Good Morning,
Covid Treatment
A new drug is being used to treat the most serious hospitalizations and has good results in the worst of cases according to experts. Tocilizumab is an intravenous drug normally used for treating arthritis but it has been a life saver in British hospitals by reducing inflammation, and the need to place patients on a ventilator. Tocilizumab also significantly reduced the chance of progressing to invasive mechanical ventilation or death from 38 percent to 33 percent among those who were not on invasive ventilation when they entered into the trial.
Studies also found it could reduce the time spent in hospital by up to 10 days.
The drug reduced inflammation, which is common and can be very dangerous in coronavirus patients as it can cause damage to the lungs and other organs.“We now know that the benefits of Tocilizumab extend to all Covid patients with low oxygen levels and significant inflammation.
“The double impact of dexamethasone plus Tocilizumab is impressive and very welcome.” said Dr Charlotte Summers, an intensive care medic at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, adding "These findings are a tremendous step forwards.
Britain is on the verge now of reopening after a 2 month lock down but it’s trying to set up hotels so incoming flights from so called RED LIST countries (those with covid variants including the south african vaccine resistant mutation)can be quarantined. The plan has been stumbling forward and some 20 thousand people still arrive in Britain each day, down from the normal 250 thousand.
https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/health/1396744/New-coronavirus-drug-What-is-life-saving-drug-Tocilizumab-evg
Vaccination Passports
There has been all kinds of talk about the recommended freedoms people who have vaccines should vs others and it’s controversial and a moving red line. In Europe proof of vaccines may possibly, eventually open doors for airline travel and concert attendance etc. Now the CDC says if you have received vaccines and become exposed to a positive case of covid you could skip quarantine, but there are a bunch of ‘buts’ like the 2nd vaccines had to be given more than 2 weeks ago, and still you have to take precautions etc. But as medical experts note some of the vaccines are only 50% effective against certain variants of Covid so the CDC’s advice is suspect.
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/10/health/covid-vaccinated-quarantine-cdc-guidance/index.html
In other parts of Europe the variants from England and South African are just beginning to have impact. In France for example they are saying the English variant is now 25% of all cases and growing. Brazil and South African variants roughly 4-5%. France has still not entered a full lockdown and uses curfews to restrict mixing of people, but the variants spread much faster and they are bracing for impact.
https://www.france24.com/en/france/20210211-in-france-uk-variant-found-in-a-quarter-of-new-covid-19-infections
Impeachment
I watched the impeachment proceedings live all day yesterday and it was a case for impeachment that could only be stronger if Trump said attack the capitol. That’s all that was missing from his months of speeches discrediting the election, and his tweets embracing dangerous groups that in the end were called to Washington and launched by Trump towards the Capitol with arms and anger to block Senate confirmation of the election results. You can’t possibly hear the impeachment evidence and not conclude Trump meant to unleash violence and then for hours didn’t move to stop it. Trumps threats of violence, and his courtship of radical militia’s and white supremacists are outrageous at every level and if Republicans won’t support impeachment, the impeachment managers noted the fear is Trump will run for office again and lose.
“My dear colleagues, is there any political leader in this room who believes that if he’s ever allowed by the Senate to get back into the Oval Office, Donald Trump would stop inciting violence to get his way?” Representative Jamie Raskin, Democrat of Maryland asked the senators. “Would you bet the lives of more police officers on that? Would you bet the safety of your family on that? Would you bet the future of your democracy on that?”
The fact is The Republicans, most of them, will bet on that because they are frightened of Trump’s ability to undermine their power to be reelected and power is all they care about if they vote against impeachment.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/11/us/politics/trump-impeachment-trial.html
The trial however, will be recorded in history and it will shape voters opinions of Trump and the right, and we won’t know the impact of that for years to come, but you can only hope people are watching and thinking reasonably. There’s that word again, ‘reasonably’ which seems to be dearly lacking from the American political discussion and where does that leave The Republic? Trumps defense begins today.
Russia Kill Squad
There is now evidence of a second opposition leader Vladimir Kara-Murza who appears to have been tracked and targeted and apparently poisoned by an FSB(former KGB) kill squad in Russia. The details and evidence are laid out by Bellingcat which has used phone records and travel documents to show the movement of Russian agents and poisoning attempts similar to those used on Alexei Navalny who was almost killed and is now in jail. There are three more people who suffered the same fate by the same group of Russian agents.
https://www.bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-europe/2021/02/11/vladimir-kara-murza-tailed-by-members-of-fsb-squad-prior-to-suspected-poisonings/
https://meduza.io/en/feature/2021/02/11/tailing-kara-murza?utm_source=email&utm_medium=briefly&utm_campaign=2021-02-12
Back Story podcast
Back Story with Dana Lewis is now being carried on tunein, as well as apple, stitcher, Amazon, Iheart, pandora, listen notes, deezer, podchaser, podcast addict, and more…
Please subscribe where ever you listen to podcasts. It’s free. Our latest podcasts cover;
-Doping in Sport/ Richard Pound the founder of modern anti doping testing in sports has retired and we talk sport and cheating and so much more.
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1016881/7762780
-Bellingcat the investigative site that has now published details using public intelligence sources about a Russian FSB Kill squad.
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1016881/7650367
Have a good weekend everyone. I will probably write Sunday when the impeachment trial is likely to conclude or Monday.