Good news and bad news.

Day 5 and my Son and I have successfully navigated the virus particles in our house. No symptoms. But the bad news. Lori has got it. All the typical symptoms of a bad flu. Thankfully there is space here and she is self isolating. No hospital. No ventilator. Looks like no Delta. At least with this Omicron strain it seems to strike quickly and then fade just as quickly. Is it hiding and waiting for another moment to strike? Or has her immune system defeated it? Only time will tell, but there’s a memorable Christmas for you. She is next door and Zach and I are managing the big house. The Covid Christmas. So turkey is ready, individual plates prepared. We enjoy a dinner somewhat together, sitting at separate tables on the side deck. Damn tasty turkey, even the specter of Covid cannot diminish the festive meal. And we open gifts outside as well. Lots of stuff for bug out bags. Hope we never have to use them, but like Covid, we also thought our safe life in the country would protect us from what had been til now, just another urban problem. It will be easy to recall the Christmas of 2021! Unlike others that kind of morph into sameness through the years, this will never fade from memory. Covid managed to break though all our careful lifestyles and hammered one of us. I suppose we should feel lucky that two were able to run the gauntlet, but any way you cut it, it sucks! A few more days of self isolation, then swab tests Tuesday. Fingers crossed that at least Z and I can maintain our pre-Covid metabolisms intact. I’m back to my usual routine, early to bed, early to rise and with luck we’ll remain healthy. Still working on the wise. Happy New Year y’all!

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I’d love a booster. Where is the vaccine?

I am sick and tired of so-called officials pleading with us to get booster shots! I booked mine two weeks ago and the earliest appointment I could find was for January 12^th. In Cobourg! So if you want us to get our boosters then get more God damn vaccine into the country. In the meantime, stop the pathetic pleas and warnings about how dangerous this virus is. Some of us get it. Instead of a steady stream of numbers every day, start broadcasting real life scenarios of what will happen if you remain on the sidelines with some messed up anti-vax bullshit in your brain. Stuff like that German study which showed the incredible damage Covid does to the heart muscle. If you want people to really respect the protocols and not tune you out from pandemic fatigue, show us the scary damage. So far it’s been nothing but stay safe, social distance, wear a mask etc etc. But you have not yet got through to the population the WHY! Why should we continue following these bloody edicts? We’ve got ugly pictures on cigarette packages demonstrating the outcome of smoking. Broadcast ‘heritage moments’ showing people intubated and gasping for life. Hammer the message home, because right now we’re all tired of numbers. Show pictures of damaged hearts. Collapsed lungs. Full graveyards. Stacked bodies in morgues. Jesus! We’re being way too nice about this. Stop being so Canadian and hammer the message home. Covid can kill you and will kill you if you remain unvaccinated.

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Covid is NOT just another flu! It can reshape your heart!

Vascular network (red) in healthy heart tissue (left) and in severe COVID-19 (right). Due to faulty reforming of the network as a result of Covid-19, numerous branches, splits and even loops develop in the capillaries, which can be analyzed mathematically.

Since the pandemic began, research into how COVID-19 damages the respiratory system has been widely discussed and researched. Now, a team from Germany is giving a first look at how the coronavirus can affect the heart by using three-dimensional X-rays of the organ. Publishing their study in the journal eLife this week, researchers from the University of Gottingen and Hannover Medical School discovered significant changes in the heart muscle tissue of people who died from COVID-19.

The researchers analyzed images of heart tissue structure in a high-resolution format from synchrotron radiation, or a very bright X-ray, and displayed it in 3D. They observed clear changes at the capillary level in the hearts, affecting the tiny blood vessels in the heart muscle tissue – revealing a network full of splits, branches and loops that had been “chaotically remodelled by the formation and splitting of new vessels,” according to a release. These changes are the first direct visuals of the damage COVID-19 can cause in the body, which is known as “intussusceptive angiogenesis” or new vessel formation in the tissue, according to the release. Lingering problems among the patients ranged from signs of heart muscle inflammation and enlarged left ventricles to an impaired ability of the heart to pump blood to the rest of the body.

Many of these findings were consistent with patients having myocarditis, the study added, a condition which, in its severe form, can lead to heart failure or stroke, due to blood clots. In 76 per cent of cases, the patient’s heart muscle contained detectable levels of troponin, a type of protein, which is considered another sign of heart damage. Some five patients had high levels of the protein, indicating serious heart problems.

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Day 4 following exposure to Covid.

Here I am, day 4 following possible Covid exposure. So far feeling fine. Took the body temp, I think 97.7 is quite normal. That’s Fahrenheit, by the way! No other symptoms that wold indicate something is amiss. The worst part of this is the uncertainty. And the inconvenience of walking around inside one’s own home while wearing a mask. Time is dragging on. Christmas for all its glory and feel good vibe seems like a forced exercise now. The only important day is next Wednesday when we should have the 2^nd swab test results. Until then it is going to be a slog getting through each day. On a positive note, the booze consumption is almost nil other than a daily glass of wine or beer. Very cognizant of keeping the immune system strong, and a hangover with its attendant kick to the immune system would not be wise given we’re in a limbo state. Are we Covid positive or negative? So until next week, I suppose we’ll have to get comfortable with the idea that pretending we are carriers of the virus is the mindset we have to adopt. Did you see the numbers today? What a complete and total mess. I do believe I shall get some traditional blood sausage with potatoes and sauerkraut going. Merry Christmas!

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Top Canadian museum to be gutted….decolonization!

Put aside a few minutes and read this article. The amount of revisionism and cancel culture in Canada is mind numbing. I used to be so thankful my Mom and Dad had chosen to flee Communism and Nazism for this bastion of freedom and democracy. Not sure they would make that choice today. Celebrate the birth of Jesus while you still have that option. Soon enough we will be repurposing churches into something neutral and less offensive because God only knows how awful it must be for non-white, non-Christian people to have these edifices in their communities. The rather obvious, for me anyway, problem with rewriting history is the fact that eventually you end up with no history at all. Merry Christmas y’all.

https://nationalpost.com/opinion/top-canadian-museum-to-be-immediately-gutted-in-the-name-of-decolonization

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Covid-19 is on a rampage!

With 68,191 tests processed in the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Health says the province’s positivity rate rose on Thursday to 16 per cent, which marks the highest rate ever. Strap yourselves in folks. We are in for a nightmare ride this Christmas and New Year. The ship has sailed and there is no stopping it now. I think we’ve reached the point of no return. Thank God it is Omicron and not Delta and that most sane people have already been double vaxxed. My second swab test happens next week. Praying for a negative but if it ends up a positive, well….cross that bridge then. What a shit show.

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Baltic states to develop multiple rocket launch system.

On Tuesday, Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian defence ministers agreed to jointly develop a rocket artillery capability. In their joint statement, the ministers “declared their intent to engage in a joint development of regional interoperable Multiple Launch Rocket System capability.” “I cannot say specifically right now how it will look like as we only have applications, in this case, to the United States of America that has such technology in its disposition,” Lithuanian Defence Minister Arvydas Anušauskas told reporters.

He added the plans might become a “good response” to Russia’s announced red lines. “Putin wants […] Poland and the Baltic states not to be defended, for attack weaponry not to be stationed, no American presence, and in fact no NATO presence. I think we cannot accept that,” Anušauskas said.

In Lithuania’s Kaunas, Anušauskas and his Latvian and Estonian counterparts Artis Pabriks and Kalle Laanet discussed regional security issues and cooperation within the EU and NATO. Laanet said he was “extremely glad we have commonly agreed with a Letter of Intent on an extremely important capability development project for our region – to develop a Multiple Launch Rocket System in all three countries”.

“This is a huge step forward for our common capability development and advancing the deterrence and defence posture in the region,” the Estonian minister said. The M270 MLRS has a range of 350 kilometers, meaning, for instance, Estonia would have the capability to support Latvia where needed, or vice-versa.

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Covid test is negative…..for now.

Tested on:

22-Dec-2021 (Reported: 22-Dec-2021)
Quinte Health Care – Belleville Hospital

Negative (COVID-19 RNA test)

• Your results were negative for the COVID-19 virus

So that’s the good news. But until we all get tested a second time, I’m not doing cartwheels just yet. One thing I am learning through this process is this. You can’t live in a bubble anymore. Mental health is frankly more important than messing up your life with forever lockdowns and social avoidance. Sure, I’ll continue wearing a mask. But after two years of this nightmare, it’s time to move along. If I get it, I’ll deal with it. I’m double vaxxed, will get the third as soon as the health care system allows. But here’s a message that should go out to all society. If you get infected and require hospitalization, unless you have already been double vaxxed you will be charged for every nickel the hospital stay spends on you. The science is irrefutable. Vaccines work to mitigate the damage to your health. They don’t guarantee you won’t get it, but unless you have taken at least that first step to protect your friends and neighbors, then you should not benefit from the health care that is already taxed to the max. Get the jabs people!

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Covid-19 finds a way into my house.

And now I wait for the result. Yesterday I went for a Covid swab test. I think I might have finally contracted the fucking virus. For almost two years I’ve been diligent and respectful of all the protocols. Hardly ever went into town. Maintained my distances and wore the mask. Enjoyed pints or coffees on my own when out and about. And all it took was for a supposedly negatively tested family friend invited into our home to turn my world upside down. She says she took a home rapid test before coming over, tested negative, and since she is a close friend, I welcomed her. Next morning I get a phone call from her, she has subsequently tested positive! So much for the reliability of those rapid tests! My Son and I may yet escape the spiked sea mine. Lori’s odds of evading it are not a sure bet. She spent the night in close contact with our friend, playing backgammon in the guesthouse. Thank God we’ve at least all been double vaxxed. So we’re all wearing masks in the house, and maybe, just maybe we can save our Son from getting the bloody disease. He had the least contact. But since it is an airborne virus, I’m probably being way too hopeful. I can’t be too critical of our friend. She followed all the protocols, it’s just that the home test everybody is clamoring after, is only 75% effective. So depending on the efficiency of our health system, by this time tomorrow I should know the results. And even then, we’ll have to go back in a few days to take another. It might have been too early in the virus’ gestation, to even show up on the test. Moral of the story? With positivity rates now above 10%, it seems an inevitability that unless you are cloistered in your home with zero outside contacts, sooner or later you will get it. So get ready, be prepared, maybe the only solution to finally end this Pandemic is for everybody to get infected, develop super immunity, and accept that some of us will be fucking dreadfully ill before we can get out of this black tunnel called Covid-19.

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Scrambling Canadians should be furious booster shots were dismissed for months

It seems little to nothing was learned from the pandemic’s first four waves. Chief among these failed lessons is the fact Canada isn’t exceptional. Science that’s true in other countries is also true here. We aren’t some Narnia-esque land of superior immunity, better health care, and Dudley Do-Rights. This is why it’s near inexplicable that Canada didn’t offer the majority of its population boosters when just about every other peer country was doing so. Imagine if provinces had offered adults boosters at the 12-week mark back in September. Or even at the five or six-month mark in November or early December. This wouldn’t have been some radical jump ahead of science; the United States, United Kingdom, Israel, Germany, and France were all confidently well ahead of us. Not only was the decision to delay and downplay boosters bad for public health, it was bad for public trust. Canadians as a whole have been exceptionally understanding and forgiving of officials through the pandemic, but it seems their goodwill has reached its limit. Their fury isn’t misplaced; it’s been wholly earned. When this wave eventually passes, that anger should be channelled to force politicians and health officials to answer for Canada’s disastrous complacency on boosters. (Sabrina Maddeaux, NP)

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