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Excellent update on the Covid-19 vaccine front

Today in Bloomberg;

In response to:

Virus Vaccine May Be Ready for Mass Production By Autumn, Oxford Professor Says

By Jason Gale
and Stephanie Baker

April 17, 2020, 2:23 AM EDT Updated on April 17, 2020, 7:25 AM EDT

A coronavirus vaccine trial by University of Oxford researchers aims to get efficacy results by September, and manufacturing is already underway.

A team led by Sarah Gilbert, a professor of vaccinology, has recruited 500 volunteers from the ages of 18 to 55 for the early- and mid-stage randomized controlled trial. It will be extended to older adults and then to a final stage trial of 5,000 people. Gilbert said that the timing is ambitious but achievable.

“We would hope to have at least some doses that are ready to be used by September,” she said in an interview. “There won’t be enough for everywhere by then, but the more manufacturing we can do starting from now, then the more doses there will be.”

Volunteers to take part in the trial have been abundant, she said, and it’s no longer accepting new subjects.

Gilbert, whose research on vaccines began at the University of Oxford in 1994, was awarded a 2.2 million pound ($2.8 million) grant from the U.K.’s National Institute for Health Research and U.K. Research and Innovation in March to scale up her team’s efforts to move into Covid-19 vaccine research.

The group’s experimental immunization is among the first to enter clinical trials. The World Health Organization counts 70 vaccine candidates in development, with three others in human testing. They are from CanSino Biological Inc. and the Beijing Institute of Biotechnology; Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc.; and Moderna Inc. along with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Gilbert’s trial divides 510 participants into five groups that will be observed for about six months with the option for a follow-up visit about a year after entering the trial. One group will receive a second intramuscular shot of the vaccine four weeks after the initial immunization.

The research aims to determine the efficacy, safety and immunogenicity of the candidate vaccine, named ChAdOx1 nCoV-19. A vaccine against meningococcal disease will be given to participants who will be randomly chosen for control purposes.

Overseas Partners?

ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 is a so-called recombinant viral vector vaccine. It’s made from a harmless virus that’s been altered to produce the surface spike protein of the pandemic-causing SARS-CoV-2 virus.

The vaccine acts by priming the immune system to recognize and attack the coronavirus, stimulating a T-cell response. It uses the same technology as a shot Gilbert’s team previously developed for the related MERS coronavirus. That vaccine appeared to be safe in animal and early-stage human testing, giving confidence for the coronavirus version.

“We’re doing safety testing,” Gilbert said, “but we’re not concerned.”

Gilbert’s team has used the same technology for about 10 different vaccines, she said. The challenge that now arises is testing the vaccine even as virus infection rates vary.

“It’s going to be complicated trying to determine vaccine efficacy when the virus transmission in different places is going up and then going down again,” she said. “The trial has to be set up in the right place at the right time and that’s very hard to predict. That’s why we’re planning to do multiple trials in multiple countries.”

Another hurdle is money.

“We have some funding but we don’t have all of it yet,” she said. “You can’t just go and start manufacturing at large scale. You have to put a lot of things in place and that’s what we’re trying to do at the moment. It’s in the order of tens of millions of pounds.”

The WHO is creating a forum for everyone developing Covid-19 vaccines to share their plans and initial findings, according to Gilbert.

(continued in my first comment below)

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Apr 2020
in Health
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It's what was for dinner tonight.....

...at least at my house. Yours might have been quite different.

On my way home from photographing a baby (bald) eaglet,
I stopped by the grocery store.
There is a store chain here in New Jersey called Shoprite.
For the past year I have been capitalizing on a recent change there.
I noticed the change, when I got back to NJ from Florida last spring.

In the very back of the store they have a sit down eat area.
I suppose some workers in the area go there and eat lunch.
Perhaps it's gotten progressively more popular to do so.
It's a lot cheaper than going to a restaurant, and you don't have to
deal with a waiter nor waitress. So, no tipping needed and you can sit there
as long, or as short as you like, or take out the food too.

At the end of the lunch period, the store has a lot of leftovers.
So, they package about 2 meals (or more) into a plastic containers with a clear plastic lid
and move that to the front of the store, where they have several glass door
refrigeration units 2 to 4, depending upon which store location.

When they move it up there, the containers are at 30% off price.
Then later, they are reduced to 50 % off.
By the time ~ 4:30pm arrives many are at 70% off.
So, after I am done doing whatever I am doing that day,
I stop by Shoprite and get 4 containers once a week.

Thus, for the past year I have been literally feasting on gourmet meals for a song
and other than heating that dinner up in the microwave, I haven't cooked 1 dinner
in over a year.

When I get home I freeze 3 of the 4 packages and use the other for dinner that night & usually the next night. The second day I also move the second package from the freezer section to the refrigerated section and repeat that each 2 days. This then takes care of 8 dinners for the week. I got 4 packages earlier tonight.

At random I stuck 3 packages in the freezer and the one I tried tonight is (Indian) Butter Chicken. It was sooooooooooooo good, that I ate both meals

AND I took
5 pieces of 100% whole wheat bread and sopped up every last drop of the sauce
and ate those too:

I guess I better pull out one of the other containers for tomorrow night......once I can move again.

I just looked up the recipe for you;

In response to:

Chicken Makhani (Indian Butter Chicken)

1 tablespoon peanut oil
1 shallot, finely chopped
¼ white onion, chopped
2 tablespoons butter
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon ginger garlic paste
1 teaspoon garam masala
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 bay leaf
¼ cup plain yogurt
1 cup half-and-half
1 cup tomato puree
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper, or to taste
1 pinch salt
1 pinch black pepper
1 tablespoon peanut oil
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into bite-size pieces
1 teaspoon garam masala
1 pinch cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon cornstarch
¼ cup water

Directions

Step 1

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large saucepan over medium high heat. Saute shallot and onion until soft and translucent. Stir in butter, lemon juice, ginger-garlic paste, 1 teaspoon garam masala, chili powder, cumin and bay leaf. Cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add tomato sauce, and cook for 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Stir in half-and-half and yogurt. Reduce heat to low, and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Season with salt pepper. Remove from heat and set aside.

Step 2

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large heavy skillet over medium heat. Cook chicken until lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Reduce heat, and season with 1 teaspoon garam masala and cayenne. Stir in a few spoonfuls of sauce, and simmer until liquid has reduced, and chicken is no longer pink. Stir cooked chicken into sauce.

Step 3

Mix together cornstarch and water, then stir into the sauce. Cook for 5 to 10 minutes, or until thickened.

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May 2020
in Food
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Pure joy !

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May 2020
in Animals
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Dr. Fauci blocked by White House from testifying before Congress this week

From CNN;

In response to:

White House blocks Fauci from testifying next week

By Jim Acosta and Caroline Kelly, CNN

Updated 5:38 PM ET, Sat May 2, 2020

(CNN)The White House is blocking Dr. Anthony Fauci, a key member of the administration's coronavirus task force, from testifying before the Democratic-led House next week, according to a spokesman from a key House committee.

"The Appropriations Committee sought Dr. Anthony Fauci as a witness at next week's Labor-HHS-Education Subcommittee hearing on COVID-19 response. We have been informed by an administration official that the White House has blocked Dr. Fauci from testifying," House Appropriations Committee spokesman Evan Hollander said in a statement Friday.

White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere confirmed the decision.
"While the Trump Administration continues its whole-of-government response to COVID-19, including safely opening up America again and expediting vaccine development, it is counter-productive to have the very individuals involved in those efforts appearing at Congressional hearings," Deere said in a statement. "We are committed to working with Congress to offer testimony at the appropriate time."

Press secretary Kayleigh McEnany followed up on Deere's comments, explaining in an interview Saturday the reasoning behind the White House's decision.
"When we pressed for details as to why Dr. Fauci in particular was the right person for the testimony and this hearing, those details were never provided," McEnany said in a Fox News interview.

In a gaggle with reporters after her interview on Fox, McEnany said the administration wanted to make sure that the "subject matter of the hearing matched the individual they're requesting" and in this case, "there was never any clarity given forth as to what the actual subject matter of this hearing would be."

Though when asked by CNN's Jeremy Diamond if Fauci or other officials will be allowed to testify in front of other House committees in the future, McEnany said "absolutely."
It appears Fauci is expected to testify in front of a committee of the Republican-led Senate committee during May. He will testify before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on May 12, per an aide to the panel's chairman, Sen. Lamar Alexander, a Tennessee Republican.

"Chairman Alexander looks forward to hearing from Dr. Fauci and other administration officials at the Senate health committee's second hearing back, which will be on Tuesday, May 12," the aide told CNN.

While the move to block House testimony comes after the House abruptly canceled plans on Tuesday to return to the Capitol next week, it prevented a potential meeting between a blunt, high-ranking expert who has dissented from President Donald Trump's account of the federal response and lawmakers gearing up for an oversight battle. Fauci has repeatedly veered from Trump's framing of the federal government's handling of the pandemic, as recently as the past few days.

On Friday, Trump said that he is generally supportive of Georgia's efforts to reopen some businesses, but that he is upset with Gov. Brian Kemp's decision to open spas and tattoo parlors before meeting federal guidelines on such businesses reopening.
"I think it's wonderful. I want to see us open safely. But I didn't like spas and tattoo parlors and I was not thrilled about that, but I said nothing about Georgia other than that," Trump said.

Fauci had struck a different tone during a CNN town hall Thursday night, lamenting that "there are some states, some cities ... kind of leapfrogging over the first checkpoint."
"And, I mean, obviously you could get away with that, but you are making a really significant risk," he added. "I hope they can actually handle any rebound that they see."

(continued in my first comment below)

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May 2020
in News
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She came to do nails and got nailed.....by an alligator.

Some think of alligators as a Florida animal.
But the truth is, that several southern US states have them.
Wherever they, or crocodiles exist, extreme caution & distance is advised.
They are quite smart, like a puma and will look for patterns in behavior
and wait at the most vulnerable point in the victims routine.
For instance they've been known to wait under cars, or at the water's edge.
They can run faster than a horse for the first 100 yards.
They have a very powerful tail and strong jaws, when they chomp down.
They will remain motionless until the victim is close enough.
They can jump out of water up to 12 feet high.
If near water, they very quickly grab the victim, pull it into the water and spin, known as a "death roll".
That spin breaks skin & bones and disorients the victim in the murky water
as to which way is up.
Then, they can hold their breath under water a lot longer than most mammals.
After you have drowned, they will stash your body under a fallen tree or branches
within the water and rip off pieces of your body to feed off for days.

Most people in the area know to keep their distance.
But, whether it's a virus, or a predator, some, who refuse social distancing, make it too easy.

Yesterday afternoon in The Associated Press;

In response to:

Woman killed by alligator in SC was doing homeowner's nails

by JEFFREY COLLINS

Associated Press May 5, 2020, 3:01 PM EDT

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The woman attacked and killed by an alligator in a gated community along the South Carolina coast was visiting the homeowner to do her nails and was trying to touch the animal when it grabbed her, authorities said.

After briefly getting away from the alligator Friday, the woman stood in waist deep water in the Kiawah Island pond and said “I guess I wont do this again,” but the alligator grabbed her in its jaws again and took her under, according to a supplemental police report released Tuesday.

Cynthia Covert, 58, died of drowning before Charleston County deputies and firefighters were able to shoot and kill the alligator and use poles to get her out of the pond, authorities said.

Covert came to Kiawah Island, a gated community southeast of Charleston, to give the homeowner a manicure Friday, according to the police report.

The woman told deputies Covert typically was professional in her salon, but was relaxed and excited at the home, talking about her boyfriend's visit from Tennessee, and brought a glass of wine with her.

Covert saw the alligator while working on the woman's porch and when Covert finished she started taking pictures of the alligator, the woman told deputies.

The woman and her husband started screaming for Covert to get away from the alligator because they saw it grab a deer a few days earlier, deputies said.

Covert said “I don't look like a deer” and reached to touch the alligator when the animal attacked, according to the report.

The husband and a neighbor grabbed a rope and threw it to Covert when she surfaced and stood in the pond. Covert grabbed the rope and said “I guess I wont do this again,” but was suddenly pulled under by the alligator, the police report said.

Deputies and firefighters looked for Colvert for 10 minutes before her body surfaced. The alligator took her back under once. When the alligator surfaced again, a deputy shot the animal in the head with his 9 mm handgun, the police report said.

Covert's leg was severely damaged, but an autopsy determined she drowned, the Charleston County Coroner's Office said.

Covert was the third person killed by an alligator in South Carolina in the past four years. A 90-year-old woman walked out of a Charleston nursing home in 2016 and was killed, while a 45-year-old woman walking her dog was fatally attacked on Hilton Head Island in August 2018.

Before those attacks, South Carolina had never recorded a person killed by an alligator.

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May 2020
in Animals
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How about a video tour of the top 13 US National Parks

Have beautiful views of the top 13 National parks in the US right from Youtube.
Relax and take in the natural beauty. Be at peace with nature.
Enjoy your virtual trip from the comfort of home.

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May 2020
in Beauty
408 views
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Very Exciting news - 4 Step plan for elimination of the virus

All hail our simpleton. I mean "so-called" president conman.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aU0AhgZpOrw

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May 2020
in Science
644 views
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1 accusation versus many more and the worst US presidency ever

Yesterday in the Huffington Post;

In response to:

Trump Bragged On Tape Of Being Able To Do Exactly What Biden Is Accused Of

But that’s not stopping the president’s White House aides and campaign staff from going after Biden on the Tara Reade allegation.

By S.V. Date

WASHINGTON — A s*xual assault allegation against his Democratic challenger is offering President Donald Trump with a new message for women voters: Joe Biden is just as bad as I am.

Trump is accused of rape and is fighting attempts to force him turn over a DNA sample. Two dozen other women have accused him of varying degrees of s*xual assault and misconduct. He was caught on tape bragging that his celebrity allowed him to do the precise thing that Biden is accused of.

Nevertheless, his aides have latched on to onetime staffer Tara Reade’s accusation that Biden sexually assaulted her 27 years ago, pushing her up against a wall and penetrating her with his fingers. “Believe all women means all women — you don’t get to choose,” White House adviser Kellyanne Conway told Fox News Friday.

The Trump camp’s strategy, despite the obvious hypocrisy, is transparent, said political consultants from both parties.

“They are pushing her story relentlessly and the targets are young people, progressives and women,” said David Axelrod, the architect of former President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign. “They don’t expect to win these voters. No one who shuns Biden because of Tara Reade is likely to flock to Trump, given his sordid history. They simply want to depress Biden’s numbers. In a marginal race, even a few votes shaved off his total in some closely contested states can make a difference.”

Tim Miller, a Republican consultant and Trump critic, said the attacks are also designed to give moderate Republicans an excuse to vote for Trump. “Give people who know deep down that Trump is bad a ‘but’ talking point. Absolve themselves of responsibility for Trump’s manifest immortality and unfitness,” Miller said. “Everything they do is about muddying the waters.”

And Democratic pollster Peter Hart predicted the attempts to use Reade against Biden are just a hint of what will come this autumn. “The only thing I feel confident in predicting is that Trump will not bring up the tragic death of Neilia,” Hart said, referring to Biden’s first wife who died in a car accident along with their 1-year-old daughter in 1972. “Beyond that, this is the protégé of Roy Cohen.”

Biden personally addressed the allegation by Reade for the first time Friday on NBC, stating that the event she described did not happen and asking that her shifting explanations be analyzed carefully.

Those shifts have been on both major details as well as minor. Reade came out publicly a year ago and said Biden had made her uncomfortable by putting his hands on her shoulders, but she didn’t allege the s*xual assault until an interview in late March. Early in April, she told The New York Times that she did not mention the s*xual assault allegation with her initial disclosure because she was scared. She also told the Times her postings admiring Russian dictator Vladimir Putin had been part of a novel she was writing and had been taken out of context, but then told BuzzFeed that her views on Putin had changed after she learned more about him.

No Biden staffer who worked with Reade has corroborated her account of any sort of harassment or assault, but several other people have confirmed that she told them some details about the incident either at the time it happened in 1993 or long before the 2020 election.

While numerous women have complained that Biden’s habit over the years of touching their shoulders or hair was unwelcome, Reade is the first to accuse him of s*xual assault.

(continued in my first comment below)

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May 2020
in News
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Elizabeth Hurley at 54

Posted today;

"Anyone who is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else." ~ Benjamin Franklin

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May 2020
in News
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It's what's for dinner blog & robin update

No ! I didn't eat the robin.

This evening I wolfed down several turkey breast slices with honey-mustard, mashed potatoes with butter, 1/2 a sliced red bell pepper & shredded red leaf lettuce drizzled with Balsamic vinegar.

For dessert it was a chocolate brownie.

I hope your dinner was good too.

I just took recycling outside. 'My' robin, nesting ontop the front porch light,
flew from the nest to a short nearby tree, as usual, when I opened the front door.
But oddly, she didn't chirp this time.

Perhaps the lack of sun today had something to do with that.

Or maybe our front porch 'dance' is becoming 'old hat' to her.

Perhaps I should sing as I exit to spice things up.

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Apr 2020
in Food
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The 'Craziest' Idea yet to Fight the Virus

Today in The New Yorker;

In response to:

Satire from The Borowitz Report

Nation’s Governors Consider Forming Country

By Andy Borowitz

April 13, 2020

AMERICA (The Borowitz Report)—In order to better coördinate their efforts to combat the coronavirus, the nation’s governors are considering the extraordinary step of forming a country.

The radical proposal is an unusual bipartisan effort, spearheaded by the Democratic governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer, and the Republican Governor of Ohio, Mike DeWine.

“Mike and I were bidding against each other for masks and ventilators, and I was, like, ‘Mike this is crazy,’ ” Whitmer said. “ ‘It would be so much better if we just worked together and formed a country.’ ”

DeWine said that Whitmer’s proposal of creating a country out of the fifty states “made a lot of sense.”

“It was one of those moments where someone throws out a nutty idea and you think, ‘Hold on, let’s think on that for a second,’ ” he said.

While the idea of the fifty states coming together to form a country is still in the embryonic stage, DeWine said that the states would ideally create a “federal government” led by a “President.”

“We’re all in agreement that it would be amazing to have a President right now,” DeWine said.

A straw poll of the governors indicates that the front-runner for President of this yet-to-be-named country is one of their own: Governor Andrew Cuomo, of New York.

“Andrew keeps saying that he doesn’t want to be President,” Whitmer said. “And I’m, like, ‘Dude, you already are.’ ”

Andy Borowitz is a Times best-selling author and a comedian who has written for The New Yorker since 1998.
He writes The Borowitz Report, a satirical column on the news.

I've watched a lot of both Governor Murphy & Governor Cuomo's daily briefings. They've both done an effective job. However, Cuomo takes more time to explain, consider and essentially embrace & refute alternatives. I feel he resonates better with the public, explaining why he carefully considers and chooses methods. While he got little support in campaigning, honestly, he is very presidential in his leadership, and something this country has sorely missed since Obama left office.

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Apr 2020
in Comedy
1,225 views
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The secret life of your pet

Sure they they look cute & innocent.

But, when you're not looking, what are they up to ?

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Apr 2020
in Animals
445 views
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This is a list of JimNastics's Blogs. Click here for JimNastics's Blog List

JimNastics Blog (1,965)

Excellent update on the Covid-19 vaccine front

It's what was for dinner tonight.....

Pure joy !

Dr. Fauci blocked by White House from testifying before Congress this week

She came to do nails and got nailed.....by an alligator.

How about a video tour of the top 13 US National Parks

Very Exciting news - 4 Step plan for elimination of the virus

1 accusation versus many more and the worst US presidency ever

Elizabeth Hurley at 54

It's what's for dinner blog & robin update

The 'Craziest' Idea yet to Fight the Virus

The secret life of your pet

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