Science

Ivermectin has been promoted by certain factions as a miracle drug (yes, those exact words were used) against COVID-19.

But like Hydroxychloroquine, which was equally promoted before Ivermectin, neither have any effect on COVID-19.

So what is the evidence for or against Ivermectin? This article lists whatever evidence at the time of this writing.

An often quoted misconception is that vaccination offers less protection than infection induced immunity.

An overlooked aspect here is that not vaccinating is actually an implied choice of taking higher risks, because the infection may cause complications and damage to various organs. Those include blood clots, lung damage, neurological complications (brain fog), anosmia (loss of smell), heart inflammation, and more.

But even if we overlook the obvious, evidence so far points to vaccines being more effective than infection induced immunity.

The province of Ontario, Canada, is heading for a third wave of the Coronavirus pandemic of 2020/2021, and the reason is a yet to be identified variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

As we all know by now, the Coronavirus that caused the 2020/2021 pandemic has not stayed with the same genetic sequence of the original wild type identified in Wuhan China. This is completely expected, because all living beings mutate, and viruses specially so.

This article provides an overview of virus mutations, the current variants from the UK and South Africa, how the immune system works on pathogen proteins, and whether all this has implications on the efficacy of the current vaccines.

Mutations

Mutations are a fact of life for all living beings. Viruses, due to many reasons (generation rate in hours, infecting millions of cells, ...), have a very fast mutation rate. That is just what goes on.

Users on social media have been sharing news that China is using Anal Swabs for detecting Coronavirus infections. While this is true, it seems that this will not be applied to everyone being tested.

These anal swabs are soaked in saline, and inserted into the anus and rotated.

If you see this France24 article, you will notice this part:

SARS-CoV-2, the Coronavirus that causes COVID-19 and is responsible for the 2020 pandemic, is known to enter cells via the ACE2 receptor (see this video on the Renin-Angiotensin system).

In addition to ACE2, there are other receptors that either facilitate entry into cells (making the virus more infectious) or increase its pathogenicity (causing more severe symptoms).

Donald Trump does not care for science. Any science ...

When the California minister for the environment confronted him with some facts about Climate Change, he said "It will start getting cooler ... you just watch". The minister said: "I wish science agreed with you". Trump's response? "I don't think science knows, actually ..."

Principles of scientific rational thinking:

Question Authority

No idea is true just because some authority says it is true. That includes you, and includes me.

Think for Yourself and Question Yourself

Don't believe something just because you want it to be true. Belief alone is not a criterion for truth.

Test ideas by evidence from observation and experiments

If a favorite idea fails a well designed test, it is not true. Get over it.

Follow the evidence wherever it leads

If something is proven wrong, then just accept that it is wrong.

And, if you have no evidence, just reserve judgement. You don't have to take a position for or against an idea.

You could be wrong

We are humans, and we may not have all the facts, so we are sometimes wrong. Accept that, and move to more observation and experimentation.

In this MSNBC article, research at Columbia University showed that, among other findings:

Two recent articles from Al-Jazeera show the misinformation that is widespread about Swine Flu.

The first was an article lamenting how some Arab countries has imported pork meat, including Egypt, Bahrain, and the UAE. The article implies a connection between consuming pork, and catching swine flu. An avalanche of equally uninformed comments from visitors as response to the article. Many of the comments are focusing on the Islamic ban on consuming pork.

The other article is about Egypt's parliament considering discontinuing pig farms, with the approval of the Coptic Orthodox Church. At issue are the jobs affected by that, including the garbage collectors and recyclers providing feed for the pigs.