Here comes the Sun......

 

 

 NASA Goddard, 6 January 2023:

This video chronicles solar activity from Aug. 12 to Dec. 22, 2022, as captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). From its orbit in space around Earth, SDO has steadily imaged the Sun in 4K x 4K resolution for nearly 13 years. This information has enabled countless new discoveries about the workings of our closest star and how it influences the solar system. With a triad of instruments, SDO captures an image of the Sun every 0.75 seconds. The Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) instrument alone captures images every 12 seconds at 10 different wavelengths of light. This 133-day time lapse showcases photos taken at a wavelength of 17.1 nanometers, which is an extreme-ultraviolet wavelength that shows the Sun’s outermost atmospheric layer: the corona. Compiling images taken 108 seconds apart, the movie condenses 133 days, or about four months, of solar observations into 59 minutes. The video shows bright active regions passing across the face of the Sun as it rotates. The Sun rotates approximately once every 27 days. The loops extending above the bright regions are magnetic fields that have trapped hot, glowing plasma. These bright regions are also the source of solar flares, which appear as bright flashes as magnetic fields snap together in a process called magnetic reconnection. While SDO has kept an unblinking eye pointed toward the Sun, there have been a few moments it missed. Some of the dark frames in the video are caused by Earth or the Moon eclipsing SDO as they pass between the spacecraft and the Sun. Other blackouts are caused by instrumentation being down or data errors. SDO transmits 1.4 terabytes of data to the ground every day. The images where the Sun is off-center were observed when SDO was calibrating its instruments. SDO and other NASA missions will continue to watch our Sun in the years to come, providing further insights about our place in space and information to keep our astronauts and assets safe. The music is a continuous mix from Lars Leonhard’s “Geometric Shapes” album, courtesy of the artist. 

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Scott Wiessinger (PAO): Lead Producer Tom Bridgman (SVS): Lead Visualizer Scott Wiessinger (PAO): Editor

Review of COVID-19 Vaccine and Treatment Purchasing and Procurement aka the Halton Report is very clear about the fact that the world & Australia are not yet 'COVID-stable'. That federal and state governments need to revisit public heath and vaccine procurement policy & planning.

 

Transcript of letter accompanying Review of COVID-19 Vaccine and Treatment Purchasing and Procurement report:

The Hon Mark Butler

Minister for Health and Aged Care

Parliament House

CANBERRA ACT 2600

Dear Minister

On 30 June 2022 you commissioned an independent review of the purchasing and procurement of COVID-19 vaccine and treatments to inform the next 12-24 months. This report provides the conclusions and recommendations of the review.

The review team engaged with a number of key stakeholders involved in Australia’s response to the

COVID-19 pandemic and rollout of vaccines and treatments. This included epidemiological experts

both nationally and internationally, Commonwealth, state and territory Health departments and bodies, health sector organisations, as well as manufacturers of the vaccines and treatments procured within Australia.

As principal reviewer I was assisted by Professor Peter Collignon AM who provided expert medical advice. I would also like to acknowledge the work of the review project team led by Georgie Fairhall, Department of Health and Aged Care.

Early procurement of vaccines and treatments occurred in a highly competitive global market. In this context Australia secured a portfolio of effective COVID-19 vaccines and treatments enabling high rates of primary course vaccination preventing serious illness and death relative to global peers.

However, Australia and the world are not yet ‘COVID-stable’, and we are unable to confidently predict the timing or impact of new waves and variants. This uncertainty presents particular challenges. The availability of efficacious vaccines and treatments will continue to play a key role in ensuring ongoing protection for lives and livelihoods.

The next two years are critical to supporting our economy, health and education systems to recover. Australia's approach to the procurement of vaccines and treatments needs to be responsive to the changing environment and should be guided by clear policy and understanding of risk appetite.

Consideration should be given to the decision-making structures and advice required, and whether new and existing pathways for procurement and distribution of vaccines and treatments should be retained or adapted. Finally, it is critical that Australia maintains surge capacity in the event of a serious new variant or another infectious disease.

Yours sincerely

Hon. Professor Jane Halton AO PSM

19 September 2022

[my yellow highlighting]

Review of COVID-19 Vaccine and Treatment Purchasing and Procurement aka the Halton Report by clarencegirl on Scribd

https://www.scribd.com/document/618758421/Review-of-COVID-19-Vaccine-and-Treatment-Purchasing-and-Procurement-aka-the-Halton-Report

Note: This letter, executive summary & recommendations are the full extent of what the federal government was prepared to release for public consumption. The remainder of the Halton Report allegedly covers contractual arrangements with vaccine manufacturers and as such is commercial-in-confidence.

The Saturday Paper, 7 January 2023, excerpts:

A summary of the review by former senior health bureaucrat Professor Jane Halton was released in September last year. The full version of the report, obtained by The Saturday Paper under freedom of information laws, paints a disturbing picture of what could lie ahead as the virus mutates further and existing vaccines become less effective.....

Speaking to The Saturday Paper this week, Halton emphasised that the virus remains a serious threat that could worsen. 

“The world is currently seeing the emergence of yet more new variants, including XBB1.5, which underscores that the pandemic and particularly the effects of SARS-CoV-2 are not yet completely behind us,” said Halton, who heads the global Centre for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, or CEPI. 

“It’s really important to take a step back and say, ‘What are we trying to achieve here?’ I’d love to see a narrative from the federal Health minister – the goals we want to achieve. I’m just not seeing that. It just seems to be a lot of Whac-A-Mole going on.” 

“The entire world is looking forward to a day where we don’t have to worry about SARS-CoV-2. However, we continue to need to be prepared for all circumstances, including new and more dangerous variants.” 

In her report, Halton writes that Australia signed advanced purchasing agreements (APAs) with vaccine manufacturers “later than other comparative countries which delayed the supply of vaccines and the speed of the rollout”. 

Australia later overtook other countries, once a distribution plan was in place. However, Halton warns that those foundational APAs are now expiring. “As a consequence, new APAs giving effect to purchasing decisions will be needed.” 

A spokesperson for Butler declined to comment specifically on new purchasing agreements but said the government “has ensured there is a portfolio of vaccines and supply available to Australians in 2023 and 2024”. 

The report says the new government should rethink eligibility for both vaccines and the antiviral treatments that lessen the virus’s impact on individuals. It says optimising their uptake and investing in new versions will be “critical” in what will continue to be a highly competitive global market. 

“In the short-term, wider eligibility for some treatments should be considered where there are stocks available, there is evidence of efficacy, safety and broader economic and societal benefits (such as workforce availability). This is particularly the case where there is no significant private market to help limit the burden of the disease.” 

The absence of a “private market” highlights that the government’s approach to Covid-19 vaccines is different than for other vaccines. 

For example, anyone in Australia can access the annual influenza vaccine. The government lists the vaccine on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) and identifies priority groups who can receive it free. Others who want to be vaccinated protectively can pay to obtain it through vaccination clinics or their local general practice. Some employers offer staff vaccinations to limit workdays lost to illness. 

That is not the case for Covid-19 vaccines and was also not the case for Covid treatments when they first became available. The government is the only purchaser and distributor of these vaccines and it alone controls who can access them. 

Unlike its American counterpart, the Australian government has only authorised a fifth vaccine dose for the most vulnerable. In the United States, a protective fifth shot is widely available. 

Butler’s spokesperson did not respond directly to a question about the different approaches to eligibility. “New booster dose recommendations are anticipated in early 2023 in preparation for winter,” they said. “Future recommendations will aim to provide ongoing clear guidance across all groups including time since last dose and definitions of eligibility.” 

The current, restrictive approach was adopted in the pandemic’s emergency phase to ensure access was not dictated by who could pay; but Halton notes circumstances have now changed, with most of the population protected by at least basic vaccination. 

She suggests that widening access to vaccines – and treatments – could slow the spread of variants and lessen risk as immunity wanes. In other words, the cost-benefit equation around restricting access has shifted. 

Halton writes that variants influence the effectiveness of both vaccines and treatments. “These changes are significant for decision-making,” she writes, “and the relative benefit of individual vaccines and treatments will continue to need to be assessed.” 

The report also indicates a shift in the importance of antiviral treatments, which have not been a focus in Australia’s Covid policy. Halton notes that if vaccination or previous infection no longer offer significant protection against new variants, treatments may now be considered proportionally more beneficial than when protection from vaccines was higher.

Halton warns that the current broad distribution framework for vaccines “does not include a strategy for the distribution of treatments as they were not widely available in 2020”...... 

Halton’s report says strategies and frameworks drafted early in the pandemic are now out of date and don’t adequately consider developments in vaccines and especially treatments for the virus. She says government should rethink those restrictions put in place because of supply constraints.....

She also notes that because the previous government elected to adopt all advice from the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI), it effectively became the decision-maker. Its advice was not always interrogated and was portrayed as entirely clinical when it was sometimes based on judgement.

“The ATAGI advice, which is released publicly, is often treated as prescriptive and rules-based. The timeliness of this advice has also been questioned.”

Halton describes a “mismatch” between vaccine supply and demand, the latter having been restricted by the eligibility criteria ATAGI had applied, which were often narrower than those contained in the Therapeutic Goods Administration approvals. Halton says this has created confusion about their respective roles.

She writes that ATAGI’s advice “has changed over time and does not provide a firm foundation for procurement decisions”.

Halton’s report says there have also been delays in the booster stage.

“While Australia has had early success with managing the pandemic, further emergence of new variants and management of the vaccination rollout has seen waning performance in comparison to other countries,” the report says. “Australia currently has the second lowest rate of booster uptake among comparator countries.”

Halton says “inconsistent messaging from health authorities” has contributed to the slow booster uptake and urges the government to significantly improve public communications.

The government has accepted all of Halton’s recommendations “in principle”, Butler’s spokesperson said. A formal government response is expected soon.

Perrottet Government finally commits to bringing the Volunteer Rescue Association's emergency communications capability up to scratch

 

The Volunteer Rescue Association of NSW (VRA) formed in 1969 says of itself :

NSW VRA has over 1500 volunteer members across 53 squads, including specialist rescue operators working for their communities across New South Wales. They are primary responders for Road Crash Rescue, General Land Rescue, Vertical Rescue and many types of specialist rescue encountered by Emergency Service personnel and primarily operate in rural and regional New South Wales. The NSW VRA also includes Aerial Patrol, Remote Area Communications, Cave Rescue, Ski Patrols, Swift Water Teams and other Rescue Support Teams.

The VRA funding model is a mix of government grants, community fundraising and donations. This model results in a very tight budget.

So when in 2018 then Premier & Liberal MLA Gladys Berejiklian and her then Treasurer & Liberal MLA Dominic Perrott had the bright idea of charging commercial rental rates for use of around 800 communications towers on Crown land and abolishing rent rebates, the VRA feared it would have to cease using these towers as the organisation couldn’t bear the additional costs.

Tower rental costs in rural and regional low population density areas were foreshadowed to increase by 19 per cent.

By November 2019 the NSW Coalition Government appears to have decided that rebates on communication tower rents could still be made to eligible organisations on application, but these rebates would still require payment of the statutory minimum rent.

I suspect that the $4.7 million government funding injection mentioned in the article below is in part a workaround for a situation that Premier Perrottet himself helped create in 2018-2019.

Echo, 9 January 2023:

The Volunteer Rescue Association of NSW (VRA) will soon have access to seamless communications coverage across the state.

Minister for Emergency Services and Resilience and Minister for Flood Recovery Steph Cooke said a $4.7 million government funding injection will overhaul the VRA’s radio network to bring it into line with the other emergency services.

The funding will provide for 421 new radios and equip 100 vehicles with Vehicle as a Node technology.

Vehicle as a Node

The Vehicle as a Node capability integrates radio, mobile phone and satellite networks to provide a communication system that is resistant to ‘blackspots’, which often occur when natural disasters impact infrastructure.

VRA Acting Commissioner Andrew Luke said the upgrade will also give volunteers access to a duress button that is centrally monitored.

‘At the press of a button our members can request urgent assistance if they are in danger, enabling an immediate response,’ he said.

A consistent and reliable radio network

Ms Cooke said this multi-million dollar boost will give VRA volunteers access to a consistent and reliable radio network which is compatible with other agencies and guarantees their ability to communicate anywhere in NSW.

‘The VRA is the only agency in the State solely dedicated to rescue and its volunteers and staff have done an incredible job, particularly over the past 12 months supporting flood operations.

‘The independent Flood Inquiry highlighted ways we can enhance our emergency response and we will continue to ensure first responders have the resources they need to keep regional, rural and remote communities safer and stronger.’

‘Being able to send and receive life-saving communications in all conditions is vital to the safety of everyone, including our 1,218 members,’ said Acting Commissioner Andrew Luke.

Are multinational fossil fuel corporations leading Australian governments & regulators by the nose?

 

By the time Word War II drew to a close 77 years ago the world geopolitical map saw Australia identified not just as an existing state within the United Kingdom's wider economic zone, but as a prospective permanent political and economic client state of other Big Powers. Its natural resources to be harvested by fossil fuel corporations & extractive industries, exploited by foreign investors and its population a reliable supplier of future cannon fodder in support of their individual and sometimes joint global ambitions.

For her part, Australia would present as obligingly grateful for being treated as a commodity 'owned' by the wealthy top percentile of the northern hemisphere and the largest transnationals.

Nothing much appears to have changed since then…..

The Saturday Paper, 7 January 2023:

A United States congressional committee investigating fossil fuel disinformation has published internal documents on a major Australian fossil fuel project – described by energy multinational Chevron as “an Australian icon” – in what has become the investigation’s final publication before Republicans took control of congress on Tuesday.

The second and final memo, released by the US house oversight and reform committee, includes information from internal documents subpoenaed by the committee about Chevron’s plans to extract gas from its Gorgon project on Barrow Island, off the coast of Western Australia, beyond 2056. The committee included Gorgon as an example of how the industry is “doubling down on long-term fossil fuel investments” while publicly claiming that gas is “merely a ‘bridge fuel’ ” to cleaner energy in spite of scientists’ “significant concerns about continued reliance on natural gas in a warming climate”.

The committee released memos in September and December last year, alongside thousands of pages of internal documents subpoenaed from BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell and the American Petroleum Institute. A sixth subpoena issued to the American Chamber of Commerce did not result in any documents being provided.

The two memos include references to the Australian activities of three of the four big oil companies it investigated – BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil – however, the December 2022 memo includes a particularly detailed focus on the Gorgon project, a joint venture led by Chevron, with partners including Shell and ExxonMobil.

According to the committee, the documents reveal that Chevron “is prepared to swoop in and expand its own fossil fuel business … even if other companies ultimately agree to reduce oil and gas production …”

In total, more than 200 of the 589 pages of Chevron documents published by the committee in December relate to Chevron’s operations in Australia, although many are covered almost completely by black boxes. The documents include a heavily redacted 179-page binder provided to Chevron board members visiting Australia and the Gorgon project in 2016, including details ranging from cultural advice on how to order a flat white to information on Chevron’s long-term ambitions for what it is describing as the “largest single-resource development in Australia’s history”.

According to the committee, internal documents shared with the board by then chief executive John S. Watson “emphasize” Chevron’s “long-term intentions for [Gorgon], despite climate concerns” and “the profits Chevron predicts it will reap”…...

Of the unredacted pages related to Chevron’s Gorgon trip, some are less pertinent than others. A cultural information section explains how light mocking should be considered “friendly banter” and not “an insult”. A rare unredacted section of the agenda shows the executives, directors and spouses were scheduled to receive a two-hour overview of Australian politics from Peter van Onselen, who is introduced as contributing editor at The Australian.

The December 2022 memo was not the first time the Gorgon project attracted the committee’s attention. Its September 2022 memo noted a carbon capture and storage facility at Gorgon that had “repeatedly failed to meet its storage target by about 50%” as an example of problems with that technology.

Another Australian example included in the December memo relates to BP’s strategies towards working with regulators here. A 2016 email from a BP executive to John Mingé, chairman and president of BP America, compares the company’s mindset in engaging with regulators in countries including Australia, the US and Germany.

The email describes how BP had gained an “advantaged position” with the regulator of its Australian oil refinery by engaging “proactively”. According to the internal memo, BP documents provided to the committee “show BP executives acknowledging that the company’s actions are often obstructionist towards the development of climate policy”.

Overall, the internal documents, along with further scientific sources cited by the memo, reveal that many of the public claims made by fossil fuel companies have been intentionally misleading.

As the committee’s then chair, Carolyn Maloney, said at a hearing in February: the investigation revealed that ExxonMobil scientists knew about the dangers of fossil fuels in 1978, and in the decades since, the fossil fuel industry has “waged a multimillion-dollar disinformation campaign” to prevent climate action, “all to protect its bottom line”…..

On December 25, journalist Amy Westervelt reported that, contrary to previous plans stated by the committee during its term, the December 9 memo may be the last document it publishes.

That same week, the new chair of the Democratic minority in the house oversight committee, Jamie Raskin, shared that he had been diagnosed with lymphoma.

The committee’s work being abruptly curtailed after only 18 months contrasts with the long-term time scales of the companies it is investigating, such as Chevron’s plans to secure profits beyond 2050. The Saturday Paper put a request for comment to Chevron but did not hear back before going to press.

Although the committee’s investigation is on hold, the US is significantly in front of Australia in its attempts to hold fossil fuel companies accountable.

Last month, Puerto Rico became the latest US jurisdiction to file climate accountability lawsuits against fossil fuel companies, joining dockets filed by seven US states and at least 35 municipal governments.

Puerto Rico – an unincorporated territory of the US in the Caribbean, where storms made worse by climate change have caused major recent disasters – is the first to use the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act in its climate fraud case against Shell and other companies.

According to Wiles, it could be a “big loss” for these cases if the million pages held by the committee “never see the light of day”.

“The documents that have been released so far definitely provide new evidence on the side of the plaintiffs against the defendants.”

In Australia there are currently at least two court cases related to so-called greenwashing making their way through courts, including one case lodged by the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility.

In 2022, two Australian regulators, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, announced plans to investigate greenwashing using existing laws.

Considering the memo’s revelation that BP has internally described its more proactive approach of working with regulators in Australia, it is unclear to what extent regulators alone can address the industry’s influence…..

BACKGROUND

North Coast Voices:

Friday, 6 January 2023

Global oil and gas industries make a combined US$4 billion in profit a day (or US$1 trillion annually) & have done so for the past 50 years. That obscene wealth is thought to be how these industries induce politicians & governments to only pay lip service

Monday, 2 January 2023

Who is undermining Australia’s climate change mitigation goals? Listing lobbyists contracted to act on behalf of fossil fuel industries

Sadly the first violent death of a woman in 2023 recorded by the Counting Dead Women project occurred in Ballina, Northern NSW

 

Counting Dead Women

@DeadWomenAus

A research project of Destroy The Joint

NSW Police, Latest News:

Man arrested after body of woman located - Ballina

Wednesday, 04 January 2023 11:39:36 AM

A man has been arrested after the body of a woman was located in the state’s north overnight.

About 12.30am (Wednesday 4 January 2022), a man attended Ballina Police Station and reported a welfare concern for a woman known to him.

Officers from Richmond Police District attended Holden Lane, near Cherry Street, Ballina, and located the body of a woman.

She is yet to be formally identified but is believed to be aged 64.

The man – aged 66 – was arrested at the police station, where he remains in custody.

Local detectives, with assistance from the State Crime Command’s Homicide Squad, have commenced an investigation into the woman’s death under Strike Force Blaikie.

Anyone with information about this incident is urged to contact Crime Stoppers: 1800 333 000 or https://nsw.crimestoppers.com.au. Information is treated in strict confidence. The public is reminded not to report information via NSW Police social media pages.

ABC News, 5 January 2022:

A man accused of murdering his partner in northern New South Wales was already on bail for assault, a court has heard.

Robert Karl Huber, 66, did not apply for bail when he appeared in Tweed Heads Local Court this morning charged with murder and breaching an apprehended domestic violence order.

It is alleged Mr Huber killed his partner, Lindy Lucena, 64, on Tuesday evening before attending the Ballina Police Station at about 12.30am to speak to police.

He then allegedly led officers to a laneway next to the Salvation Army where her body was found.

Today, the court heard Mr Huber had been granted bail just days before the alleged murder after being charged with several violent offences, including common assault and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

Richmond Police District Commander Superintendent Scott Tanner yesterday said police were treating her death as a case of domestic violence.

"It's a matter where these people were in a relationship, and that's how we will be alleging," he said…..

STATE OF PLAY: By 2022 the Earth was an est. 1.14°C hotter than its pre-industrial era average. Australian had warmed on average by 1.47 ± 0.24 °C since national records began in 1910. WHO warns that global heating of even 1.5°C is not considered safe & every additional tenth of a degree of warming will take a serious toll on people’s lives and health.

 

World Health Organisation, Climate change and health, excerpts, 30 October 2021:

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has concluded that to avert catastrophic health impacts and prevent millions of climate change-related deaths, the world must limit temperature rise to 1.5°C. Past emissions have already made a certain level of global temperature rise and other changes to the climate inevitable. Global heating of even 1.5°C is not considered safe, however; every additional tenth of a degree of warming will take a serious toll on people’s lives and health......

Climate-sensitive health risks

Climate change is already impacting health in a myriad of ways, including by leading to death and illness from increasingly frequent extreme weather events, such as heatwaves, storms and floods, the disruption of food systems, increases in zoonoses and food-, water- and vector-borne diseases, and mental health issues. Furthermore, climate change is undermining many of the social determinants for good health, such as livelihoods, equality and access to health care and social support structures. These climate-sensitive health risks are disproportionately felt by the most vulnerable and disadvantaged, including women, children, ethnic minorities, poor communities, migrants or displaced persons, older populations, and those with underlying health conditions.

Figure: An overview of climate-sensitive health risks, their exposure pathways and vulnerability factors. Climate change impacts health both directly and indirectly, and is strongly mediated by environmental, social and public health determinants.

Although it is unequivocal that climate change affects human health, it remains challenging to accurately estimate the scale and impact of many climate-sensitive health risks. However, scientific advances progressively allow us to attribute an increase in morbidity and mortality to human-induced warming, and more accurately determine the risks and scale of these health threats.

In the short- to medium-term, the health impacts of climate change will be determined mainly by the vulnerability of populations, their resilience to the current rate of climate change and the extent and pace of adaptation. In the longer-term, the effects will increasingly depend on the extent to which transformational action is taken now to reduce emissions and avoid the breaching of dangerous temperature thresholds and potential irreversible tipping points.

Nature, Climate change is making hundreds of diseases much worse, excerpt, 12 August 2022:

Climate change has exacerbated more than 200 infectious diseases and dozens of non-transmissible conditions, such as poisonous-snake bites, according to an analysis. Climate hazards bring people and disease-causing organisms closer together, leading to a rise in cases. Global warming can also make some conditions more severe and affect how well people fight off infections.

Most studies on the associations between climate change and disease have focused on specific pathogens, transmission methods or the effects of one type of extreme weather. Camilo Mora, a data scientist at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, and his colleagues scoured the literature for evidence of how ten climate-change-induced hazards — including surging temperatures, sea level rise and droughts — have affected all documented infectious diseases (see ‘Climate hazards exacerbate diseases’). These include infections spread or triggered by bacteria, viruses, animals, fungi and plants (see ‘Mode of transmission’). The study was published in Nature Climate Change on 8 August.

The study quantifies the many ways in which climate change affects human diseases, says Mora. “We are going to be under the constant umbrella of this serious threat for the rest of our lives,” he adds.

Literature review

Mora and his colleagues examined more than 77,000 research papers, reports and books for records of infectious diseases influenced by climatic hazards that had been made worse by greenhouse-gas emissions. More than 90% of the relevant papers had been published after 2000. Ultimately, the team found 830 publications containing 3,213 case examples.

The researchers discovered that climate change has aggravated 218, or 58%, of the 375 infectious diseases listed in the Global Infectious Diseases and Epidemiology Network (GIDEON), and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System. The total rises to 277 when including non-transmissible conditions, such as asthma and poisonous-snake or insect bites. The team also identified nine diseases that are diminished by climate change. [my yellow highlighting]

Research paper "Over half of known human pathogenic diseases can be aggravated by climate change" (Mora, C. et al, August 2022) can be accessed at:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-022-01426-1

On the subject of COVID-19…..

World Health Organisation, Zoonoses, excerpt, 29July 2020:

A zoonosis is an infectious disease that has jumped from a non-human animal to humans. Zoonotic pathogens may be bacterial, viral or parasitic, or may involve unconventional agents and can spread to humans through direct contact or through food, water or the environment. They represent a major public health problem around the world due to our close relationship with animals in agriculture, as companions and in the natural environment. Zoonoses can also cause disruptions in the production and trade of animal products for food and other uses.

Zoonoses comprise a large percentage of all newly identified infectious diseases as well as many existing ones. Some diseases, such as HIV, begin as a zoonosis but later mutate into human-only strains. Other zoonoses can cause recurring disease outbreaks, such as Ebola virus disease and salmonellosis. Still others, such as the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19, have the potential to cause global pandemics. [my yellow highlighting]

North Coast Voices readers may have noticed that "zoonoses" are mentioned in "Climate-sensitive health risks" and that zoonoses, as one of the nine categories listed  as such health risks in the graphic insert, are considered to be strongly mediated by environmental, social and public health determinants.

It may be that a potential exists for the SARS-CoV-2 virus to alter its nature in unexpected ways as the climate continues to change. If Australia's response to the virus remains almost entirely politically driven as it has been since the second half of 2021 and does not return swiftly to a predominately science based policy and public health implementation, then any increase in virulence will likely markedly weaken the nation's social and economic bonds. Alternatively, if a new highly infectious zoonosis with significant morbidity emerges and, because our governments and their health agencies have not leant the lessons of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the nation will not be anymore prepared than it was in January 2020.

Quote of the Week

 

‘Numerous investigative reports have revealed that the former President, through the complex arrangements of his personal and business finances, has engaged in aggressive tax strategies and decades-long tax avoidance schemes, including taking a questionable $916 million deduction, using a grantor trust to control assets, manipulating tax code provisions pertaining to real estate taxes, and extensively using pass-through entities. Media reports have also revealed that he benefited from massive conservation easements, and that certain of his golf courses failed to properly account for wages paid to employees, raising questions about compliance with payroll and Social Security tax laws. As President, he took pride in “brilliantly” maneuvering the tax laws to his personal benefit. Even as he was championing the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, the former President referred to the tax code as “riddled with loopholes” for “special interests—including myself.” ’

[US Congress, House Committee on Ways and Means, 20 December 2022, “REPORT ON THE INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE'S MANDATORY AUDIT PROGRAM UNDER THE PRIOR ADMINISTRATION (2017-2020)”, a review of taxation law and an the examination of former president Donald J. Trump’s federal income tax returns requested on 16 June 2021 & received between 30 November 2022 and 11 December 2022]