The BA.2.86 spike protein has the potential to bypass the immune system because of its unusually high number of mutations — A new Covid-19 variant, BA.2.86, dubbed Pirola, has 34 mutations to its spike protein relative to BA.2 (its ancestor), as well as 36 mutations relative to XBB.1.5 (the dominant strain earlier this year), according to Dr. Jesse Bloom, of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle.

Didn’t hear any mention of the bumbling, fumbling, senile Joe Biden for a while — The United States Senate on Thursday ratified the bipartisan Fiscal Responsibility Bill 2023. The bill had previously gained a strong majority in the US House of Congress. The agreement, which was negotiated by President Biden and Speaker McCarthy, suspends the debt ceiling until January 1, 2025, and aims to reduce…

Progressive Democrats should work hard to regain the majority in Congress if they don’t like the compromise debt-ceiling deal — In a letter sent to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Friday, May 26, Janet Yellen, the US Treasury Secretary, indicated that “Treasury will have insufficient resources to satisfy the government’s obligations if Congress has not raised or suspended the debt limit by June 5.” With only a few days left…

If new variants become dominant, this booster is the best protection. — On April 18, the FDA announced that individuals aged 65 and over, as well as those who are immunocompromised, are eligible to receive an additional dose of the bivalent formulations of the Moderna Covid-19 Vaccine and the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 Vaccine. Canada and the United Kingdom had already approved the additional…

The XBB.1.5 subvariant now accounts for 41 percent of new infections across the country — First reports of a new respiratory illness, which became a pandemic, began to leak from Wuhan, China towards the end of December 2019. One death in the county due to the SARS-COV-2 VIRUS was confirmed on January 11, 2020. The first documented case of Covid in the U.S. was in…

A 50–50 Senate has limitations and with the House under Republican control, it is important that Sen. Warnock win the runoff election — Democrats flipped the Pennsylvania senate seat in the November 2022 midterms, keeping the party in control of the Senate. There is one senate seat yet to be decided. Since neither candidate, Rev. Raphael Warnock (D), nor Herschel Walker (R) received 50% of the total votes, a runoff election has been…

If Covid infections recur this winter, a vaccine is the best protection — The FDA approved the bivalent formulations of the Moderna Covid-19 Vaccine and the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 Vaccine as a single booster dose on August 31, 2022. The updated "bivalent" boosters contain two messenger RNA (mRNA) components of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the original strain and the one found in the omicron subvariants…

The first jabs could become widely available as of today, June 21 — On Saturday, June 18, 2022, CDC Director Rochelle P. Walensky endorsed the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommendation that all children six months through five years of age receive a COVID-19 vaccine. This decision expands eligibility for vaccination to 19.6 million additional children. …

All he did was carry out his constitutional duty as the president of the Senate to count the Electoral College votes — The title of this story is a direct quote from presidential historian Michael Beschloss, who, on the MSNBC program, Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, said the following while elaborating on Vice President Mike Pence’s silence as Donald Trump pressured him to overturn the election.