173 million, 52%, perhaps even 69% of Americans are immune!
Japanese Beetles, threat to crops, jobs and economy, found in Grandview
OLYMPIA — The state Department of Agriculture is asking residents and farmers to keep an eye out for Japanese beetles, the latest invasive pest posing a threat to local crops.
The beetle, which feeds on roses, grapes, apples, hops and turf grasses, among other plants, was discovered in traps in Sunnyside and Grandview last year, prompting concern.
It’s the first time the beetles were found so far inland, according to a WSDA news release issued Thursday. Previously they only had been found at ports and other entryways into the state.
If Japanese beetles were to become established, it would have trade and economic impacts in addition to direct damage to numerous state crops.
WSDA issued a pest alert at the time. On March 1, a Grandview resident further reported the Japanese beetles had devoured her roses the previous summer and provided photos showing flowers covered with the pests. She reported picking off as many as 75 beetles from her roses in a single day.
The agency and Washington State University have scheduled an educational webinar at 9 a.m. April 1 in the hopes of getting help in identifying where else the beetle might be located.
Sightings, including those from last year, can be reported online at agr.wa.gov/beetles, at PestProgram@agr.wa.gov, or calling 1-800-443-6684.
The website also includes information about identifying the pests.
Info: shpr.fyi/japbeetle
Sightings of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) to be released
Inexplicable sightings of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) will be released for public scrutiny in June — including a UFO that broke the sound barrier without producing a sonic boom.
Speaking on Fox News, the former director of National Intelligence, John Ratcliffe, said Saturday (March 20) that the sightings are “difficult to explain.” Ratcliffe, who served in the Trump administration, said he’d hoped to declassify the reports during his tenure but that they will be released by the Pentagon by June 1.
It’s not the first time the military has released strange reports, and even videos, of UFOs, known in military parlance as unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs). But check your excitement, the military is generally more concerned about whether UAPs might be secret aircraft or weapons developed by other nations than it is about finding evidence of ET in our midst.
Info: shpr.fyi/ufojune
COVID Reinfection:
In two groups each of about 17,000 people, none of whom were vaccinated, one group having had been infected and recovered from COVID, the other group having not been infected: 213 became infected with COVID who were not previously infected and recovered, compared with only one who became infected who had been previously infected and recovered.
So having been infected and recovered from COVID offers very strong- like 99.6%- immunity but not quite 100% perfect immunity to being reinfected (and these results are still questionable– the chance of reinfection may still indeed be zero.) The chance of being reinfected after recovering from infection is much higher for older people so even people who’ve been infected and recovered should be vaccinated.
Governments’ strong pushes for continued masking and shutdowns is half based on this small chance of reinfection (they doubt the science.)
These record analysis results were published Mar. 17, 2021 in The Lancet, the British equivalent to the U.S. JAMA.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)00575-4/fulltext
COVID Variants:
All three of the FDA-approved vaccines against COVID-19 show efficacy against the mutated strains of the virus, according to an analysis by the New York Blood Center (NYBC) published in Science Magazine.
NYBC found that the Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, and Moderna vaccines create enough antibodies to fight the virus variants, according to the article “Vaccine efficacy probable against COVID-19 variants” Mar. 20, 2021, by Dr. Christopher D. Hillyer and Dr. Larry Luchsinger, in Science, the publication of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences.
“The Moderna vaccine conferred substantial protection from infection… Similar data were obtained using the Pfizer (10) and Johnson & Johnson (11) vaccines. In each case, the samples suggest that the vaccines will be effective against mutant strains.”
Governments’ strong pushes for continued masking and shutdowns is half based on remaining questions about the likelihood of additional new variants coming as well as the effectiveness of the vaccines against the variants (they doubt the science).
https://science.sciencemag.org/content/371/6534/1116.1
A note about the thermometer below:
The number of Infection & Recovery (Dark Green) I’ve used is just the actual number known and reported by CDC.
However, CDC, Dr. Fauci and others suspected and reported that very many additional, originally perhaps 30% of the U.S. population, had been infected and recovered without symptoms, without even knowing they were sick or had COVID. These cannot be not counted.
Probably the same percentage of those 30% originally estimated additional infected & recovered are among the 32%, now vaccinated so I have reduced the original 30% unknown recovered number by the percent vaccinated, now to 19%.
I have added this 19% of us who are probably immune as a lightly colored green section.
This would bring our real total American immunity to around 66%- getting close to the 70% herd immunity goal!
This is the reason that the daily number of new infections and hospitalizations has plummeted so drastically and wonderfully.
With herd immunity, new infections drop to low levels!
Dave Bunting
