Our little one has just arrived. Welcome Baby Yingliang, a gorgeous fossil dinosaur embryo preserved inside its egg!
You’re looking here at a baby dinosaur, not too long before it would have hatched. pic.twitter.com/NtXE8XODjT

— Steve Brusatte (@SteveBrusatte) December 21, 2021

Thousands of dead fish found floating in Mexican reservoir after tequila byproduct spill contaminates water MarketWatch (resilc)

A Dog’s Nose Might Be the Most Advanced Oil-Spill Detecting Tech Available Popular Mechanics (resilc)

Procter and Gamble Voluntarily Recalls 32 Aerosol Hair Products Due to Cancer-Causing Chemical Epoch Times (furzy)

Medical marijuana and autism: ‘I’m getting my boy back,’ mom says CNN (furzy)

When and why did human brains decrease in size 3,000 years ago? New study may have found clues within ants PsyPost (Chuck L)

Stoics as activists aeon. Go Stoics!

Alan Bennett · Diary: Selling my hair on eBay London Review of Books. Anthony L: “Some of us old farts await with bated breath for each annual Alan Bennett diary.”

#COVID-19

News you can use:

Most people are surprised that N95/KN95/KF94 can be used more than 8 hrs. Actually the N95 spec requires that these masks maintain >95% after 200mg of loading. How much is 200mg, same as wearing the mask 24/7 in Shanghai for about 200 DAYS! Straps will be the first thing to fail

— Aaron Collins (@masknerd) December 22, 2021

The cost of being a US military protectorate. GM notes: “This is why Japan and South Korea never went for elimination even though they can do it at any time if they decided to…+

U.S. military ignored Japan’s request to test service members for COVID-19 before flying them to Camp Hansen, where more than 200 cases have since been found – Kyodo

— BNO Newsroom (@BNODesk) December 23, 2021

Quebec considers asking hospital workers with COVID-19 to stay on the job Globe and Mail (Dr. Kevin)

Science/Medicine

Wowsers (hat tip Basil Pesto):

Would you prefer (1) we get back to normal activities sometime, or (2) we make new vaccine-evading coronaviruses continuously, suffer widespread breakthrough waves, and wear masks forever?

If you chose #1, then know this: Merck’s molnupiravir should not be approved.

— Michael Lin, PhD-MD ? (@michaelzlin) December 23, 2021

Biomedical prof KLG reacts:

Well, about what could be expected! No?

There is no way a vote of 13-10 should be sufficient to approve any drug. This is not a goddamn election!

Reading through the thread and some of the replies…Haseltine is right, but he has been shunted aside by all those years of being something of a pill. So is James Hildreth. Not that it matters, but I knew him slightly when I was at Johns Hopkins in the late 1990s. Dr. Hildreth is now President of Meharry Medical College in Nashville. He knows what he is talking about, too.

The statistics in several of the figures are lousy, too. I am old fashioned. I want to see a dose-response curve or equivalent that does not need an attached statistical apparatus. I don’t care what the p-values are. But p-values are the thing, and the hide as much as they reveal, usually. Alas.

Finally, 30% effective at what cost? I remember reading $700 per course? Not even a solution in the so-called First World. Go Merck, go!

Cumulative Analysis of Post-Authorization Adverse Event Reports of PF-07302048 (BNT162B2) Received Through 28-Feb-2021 Scribd. IM Doc’s hot take:

I really need to look this over.

This is very early in the vaccine drive ending on 2-28.

Just at a glance there were over 1200 deaths and over 2000 anaphylactic reactions…..

Amazing just how bad they have been lying.

This is devastating and is an indication of how low this could possibly go.

More than 11000 not recovered as of the date 2-28 from whatever se [side effects] they had.

I assure you no IRB [Institutional Review Board] on earth would let this see the light of day with these numbers.

I would need to get the dates, but March 1 was I am certain still in the time frame when minimal vaccines were available and were being rationed by age, etc. This makes that all the more concerning.

Omicron Brings New Risks to Unvaccinated Pregnant Women Bloomberg

The new UK study that Omicron is less severe isn’t so applicable to us.

Where Omicron infects people recovered from COVID, cases do appear milder. The UK has plenty of those. Canada doesn’t.

We don’t have enough beds for what will happen to the unvaxxed w/o prior infection.

— Colin Furness (@FurnessColin) December 22, 2021

Israel to Administer 4th Round of Covid Vaccines New York Times (Dr. Kevin)

Novavax Says Early Data Shows Covid-19 Vaccine Protects Against Omicron Wall Street Journal

Want to see an example? Puerto Rico was at a steady 130 cases/day.

Only 4 days later, cases shot up 2000% to 2,700 cases/day pic.twitter.com/kzDhMg2sYe

— JWeiland (@JPWeiland) December 23, 2021

How did we get here: what are droplets and aerosols and how far do they go? A historical perspective on the transmission of respiratory infectious diseases Royal Society (Paul R)

Asia

China locks down 13m to contain Covid outbreak ahead of Olympics Financial Times

UK/Europe

Spain to require masks outdoors amid Covid surge BBC (resilc)

From earlier this week, still germane (guurst):

??? Germany’s CDC, the Robert Koch-Institute, raises its infection risk assessment due to Omicron:

?? “very high” risk for overall population

?? “very high” for unvaccinated

?? “high” for double vaxxed & recovered

?? “moderate” for boosted

Current trend: “very alarming” https://t.co/02WIQ1hDyQ

— Michael Knigge (@kniggem) December 21, 2021

Covid self-isolation cut to seven days with negative test in England Guardian (resilc). Would not be crazy (Omicron time to symptom onset faster than Delta) except the at-home tests have a bias towards false negatives, not false positives.

US

US wastewater vs clinical tests.

—-

Look at the latest trend.

What do you see? ?

—-

H/T @RomainMartinIO ? pic.twitter.com/bXeHxzPd4s

— Gabriel Hébert-Mild™ (@Gab_H_R) December 22, 2021

Life expectancy fell almost 2 years in 2020: CDC The Hill

Nurses in the United States Were Burnt Out Before Omicron. What’s Next? Vice (resilc)

Um, not just burnout. U.S. Hospitals Pushed to Financial Ruin as Nurses Quit During Pandemic Bloomberg. Private equity strikes again:

“This is like survival stakes,” said Steven Shill, head of the health-care practice at advisory firm BDO USA. Winners are “whoever’s highest on the food chain and who has the biggest checkbook.” The staffing companies — agencies that provide nurses and other staff on a temporary basis — are “really, really, really gouging hospitals.”

Saint John’s Episcopal Hospital Chief Executive Officer Jerry Walsh has been on the losing side of those battles, beat out by larger, wealthier systems while laying out thousands of dollars a week more to pay what he calls “exorbitant” rates to outside agencies to keep his hospital properly staffed. St. John’s, in a remote corner of Queens, treats some of the city’s poorest and sickest patients and relies mainly on less-lucrative government-insured patients.

Biden says he’s making 500 million COVID test kits available for free but hasn’t even signed contract to buy them and they may take a YEAR to arrive: Johns Hopkins expert says ‘that’s not a plan – it’s a hope’ Daily Mail. No, it’s called vaporware.

Supreme Court will hear challenge to Biden Covid vaccine mandates CNBC

The Slow Rollout of Rapid Tests Marginal Revolution. Read to the end, about Ontario distribution.

Hundreds of Inmates Set Fire to Prison to Protest COVID Cluster Vice

Airplane Passengers At Least Twice As Likely To Catch Covid-19 Because Of Omicron, Airline Trade Body Says Forbes (resilc)

How The Koch Network Hijacked The War On COVID Daily Poster. While narrowly accurate, it is not as if there are really two teams on Covid. Covid denialists and other cranks oppose masks and ventilation (and yes, above all vaccines) and depict getting Covid as no biggie unless you are old and or diabetic, and then you should already be dead anyhow to reduce the excess population…while Team Professional Managerial Class is all in for vaccines and mildly to seriously opposed to much of anything else save handwashing and keeping surfaces super clean.

What Would It Cost to End the Pandemic? New York Times (Robert M)

Weekly Schedule of Current Broadway Shows Playbill. Resilc: “Going dark”

Climate

2021’s climate disasters revealed an east-west weather divide, with one side of the country too wet, the other dangerously dry The Conversation. Reported earlier but important not to miss.

Brexit

Brexit Impact Tracker – The End of the (Tory) Party? Gerhard Schnyder (guurst)

Brussels starts legal action against Poland over ruling questioning primacy of EU law Politico

New Cold War

WE’VE SEEN THE ULTIMATUM, WHAT IS THE “OR ELSE”? Russia Observer (Chuck L, guurst)

Washington Prepares To Fail In Ukraine American Conservative (YT)

Expanded Meeting of the Defence Ministry Board President of Russia. Guurst highlights:

I have already said this in public and will remind you of this again: American specialists were permanently present at the nuclear arms facilities of the Russian Federation. They went to their office there every day, had desks and an American flag. Wasn’t this enough? What else is required? US advisors worked in the Russian Government, career CIA officers gave their advice. What else did they want? What was the point of supporting separatism in the North Caucasus, with the help of even ISIS – well, if not ISIS, there were other terrorist groups. They obviously supported terrorists. What for? What was the point of expanding NATO and withdrawing from the ABM Treaty?

Syraqistan

Will the Islamic world save Afghanistan? Pepe Escobar, The Cradle (Chuck L)

Israeli army rule allowing shooting of stone-throwers will be applied to Palestinians, not Jews Mondoweiss

Imperial Collapse Watch

Why the US is paying more for the military after the Afghanistan war is over Vox (resilc)

Biden

Joe Manchin for President Ryan Grim, Intercept

A noted historian did not like my last posting on Joe Biden’s inability to cope with Joe Manchin… GracchiBros

West Virginians Ask Joe Manchin: Which Side Are You On? New Yorker (furzy)

Merrick Garland Needs to Speak Up Lawfare

Christmas supply-chain crisis has been averted, Biden and FedEx CEO declare Reuters. Mayo Pete nowhere to be found…

Mass representative democracy Steve Waldman

Georgia’s Original Sin and the 2022 Secret Vote-Crushing Scheme Greg Palast

Woke Watch

Loudoun County Epilogue: A Worsening Culture War, and the False Hope of “Decorum” Matt Taibbi

Academic Ideologues Are Corrupting STEM. The Silent Liberal Majority Must Fight Back Quilette (Chuck L)

Our Famously Free Press

JOHN STOSSEL,v. FACEBOOK, INC. (BC). Defamation cases in the US are very hard to win and even harder to win damages….but this one might meet the high bar.

Supply Chain

Boomers, Mexicans, and Trucking Zeihan (resilc)

Warren Calls Out Big Grocery Chains for Putting Company Profits Over Customers Elizabeth Warren. Help me. Warren should stick to financial service regulations. The reason food prices are going up is: some poor harvests, high gas prices, food industry middlemen squeezing farmers and grocers, and Covid-related supply chain issues. Pointing fingers first and only at grocers is a major put-foot-in-mouth-and-chew exercise. That is not to say that grocers are not doing well, but they are far from the biggest contributor to food inflation and therefore can’t do much to fix it even if they were to go full altruism.

Hospital Prices Are Unpredictable. One Type of Health Coverage Often Gets the Worst Rates. Wall Street Journal. Important. Google the headline. Seems to work in getting past the paywall at least for this piece.

The Bezzle

The New Get-Rich-Faster Job in Silicon Valley: Crypto Start-Ups New York Times (resilc)

Guillotine Watch

Mark Zuckerberg Is TNR’s 2021 Scoundrel of the Year New Republic (resilc)

Class Warfare

“They’re literally making us sick”: Pharmacy workers describe conditions that sparked US walkouts WSWS

Antidote du jour (Bob H):

And a bonus:

After crossing the road she gives thanks !
A wonderful creatures ? pic.twitter.com/5Uu1iBZm2P

— Mohammed M Ahmed (@mohamedmusa2701) December 21, 2021

And a second bonus (guurst):

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.