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gumjrop · 6 months

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You might be forgiven for thinking it’s been a very quiet few months for the Covid-19 pandemic. Besides the rollout of new boosters, the coronavirus has largely slipped out of the headlines. But the virus is on the move. Viral levels in wastewater are similar to what they were during the first two waves of the pandemic. Recent coverage of the so-called Pirola variant, which is acknowledged to have “an alarming number of mutations,” led with the headline “Yes, There’s a New Covid Variant. No, You Shouldn’t Panic.”

Even if you haven’t heard much about the new strain of the coronavirus, being told not to panic might induce déjà vu. In late 2021, as the Omicron variant was making its way to the United States, Anthony Fauci told the public that it was “nothing to panic about” and that “we should not be freaking out.” Ashish Jha, the Biden administration’s former Covid czar, also cautioned against undue alarm over Omicron BA.1, claiming that there was “absolutely no reason to panic.” This is a telling claim, given what was to follow—the six weeks of the Omicron BA.1 wave led to hundreds of thousands of deaths in a matter of weeks, a mortality event unprecedented in the history of the republic.

Indeed, experts have been offering the public advice about how to feel about Covid-19 since January 2020, when New York Times columnist Farhad Manjoo opined, “Panic will hurt us far more than it’ll help.” That same week, Zeke Emanuel—a former health adviser to the Obama administration, latterly an adviser to the Biden administration—said Americans should “stop panicking and being hysterical.… We are having a little too much [sic] histrionics about this.”

This concern about public panic has been a leitmotif of the Covid-19 pandemic, even earning itself a name (“elite panic”) among some scholars. But if there’s one thing we’ve learned, three and a half years into the current crisis, it’s that—contrary to what the movies taught us—pandemics don’t automatically spawn terror-stricken stampedes in the streets. Media and public health coverage have a strong hand in shaping public response and can—under the wrong circumstances—promote indifference, incaution, and even apathy. A very visible example of this was the sharp drop in the number of people masking after the CDC revised its guidelines in 2021, recommending that masking was not necessary for the vaccinated (from 90 percent in May to 53 percent in September).

As that example suggests, emphasizing the message “don’t panic” puts the cart before the horse unless tangible measures are being taken to prevent panic-worthy outcomes. And indeed, these repeated assurances against panic have arguably also preempted a more vigorous and urgent public health response—as well as perversely increasing public acceptance of the risks posed by coronavirus infection and the unchecked transmission of the virus. This “moral calm”—a sort of manufactured consent—impedes risk mitigation by promoting the underestimation of a threat. Soothing public messaging during disasters can often lead to an increased death toll: Tragically, false reassurance contributed to mortality in both the attacks on the World Trade Center and the sinking of the Titanic.

But at a deeper level, this emphasis on public sentiment has contributed to confusion about the meaning of the term “pandemic.” A pandemic is an epidemiological term, and the meaning is quite specific—pandemics are global and unpredictable in their trajectory; endemic diseases are local and predictable. Despite the end of the Public Health Emergency in May, Covid-19 remains a pandemic, by definition. Yet some experts and public figures have uncritically advanced the idea that if the public appears to be tired, bored, or noncompliant with public health measures, then the pandemic must be over.

But pandemics are impervious to ratings; they cannot be canceled or publicly shamed. History is replete with examples of pandemics that blazed for decades, sometimes smoldering for years before flaring up again into catastrophe. The Black Death (1346–1353 AD), the Antonine Plague (165–180 AD), and the Plague of Justinian (541–549 AD), pandemics all, lacked the quick resolution of the 1918 influenza pandemic. A pandemic cannot tell when the news cycle has moved on.

Yet this misperception—that pandemics can be ended by human fiat—has had remarkable staying power during the current crisis. In November 2021, the former Obama administration official Juliette Kayyem claimed that the pandemic response needed to be ended politically, with Americans getting “nudged into the recovery phase” by officials. It is fortunate that Kayyem’s words were not heeded—the Omicron wave arrived in the US just weeks after her article ran—but her basic premise has informed Biden’s pandemic policy ever since.

Perhaps even less responsibly, the physician Steven Phillips has called for “new courageous ‘accept exposure’ policies”—asserting that incautious behavior by Americans would be the true signal of the end of the pandemic. In an essay for Time this January, Phillips wrote: “Here’s my proposed definition: the country will not fully emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic until most people in our diverse nation accept the risk and consequences of exposure to a ubiquitous SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.”

This claim—that more disease risk and contagion means the end of a disease event—runs contrary to the science. Many have claimed that widespread SARS-CoV-2 infections will lead to increasingly mild disease that poses fewer concerns for an increasingly vaccinated (or previously infected) population. In fact, more disease spread means faster evolution for SARS-CoV-2, and greater risks for public health. As we (A.C. and collaborators) and others have pointed out, rapid evolution creates the risk of novel variants with unpredictable severity. It also threatens the means that we have to prevent and treat Covid-19: monoclonal antibody treatments no longer work, Paxlovid is showing signs of viral resistance, and booster strategy is complicated by viral evolution of resistance to vaccines.

But these efforts to manage and direct public feelings are not just more magical thinking; they are specifically intended to promote a return to pre-pandemic patterns of work and consumption. This motive was articulated explicitly in a McKinsey white paper from March 2022, which put forward the invented concept of “economic endemicity”—defined as occurring when “epidemiology substantially decouples from economic activity.” The “Urgency of Normal” movement similarly used an emotional message (that an “urgent return to fully normal life and schooling” is needed to “protect” children) to advocate for the near-total abandonment of disease containment measures. But in the absence of disease control measures, a rebound of economic activity can only lead to a rebound of disease. (This outcome was predicted by a team that was led by one of the authors [A.C.] in the spring of 2021.)

A pandemic is a public health crisis, not a public relations crisis. Conflating the spread of a disease with the way people feel about responding to that spread is deeply illogical—yet a great deal of the Biden administration’s management of Covid-19 has rested on this confusion. Joe Biden amplified this mistaken perspective last September when he noted that the pandemic was “over”—and then backed that claim by stating, “If you notice, no one’s wearing masks. Everybody seems to be in pretty good shape.” The presence or absence of health behaviors reveals little about a threat to health itself, of course—and a decline in mask use has been shaped, in part, by the Biden administration’s waning support for masking.

Separately, long Covid poses an ongoing threat both at an individual and a public health level. If our increasingly relaxed attitude toward public health measures and the relatively unchecked spread of the virus continue, most people will get Covid at least once a year; one in five infections leads to long Covid. Although it’s not talked about a lot, anyone can get long Covid; vaccines reduce this risk, but only modestly. This math gets really ugly.

The situation we are in today was predictable. It was predictable that the virus would rapidly evolve to evade the immune system, that natural immunity would wane quickly and unevenly in the population, that a vaccine-only strategy would not be sufficient to control widespread Covid-19 transmission through herd immunity, and that reopening too quickly would lead to a variant-driven rebound. All of these unfortunate outcomes were predicted in peer-reviewed literature in 2020–21 by a team led by one of the authors (A.C.), even though the soothing public messaging at the time called it very differently.

As should now be very clear, we cannot manifest our way to a good outcome. Concrete interventions are required—including improvements in air quality and other measures aimed at limiting spread in public buildings, more research into vaccine boosting strategy, and investments in next-generation prophylactics and treatments. Rather than damping down panic, public health messaging needs to discuss risks honestly and focus on reducing spread. Despite messages to the contrary, our situation remains unstable, because the virus continues to evolve rapidly, and vaccines alone cannot slow this evolution.

In the early months of the pandemic, many in the media drew parallels between the public’s response to Covid-19 and the well-known “stages of grief”: denial, bargaining, anger, depression, and acceptance. The current situation with Covid-19 calls for solutions, not a grieving process that should be hustled along to the final stage of acceptance.

#op #covid #covid19 #covid 19 #covid-19 #covid isn't over #coronavirus #pandemic #public health #wear a mask

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solankimeera71 · 2 years

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Delta or different variant may cause another Covid outbreak: Study

The Omicron subvariants may burn themselves out in the next couple of months and there could be another outbreak of Delta or a different coronavirus strain this summer, according to a modelling study conducted in Israel.

The findings, published last week in the journal Science of the Total Environment, suggests that while Delta wiped out the variants that preceded it, Omicron has not eliminated the deadly variant which could re-emerge.

omicron variants

Researchers from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) in Israel developed sensitive arrays that can differentiate variants from each other in wastewater which continues to give indications of where the coronavirus is active, even when PCR and rapid testing of people declines. Read More

#omicron variants #covid outbreak #coronavirus strain #delta variant #latest news on coronavirus pandemic #COVID-19 pandemic #Covid pandemic #Coronavirus news

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animefeminist · 8 months

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Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou and Transgender Cyborgs’ Experience of the Apocalypse

Content Warning: Discussion of transphobia

Around the start of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, Chiaki Hirai published an article about Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou, comparing the post-apocalyptic manga to the threat posed to humanity by the novel coronavirus. It was a perspective piece—and a rumination—on societal collapse as it was happening around the author, when so little was still known about the nature of the virus, and what the extent of its impact on us was going to be. Now, at the start of 2023, our world has been forever changed. While the virus continues to mutate into new strains, governments have largely chosen to ignore the ongoing effects of the pandemic in exchange for a “return to normal,” moving on with or without us. Post-apocalyptic fiction has felt closer to home, especially for marginalized readers.

Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou (hereafter YKK) focuses on Alpha Hatsuseno, an android girl entrusted with a café by an owner who abandoned it, and her, without clear reason, leaving her to run it in a mostly uninhabited post-apocalyptic world. While most stories that imagine a post-apocalyptic setting depict a world in ashes, strewn with death and danger, YKK’s world is mostly one of peace and solitude for those survivors who remain. Cities lie silent beneath a solemn ocean; wind sifts through the stalks of amaranth sprouting from old, cracked roads. Overlooking land, sea, and sky is Café Alpha, a humble building on a hill and a relic from before “The Age of Evening Calm”—otherwise known as the end of the old world. And, for us, 2020 was our own Age of Evening Calm.

Read it at Anime Feminist!

#yokohama kaidashi kikou #hitoshi ashinano #alpha hatsuseno #articles #transgender

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allthecanadianpolitics · 6 months

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Starting Tuesday, the Newfoundland and Labrador Health Authority is taking appointments for COVID and flu vaccines, with clinics starting next week.

Starting Oct. 16, the province will be distributing a COVID-19 vaccine targeted to the Omicron XBB.1.5 variant to more closely match recent circulating strains of the coronavirus.

Dr. Janice Fitzgerald, the province's chief medical officer of health, is encouraging people in high-risk groups to get the updated shot, including people 65 years and older, people with underlying medical conditions, and people who identify as Indigenous.

The clinics, run by the health authority, can be booked online, or by calling a toll-free number. Each area of the province has a separate booking system.

The COVID-19 shot is recommended to anyone who hasn't had a coronavirus vaccination or an infection in the last six months. [...]

Tagging: @politicsofcanada

#cdnpoli #coronavirus #coronapolitics #Newfoundland & Labrador #healthcare

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afeelgoodblog · 2 years

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The Best News of Last Week — September 19, 2022

🎮 — Young people passion for eSports and the environment raised plenty of money for charity

1. Patagonia Founder Gives Away the Company — Profits will now go towards climate action

Rather than selling the company or taking it public, Mr. Chouinard, his wife and two adult children have transferred their ownership of Patagonia, valued at about $3 billion, to a specially designed trust and a nonprofit organization. They were created to preserve the company’s independence and ensure that all of its profits — some $100 million a year — are used to combat climate change and protect undeveloped land around the globe.

“Instead of ‘going public,’ you could say we’re ‘going purpose.’ Instead of extracting value from nature and transforming it into wealth for investors, we’ll use the wealth Patagonia creates to protect the source of all wealth.”

2. World’s Largest Container Line Reroutes Around Endangered Blue Whales

The largest container line in the world has rerouted its ships passing near the coast of Sri Lanka in order to avoid potential collisions with endangered blue whales.

“MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company has taken a major step to help protect blue whales and other cetaceans living and feeding in the waters off the coast of Sri Lanka by modifying navigation guidance in line with the advice of scientists and other key actors in the maritime sector,” MSC said in a statement provided to Insider.

3. Two antibodies identified can fight all known COVID strains, study finds

Israeli scientists say they have identified antibodies that are so powerful in neutralizing the coronavirus that they could eliminate the need for more vaccine boosters.

A research team at Tel Aviv University experimented with numerous antibodies and found that two in particular neutralize all known strains of the coronavirus, including Delta and Omicron, in a lab setting. Based on their performance in lab conditions, the antibodies could provide the extra protection that today comes from booster shots, adding that this could potentially make extra shots unnecessary among vaccinated people.

4. French charity stream Z Event raises record-breaking $10.3 million for environmental organizations

Z Event, the biggest charity stream event in Europe, broke a record last night. In fewer than three days, it raised over €10.1 million ($10.3 million) for five environmental nonprofit associations: WWF France, Sea Shepherd France, The SeaCleaners, Time for the planet, and biodiversity association LPO.

Since its creation, the event has been breaking records at every event. Last year, it raised a little less than 2022’s total (corresponding to $11.5M at the time).

5. Palestinian farmer discovers rare ancient treasure in Gaza

The mosaic was uncovered just a kilometer (half mile) from the Israeli border. The floor, boasting 17 iconographies of beasts and birds, is well-preserved and its colors are bright.

“These are the most beautiful mosaic floors discovered in Gaza, both in terms of the quality of the graphic representation and the complexity of the geometry,” said René Elter, an archaeologist from the French Biblical and Archaeological School of Jerusalem.

6. Nurse saves baby who stopped breathing on Spirit Airlines flight to Florida

A nurse is being hailed for her heroic actions after she saved a 3-month-old baby who had stopped breathing during a flight from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Orlando, Florida.

7. Boston Marathon adds nonbinary runner option for 2023 race

Nonbinary athletes will be able to compete in next year’s Boston Marathon without having to register in either the men’s or the women’s divisions, organisers for the United States’ most popular running event said.

That’s it for this week. This newsletter will always be free. If you liked this post you can support me with a small kofi donation:

Buy me a coffee ❤️

Have a great week ahead.

#best news of last week

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meditating-dog-lover · 1 year

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Why I think it came from a lab

Note: before you judge me for what I'm about to say, just know I am speaking from a scientific and biological standpoint. I'm a cell biologist who works in virology, and have a BSc in Anatomy and Cell Biology and MS in Neuroscience. I'm a scientist, not your 40 year old conservative MAGA uncle on Facebook. I absolutely hate how the pandemic was politicized as you should never introduce bipartisan nonsense to indisputable and factual matters like science and diseases.

So coronaviruses are nothing new. There have been previous coronavirus strains that infected the world. There is the one that caused SARS in 2002 and the other that caused MERS in 2012. And yes, bats do spread them. They are species capable of zoonotic infections (between species), including rats (spread the bubonic plague) and cattle. However, COVID-19 was a lot more devastating than the other 2 outbreaks. With all the modern knowledge and technology we have on disease prevention/control and vaccines/drugs, the fact that this outbreak was devastating to the point of causing a global pandemic is suspicious. There is no way something as cataclysmic came from nature given our current immunological and microbiological advancements in the 21st century. And judging how bats have spread coronaviruses in the past, it was never this catastrophic.

This leads me to think there was gain of function research involved using animal models in a lab (the Wuhan Institute of Virology). I do have a theory as to how they conducted their research, but it could be wrong. But gain of function research was definitely taking place. I believe they had animals in the lab that were positive for coronavirus (either bats or rats). They took nasal swabs and/or saliva samples from them to be able to harvest cells that had coronavirus RNA replicated in them. One strange thing about some viruses is that they do not possess any DNA. They contain RNA, which is the nucleotide chain that is generated from DNA during a process known as transcription. And most RNA sequences are converted to proteins via translation. Why some viruses lack DNA, however, I never really knew why.

Now in this day and age, we have the technology to modify the sequence of DNA/RNA. This process is known as gene editing. You would have to cut the sequence at specific nucleotide junctions, either insert or remove nucleotides, and then glue the sequence back together. One famous method of doing so is using the CRISPR technique. But there are many other ways to modify DNA/RNA sequences. These modifications do have an effect on the function of the virus. By editing the virus' RNA sequence, you can either cause the virus to weaken (loss-of-function) or to strengthen (gain-of-function). Some modifications lead to no changes in the viral strength and activity. Weakened viruses are used in traditional vaccines, so this is when RNA editing can be beneficial. However, I do believe gain-of-function gene editing was performed in the lab by using the coronavirus RNA sequences harvested from these animals that tested positive for the virus.

This is one theory as to how the gain-of-function research was conducted. There are many ways to do it, we can never be sure as to how it was exactly performed with these coronavirus samples in the lab.

Now how it spread from the lab to the rest of the world, I have no idea. Obviously, infections spread between people who interact with one another. How it expanded from a single lab to the whole world is a complex process to understand.

So this is my theory as a cell biologist regarding the origins of COVID-19. Yes it came from a lab. I fail to believe something this infectious and destructive came naturally from bats. We have the technology and immunological knowledge to aid in minimizing the spread of illness and creating effective drugs and vaccines. Looking at previous trends where bats have spread coronaviruses to other animals and humans, they did not result in global pandemics to this extent. So I think the virus was genetically modified to become more infectious. What was the reasoning behind this? What was the hypothesis they were trying to test? I don't know.

Here in the US, there are strict regulations as what type of research you can conduct in a lab. In theory, you can create almost anything in a lab, from drugs, to explosives, to deadly bioweapons. However, just because you can, doesn't mean you should. While that strictness is enforced here, it is not in other countries unfortunately.

I am devastated by the destruction the pandemic caused. From a single viral outbreak, to illness, disease, lockdowns, crashing economy, closing of small business, politicization of science and biology, anti-Asian hate, etc... Had we had the knowledge beforehand, this would have fared better for us.

#covid #COVID-19 #coronavirus #bats #gain of function #biology #pandemic #virus #disease #virology #lab leak theory #wuhan virology lab #covid origin #scientist

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partisan-by-default · 5 months

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Cool. Cool, cool, cool, totally co*throws things*

The combination includes the cat virus gaining the dog pathogen's spike protein, making it more infectious, said the scientists from the UK and Cyprus in the study, warning of a "significant risk" of the outbreak spreading further. "We report the emergence of a novel, highly pathogenic FCoV-CCoV recombinant responsible for a rapidly spreading outbreak of feline infectious peritonitis (FIP), originating in Cyprus," said the team including from the University of Edinburgh in UK. Infection is spreading fast and infecting cats of all ages. "This is exemplified by the recent confirmation of a first UK-imported case with further investigations into other cases ongoing," they said. According to experts, there is currently no evidence that dogs or humans can be infected, while there is no reason for worried cat owners to keep their pets inside and away from other animals at present. "If the cat has not travelled to Cyprus or been in contact with other cats that have visited Cyprus, the risk is minimal," Alexandros Chardas, Lecturer in Veterinary Anatomic Pathology, and Dr Sarah Tayler, Lecturer in Small Animal Internal Medicine, from the Royal Veterinary College, were quoted as saying to The Independent.

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resistancekitty · 2 months

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kkanabel · 1 year

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directory/m.list

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march 10th, 2020 ( chapter 4 , week 2 )

sypnosis: The new year has just started– you’re moving into a place with your closest friends after reaching the peak of your career. Now that you can afford to live in Tokyo, you can finally spend time with your closest friends and go out on the town to further grow your YouTube channel. It’s time to have a new start in your new place and meet hot, rich people to be your possible future partner. This is the life to live; it’s great being famous and living in a big city with your best friends!

Wait, never mind– COVID-19 is in Japan? Fuck.

Well, at least there’s this one hot guy you keep seeing on Tik Tok who keeps posting about cleaning.

[ 9 : 02 AM ]

You were nursing a warm cup of hojicha to your chest in your favorite mug. Your legs were crossed atop a white modern-style stool by your kitchen island. This was your morning routine– you’d wake up (at some point), drink either some tea or coffee, and check your phone before staring out the window and questioning life.

There were many windows in your apartment. They spread out across the walls, giving the room lots of sunlight. You always pulled up the blinds in the morning.

Things were only getting more worrying in the news. Today, the government of Japan officially declared the coronavirus outbreak a national emergency. As of this point, there are 514 people infected and there have been 9 deaths in total. The emotional strain it’s taken on you is already terrifying. You’re seeing articles about the state of corona in China, and it’s even worse.

You text your parents a couple times every day, making sure they haven’t caught anything. Their growing age worries you. If they caught the virus, what would happen? You don’t think you could handle it. You’re too young for that right now. You look at the clouds in the distance through the window, the entire sky blanketed in a thick cover of gray fluff, offering wishes to the sky.

It’s getting warmer and more humid outside. Around this time, you were planning on buying a bunch of spring clothes for some new videos. You couldn’t leave the house, though.

But you didn’t mind that. You were just waiting for the end of this in a couple weeks. You wanted to stop worrying about your parents and about your friends. It was exhausting, looking at the news and worriedly going to the Phone app to call your parents to check if they’d left the house or if they started developing random symptoms.

You get knocked out of your anxious trance when you hear Hinata opening the door from his/Oikawa’s room and yawning a muffled “good mornin’” to you. You uttered one back to him, smiling as you finished the last of your hojicha and hopped of your stool to walk over to the sink, washing your mug and placing it into the dish rack.

“How was your sleep?” you ask as a way to distract yourself, heading back to your favorite stool.

Hinata was in the middle of grabbing bacon, eggs, and orange juice from the fridge for an American-style breakfast. He sighed when he heard your question. “See this bump right here?” he pulled his bangs from his forehead and pointed to the growing red bump on his head. “I hit my head again.”

You laughed at him, causing him to groan and release his hair back onto his forehead, fluffy orange curls flopping back down. “We should really get those shelves removed. It’s not like we use them anyway,” you said, pausing. “Hm. I guess we should remove them after coronavirus ends.”

Hinata just turned on the stove and placed a pan onto it. “Want some?” he offered, putting oil on the pan and waiting for it to heat up. He turned on the stove fan, so you listened as the machine whirred to life and started breathing in the delicious smells of fried bacon.

“Absolutely!” you thought for a moment before speaking up again. “Hey, why don’t we get some pool noodles, cut them, and then put them onto the edges of the shelves? It’ll protect your head at night.”

He turned back to you for a moment, his eyes brightening. “That’s genius!” Then he paused and narrowed his eyes at you. “Wait. Isn’t that what they do to babyproof a house?”

Laughing, you nod your head. “It would still protect your head, though! Maybe I’ll order some the next time you hit your head again.”

The ginger scoffed. “Please just get them now. You know I’ll hit my head again!” he complained before realizing the bacon finished cooking. He placed the bacon evenly onto four plates.

You watched his back as he moved around, grabbing one of the eggs from the carton. He cracked the egg open, gingerly dropping it into the pan as it sizzled and hissed in the bacon’s grease. Meanwhile, he plugged the (really cute) white retro-style toaster into the power outlet and plopped pieces of bread into it for the eggs.

You were very proud of this toaster. You gave it to them as a housewarming present before you knew you were going to move in, knowing that you wanted the toaster for yourself. You were glad that you inevitably started owning it.

Hinata made four plates for everybody and placed yours in front of you. Grinning, you told him to move close to the plate so you could take a photo to show off how great of a roommate you had. He smiled brightly behind the plate, putting up two peace signs.

It smelled amazing. These were the kinds of moments you were grateful for when you moved in. You were really looking forward to more of these moments.

[ 1 : 09 PM ]

Today is upload day! Starting last week, you’ve started to double the amount you normally upload onto YouTube. This, of course, means that you need to work twice as hard, but you’ve been stuck inside, so there’s not much else to do.

You’re waiting as your video uploads to your channel, sitting in the living room next to Oikawa as he edits one of his videos. He’s wearing blue-light glasses and a fluffy grey bathrobe that you gifted him for Christmas, sitting with his legs rested atop an ottoman and ankles crossed together.

He’s truly the epitome of a modern-day man. In his earbuds, his voice plays over and over again as he cuts and moves around clips of himself. You’re doing the same, editing a video for next week.

Today, you’re uploading a video for outfits in quarantine. You pray that the algorithm takes kindly to this. In your video, you clarify your update to your uploading schedule, and you tell everybody to stay inside and stay safe before giving them tips for outfits. Of course, all of the clothes are linked in your description. You aren’t a monster.

In fact, you’re wearing one of those outfits that you showcased in the video– some sweatpants and a mock neck sweater underneath your graphic-designed sweatshirt. Of course, you popped on quite a lot of jewelry. After all, “accessories are necessities,” as you always repeat in your videos.

Your hair is put in a cute and trendy hairdo– one stolen straight off of TikTok.

When the sound of your own voice and the sight of your face starts to repulse you, you put down your laptop and head to the fridge for a drink. “Hey, ‘Kawa! Want somethin’ to drink?” you call from the kitchen to the living room to ensure that Oikawa can hear you through his earbuds.

He jolts for a moment and pulls out an earbud in his panic. “Oh! Yes! Could you grab me a juice?”

You grunt out an affirmation before sitting back down next to him and handing him his mug. During this gesture, he also puts away his laptop and lets out a relieved sigh while stretching out his arms and wrists. “Have you finished uploading yet?”

You check your laptop quickly, seeing it at 58%, and then shaking your head. You pull yourself into a sitting fetal position on the couch, and you face Oikawa. “So, I talked to Kenma about doing some sort of Minecraft server thing with him and uploading it to our channels. Wanna join? I’ve already asked Tobio and Shoyo.”

Oikawa’s eyes widened. “A Minecraft server? Dang, I haven’t touched that game since 2015… but my builds were god-tier, so yes. Absolutely.” He finished the last of his juice. “Get ready to be pranked 24/7.”

This statement makes you cackle. “What makes you think that? I’ve destroyed you so many times in Mario Kart. I doubt you’ll be any better at Minecraft. Do you even know what a cave is?”

He rolls his eyes. “You only ever win because you cheat!”

“How is following the game’s rules cheating?!” You laugh as he accuses you.

“Stop placing banana peels in front of me!”

“Dude. Bro. ‘Kawa. I love you man, but you can’t blame the game’s mechanics for losing in this case. Accept that you suck.”

Oikawa ceases this subject matter because he knows he’s lost. “Anyway, when are we gonna do it?”

Craning your head up to the ceiling, you say, “Honestly? I’m not sure yet. Maybe about a week or two. Maybe when we’re out of this quarantine?”

He then crosses his arms together. “I wouldn’t bet on this ending anytime soon. I think it’s going to last longer than two weeks… Why are you so convinced it’ll end soon?”

“I don’t know. I guess it’s because I can’t imagine it lasting any longer. I don’t want it to,” you admit, bringing your gaze back down to the ground and groaning. “I��m worried about my parents.”

He pats your back to comfort you, and rubs your shoulder to ground you. “It’s alright. We’ll keep sending them groceries every two weeks, so they won’t have to leave the house. I’m sure they’ll be okay.”

Then, a notification sound knocks you out of your emotional state again. “Oh! It’s finished uploading!” You then get busy liking and responding to comments to distract yourself from your worries.

Oikawa glances at you and gives you a soft smile before getting back to his editing.

[ 2 : 19 PM ]

[ 10 hours later ]

You shrieked in your bedroom after checking on the video you just uploaded, a hand clasped over your mouth after the high-pitched noise. It was the dead of night, but your brain didn't even register that you made a horrifying noise.

Your brain was completely frozen, staring at the screen on your laptop.

Worried, Oikawa, Hinata, and Kageyama all rushed to your door and opened it in a panic.

"What's wrong!? Is there a pervert!? A thief!?" Oikawa screamed, holding up a lamp as a makeshift weapon.

Hinata was holding a plant. Kageyama wasn't even holding anything. He just looked sleepy, confused, and worried.

The ginger had definitely shuffled out of bed at your scream, and you could see a red bump forming on his nose from where he probably tried to get up in a rush to make sure you were okay.

"G-Guys. I reached three million views in ten hours!" You screamed, jumping off your bed and jumping for joy into their arms.

The three men were frozen for a moment, confused. This was before they started jumping with you, smiles of joy cracking open at their faces.

"Oh my god! We need to celebrate! Let's grab some champagne!"

[ video of the week ]

directory/m.list

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a/n: hehe what do y'all think? btw, thank you so much for all the reposts recently! i appreciate it so much <3 also, please lmk if i have a typo or anything lol. i was kinda typing this up in a rush.

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March 18th, 2024 Update: 2024 U.S. Presidential Election, U.S. Constitution, Human Rights, Civil Rights, Women's Rights, The Survival of American Democracy and the American Republic, and Easter 2024. Part 2/6: Hope, Alaska. Chapter 2/4: The MAGA Cult Messiah, his COVID-19 Anti-American and Treasonous Sabotage as a Distraction For his Coordinated SolarWinds Russian Hack and Exploitation of U.S. Security, Government, and Businesses, his Praise of the Taliban, and his Telegraphing of the October 7th, 2023 Israel Terrorist Attacks.

The Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense, which comprises a group of experts on national security and government officials, in which Gerstein had previously testified to, submitted its National Blueprint for Biodefense to Congress in October 2015 listing their recommendations for devising an effective plan.

Bill Gates said in a February 18, 2017 Business Insider op-ed (published near the time of his Munich Security Conference speech) that it is possible for an airborne pathogen to kill at least 30 million people over the course of a year. In a New York Times report, the Gates Foundation predicted that a modern outbreak similar to the Spanish Influenza pandemic (which killed between 50 million and 100 million people) could end up killing more than 360 million people worldwide, even considering widespread availability of vaccines and other healthcare tools. The report cited increased globalization, rapid international air travel, and urbanization as increased reasons for concern.

In a March 9, 2017, interview with CNBC, former U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman, who was co-chair of the bipartisan Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense, said a worldwide pandemic could end the lives of more people than a nuclear war. Lieberman also expressed worry that a terrorist group like ISIS could develop a synthetic influenza strain and introduce it to the world to kill civilians.

In July of 2017, Robert C. Hutchinson, former agent at the Department of Homeland Security, called for a "whole-of-government" response to the next global health threat, which he described as including strict security procedures at our borders and proper execution of government preparedness plans.

2017 U.S. budget proposal affecting bioterrorism programs: donald trump reduced funding for "protecting the nation from deadly pathogens, man-made or natural," according to The New York Times. Agencies tasked with biosecurity get a decrease in funding under the Administration's budget proposal.

For example: The Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response would be cut by $136 million, or 9.7 percent. The office tracks outbreaks of disease.

The National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases would be cut by $65 million, or 11 percent. The center is a branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that fights threats like anthrax and the Ebola virus, and additionally towards research on HIV/AIDS vaccines.

Within the National Institutes of Health, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) would lose 18 percent of its budget. NIAID oversees responses to Zika, Ebola and HIV/AIDS vaccine research.

In February 2018, a CNN employee discovered on an airplane a "sensitive, top-secret document in the seatback pouch explaining how the Department of Homeland Security would respond to a bioterrorism attack at the Super Bowl."

Timeline of trump’s Coronavirus Responses: May 2018: The trump Administration disbands the White House pandemic response team.

July 2019: The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) epidemiologist embedded in China’s disease control agency left the post, and the trump Administration eliminated the role.

SEPTEMBER 2019: RUSSIAN SOLARWINDS HACKING AGAINST THE UNITED STATES BEGINS.

Oct. 2019: “Currently, there are insufficient funding sources designated for the federal government to use in response to a severe influenza pandemic.”

Jan. 22, 2020: “We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China. It’s going to be just fine.”

Jan. 24, 2020: trump praises China’s handling of the coronavirus: “China has been working very hard to contain the Coronavirus. The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency. It will all work out well. In particular, on behalf of the American People, I want to thank President Xi!”

Jan. 28, 2020: “This will be the biggest national security threat you face in your presidency…This is going to be the roughest thing you face." trump’s National Security Advisor says to trump.

Jan. 30, 2020: "The lack of immune protection or an existing cure or vaccine would leave Americans defenseless in the case of a full-blown coronavirus outbreak on US soil,…This lack of protection elevates the risk of the coronavirus evolving into a full-blown pandemic, imperiling the lives of millions of Americans.” [Memo from trump Trade Advisor Peter Navarro]

FEBRUARY 2020: RUSSIAN SOLARWINDS ATTACKS AND HACKING AGAINST THE UNITED STATES ARE AT FULL-FORCE.

Feb. 2, 2020: “We pretty much shut it down coming in from China.”

Feb. 7, 2020: “It’s also more deadly than even your strenuous flu… This is deadly stuff.” [trump in a private interview with Bob Woodward from The Washington Post made public on Sept. 9, 2020] doggett.house.gov/media/blog-post/timeline-trumps-coronavirus-responses

MARCH 2020: donald trump AND ALL ELECTED REPUBLICANS ENDED THE PROTECTIONS OF THE U.S. PATRIOT ACT THAT PREVIOUSLY PROTECTED THE UNITED STATES FROM ALL ENEMIES FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC (AND COULD'VE LEAD TO THEIR IMMEDIATE IMPRISONMENT, INVESTIGATION, AND PROSECUTION).

On donald trump’s Last Full Day as President of the United States of America, the United States Recorded at Total of 400,000 Covid Deaths as a result of him sabotaging the United States of America and the American people. The death toll of 400,000 exceeded any other country’s count — close to double what Brazil has recorded, and four times the toll in the United Kingdom. https://kffhealthnews.org/news/nation-records-400000-covid-deaths-on-last-day-of-donald-trump-presidency/

'Blood on his hands': As US surpasses 400,000 COVID-19 deaths, experts blame the Deranged and Destitute Dishonest Dementia Dummy donnie j. dump administration for a 'preventable' loss of life Besides being the first president to get impeached twice, connie j. chump will have a stain on his legacy with arguably longer-lasting consequences: He's the only American leader in a century with more than 400,000 deaths from one event on his watch. The USA crossed that somber threshold Tuesday, yet another reminder of how poorly the nation with the world's largest economy has fared during the coronavirus pandemic. As of 2:52 p.m. EST Tuesday, the COVID-19 death toll was at 400,022, according to the Johns Hopkins University dashboard. Not since Woodrow Wilson was in office during the 1918 flu pandemic – which killed about 675,000 in this country and 50 million worldwide – had a president overseen the loss of so many American lives. That total is fast approaching the 405,000 U.S. fatalities from World War II – thousands of them recorded when Harry Truman was president after Franklin Delano Roosevelt died in April 1945 – to rank as the third-deadliest event in the history of the republic. About 618,000-750,000 were killed in the Civil War of 1861-1865. Many public health experts and historians blame the trump administration for the extent of the COVID-19 devastation. “What’s so troubling about this loss of life is it was preventable,” said Dr. Steven Woolf, director emeritus of the Center on Society and Health at Virginia Commonwealth University. “This is an infectious disease we knew how to prevent, and as difficult as it is, far easier to solve than defeating Nazi Germany. And yet, we did not mount a response to wage war against this virus as we have in these other situations.” Thomas Whalen, an associate professor at Boston University and an expert on the American presidency, is even harsher in his assessment. Whalen cited reporting by journalist Bob Woodward, who taped traitor trump on Feb. 7 acknowledging how dangerous the virus was even though he repeatedly downplayed its severity publicly. “He has, you could say, blood on his hands,” Whalen said of traitor trump. “He knew this was a threat and really did not do what was necessary to respond to it in a thoughtful and resourceful way.” https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/01/17/covid-19-us-400-000-deaths-experts-blame-trump-administration/6642685002/

Beginning in September 2019, a campaign of cyberattacks, now identified to be perpetrated by the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (hereafter referred to as the threat actor), breached the computing networks at SolarWinds—a Texas-based network management software company. The threat actor first conducted a “dry run,” injecting test code into SolarWinds’ network management and monitoring suite of products called Orion. Then, beginning in February 2020, the threat actor injected trojanized (hidden) code into a file that was later included in SolarWinds’ Orion software updates. SolarWinds released the software updates to its customers not realizing that the updates were compromised. The trojanized code had provided the threat actor with a “backdoor”—a program that can give an intruder remote access to an infected computer. According to cybersecurity researchers, the threat actor was then able to remotely exploit the networks and systems of SolarWinds’ customers who had downloaded the compromised software updates using a sophisticated computing infrastructure. Since SolarWinds is widely used in the federal government to monitor network activity on federal systems, this incident allowed the threat actor to breach infected agency information systems. SolarWinds estimates that nearly 18,000 of its customers received a compromised software update. Of those, the threat actor targeted a smaller subset of high-value customers, including the federal government, to exploit for the primary purpose of espionage. www.gao.gov/blog/solarwinds-cyberattack-demands-significant-federal-and-private-sector-response-infographic

The Patriot Act was enacted following the September 11 attacks and the 2001 anthrax attacks with the stated goal of tightening U.S. national security, particularly as it related to foreign terrorism. Under donald trump's watch, in November 2019, the renewal of the Patriot Act was included in the stop-gap government funding bill. The expired provisions required renewal by March 15, 2020. The Senate passed a 77-day extension in March 2020, but the House of Representatives did not pass the legislation before departing for recess on March 27, 2020. Instead the Patriot Act was split into two measures as a means of explaining to the public that the Patriot Act would no longer openly be in effect. After donald trump threatened to veto the bill, the House of Representatives issued an indefinite postponement of the vote to pass the Senate version of the bill; as of December 2020, the Patriot Act remains expired due to the Taliban's favorite president: donald john trump. (Wikipedia)

'Their first question was: ‘What is going on? What is this?’ defense official says ‘Horrified’ Israeli intel officials ‘were shouting at US counterparts’ over trump leak Foreign Policy reports tense meetings between sides after president revealed classified info to Russians By Times of Israel Staff 20 May 2017, 1:25 pm donald trump’s reported sharing of a highly classified Israeli tip with Russia led to incredibly tense meetings between Israeli and American intelligence officials, Foreign Policy Magazine reported Friday. The Israelis reportedly shouted at their US counterparts, demanding an explanation for trump’s actions, according to the magazine, which quoted a US defense official. “To them, it’s horrifying,” the official said. “Their first question was: ‘What is going on? What is this?’” Meeting Russia’s foreign minister and ambassador to Washington in the Oval Office on May 10, trump shared intelligence about an Islamic State threat involving laptops carried on airplanes, according to a senior US official. ABC News reported that the information came specifically from a spy embedded in the terrorist group on behalf of Israel, and that trump’s reported leak had placed the person’s life at risk. Though Washington and Jerusalem have publicly brushed aside reports of the incident, behind the scenes top Israeli defense officials are said to be angry and concerned by the president’s actions. Beyond the possible danger to the source, FP reported that Israelis feared they had lost any further access to the spy’s intel. Shabtai Shavit, who led the Mossad in the 1990s, said that were he in charge of the intelligence organization today, he would not be inclined to share more information with his American counterparts. “If tomorrow I were asked to pass information to the CIA, I would do everything I could to not pass it to them. Or I would first protect myself and only then give it, and what I’d give would be totally neutered,” Shavit told The Times of Israel on Wednesday. “If some smart guy decides that he’s allowed to leak information, then your partners in cooperation will be fewer or just won’t be at all,” he warned. Danny Yatom, another ex-Mossad boss, told an Israeli radio station that if reports were accurate, trump likely caused “heavy damage” to Israeli and American security. But it’s not a threat some Israeli officials didn’t foresee. Even before trump took office, Jacobs said, Israeli professionals expressed concern that his loose lips would intentionally or inadvertently lead to Israeli intelligence being shared with Russia. That, in turn, might mean the intelligence ends up with Iran, a sworn enemy of Israel. https://www.timesofisrael.com/horrified-israeli-intel-officials-were-shouting-at-us-counterparts-over-trump-leak/

The Taliban on trump: "We hope he will win the election" and withdraw U.S. troops By Sami Yousafzai Updated on: October 11, 2020 / 9:30 AM / CBS News Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told CBS News in a phone interview, "We believe that trump is going to win the upcoming election because he has proved himself a politician who accomplished all the major promises he had made to American people, although he might have missed some small things, but did accomplish the bigger promises, so it is possible that the U.S. people who experienced deceptions in the past will once again trust trump for his decisive actions." Mujahid added, "We think the majority of the American population is tired of instability, economic failures and politicians' lies and will trust again on trump because trump is decisive, could control the situation inside the country. Other politicians, including Biden, chant unrealistic slogans. Some other groups, which are smaller in size but are involved in the military business including weapons manufacturing companies' owners and others who somehow get the benefit of war extension, they might be against trump and support Biden, but their numbers among voters is low." https://www.cbsnews.com/news/taliban-on-trump-we-hope-he-will-win-the-election-withdraw-us-troops/

Former President donald trump praised the Taliban on Tuesday, August 17, 2021, calling the group “smart” and “good fighters.” “The Taliban, good fighters, I will tell you, good fighters. You have to give them credit for that. They’ve been fighting for a thousand years. What they do is they fight,” trump said on Fox News’ [Hannity] on August 17, 2021. The Taliban, of course, have not been fighting for 1,000 years, as the organization was founded in the early 1990s, though that’s the least problematic thing that came out of trump’s mouth during the interview. https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/08/donald-trump-taliban-good-fighters-great-negotiators

On October 4, 2001, British Prime Minister Tony Blair released information compiled by Western intelligence agencies connecting Osama bin Laden to Afghanistan's Taliban leadership as well as being the leader of the al-Qaeda organization. The Taliban government gave a safe haven to Osama bin Laden in the years leading up to the attack, and his al-Qaeda network may have had a close relationship with the Taliban army and police. On the day of 9/11, the Taliban foreign minister told the Arab television network Al Jazeera: "We denounce this terrorist attack, whoever is behind it." The United States requested the Taliban to shut down all al-Qaeda bases in Afghanistan, open them to inspection and turn over Osama bin Laden. The Taliban refused all these requests. Instead, they offered to extradite Osama bin Laden to an Islamic country, for trial under Islamic law, if the United States presented evidence of his guilt. The Taliban had previously refused to extradite bin Laden to the United States, or prosecute him, after he was indicted by the US federal courts for involvement in the 1998 United States embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. The Taliban deemed eyewitness testimony and satellite phone call recordings entered into the public record in February 2001 during a trial as insufficient grounds to extradite bin Laden for his involvement in the bombings.

In Rosh Hashanah message, trump says US Jews voted ‘to destroy America and Israel’ Former US president shares flyer from anti-Democrat lobby group listing actions he took on behalf of Israel and against antisemitism, urges Jews to ‘learn from your mistakes’ By Times of Israel Staff 18 September 2023, 8:34 am Former US president donald trump on Sunday marked the Rosh Hashanah holiday with a message to American Jews accusing them of voting to destroy America and Israel by backing his successor Joe Biden in the last race to the White House. In a post to his Truth Social media platform, trump shared a flyer from JEXIT, an anti-Democrat lobbying group. “Just a quick reminder for liberal Jews who voted to destroy America & Israel because you believed in false narratives!” declared the headline of the flyer. “Let’s hope you learned from your mistake & make better choices moving forward!” it continued. “Happy New Year!” In December 2022 trump shared a post on the Truth Social platform from far-right pundit and conspiracy theorist Wayne Allyn Root, who wrote that the former president “did more for the state of Israel and the Jewish people than anyone in history.” It came at a time when trump was facing calls to condemn antisemites Nick Fuentes and Kanye West after hosting the pair at his Mar-a-Lago resort the month before. Root defended Trump over the dinner party in the post. In addition to sharing his article, trump wrote, “Thank you Wayne – You are great but how quickly Jewish leaders forgot that I was the best, by far, president for Israel.” “They should be ashamed of themselves. This lack of loyalty to their greatest friends and allies is why large numbers in Congress, and so many others, have stopped giving support to Israel,” he added. https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-rosh-hashanah-message-trump-says-us-jews-voted-to-destroy-america-and-israel/

In 2014 (the year before his candidacy), donald trump “helped build a hotel in Azerbaijan that appears to be a corrupt operation engineered by oligarchs tied to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.” Ivanka directly oversaw the project’s development. (New Yorker Magazine)

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