COVID Mess: Consider The Vax?
With this recent spate of COVID-19 hospitalizations, increased rise of COVID cases in the RGV, I feel the need to write about it, but I’m a superstitious guy. I think it’s in my DNA. From my Spanish, Cajun, Irish roots, I’m guessing, lies the superstitious trio.
The German quarter side of me, well, I don’t think the Germans are a superstitious lot, so let’s just say then, that at least three quarters of my bloodline have some superstition elements to them.
Now, having said that, I’m going to risk jinxing myself just the same by saying, I have never had COVID, and I still don’t want it.
Four-and-a-half years after the China virus came to U.S. shores, I have still been blessed — no Coronavirus for me.
It’s Still Here
Weird, but there are some people who still take exception to when Americans call the coronavirus (COVID-19) the “China virus,” and I’m thinking, why are you standing up for China? Did they buy you off, too?
If it had been any other country than that run by the commies who lock you up if you criticize their precious totalitarian regime, AKA, death to free speech, the world would have pressured it to allow World Health Organization scientists into the Wuhan lab from where the SARS-CoV-2 virus originated, allegedly, to find out the genesis of its life; but not China. They’ve bought off too many politicians, news outlets, to allow that.
How and why did the world get exposed to the virus to begin with? We still don’t know, despite it causing the death of more than 1 million Americans. (Source: Johns Hopkins.)
It might not be as big of a deal if the virus had simply disappeared from sight, but it’s still around, and the latest strain is sending more people to area hospitals than in recent years.
I get this bit of info from anecdotal sources since places like Hidalgo County and Johns Hopkins have quit tracking COVID cases, but talking recently to Valley docs, pharmacists, it’s more of a problem now than in recent years, albeit, nothing like it was in its first two years of existence.
On the horizon, an even more potent strain is brewing than that currently causing problems.
From a cheery story published Aug. 30 in the LA Times, which carried this happy-dappy headline: “An even more contagious COVID strain is ‘just getting started’ amid California wave.” The first two paragraphs from that story concerned me, but there are still some people, who say, "hey, I’m not worried."
I kind of wish I was one of them. From the LA Times’ story: “The summer surge of the coronavirus subvariants nicknamed FLiRT has given way to ever more contagious strains, a key reason behind the current high levels of COVID in California and nationwide.
“And doctors and scientists are keeping an eye on yet another subvariant — XEC — that could surpass the latest hyper-infectious subvariant, KP.3.1.1, now thought to be the most common nationwide. XEC was first detected in Germany and has since seized the attention of doctors and scientists worldwide.”
Apparently, XEC is going to take months to get into high levels. How high? Who yet knows.
It’s the current strain, though, the one nicknamed FLiRT that is sending some people to the hospital, and they mainly present with upper-respiratory symptoms.
That’s the one for which I haven’t been vaccinated. Don’t have my vaccine card in front of me, but I was last vaccinated maybe late 2021/early 2022.
Probably stupid on my part, but enough stories have been published about the side effects some people have gotten after being vaccinated, they scared me off for the time being.
When I hear, however, that this latest strain, nick-named FLiRT, is sending more people to area hospitals and is causing more people to become infected, albeit with less severe symptoms than we saw 2020 through 2022, then I start to seriously consider getting another COVID vaccine.
Plus, I’m not getting any younger. I’ve had pneumonia before, which was the sickest I ever got, so now I’m seriously contemplating getting an updated COVID vaccine.
Have a routine appointment scheduled with my doc next week, and am going to talk to her about the pros and cons of getting an updated vax.
Walz and China
Meanwhile, China has become the world’s largest exporter to Mexico, and indeed, the world, of the fentanyl precursors (chemicals) required to produce the deadly drug.
How deadly is fentanyl? In 2023, the DEA seized more than 80 million fentanyl-laced fake pills and nearly 12,000 pounds of fentanyl powder. The 2023 seizures are equivalent to more than 390 million lethal doses of fentanyl. (Source: DEA.)
Meaning, enough to wipe out every American.
Yep, China, our beloved trading partner, and the country that gave us COVID-19, is now the world’s largest producer of the chemicals (precursors) required to manufacture fentanyl.
Almost forgot, that’s where Kamala Harris’s running mate, Tim Walz, went on his honeymoon and the country to which he (and his wife) has visited at least 30 times: China.
What’s up with that?
Not to pick on the Democrat ticket, and I know I started out this column discussing COVID-19, but if you can, get online and check out this NY Times’ story, which isn’t always known for its slam against Democrats, dated Aug. 11, 2024: “Tim Walz’s Long Relationship with China Defies Easy Stereotypes.”
In that NY Times story, Walz explains his long relationship with totalitarian Communist China:
“The one year that Mr. Walz spent teaching English in southern China was the start of what would become a decades-long relationship with the country. As high school teachers in Nebraska and Minnesota, Mr. Walz and his wife, Gwen, regularly led trips to China in the 1990s and early 2000s to introduce students to China’s history and culture. Mr. Walz has said that he has traveled to China some 30 times, including for his honeymoon.”
Now what do you bet that none of Walz’s trips included teaching his students anything about this factoid concerning one of the world’s biggest mass killers, Mao Zedong, China’s brutal dictator, pajamas and all, from the late 1940s to the early 1970s:
“Mao is considered one of the most influential figures of the 20th century. Mao's (Marxist) policies were responsible for a vast number of deaths, with estimates ranging from 40 to 80 million victims due to starvation, persecution, prison labor, and mass executions, and his government has been described as totalitarian.” (Sources: National Institutes of Health; the LA Times.)
No, I’m guessing Tim taught none of that bit of China’s history to his students because if he had, the commies never would have invited him back for approximately 30 more trips.
Oh, well, life is what it is.