News roundup for Fri, Feb 4, 2022 – The Prepared

Half a million people are without power in the US in the wake of a broad winter storm. Thousands of flights are grounded, and roads are a mess.

100,000 people are dying of diabetes every year in the US. It’s going to take broad policy changes to address this crisis, and medicating it away is not the answer—preventing it is, where possible. The food pyramid is not based on solid science. Big Ag, particularly Big Grain, far too heavily influences it. Getting Americans off sugar and processed, simple carbohydrates would be a severe undertaking and getting corporations to stop relying on over-processed junk to make a buck would be, too. This problem is important to the preparedness community in a few ways: for one, having a ready and usable stock of insulin on hand during a SHTF scenario is a feat; two, making health and fitness a preparedness priority; and three, over-reliance on simple carbs in pantry prepping.

Ukraine is getting a lot of support from the UK. Biden is also mobilizing some forces to NATO countries:

BREAKING: Ukraine will establish a trilateral security pact with Poland and Britain

— Samuel Ramani (@SamRamani2) February 1, 2022

In some good news, South Africa is starting to make mRNA vaccines with Moderna’s data. It’s past time to address vaccine equity:

In world first, https://t.co/ePpxIZsOvP‘s Afrigen makes mRNA COVID vaccine using Moderna data https://t.co/YHAkwjbIIB

— Crawford Kilian (@Crof) February 3, 2022

The world has 388.1 million COVID cases. The world has gained 21.7 million cases in the last week. There have been over 5.7 million deaths in total. The US has had a cumulative 77 million cases—about 2.4 million cases were added in the last week. Over 919,000 Americans have died—about 18,000 in the last week. The US is still leading global daily case gain, followed by India, Brazil, France, and the UK. The US added over 302,000 new cases Wednesday and over 164,000 by late afternoon Thursday. Daily case counts in the US are still on the decline. Rates of death in the US are still relatively high.

10 billion COVID vaccine doses have been meted out across the globe. It’s a huge milestone. 4.8 billion people have received at least one dose. There is still some staggering inequity, though. Fewer than 6% of people in lower-income countries have received more than one dose.

Pfizer is seeking Emergency Use Authorization for a two-dose COVID vaccine regimen in children under 5. It’s likely that kids from ages 2-5 will not be very well protected by this regimen and will eventually require a third dose. Children aged 6 months to 2 years old seem to be well protected by the regimen. Authorization for a third dose would have to be forthcoming.

Numerous countries are dropping COVID containment measures now (Denmark, Canada, Sweden, France, Italy, etc.). I understand that the world cannot live in lockdown forever. But I don’t think people, the unvaccinated especially, understand the magnitude of the fallout to come:

Not a very encouraging title or report:
“#SARSCoV2 invades cognitive centers of the brain and induces Alzheimer’s-like neuropathology”https://t.co/V6VWM1p1I3
(based on 5 cases; whether and how often the virus directly infects neurons is a controversy) pic.twitter.com/3L6AkrFM2W

— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) February 1, 2022

The US Army is starting to discharge the unvaccinated.

Medicare will cover COVID tests, too:

Medicare will now cover rapid tests, CMS announces today. pic.twitter.com/bZsOK10dk8

— Jeannie Baumann (@MedResJourno) February 3, 2022

Omicron is probably not “milder.” In many cases, we see some protection from previous infection. Omicron is still quite dangerous to unvaccinated and those naïve to the virus.