Tag: disaster

Parents warn of fierce reaction if COVID shots imposed on kids

Art Moore – November 4, 2021

With parents warning vaccine mandates for children will prompt a backlash exponentially bigger than the one over masks and racist Criticial Race Theory curricula, Republicans in Congress have introduced a bill to block the federal government from imposing such policies.

The legislation would prevent the federal government from withholding education funds on the basis of vaccination requirements, the Daily Caller reported.

“No Federal education funds may be withheld from an otherwise eligible recipient because such recipient does not require students or employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19,” the bill says.

The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Lance Gooden, R-Texas, told the Daily Caller the Biden administration’s “track record suggests it is only a matter of time before they mandate public schools require COVID vaccination.”

“I believe the decision to vaccinate a child should be made by the parents, not the government, and my legislation would ensure the government does not take that choice away,” Gooden said.

https://www.wnd.com

River Euphrates in Syria drying up, local populace affected

Sakina Fatima – September 5, 2021

Damascus: The drying up of Euphrates, Syria’s longest river is raising concerns as the demise of the water body could lead to a humanitarian disaster in the country. Millions of people in Syria are losing access to water, food and electricity.

The aid groups and engineers have expressed their concern at the possibility of a humanitarian disaster in northeastern Syria.

Rising temperatures, lower rainfall and drought across the region are depriving people of drinking water and agricultural water. This also disrupts electricity as dams run out, which in turn affects the operation of basic infrastructure, including health facilities. The rise in temperatures caused by climate change increase the risks and severity of droughts.

More than five million people in Syria directly depend on the river.

Khaled al-Khamees , a 50-year-old farmer from Rumayleh in Alepp Province, was financially affected when a creeping drought hit his land this year.

“We’re thinking of leaving because there’s no water left to drink or irrigate the trees,” Khamees told media.

Humanitarian groups in Syria also indicated that two out of three drinking water stations along the river has been pumping less water or has stopped working.

Even Iraq faces the same situation; the loss of access to water from the river and drought threatens at least seven million people.

https://www.siasat.com

Lancet study: Vaccinated as likely as unvaccinated to spread delta variant

Art Moore – October 28, 2021

A yearlong, peer-reviewed study published in the prestigious British science journal The Lancet found people vaccinated against COVID-19 are as likely to spread the delta variant to contacts in their household as those who have not been vaccinated.Scientists, including researchers at the Imperial College of London, studied 621 people in the United Kingdom who had mild COVID-19 and found that the peak viral load of the vaccinated was similar to the unvaccinated.

The analysis, published Thursday in The Lancet Infectious Diseases medical journal, covered the period of Sept. 13, 2020, to Sept. 15, 2021.

It found that vaccinated people transmitted a delta variant infection to others at a rate of 25% . For the unvaccinated, the rate was 23%.

The delta variant is by far the most common source of COVID-19 disease around the world. In the United States, it comprises 99% of novel coronavirus cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A co-leader of the new study, Ajit Lalvani, a professor of infectious diseases at Imperial College London, said the findings “show that vaccination alone is not enough to prevent people from being infected with the delta variant and spreading it in household settings.”

https://www.wnd.com

California experiences driest water year in 100 years of record keeping

Ricky Scaparo – October 19, 2021

In a year of both extreme heat and extreme drought, California has reported its driest water year in terms of precipitation in a century, and experts fear the coming 12 months could be even worse.

According to KTAL5 News, The Western Regional Climate Center added average precipitation that had been reported at each of its stations and calculated that a total of 11.87 inches of rain and snow fell in California in the 2021 water year.

That’s half of what experts deem average during a water year in California: about 23.58 inches. The climate center tallies rainfall by averaging all of the measured precipitation in the state at the end of a water year, which runs Oct. 1 through Sept. 30.

LA Times reported that the climate center tallies rainfall by averaging all of the measured precipitation in the state at the end of a water year, which runs Oct. 1 through Sept. 30.

Based on the diminished levels of both precipitation and runoff, the last water year was the second driest on record, according to the California Department of Water Resources. The last time the state reported so little rain and snowfall was in 1924.

Climatologists have compared the drought conditions that spanned 2020 and 2021 to the 1976-77 drought, which included California’s lowest level of statewide runoff in a single water year. The average rainfall in 1976-77 was 28.7 inches; in 2020-21, it was 28.2 inches.

https://endtimeheadlines.org

First case of new Delta mutation AY4.2 diagnosed in Israel

TOI staff and AFP – October 19, 2021

A subvariant of the Delta coronavirus mutation raising alarm bells in the United Kingdom has been found in a child who entered Israel from Moldova, health officials said Tuesday.

The AY4.2 is being closely monitored by officials in the UK, and others have called for urgent research into the subvariant, though health officials say there is no evidence yet that it is driving an uptick in coronavirus cases in some places.

According to reports in Hebrew media, the subvariant was found for the first time in Israel in an 11-year-old boy who entered the country from Moldova. He was flagged at the airport and sent into isolation, Channel 12 news reported.

Health Ministry officials plan to hold a meeting on the worrying new strain, Walla news reported, amid fears that a new strain of the virus in Israel could reverse fading infection numbers after months of being pummeled by the fast-spreading Delta variant.

There were 1,486 new infections on Monday, the Health Ministry said, with another 701 Tuesday as of late afternoon. There were 354 people hospitalized in serious condition and the death toll reached 8,021, a day after crossing 8,000 deaths.

https://www.timesofisrael.com

New virus poses ‘an existential threat to life as we know it on this planet’

Art Moore – October 10, 2021

The Biden administration’s apparent unwillingness to conduct a serious official investigation of the origin of SARS-CoV-2 that holds China accountable for its actions and lack of cooperation could result in a pandemic much more lethal that the current one, warns a leading researcher.

Dr. Steven Quay, whose research became part of a State Department probe of the origin of COVID-19 under President Trump, told Fox News’ Martha MacCallum on Friday that “all of the evidence points toward the lab theory.”

“There’s no evidence that supports a natural origin at this point,” he said. “So I think we’re done, at this point, with the investigation.”

But it’s more vital than ever to stop the dangerous “gain-of-function” research – engineering viruses to make them more transmissible and lethal – going on at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, he said.

Raw data from patient specimens posted in the National Institutes of Health’s gene bank showed researchers at the Wuhan lab in December 2019 were manipulating genes from the highly lethal Nipah virus, Quay said.

The Nipah virus, which causes severe inflammation of the brain or encephalitis, has a death rate of about 80%, Quay warned.

“If you didn’t like the pandemic that was just 1% lethal, this thing they were working on in December 2019 has an 80% lethality,” he told MacCallum. “It needs to be stopped.”

Quay told “Fox Business Tonight” on Thursday that virus research at the Wuhan lab poses “an existential threat to life as we know it on this planet.”

https://www.wnd.com

Strong earthquake strikes Pakistan shaking multiple cities and leaving over 20 dead

Ricky Scaparo – October 6, 2021

A strong earthquake has reportedly struck Pakistan shaking the cities of Harnai and Shahrag around 3 am local time, causing buildings and homes to collapse on residents.

According to Express-News, Sohail Anwar Hashmi, Deputy Commissioner for Harnai city, told Pakistani newspaper Quetta Voice via telephone: “We have received 20 dead bodies” However, the latest estimates by officials suggest 20 people have died in the earthquake, including children.

According to NDTV, Naseer Nasar, the head of Balochistan’s Provincial Disaster Management Authority, told AFP that between 15 and 20 people had died, but warned that the toll may increase.

The worst-affected area was the remote mountainous city of Harnai, in Balochistan, where a lack of paved roads, electricity, and mobile phone coverage has hampered the rescue effort. The quake caused electricity to fail in the region, with health staff working without lights in a poorly equipped government hospital.

“We were operating without electricity with the help of torches and mobile flashlights,” Zahoor Tarin, a senior official at the government-run Harnai hospital told AFP. “Most of the injured came with fractured limbs. Dozens of people were sent back after first aid while some 40 people who were critically injured have been sent to Quetta in ambulances,” he added.

https://endtimeheadlines.org

Mice plague spreading across new Australian states as summer sparks surge in pest numbers

Anton Nilsson – September 23, 2021

Despite a lull over the winter, Australia’s mouse plague never ended – and now it’s threatening new areas of the country.

Large numbers of mice continue to plague rural Australian communities as farmers fear yet another crop will be ruined.

After dwindling in the winter cold, mouse populations have begun growing rapidly again, CSIRO mouse expert Steve Henry said.

“We’re quite concerned, given them the numbers that have been reported at the moment,” Mr Henry said.

NSW Farmers vice president Xavier Martin, who operates a farm in Gunnedah, said the new wave of mice would be a hard blow for farmers still reeling from the plague earlier in the year.

“A lot of farmers are on edge because they’re still trying to deal with contaminated hay and crops,” he said.

“Some contaminated produce had to be buried or burnt. So they’re very wary about this upcoming harvest and hay making.”

The mice are multiplying fast across a wide area that stretches from northern NSW to southern Queensland.

The worst-hit areas in recent weeks appear to be around Walgett and Moree in NSW, and in the Darling Downs in Queensland.

But there is also an area in Western Australia where mice are breeding fast, according to Mr Henry.

https://www.news.com.au

Intensifying volcanic activity’ forces evacuation of THREE MORE La Palma towns

RT – September 23, 2021

Emergency services on the Spanish Canary Island of La Palma have informed residents of three more towns they must flee due to the ongoing volcanic eruption, which has already destroyed scores of homes.

In a notice released by PEVOLCA, the Canary Islands Volcanic Emergency Plan, on Friday, authorities ordered a mandatory evacuation, asking residents of Tajuya, Tacande de Abajo, and Tacande de Arriba to head to the El Paso soccer field amid concerns about “intensifying volcanic activity.”

Residents in the three towns had previously been told to remain indoors for their own safety, but officials now believe they should leave the areas due to the threat posed by a “high presence of ash” emanating from the volcano, which started erupting five days ago after decades of inactivity.

Since volcanic ash began spewing and lava flowing, over 400 buildings have been destroyed on the western part of La Palma. According to the Spanish Civil Defense force, around 240 hectares of lava have flooded out of the volcano so far, mostly into arable lands.

The new evacuations come after experts at the Canary Islands National Geographic Institute warned that the lava flow from the volcano in Cumbre Vieja national park could continue for weeks, or even months.

https://www.rt.com

DEVELOPING: Salmonella outbreak from unidentified food source has sickened people across 25 states

Ricky Scaparo – September 23, 2021

At least 127 people have been infected — and 18 hospitalized — amid an outbreak of salmonella across dozens of states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Infections linked to the outbreak had been detected in 25 states as of Sept. 15, with Texas alone reporting 45 of the cases.

According to News Nation, Salmonella Oranienburg, the strain observed in this outbreak, began sickening people on Aug. 3, according to the CDC. By Sept. 2, a total of 20 infections had been linked to the outbreak, which grew “rapidly” in the following weeks, sickening at least 127. Of the 48 whose medical information was made available, 18 had been hospitalized.

The CDC estimates that the actual number of sick people is “likely much higher,” as many infected individuals often recover without seeking treatment or getting tested.

It can also take up to four weeks to determine if a sick person is indeed part of the outbreak, the agency says. The CDC has yet to identify a source linked to the outbreak, though public health officials are currently interviewing to try to determine a possible food item.

“Several groups of people (‘subclusters’) at restaurants in multiple states have been identified,” the CDC wrote of the outbreak. “These subclusters are groups of people who do not know one another who ate at the same restaurant and got sick. Investigating these subclusters can sometimes help identify a food item eaten by all of the sick people that could be the source of the outbreak.”

https://endtimeheadlines.org