destruction

Idiopathic or immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) is a complex autoimmune disorder caused by autoantibody-mediated destruction of platelets, which are cells in the blood that help stop bleeding.⁹ Basically, the immune system malfunctions and produces antibodies that attack the body’s platelets. In some cases, T-cells (a type of white blood cell) will directly attack and destroy the platelets.¹⁰

ITP has been reported to develop after infections, including SARS-CoV-2 infection;¹¹ reactions to prescription drugs and over-the-counter medications,¹² pregnancy, exposure to chemical toxins,¹³ vaccination,¹⁴ or as a complication of autoimmune disorders like rheumatoid arthritis and lupus, but all the causes of ITP are still not known.

A normal platelet count is between 150,000 to 450,000 platelets and ITP can drive the platelet count down to less than 10,000 platelets, which causes significant internal bleeding.

Symptoms of ITP may begin with the appearance of tiny red dots under the skin, which indicate very small bleeds, and progress to purple blotches and bruises on large areas of the skin, as well as nosebleeds, bleeding in the mouth and around the gums, and blood in the vomit, urine or stool, which indicate much more serious internal bleeding.

The most dangerous complication of ITP is bleeding in the brain causing a cerebral hemorrhage and catastrophic brain damage or death.¹⁵ Treatments that try to slow or stop the destruction of platelets during ITP are limited and include intravenous gamma globulin (IVGG) and platelet infusions, steroids and several other medications, or removal of the spleen.¹⁶

ITP in children, which occurs in 1 in 20,000 children, can be more easily reversed than ITP in adults, which occurs in about 1 in 15,000 adults in the U.S. and is more common in women and individuals over age 60.^17,¹⁸ The majority of children recover from acute ITP but approximately 30% of adults have chronic disease after developing ITP and 5% die from hemorrhage.¹⁹

ITP Reported After and Causally Related to Vaccinations

In 1991, an Institute of Medicine committee at the National Academy of Sciences stated in its report titled “Adverse Effects of Pertussis and Rubella Vaccines” that there were too few scientific studies published in the medical literature investigating ITP following whole cell pertussis (DPT) vaccination or rubella (MMR) vaccination for the committee to determine whether or not DPT or MMR vaccine causes ITP in children.^20,²¹

However, reports continued to be published in the medical literature.²² In 2001, a study was published in Archives of Disease in Childhood confirming a causal association between measles-mumps-rubella vaccine and ITP.

Study authors said, “The absolute risk within six weeks of immunization was 1 in 22,300 doses, with two of every three cases occurring in the six-week post-immunization period being caused by MMR.”²³ The CDC’s website currently states:²⁴

“Immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) is a disorder that decreases the body’s ability to stop bleeding. It can happen after both natural measles infection as well as after getting the MMR vaccine.

However, it is usually not life threatening. Treatment may include blood transfusion and medications. The risk of ITP has been shown to be increased in the six weeks following an MMR vaccination, with one study estimating 1 case per 40,000 vaccinated children.”

During the past decade, there have been a number of published studies from the U.S. and other countries that ITP develops after receipt of vaccines, including HPV²⁵ and influenza vaccines,^26,²⁷ with authors calling for more research into the association between vaccination and ITP.^28,^29,³⁰ One group of researchers looking at the relationship between ITP and vaccinations said in 2014:³¹

“Vaccines may induce ITP by several mechanisms. Vaccine-associated autoimmunity may stem not only from the antigen-mediated responses but also from other constituents of the vaccine, such as yeast proteins, adjuvants, and preservative diluents. The most likely is through virally induced molecular mimicry …

The autoantibodies hypothesis is not sufficient to explain all ITP cases: In the anti-platelet antibody-negative cases, a complementary mechanism based on T cell immune-mediated mechanism has been suggested. In particular, T cell subsets seem dysregulated with an increased production of pro-inflammatory cytokines, as IFN-y and TNF, and chemokines, as CXCL10.”

An editorial in the October 2020 International Journal of Infectious Diseases titled “ITP Following Vaccination” pointed out that “the term ‘mosaic of autoimmunity’ indicates that immune mediated disorders can involve different sources, including genetics, environmental factors and hormonal or immune defects.”³²

The editors noted that vaccination is one of the “environmental triggers” that has been described in the medical literature in association with ITP. The journal editors, who called for more research into the vaccination-ITP association, stated:^33,³⁴

“Regardless of the mechanism through which artificial immunization causes ITP, it has been reported following vaccinations against various infectious agents, especially measles-mumps-rubella (MMR), but also Haemophilus influenza [HIB], hepatitis B (HBV), human papilloma virus (HPV), varicella zoster [chickenpox], diphtheria-tetanus acellular pertussis (DTap), polio and pneumococcus vaccines.

A French study that evaluated drug-induced ITP found that around 45% of the cases were post-vaccinal.”

FDA: Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine Trial Had ITP Case

Pfizer did not report a case of ITP occurring in clinical trials of its experimental COVID-19 mRNA vaccine, which was the vaccine that Michael received.³⁵

However, in a briefing document prepared for the December 17, 2020, Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee meeting, where members of the committee voted on granting Moderna an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) to distribute its mRNA COVID-19 vaccine in the U.S., the FDA did note a case of ITP in a 72-year-old clinical trial participant who was hospitalized with thrombocytopenia and obstructive kidney stone disease after receiving the experimental vaccine and died of multiorgan failure.

In discussing deaths that occurred in the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials, the FDA stated:³⁶

“One case was a 72-year-old vaccine recipient with Crohn’s disease and short bowel syndrome who was hospitalized for thrombocytopenia and acute kidney failure due to obstructive nephrolithiasis [kidney stone] 40 days after dose 2 and developed complications resulting in multiorgan failure and death.”

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