Author: condor

Disconcerting Ebola Update, Overnight — Over 1,800 Contacts Being Monitored, And 109 Cases…

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And the Ministry of Public Health still says we are about two weeks away from beginning an ethical field trial of the ex-GSK / Sabin Institute vaccine candidate against the Sudan-species ebolavirus.

This is a moment of inflection. The vaccine needs to by given to as many of the 1,820 or so contacts as are willing to take it as soon as humanly possible. It is, at present, the best shot for averting a ever-wider scale outbreak, across Uganda, and South Sudan. Here’s the latest from Reuters:

…The number of confirmed Ebola cases in Uganda has risen to 109 and the outbreak has claimed 30 lives, Health Minister Jane Ruth Aceng said on Wednesday, adding that the government was setting up an additional treatment centre.

Fifteen of the confirmed cases were among health workers, of whom six had died, she told a news conference….

Aceng said her ministry would be evaluating the efficacy of three candidate Ebola Sudan vaccines in the coming weeks….

The Sabin Institute doses are going to be available in Uganda by this Friday — that should begin right away, in most pandemic experts’ opinions. Now you know — onward… into cool sunshine, after nearly an inch of rain. Smiling….

नमस्ते

Hinderaker Had Spoken Out, Claiming (Without Evidence) That Wolverine Watchmen Were “Entrapped” Or A “False Flag” — Not So.

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Three more would be domestic whyte terrorists were convicted this morning, in the plot to kidnap the sitting Governor of Michigan. [In January of 2021, one of the number flipped, pled guilty and was sent to prison for it — these now are the people he worked the plot with — convicted of felonies that carry decades long sentences — in hard prisons.]

I note this — primarily to remind the world that John Hinderaker repeatedly wrote — at the time of their arrests, and then after the indictments… that they were being entrapped and scapegoated. [What a crock — and a dangerous insurrectionist-supporting crock at that.]

This was all driven by his hateful MAGAt lunacy, and enmity for the policies of the Democratic Governor of sister state Michigan. He didn’t like her approach to COVID-19 abatement among other matters, and cheered the heavily armed stand-off in the Michigan state capitol house, in October of 2020.

What a sad, embittered old loser he is.

Amgen Spent Almost $3.2 Million On Lobbying Efforts, In Q3 2022 — Others, In Coming Days…

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We are switching things up a bit here (this quarter, with a focus on how these companies seek to control the taxes they must pay, globally — via “in-US lobbying” efforts), and leading with Amgen (though Amazon clearly outspent them — at well-over $5 million in the quarter). Odd, into the teeth of an election eve… very odd.

I’ll post both Pfizer, and Merck detailed listings later this week — but here’s where the vast bulk of Amgen shareholders’ lobby-spend money went:

. . .Issues related to drug pricing reform; H.R.5376, Build Back Better Act; S2891 Restoring America Invents Act; S1435 affordable prescriptions for patients act; H.R.2873 Affordable Prescriptions for Patients Through Promoting Competition Act; H.R. 2884 Affordable Prescriptions for Patients Through Improvements to Patent Litigation Act; Biosimilars reimbursement issues, no specific bill; Supply Chain Issues, no specific bill; Issues related to clinical trial diversity, HR 6584 DEPICT Act, HR5030 DIVERSE Trials Act, HR 7845 and S2706 NIH Clinical Trial Diversity Act of 2022; Issues related to biodefense issues, S3799 PREVENT Pandemics Act; Issues related to cardiovascular disease awareness, S. 3018/ HR 3173 Improving Seniors Timely Access to Care Act….

S.464 Safe Step Act and HR8295 Labor/HHS Appropriations bill; H.R. 5801 HELP Copays Act; Issues related to patient affordability issues, including copay cards, copay accumulators, National Benefit Payment Parameters; FDA Issues; User Fee Reauthorization HR7667 Food and Drug Amendments Act and S4348 FDA safety and landmark advancement act; H.R. 6963, the Accelerated Approval Integrity Act of 2022; H.R. 7047, a bill to amend Title III of the Public Health Service Act with respect to the determination by the Secretary regarding certain biosimilar application elements, and for other purposes; H.R. 6000, the Cures 2.0 Act; H.R. 7008, the Pre-Approval Information Exchange Act; S4293 Pharmacy benefit managers transparency act; HR 8588 Fair Care Act, 340B hospital reporting; HR 4390 Protect 340B Act….

Issues related to drug pricing reform and Medicare Part D redesign; H.R. 5376 Build Back Better Act; S. 1943 and H.R. 3517, Issues related to DXA scans, osteoporosis; Issues related to cardiovascular disease awareness; Issues related to ESRD bundle; Issues related to asthma and self-administered drug list; S. 2428 False Claims Amendments Act of 2021; Reimbursement for biologics/biosimilars; Issues related to discarded drugs. . . .

Issues related to corporate and international tax, including regarding Public Law 115-97, Tax Cuts and Jobs Act; Issues related to Puerto Rico; Final Rule, Guidance Related to the Foreign Tax Credit and Clarification of Foreign-Derived Intangible Income; Issues related to OECD negotiations on the taxation of global income; H.R. 5376, Bill to provide for reconciliation pursuant to title I of S. Con. Res. 14….

S.1435 Affordable Prescriptions for Patients Act; H.R.2873 Affordable Prescriptions for Patients Through Promoting Competition Act; H.R. 2884 Affordable Prescriptions for Patients Through Improvements to Patent Litigation Act; S 2891 Restore the America Invents Act; S. 2774- Pride in Patent Ownership Act; S. 4704- Patent Examination and Quality Improvement Act of 2022; S. 4417- Patent Trial and Appeal Board Reform Act of 2022; S. 4430- Interagency Patent Coordination and Improvement Act of 2022; FTC related issues, no specific bill; Issues related to the Patent Act; Issues related to march-in/Bayh Dole, WTO/TRIPS waiver, no specific bill; Mergers and acquisitions, no specific bill….

As I say, Amazon outspent them all [and… this quarter at least, Amazon handily outspent Apple (which only spent $1.9 million though its enterprise value is many multiples of these others, and its businesses are more complicated)]. Amazon almost spent more than the other three listed above, combined — and it pushed hard on US labor laws, and on global tax measures — as well as telecom regulations.

Now, sleep tight — and… don’t let the bed-bugs bite, you pumpkin-patch buckaroos! Smile…..

नमस्ते

[Twitter Tangent:] Mr. Musk Supposedly Just Let His ~$13 Billion Worth Of Lending Commits Know… That He Will Close “By THIS Friday”.

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No official SEC filings have appeared yet (late on Tuesday evening), but if this is accurate, it is plainly material.

The lenders had, collectively… previously suggested some skepticism about whether Musk would go forward, given that he is in the midst of Delaware litigation (with the Twitter board) that seeks to compel him to close on the original price and structure — in short, to enforce the contract he signed (which until a few weeks ago, he was obviously and loudly resisting). [But to be clear, the lending commitments expiring would not be a good reason to abandon the deal, if Musk caused the expiration — by foot-dragging.]

Here’s how Bloomberg puts the state of the play, at midday today:

…Elon Musk pledged Monday to close the acquisition of Twitter Inc. by Friday in a video conference call with bankers helping fund the deal, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

The banks, which are providing $13 billion of debt financing, have finished putting together the final credit agreement and are in the process of signing the documentation, one of the last steps before actually sending the cash to Musk, said the people, who asked not to be named discussing a private transaction….

The original acquisition agreements recited a deadline for the deal, under which the lenders’ commitments would (by contract) expire, if the deal hadn’t closed — by end of October 2022.

Thus, this may all go right down to the wire, then — maybe even into the late afternoon hours Eastern, on Halloween — the 31st. We shall see.

Mr. Biden Will See His Student Loans Relief Plan Begin, Shortly… Eighth Circuit Will Side With Him.

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The Eighth Circuit will shortly dump the appeal of these states. You may bank on it. They lost at the trial court level (without need for any trial, at all), due to their fundamental lack of standing — to even bring a claim like this. The states cannot complain about how the President implements a spending provision, from the Congress, duly enacted.

The government has laid it all bare, in its overnight brief. Here’s a bit of that excellent 37 page brief:

…In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Secretaries from two Administrations invoked that authority to suspend interest accrual and payments on federally held student loans. As those protections wind down, the Secretary reasonably determined it necessary to provide targeted debt relief to federal student-loan borrowers affected by the pandemic. Six States seek to enjoin the Secretary’s action, but the district court correctly held they lack standing.

Plaintiffs cannot establish the need for injunctive relief. Plaintiffs do not have Article III standing, and even if they did, they are unlikely to succeed on their claims given Congress’s authorization for the Secretary’s action and the Secretary’s explicit consideration of the relevant factors….

Now you know — smiling, in the soft cool rains, as I head out, to the steel and glass canyons, once more….

नमस्ते

About 1,000 Times Clearer, Than The Earlier, Stunning Hubble Images — Individual Solar-System-Sized Objects Resolved, Inside Dark Clouds…

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Shown here in “representational” colors, so that our human eyes can see through the dark, dusty gray and brownish clouds (all that would be visible to the naked eye, in wavelengths we might resolve), inside the so-called Pillars of Creation — these stunning details emerge from inside the clouds, as imaged by the new space ‘scope.

The images assign reds and yellows to areas of “newly heating” star formation, in the centers of the dark clouds. That way, we can resolve what the 15,000 pixels at-a-throw “heat maps” are showing us. But in these reddish regions, hydrogen fusion has not yet begun. [The current masthead, at lower right, covers a portion of the images at right.] Our understanding of how stars at the earliest stages form, inside these clouds… is making geometric leaps, daily now. And in unprecedented detail, too — the areas are hot, at thousands of degrees — but not yet… a fusion furnace-driven millions of degrees, in white light. What a time to be… alive!

Here’s the story, from Space.com’s excellent and comprehensive backgrounder:

…The protostars that [redacted] sees are not fully there yet, only beginning to glow in the infrared light as they warm above the coldness of the surrounding cloud, which is no warmer than minus 390 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 200 degrees Celsius), said Ward-Thompson.

“These young stars that we see in the image are not yet burning hydrogen,” Ward-Thompson said. “But gradually, as more and more material falls in, the middle becomes denser and denser, and then suddenly, it becomes so dense that the hydrogen burning switches on, and then suddenly their temperature jumps up to about 2 million degrees Celsius [35 million degrees F].”

In some of the larger bright red patches in the image, several stars are bursting out at once. Elsewhere, their heat has not yet broken through the surrounding dust….

Each of those red dots that you can only see when you zoom into the image covers an area larger than our solar system. The whole image, 15,000 pixels wide, captures an area some 8 to 9 light years-across.

“You can resolve things that are about the size of our solar system in the image,” Koekemoer said. “If there were individual planets like Jupiter, you wouldn’t be able to resolve those….”

The reds and oranges and golds… look very much like what is swirling about on my deck this morning (also under dark clouds)… smiling — ever smiling.

नमस्ते

Overnight, Nine New Cases In Kampala — The Capital City, And The Main International Airport… For Uganda…

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This is disturbing news. And on the other side of the coin, the Health Ministry had said over the weekend that the lockdowns in the two districts (Kasanda and Mubende) not including the capital city would last only three more weeks. I think that early lifting is unwise — but I do understand that it would be nearly impossible to lock down Kampala.

It would seem that the populace is already skeptical of government public health efforts… and so, I think the authorities are now balancing what (scientifically) should be done… against what can be done, without widespread political unrest. And closing all businesses in a city of 1.5 million or so people is not an option, politically. Here’s the latest, via Reuters:

…Uganda has reported nine more Ebola cases in the capital Kampala, bringing the total number of known infections to 14 in the last two days, the health minister said on Monday….

Seven of the nine who tested positive on Sunday are family members of the man who died and are from the Kampala neighbourhood of Masanafu, Health Minister Jane Ruth Aceng said in a tweet.

Another is a health worker who treated the man and his wife in a private clinic, she said.

“Fellow Ugandans, let’s be vigilant. Report yourself if you have had contact or know of a person who has had contact,” Aceng said in her tweet….

Now you know — and keep a good thought that cooler heads prevail inside Kampala, in the coming weeks — this is a very dangerous moment. People need to be smart enough to save their own lives there [and here, as we saw with COVID in 2020-’21].

नमस्ते

Hinderaker Thinks “Quality Public School Education” EXCLUDES… Respecting Differences.

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Y A W N.

Tonight John complains that MSM in Minnesota label his 501(c)(4)’s push to “train” local school board candidates as pushing “social issues”.

He wants it reframed as “quality” education.

But his 501(c)(4) teaches prospective board members to oppose recognizing gay people… as fully formed humans, or being accepting of the notion that not everyone wants “Christian” messages pushed in public schools. And that many people DO feel that racial minorities and indigenous peoples’ history is not covered fairly in many older (still in use) teaching materials.

But that is — in my view — exactly why the MSM is spot-on in labeling his efforts “pushing a social agenda.”

Me? I might’ve called it… advocating for a “regressive sociological curricula”.

That too would be… accurate.

Hinderaker is the lady that doth protest too greatly, here.

Out. Sit, John.