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A Tanzanian Doctor… Is The First MD To Succumb To Sudan Ebola, In This Ugandan Outbreak

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With a field test on any Sudan vaccine candidate not yet underway, and the total cases now eclipsing 50, there is strong cause for concern inside Uganda.

Overnight, we learn that the first doctor on the front lines has died of this version of the virus. He came from Tanzania, to give aid. Sad news, indeed, per Reuters (UK):

…A Tanzanian doctor working in Uganda who contracted Ebola has died, the first health worker killed by the disease in the latest outbreak in the country, Uganda’s health minister said on Saturday.

“I regret to announce that we have lost our first doctor, Dr. Mohammed Ali, a Tanzanian national, 37-year-old Male,” the health minister, Jane Ruth Aceng, tweeted.

She said Ali had tested positive for Ebola on Sept. 26 and died while receiving treatment at a hospital in Fort Portal, a town about 300 kilometres west of the capital Kampala….

Now you know… onward, with a sad smile — but a smile, just the same.

नमस्ते

“Hurricanes” Hinderaker Bloviates… Into A Vacuum…

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John tells us that the lesson of Katrina was that “only the feds” are responsible for hurricane relief efforts.

Agreed.

He neglects to mention that as a Senator, DeSantis voted several times against sending such aid to mostly Democratic New Orleans, and Houston.

He also refuses to accept the fact that these ‘canes are worse — due to climate change. But I think most people’s eyes put the lie to John’s, on that. So we will leave those lies of his for another day.

No, we will focus on a state government apparatus (DeSantis’s) that delayed evac orders in some counties by over 24 hours.

And as the fatality count eclipses 77 people, and rising by the hour — with the all in costs likely to approach a trillion dollars… I think Ron and John should answer for this sophistry:

Only now, that it is his re-election on the chopping block, does DeSantis beg for federal aid.

I say we hold a Tangerine style rally on the beach, toss him a few rolls of paper towels.. and call it good (as Trump did in Puerto Rico, re Maria).

Damn, son. Stupid and senile — no way to spend your waning days in the sunset of life.

Out.

So, Steve, John And Scott Were Offended…?! YAWN.

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This is utterly charming.

Each of the three this week professed outrage when the Vice President gaffed and said North when she meant South.

She corrected her mistake immediately; and apologized to her hosts, our allies.

I write solely to note that Tangerine did not apologize to South Korea for venerating, and bowing to the brutal megalomaniac who runs North Korea, on his own home soil. [Takes one… to know one, I gather.]

All the while, these wanna-be fascists… cheered Tangerine on. Deplorable.

So it is a lil’… rich — to hear them whining, only now. Again.

Out.

Let’s Compare — And Contrast: Mar-A-Lago Secrets Vs. Nearly Four Decades Of Asylum Seekers…

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I find myself in a… rather… reflective mood this evening, having re-watched Blake Lively and Harrison Ford in “The Age Of Adeline” (a great romance movie night, if you haven’t seen it, BTW). The premise is… she cannot age, for over a century — she remains forever 29.

That, in turn put me in mind of the Flores litigation, in Los Angeles. That class action suit, to protect the basic human dignity of people seeking asylum at our southern border. . . has been going on since the end of Ronald Reagan’s first term. Nearly four decades — across both Democratic and GOP administrations… (but it has most-often been stuffed full, with emergency relief petitions during GOP ones). That link is the latest settlement, ending by Mr. Biden’s agreement, the former Tangerine policies of denying blankets, soap and toothbrushes to asylum seekers… which was SOP under 45.

Four decades. Since 1985. The internet didn’t really exist. Cell-phones were the size of toaster ovens, and carried in a bag the size of today’s college bookbags. People mostly still listened to cassette tapes, and watched fuzzy, low resolutions movies — on a VCR, on Friday nights. Mom-and-Pop, local VCR rental shops, in most urban neighborhoods… were just reaching their zenith. Damn.

My point is that… something is terribly broken with our legal system, if we are still in the same repetitive injuries class action case, doing wrong under GOP administrations… against people who simply want a better life, and are being persecuted where they once lived.

And the contrast? This evening (quite rightly), the US AG/DoJ lawyers have filed a motion to expedite the appeal of the insane Judge Cannon orders, in the stolen Top Secret documents case, out of Mar-A-Lago — replete with a quick march of briefing due dates. Again, something is fundamentally broken, if we need an appeal to say that an ex-president should not have Top Secret documents lying around loose in his country club office, where foreign emissaries from “frenemy” governments often are entertained.

But I am glad it is happening on swift wings (by legal standards), just the same. Now if we might see the same urgency to finally resolve the asylees’ cases…. Damn.

नमस्ते

An Excellent Anon. Commenter’s Observation: Why Won’t This Work, Generally — With Non-Violent Offenders?

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Sure — there are some confusing variables, in this data set. Most of all, it is likely that in the teeth of a pandemic (mid 2020 to later 2021), anyone lucky enough to get an early release — so as to reduce risk of catching the virus… would do just about anything, to avoid… catching the virus (i.e., to avoid going back into the Petri dish that is the prison system, at the BoP). And, to be sure, in the main — those released were over 45 years old, and had served more than half of their sentences.

Even so, the idea of ankle monitors and home confinement has much merit — for non-violent offenses — and offenders. If nothin’ else, it would save billions of tax dollars now being dumped into the prisons. [H/T to Anon.!]

Yes, our Anon. commenter is definitely on to something: this data argues for a wholesale rethinking of the penchant for prison time, in America:

…To protect those most vulnerable to covid-19 during the pandemic, the Cares Act allowed the Justice Department to order the release of people in federal prisons and place them on home confinement. More than 11,000 people were eventually released. Of those, the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) reported that only 17 of them committed new crimes.

That’s not a typo. Seventeen. That’s a 0.15 percent recidivism rate in a country where it’s normal for 30 to 65 percent of people coming home from prison to reoffend within three years of release….

Except for people convicted of some offenses, such as sex offenses, no one was automatically barred from consideration because of their crime, sentence length or time served. The BOP instead assessed each eligible person individually, looking at their prison disciplinary record, any violent or gang-related conduct and their risk to the public….

Most of the 17 people who re-offended did so for low level, drug related incidents… that is telling in and of itself. But it is hard to get Congress to even consider measures to reform sentencing in the US — let alone pass anything meaningful.

Onward, smiling into a fine clear cool evening — with a fresh tray of brightly colored sushi — comin’ up!

नमस्ते

It Looks Like A Former GSK / Now Sabine Inst. Vaccine Candidate Will Be First One Tested — Against Current Sudan Variant In Uganda…

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The JNJ version I mentioned a few days ago (via its Janssen arm), is apparently in mothballs, and will need internal approvals to restart manufacture of sufficient stock / vials for any meaningful field trial in Mubende District in Uganda. So that means another candidate is likely to be first.

And, in fact, GSK stopped work on this “Sudan” version — one that uses a chimp adenovirus container, to deliver the glycoprotein of the Sudan variant, into the patient (and provoke an immune response) — after the 2016 successes of the Merck version (for Zaire Ebola).

So, GSK then donated the vaccine stocks and all tech / know-how to the Sabine Vaccine Institute, a global health charity, with HQ in DC. It may be the one most rapidly able to deploy, with over 10,000 doses already in vials, for field trials. All that is needed now is a final green light, from Ugandan authorities.

With now 36 cases, already (and 25 dead), here is the latest from Helen Branswell’s fine reporting this morning, for STAT+ — and a bit:

…“We are working with Uganda and WHO to determine the best way to use these doses in the current outbreak,” Richard Koup, acting director of the VCR, told STAT in an email. “The Sabin Vaccine Institute has bulk drug substance for thousands of vaccine doses that must be vialed; they are currently working through the timeline for those activities.”

There are six candidate vaccines, as experimental vaccines are called, that target Ebola Sudan. But only three have advanced to the stage where human clinical trials have begun.

In all three cases, the human trials have been the small initial trials that determine how much vaccine should be given in a dose. Those trials also generate enough safety and immunogenicity data to show that a candidate vaccine appears to be safe enough to proceed with testing, and provide enough evidence of potential benefit to pursue larger trials aimed at determining whether the vaccine actually works….

And — shifting into the inky nights ahead, we should start seeing ice encrusted Europa close-ups (raw images at least), into the coming weekend, out of Juno’s recent flyby. Smile… that’s some happier news, indeed.

नमस्ते

[Hinderaker Conspiracy Debunked:] In Recent Weeks, Both Merck And Pfizer Have Signed Chinese Based License Deals… For Oral COVID-19 Therapies.

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Well… so much for Hinderaker’s nutty coup theories of last week — it seems I was more likely right — Mr. Xi might have blown a positive test, while out of country — and so entered exactly 14 days of quarantine. Heh.

Yes, this could be read as Xi, himself… hedging bets [as there is speculation that Mr. Xi had tested positive, or has/had the virus and is recovering slowly — as it had been exactly 14 days since he was last seen in public, as of last night]. But nominally it is China, via SinoPharm, that is cutting the license deals — and hedging its COVID bets. We have been covering the global uptake of both Merck and Pfizer offerings, since early 2021.

There is data to suggest that Sinopharm’s vaccine is not terribly effective against later-arriving variants, whilst these two majors’ pills (as therapies)… do seem to be. As do the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.

So here is the latest. [But please understand — the remarks regarding Mr. Xi at the open above, are only rumor and speculation, since he’d not been seen in a few weeks, in public… until yesterday, that is.]

…A month ago, Zhejiang Huahai revealed a five-year deal to produce and sell Pfizer’s COVID-19 oral antiviral Paxlovid exclusively in China….

Now, not to be outdone, Merck has agreed to a similar arrangement in China with its COVID-19 antiviral pills, which were co-developed by Ridgeback. The New Jersey pharma giant has granted Sinopharm exclusive import and distribution rights to Lagevrio (molnupiravir)….

This might also fairly be read as the keeping of the promise to make the pills available in lower income per capita geographies, via local license deals.

But the timing, given Xi’s likely quarantine, if not outright viral contraction, is indeed. . . interesting. And I love that it makes Hinderaker (again!) the blowhard / buffoon at the world affairs cocktail parties.

Onward, smiling — looking forward to a close dip past Europa, by the lithe and graceful copper-clad Juno tomorrow.

नमस्ते

Hinderaker’s Source On Copper Is A USA Myopic… Dunce.

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Tonight (again stupidly), John would tell us we will soon (like as early as 2040) run out of copper, if we keep building wind turbines. (The graphic at right is a legacy — from his last set of lies about Russian / Chinese copper.)

Nonsense.

While it is a very carbon and resource intensive extraction and refining process, once freed, it is the most widely recycled metal in the world. And John’s source is flatly wrong: new copper turbine wire can be fashioned from reclaimed post consumer copper.

So — no one argues the first extraction is cheap or easy. The point is, once the turbines are built and running, we won’t consume as much coal for home electricity.

That is beyond serious dispute.

While Montana’s and Arizona’s remaining unmined copper ore is lower grade, and now dwindling… over a century of supply (high grade) sits in Chile alone. With Peru and Mexico, the supply approached two centuries’ worth.

Read on, from actual copper miners / suppliers:

The term “peak copper” was coined because some experts believe that copper reserves may be diminishing; as a result, it’s prudent to know the top copper reserves by country when considering investing in the mining industry.

The Copper Development Association pegs the current known worldwide copper ore resources at nearly 5.8 trillion pounds, of which only about 0.7 trillion pounds, or 12 percent, have been mined throughout history. Plus, nearly all of that mined copper is still in circulation, as the red metal’s recycling rate is higher than that of any other engineering metal.

With that in mind, what are the biggest copper reserves by country? According to the most recent data from the US Geological Survey, the countries with the largest copper coffers are Chile, Peru, Australia, Russia and Mexico. Read on to learn more about these copper kingpins.

Chile — Copper reserves: 200 million MT

Chile has the largest copper reserves of any country by far, with 200 million metric tons (MT) as of 2020. That is more than twice the reserves of neighboring Peru, the second largest copper producer. Chile’s reserves guarantee copper production for roughly the next 100 years at the current extraction rate.

Chile is also the world’s largest copper producer, having produced some 5.7 million MT of copper from mines in 2020. Copper plays a significant role in the Chilean economy, with an estimated 20 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product attributed to copper production. The steady rise in copper prices has made Chile’s economy one of the strongest and most robust in Latin America.…

So yeah. He’s an ill-informed chucklehead.

Y A W N.

The Sitting Texas Attorney General… Suggests Threats Of Violence Are Appropriate, When Served With Subpoena.

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I just want to note for the record… what a corrupt, kleptocrat state Texas has become.

It has a sitting AG, the lead lawyer for the state government, who has been under an indictment for three years now… and he bragged to the Dallas papers that he avoided being served, by dashing to his waiting pick-up, which his wife, a State Senator, had fired up and waiting.

There is simply no right at law — by deceptive, peace-breaching evasion — to run away from lawful service of process, and certainly not for an officer of the court (a lawyer — like Paxson, for now, at least).

He went so far as to bluster that the process server was “lucky” that Paxson didn’t “escalate” matters (a reference to both his own guns, and the fact that it occured on Pason’s residential property) — presumably suggesting he had a right to stand his ground and fire, if the server got “too close” to him.

He did not have any such right. And to lie about the law here, puts innocent lives at substantial risk — as other Texans may think they have a right to shoot process servers, knocking on their door. In daylight.

D A M N.

This is a state run by… soon to be felons.

There is no serious doubt about that.

Out.

In The “It Turns Out…” Department: Shutterstock Not Liable Where It Promptly Removes Image, After Indian Interloper’s Repeated Wrongful Uploads.

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We first mentioned this case on a snowy, quiet Sunday night… in January 2022.

What we hadn’t known then, because Shutterstock hadn’t yet filed an answer, was that the actual infringer was a someone (or “someones” — an illicit company) located behind firewalls in India, who had repeatedly removed the photographer’s copyright marks — and repeatedly reposted the infringing work (they got paid a few times on downloads of the infringing image, but now that has ended, too).

Each time Shutterstock was made aware that the Indian contributor had reposted it, Shutterstock removed it — doing its part under the DMCA takedown provisions.

So, sadly… Steinmetz is likely left without a meaningful remedy here because it will be nearly impossible to sort out, and find the repeat infringer, in India, behind the proxy servers / anonymizers. But Shutterstock, for its part, will not pay the infringer for downloads. So the infringer is unlikely to continue in a course of conduct that nets no monetary windfall.

Here is the 17 page opinion. It is well-reasoned.

…Summary judgment for Shutterstock under DMCA Sec. 512(c)….

Now you know. Onward to a lovely fall evening here… special dinner up!

नमस्ते