VAXXED!

 https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/12/opinion/world-covid-vaccines.html

This NYT OP-ED piece is about mismanagement in the pandemic. It is written by AIDS activists. Dr. Fauci has been getting a lot of credit, which may to some degree be deserved, for "telling it like it is" but I was around (and processing bloods from HIV patients) when the AIDS activists held his feet to the fire to get wide access to, and speed distribution of, experimental drugs . They were right and they won the war, although so many young people died that they lost the battle. The point now (as then) is that Biden (Bush, 20 years ago) should commandeer the government's resources to "make sure that countries with limited resources get medication" at that time to treat HIV, now to treat Covid-19.  Biden can establish an emergency organization to build vaccine-manufacturing plants and their components at scale. According to the article, it is easier to manufacture mRNA vaccines than other vaccine technologies. We should not only be relying on private industry's version of scaling but use public-private partnerships to build more manufacturing capacity. Authors say this can be done for less than $4 billion, which is less than the US government spends each day on Covid-relief, and averages out to $2 per dose. Viruses do not recognize borders and everyone must be protected. Where are our Covid- activists?

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/11/opinion/death-penalty-mental-disability.html

Another OP-ED NYT piece about death sentences for intellectually disabled people. This is illegal in the US yet judges and juries, clinicians and defense attorneys often do not understand intellectual disability. The writers reference Corey Johnson, whose abilities were that of an average elementary school student at age 24. It is complex. IQ tests measure intelligence in comparison to age-based reference groups and they have, curiously, risen over time. So older versions of tests can have inflated results when compared with population norms from times past. So the numbers should be normalized for this, which would indicate that Mr. Johnson is intellectually disabled. But the Appeals Court rejected the appeal to present evidence in court and if a stay is not granted he may. although intellectually disabled, be killed. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/16/world/europe/uk-coronavirus-variant.html

Back to Covid-19. Article in NYT about viral mutations in Britain. Mutations have been detected in the spike protein, which the virus uses to access cells which it can use to generate more viruses. A mutation was also identified in South African and Brazilian patients, which is supposedly making the virus able to more easily access cells and be transmitted from person to person. In March Britain began a viral sequencing effort. Up until that time it was assumed that it had a relatively slower mutation rate, which would lead one to think that virus might be defeated based on this characteristic. Brits are producing nearly half of the world's inventory of coronavirus sequences, which at this time is 165,000 genomes. Our country has to do better at sequencing. It can give us a better idea how the virus is spreading and also how to design new and better vaccines to defeat it. One mutation changes the shape of the spike protein; another makes the protein bind more tightly to human cells. B.1.1.7 is considered to be a new variant and it is possibly more transmissible. But it is not necessarily more lethal at least so far as research has shown. It is also possible that the  variant weakens the potency of vaccines. It is speculation but scientists imagine that this will be predominant version of the virus in US by March.