Steven Ganot – August 12, 2021

The coronavirus pandemic has caused a global mental health crisis among children and adolescents, according to a University of Calgary study published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics this week.

The study is a meta-analysis pooling the results of 29 separate studies from around the world that looked at the prevalence of clinically elevated anxiety and depression symptoms among 80,879 youth during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Among the study’s findings: Depression and anxiety symptoms have doubled in children and adolescents. About 25.2% of the children and youth measured in the studies had clinically elevated depression symptoms, and 20.5% had clinically elevated anxiety symptoms.

Depression and anxiety symptoms were more prevalent in studies collected later in the pandemic and in girls. Depression symptoms were higher in older children.

One of the 29 studies examined in the meta-analysis measured the prevalence and predictors of depression and anxiety among 384 high school seniors (12th graders) who were home quarantined and studied online in Jordan. The Jordanian study found that levels of depression and anxiety were high for both sexes but particularly for female students. The prevalence of anxiety among the girls was 46.9% and among the boys, 27.6%.

Unsurprisingly, the Jordanian study showed that having difficulties with online education was a predictor for both depression and anxiety during the pandemic.

https://www.jpost.com

Bob Unruh – August 5, 2021

Man-in-the-street interview activist Mark Dice has released a video showing many, many Americans willingly signing a petition to have those who have not taken the experimental COVID vaccines arrested and jailed.

Several exclaimed “Yes” when Dice droned on about how “we don’t need those people walking among us,” and “we’ll have to decide for them what’s best.”

There were several who accused Dice of being a socialist for advocating such extreme government intervention in individual lives, and one astute passer-by took Dice out with “This is a joke.”

This person noted that those who signed? “They’re all idiots.”

The Gateway Pundit was among the sites posting the video online.

There, Dice was described as a “heavily censored YouTube creator.”

“This time, even he seemed shocked at the responses he received,” the report commented. “In his most recent social experiment, he hit the streets of California to find out how many people would support forcing their fellow Americans to get the jab under the threat of jail time.”

His petition was titled “Arrest Non-Vaxers,” and many simply signed without even reading.

The comments pointed out the video reveals Dice making “more and more ridiculous statements in an attempt to see where the vaxtivists would draw the line on trampling other people’s freedoms.”

He tells one signer, “We can put them into jail to make them think about why it is they are refusing.” The woman happily signs, with “Well that’s what I think should happen.”

https://www.wnd.com

Newsmax – July 19, 2021

A case of monkeypox has been confirmed in an American who had recently traveled to Nigeria, U.S. health officials reported. Officials believe the threat of the virus spreading to others is low.

Monkeypox is a rare but potentially serious viral illness that’s in the same family of viruses as smallpox, but causes a milder infection, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

It typically begins with flu-like illness and swelling of the lymph nodes, then progresses to a widespread rash on the face and body. Most infections last 2-4 weeks.

The infected person is now hospitalized in Dallas, the CDC said.

Officials are working to contact airline passengers and others who may have come into contact with the patient during two flights: Lagos, Nigeria, to Atlanta on July 8, with arrival on July 9; and Atlanta to Dallas on July 9, the CDC said.

The passengers were required to wear masks on their flights and in the U.S. airports due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so it’s believed that the risk of spread of monkeypox is believed to be low, the CDC said in a news release.

The strain of monkeypox in this case is one that’s most commonly seen in parts of West Africa, and is fatal in about 1 in 100 people. But the risk can be higher in people with weakened immune systems.

https://www.newsmax.com

Alexandra Larkin – July 23, 2021

Outbreaks of a drug-resistant “superbug” fungus spread among patients in hospitals and long-term care facilities in Texas and Washington, D.C., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday. The fungus, Candida auris, preys on people with weakened immune systems. The CDC said evidence suggests these cases involved person-to-person transmission, which would be a first for the U.S.

The clusters in the two cities appear to be unrelated to each other, the report said. The 30-day mortality in both outbreaks combined was 30%, although other health conditions may also have played a role.

Candida auris, which was first seen in the U.S. in 2013, is “resistant to multiple anti-fungal drugs that we have, and it’s also resistant to all the things that we use to eradicate bacteria and fungal strains in the hospital,” Dr. Neeta Ogden, an internal medicine specialist, told CBS News in 2019 after health officials issued a warning about the emerging threat.

Of 101 cases of the fungus identified in Washington, D.C., from January to April 2021, three were isolated as being resistant to all three major classes of anti-fungal medications. Those cases occurred at a long-term care facility for severely ill patients.

There were 22 cases identified in Texas during the same period, with two being resistant to all three anti-fungal medications, and five resistant to two of the medications. Those seven cases were found in patients at two acute care hospitals, one long-term and one short-term; two of the patients were treated at both hospitals. The CDC did not identify the facilities, but CBS DFW reports they were both in the Dallas area.

“This is really the first time we’ve started seeing clustering of resistance” in which patients seemed to be getting the infections from other patients, said the CDC’s Dr. Meghan Lyman, an author of the report.

https://endtimeheadlines.org

Christian Spencer – July 8, 2021

Mosquito bites are annoying at best, and, at worst, can lead to illnesses like malaria, Zika virus and West Nile virus. New reports show at least six states are detecting mosquitoes that carry West Nile virus — and humans have contracted the disease in four of these places.

Arizona, Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa, Massachusetts and New York have found mosquitoes that carry the potentially paralyzing illness, according to a report from Best Life.

West Nile virus has also been detected in Colorado for the first time this season, according to health officials and reporting by Denver ABC 7.

The Colorado health department says mosquitoes are more prevalent this year thanks to hotter weather and more rain.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Arizona, Arkansas, Illinois and Iowa have confirmed cases in humans.

In New York, officials informed residents on July 2 that two groups of mosquitoes tested positive for West Nile virus in Rockland County. No humans have been reported as contracting the disease in New York.

The infected mosquitoes in Rockland County were found and trapped in Orangetown and Clarkstown on the week of June 21.

“This is typically the time of the year we expect to see a rise in West Nile virus activity, and these positive mosquito pools confirm that,”County Health Commissioner Patricia Schnabel Ruppert said in the statement.

https://thehill.com

DW – July 7, 2021

While humans and other animals continue to grapple with COVID-19, a new epidemic seems to have hit multiple bird species in North America.

Across the United States, people have been finding dead birds. The birds appear to have been hit by a wave of mysterious illnesses since April.

Ornithologists (bird experts) say the dead or ailing aviators tend to have swollen eyes as well as neurological issues that seem to be causing the birds to lose balance.

“It’s not unusual to see birds with eye problems,” says Jim Monsma, director and founder of the animal rescue center City Wildlife in Washington, D.C.

Monsma has worked in animal protection and rehabilitation within urban areas for 25 years, especially in the D.C. area.

But it took Monsma and his colleagues a while to realize that what they were seeing was “not usual.”

“We didn’t know at first we were dealing with an epidemic,” Monsma says.

Looking for the cause

They now think that multiple bird species have been contracting an odd illness for about two months. And the illness has spread at least 965 kilometers (600 miles) from the capital, across the Midwest regions of the United States and into the state of Indiana.

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) published a report on the mysterious bird deaths in early June. Details remain hazy, but experts are trying to trace the epidemic back to its origins.

“The first one we saw was in April. In the beginning of June, that’s when we started sending birds to an animal center, where they were alarmed to hear our numbers at the time. Now, we’re up to just under 200 that are infected,” Monsma says.

Still no diagnosis

Animal centers have been examining the birds for a possible cause of death or illness, but tests have been inconclusive so far.

https://www.dw.com

Strange Sounds – July 1, 2021

Experts have warned that the current Earth changes and land-use changes could be creating a conducive environment for flesh-eating leishmania parasites to infect more people in the US.

Numerous studies by climate researchers across the world have already highlighted the increasing risk of insect and pest-borne tropical diseases spreading to temperate and colder parts of the world like Europe and parts of the US with rising global temperatures.

Surge of flesh-eating parasites

As the climate crisis continues, scientists say tropical parasites, such as the one that causes leishmaniasis, may gain more favourable habitats, expanding access to immunologically naive hosts, and may even develop longer and more intense transmission seasons.

The leishmania parasites are transmitted to humans through the bite of sand flies, which themselves are infected by mammals like rodents when the insects feed on their blood.

The parasitic disease leishmaniasis, characterised by crater-like ulcers with a thick, yellowish pus coat, was well-known to be a tropical infection, affecting people in countries such as Brazil, Mexico and India, but now experts say it is endemic to US states like Texas and Oklahoma, with the potential to extend to Canada in the future.

While the predominantly infectious species of the parasite in the US, Leishmania mexicana, causes milder symptoms that can heal on its own, scientists say there are also strains that can be life threatening.

https://strangesounds.org

Strange Sounds – June 23, 2021

First came the drought. Then, the floods. Now, the mice. Farmers in Australia are burning their own crops. They’re desperate to escape an epic plague infesting their hay. The mice are invading homes. They’re destroying crops. They even force the evacuation of prisons. They’re chewing through appliances, sofas, cars — and livelihoods.

Colin Tink, 63, has been farming all his life and has never experienced a mouse plague like the one ravaging Australia’s eastern grain belt. Nor a drought like the one that preceded it, which turned fertile crop areas into dust bowls.

When the rains finally came last year, Tink thought his fortunes were changing.

The rain led to bumper crops through the spring and summer months (September to March in the Southern Hemisphere). Silos are overflowing with grain. And barns are piled high with hay. Tink grew enough hay to feed his cattle for two years.

Then the mice arrived. Millions of them. There are so many that even a prison had to be evacuated!

The vermin burrow deep into his hay. What they don’t eat is ruined anyway as their urine trickles down through the bales. The smell is acrid. It sticks in your nose and lingers on your clothes.

“It breaks your heart a bit,” Tink said. “We’re back to square one.”

https://strangesounds.org

RT – June 16, 2021

As thousands suffer from black, white and yellow fungus in India, doctors are now worried that another infection, dubbed “green,” has been added to the list of post-Covid complications for patients.

A 34-year-old man in Madhya Pradesh, a large state in central India, is believed to possibly be the first patient diagnosed with the new type of fungus, local media reports. Scientifically known as Aspergillosis infection and said to be relatively uncommon, it affects the lungs.

The man had been treated for Covid-19 for two months – one of which he spent in an intensive care unit – before he was released from a hospital. However, back at home he started experiencing nose bleeds, fever and weight loss. Doctors first thought he had contracted black fungus, or mucormycosis, but tests apparently showed the green type of infection, Indian news media company NDTV reported citing his doctor, Ravi Dosi. The patient was airlifted to Mumbai for further treatment, as 90% of his lungs have been affected, according to The Times of India daily.

“This possibly is the first green fungus case in the country,” a local health department official, Apoorva Tiwari said, as quoted by India’s ANI News agency.

Dosi, who is the head of Chest Diseases Department at Sri Aurobindo Institute of Medical Sciences (SAIMS) in Indore, warned that more research is needed on the new fungus. He also explained that “it is not that the fungal infection gives color shades in the body.” The name comes from shades that appear during laboratory tests with various types of fungal infection, he said.

Fungus cases have emerged in India as the densely populated Asian country has been battling the coronavirus pandemic. At least three ‘color’ types have been detected in Covid patients, with the deadly black one hitting the worst, and several states having declared it to be an epidemic.

https://www.rt.com

Maggie Fox – June 10, 2021

(CNN)A common cold virus called respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is spreading across the South, causing an unusual wave of late spring disease, the US Centers for Disease Control and prevention said Thursday.

The CDC issued a Health Advisory Network warning to doctors and other health care providers to be on alert for the virus, which can cause pneumonia, especially in very small children and babies.

“Due to this increased activity, CDC encourages broader testing for RSV among patients presenting with acute respiratory illness who test negative for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19,” the CDC said in the alert.

“RSV can be associated with severe disease in young children and older adults. This health advisory also serves as a reminder to healthcare personnel, childcare providers, and staff of long-term care facilities to avoid reporting to work while acutely ill — even if they test negative for SARS-CoV-2.”

RSV is spread like most other respiratory diseases — by small droplets and on contaminated surfaces.

“RSV is the most common cause of bronchiolitis and pneumonia in children under one year of age in the United States. Infants, young children, and older adults with chronic medical conditions are at risk of severe disease from RSV infection,” the CDC said.

https://www.cnn.com