Stop the Idiocracy: CDC

Showing posts with label CDC. Show all posts

Saturday, September 26, 2026

A cathedral of science in ruins

$A lavishly detailed editorial illustration depicts a devastated public-health laboratory populated by distressed female scientists. At centre, a pale brunette in provocative ivory laboratory-inspired couture walks through a disordered research complex carrying battered files, her expression conveying exhaustion and grief. Colleagues slump over microscopes, search abandoned records or stand amid darkened computer stations. Papers litter the reflective floor, equipment appears neglected, and shadowy figures press against frosted glass. Overhead, a fractured globe entangled within molecular structures dominates the atrium, symbolising a once-global scientific institution whose infrastructure, expertise and capacity are visibly deteriorating.$

image generated via ChatGPT

A ‘zombified’ CDC: sociopath RFK Jr is thoroughly hollowing out the former ‘undisputed global leader in public health’. {NYT 26 September}

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/26/health/cdc-staff-cuts-rfk-jr.html?unlocked_article_code=1.EFE.v9iu.h-O5UKgvJL_q&smid=url-share

This New York Times article constitutes essential reading. Even the lavatories within CDC headquarters, it is reported, stand neglected.

Every Trump voter throughout the country beareth some measure of indirect responsibility — direct responsibility, indeed, should we speak of the most hardened anti-vaxxers — for the damage presently being wrought upon American public health. I remain in perpetual disbelief that this is what the American electorate desired: for all of us to be rendered sicker and poorer. Just continually astonished at the sheer wilful stupidity, the anti-intellectualism, and the quasi-medieval mindset that altogether too many #Muricans have adopted towards medical science. Rather than emerging from the pandemic as a society more attuned to matters of hygiene — one that would value handwashing and respect for personal space — we apparently learnt the wrong lessons entirely. I shudder to contemplate how many further lives might have been lost, had the CDC found itself in its present state of dereliction at that hour. Once again, this bloody régime is deliberately making the nation sicker and poorer, whilst more than half the populace either cheereth it onward or averteth its gaze entirely.

Seriously, doth this not alarm people — that American public-health capacity should be degraded unto depths once scarcely imaginable for the United States? It shall prove exceedingly difficult, perchance outright impossible, ever to rebuild that which hath been so needlessly destroyed. What, in the name of all that is sacred, aileth ‘y’all’? Is this genuinely the life ‘y’all’ wish to lead, and constantly demand that the rest of us endure alongside you? Well, I demand sanity! I demand basic humanity and dignity, and I demand that fundamental healthcare standards be upheld within a nation — in actuality, an empire — which we are perpetually assured is the freest and most powerful upon this earth, even as that very assertion hath grown patently untenable.

Donald Trump hath not rendered America ‘great again’; rather, he hath transformed it into a veritable cesspit, aided and abetted by too many individuals within our own lives — almost none of whom show any genuine repentance, nor shall they ever, however dire circumstances may ultimately become. COVID, January 6, the felony convictions, his putrid record since returning to office, the rupture with longstanding allies: none of it hath yet produced the national reckoning that ought, by rights, to have occurred by now. Whether the November midterm elections shall alter this picture remaineth an open question, though I am not holding my breath expecting anything favourable to come of it. Always assume the worst, folks.

The past decade hath been one of near-universal degradation; I scarce wish even to imagine what the coming ten years shall bring, governed and populated as we are by malevolent and self-destructive fools. Yet, in truth, I need not contemplate it at all. The America we once knew shall never return, and it is all downhill from here.

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Monday, September 14, 2026

The return of a vanquished scourge

A polished pin-up-style illustration depicts a petite brunette Amish woman hanging white laundry beneath brilliant summer skies. She wears a revealing black dress, white apron and bonnet, sheer black stockings with suspenders, and high-heeled shoes, while coyly glancing aside. Red blemishes or lesions mark her shoulder and upper chest. A wooden wash basket, quilts, daisies and an old hand pump fill the foreground; beyond lie a farmhouse, red barn, cornfield and black horse-drawn buggy amid verdant Pennsylvania countryside.

image generated via ChatGPT

Third unvaccinated Pennsylvania resident dies from measles complications. {NBC News 14 September}

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/pennsylvania-woman-dies-measles-rcna597490

FTA: A 40-year-old woman has died from measles complications in Pennsylvania, marking the state’s third measles-associated death this year as the U.S. experiences its worst resurgence of the highly contagious disease in 35 years.

The woman, a Jefferson County resident, died Saturday, county Coroner Greg Furlong said on Facebook.

“This is a heartbreaking loss for the family and an unfortunate reminder that measles can be a serious and potentially life-threatening disease,” Furlong said.

No other information about the woman will be released, he added.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health said it was aware of the death reported by the Jefferson County coroner.

“The Department of Health is conducting a thorough review of this case and will provide the public with updated information when it becomes available,” health officials said in a statement.

At least 676 measles cases have been confirmed in 37 counties in Pennsylvania so far this year, the state’s health officials reported Friday. The outbreak has hospitalized 124 people in the state. Of the confirmed cases, fewer than 1% had been fully vaccinated, Pennsylvania health officials said.

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Friday, September 11, 2026

Where the waters turned

A richly detailed contemporary illustration depicts a red-haired woman with loose pigtails kneeling amid an immense sunlit lettuce field. Wearing a knotted white shirt, abbreviated denim shorts, stockings, work gloves and muddy boots, she examines an enormous head of iceberg lettuce with a troubled expression. Irrigation channels snake unnaturally through regimented crops towards distant mountains, while pipes discharge water directly into the fields. Dew beads heavily across the leaves. In the foreground, a magnified droplet contains a brilliantly coloured microscopic organism, while contaminated-looking water seeps visibly through exposed soil and roots, transforming an idyllic agricultural landscape into an unsettling visual metaphor for parasitic food contamination.

image generated via ChatGPT

FDA declares cyclospora outbreak ‘over’, though its exact origin remaineth unknown. {AP 11 September}

https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/article/us-officials-declare-an-end-to-record-setting-cyclospora-outbreak-but-its-origin-is-still-unknown/

Yet another particularly sordid chapter in the ongoing and deliberate collapse of food safety standards in Trumpistan. Worse is to come —

FTA: The largest cyclospora food poisoning outbreak in U.S. history is over, U.S. health officials said Friday.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials said they are confident that all recalled iceberg lettuce related to this specific outbreak is off the market.

Nearly 13,000 reported cyclospora cases were tied to the multistate outbreak, federal officials say. They represent the bulk of an unprecedented surge in the parasitic diarrheal illness this year.

Even with the outbreak deemed over, several questions remain, including about its origin. The parasite is spread through human feces, and it still isn’t clear how sewage could have contaminated enough food to sicken so many people.

“This contamination can happen if produce is grown in soil or comes into contact with water that has been contaminated,” said Ellen Shumaker, director of outreach for a North Carolina State University food safety program, Safe Plates.

Since May 1, the government has received reports of nearly 20,000 lab-confirmed cases, or more than 16 times the number reported during the same period last year. More than 6,100 suspected cases also have been reported.

The worst previous year in the U.S. for infections was 2019, when about 4,700 illnesses were reported nationally.

This year’s surge in cases was dominated by an outbreak in 21 states linked to iceberg lettuce. But there are thousands of other cases that have not been linked to that outbreak.

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Monday, September 7, 2026

A harvest of distrust

A darkly whimsical Gothic illustration depicts a cavernous, deteriorating supermarket overwhelmed by disorder. Shelves and refrigerated cases remain crowded with groceries, yet packages, vegetables and containers spill across the tiled floor and tumble inexplicably from above through a sagging net. Numerous scantily clad women wander the aisles in visible distress, inspecting food, crouching beside overturned baskets or clutching groceries uncertainly. At centre, an enormous chaotic mound of discarded provisions rises beneath ominous red lights. Frayed wiring, broken fixtures, scattered receipts and neglected produce transform an ordinary grocery shop into a nightmarish emblem of a food system in collapse, where abundance coexists with contamination, waste and insecurity.

image generated via Seedream

Food safety unravels apace as recalls and inflation mount in tandem, leaving Americans burdened with pricier, toxic provender. {Axios 7 September}

https://www.axios.com/2026/09/07/food-safety-concerns-grocery-inflation

From leader of the world unto shame of all the earth. Fewer inspections, laxer regulations, watchdogs muzzled or turned away entirely, and the ravishing effects of climate change have wrought sufficient ruin that it is, in essence, no longer safe to eat within these former United States. We may debate until our faces wax blue the relative safety and nutritional value of American victuals prior to the nihilistic, nation-slaying Trump 2.0 regime — set against those of other Western nations — yet hither have we come, and here now do we stand.

What y’all voted for, #Murica —

FTA: Plenty of Americans feel like they're forking over a fortune for groceries—only to get hit with a recall notice that forces them to throw that expensive food out.

Why it matters: While grocery prices are driven by complex trade and energy costs, the safety net meant to keep them safe to eat is fraying, creating a dual crisis of affordability and safety.

The average American household pays more than $10,000 on groceries every year, and two-thirds of Americans think they're spending too much.

Prices have increased by more than 18% since 2022, although some foods have seen sharper or smaller increases.

What they're saying: "It can be really, really scary out there," Lauren Borsheim, a food policy analyst at Food & Water Watch, tells Axios.

"The Trump administration since 2025 has really just dismantled many of the fundamental protections we need to keep our food supply safe."

"We have people that are really afraid that the U.S. is not doing a good job regulating our food supply. It's definitely a concern out there that as people are spending more money on their food, they are also fearful that that same food is going to cause them to get sick," Borsheim says.

By the numbers: Recalls are relatively on par with normal levels this fiscal year, according to FDA data.

So far, 5,504 products have been recalled in 2026. That's up slightly from the 5,461 products recalled last year, but down from the 6,524 products recalled in 2024.

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Tuesday, August 25, 2026

The harvest of mistrust

A satirical illustration depicts a visibly feverish young Amish woman staggering beside a farmhouse in rural Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Wearing a revealing dark-blue dress, white apron, bonnet and stockings, she presses one hand to her forehead as a conspicuous red rash spreads across her face, chest and limbs. Countless glowing red particles drift from the house and across the surrounding countryside, visually representing measles transmission. Behind her, an Amish horse-drawn buggy passes fields of maize, a red barn and traditional farmhouses beneath an idyllic summer sky. The pastoral tranquillity sharply contrasts with the spreading contagion, whilst a roadside sign reading “A Simple Life …Or So We Thought” gives the scene an ominous, ironic edge.

image generated via ChatGPT

First US measles deaths of 2026 recorded in Pennsylvania; Gov. Shapiro lambasts RFK Jr. for spreading disinformation on vaccines. {CNN 25 August}

https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/25/health/measles-deaths-pennsylvania

The article does not expressly state so, though the circumstances strongly suggest these were Amish folk: notorious for evading all sorts of obligations — paying Social Security and Medicare taxes, sending their children to compulsory high school education, serving on juries, registering for the draft, and vaccinating their offspring — that most of the rest of us are not at liberty to avoid. As a child on a road trip with family in the late 1980s, whilst visiting Lancaster County, it was surreal to observe people living as though the seventeenth century had never ended. I am no longer certain I regard them as quite so quaint and charming these days, all things considered. —

FTA: Both of the Pennsylvania deaths were in residents of Lancaster County. Health officials said they will not release any additional details.

Pennsylvania has confirmed 393 measles cases in 28 counties in 2026, Bogen said in a news conference Tuesday. Roughly half of them have been in Lancaster County, she said.

About 20% of cases in Pennsylvania this year have required hospitalization. Among measles cases confirmed by the health department, none have been in people who have received both recommended doses of the MMR vaccine, she added.

The highly contagious virus has continued its historic resurgence in the US this year, with a second record-breaking year in a row. The country has recorded more cases than 2,700 cases this year, more than any other year since 1991 – surpassing a grim milestone that was just topped last year.

The disease was declared eliminated in the US in 2000, but more cases have been recorded in the past year and a half than there have been in the previous 25 years combined. Experts expect that the US will soon lose its elimination status, the recognition by the World Health Organization that measles is no longer transmitting regularly within a country.

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Tuesday, August 18, 2026

Drought’s harvest

A macabre editorial illustration depicts a dark-haired woman balancing barefoot upon a chair as enormous mosquitoes swarm around her in a parched, desolate landscape. Wearing a light summer dress, she raises an insect repellent aerosol while recoiling anxiously from the approaching insects. Stagnant pools and an ornate fountain provide breeding grounds, while crows and wading birds gather beneath twisted, leafless trees. A grotesque sun overlooks the scene as countless mosquitoes fill the dusty sky, transforming an ordinary summer nuisance into an ominous allegory of mosquito-borne disease and the expanding threat of West Nile virus.

image generated via ChatGPT

West Nile virus surges in #Murica; drought concentrates mosquitoes around shrinking pools of water, raising risk of transmission. {The Independent 18 August}

https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/west-nile-virus-mosquito-cases-deaths-us-b3034893.html

Counter-intuitive though it may seem, drought increases transmission by concentrating mosquitoes and birds around ever-shrinking water sources.

FTA: The majority of cases occur in the summer, when warm and west conditions are at their peak.

While mosquitoes thrive in these conditions, experts say climate change-driven drought in Arizona and across the West has actually helped the disease spread.

Drought means that mosquitoes breed around smaller bodies of water, giving more opportunity for the virus to spread between them.

“Drought conditions can paradoxically increase West Nile virus transmission because it concentrates mosquitoes and birds (West Nile virus is a bird virus, first) around shrinking water sources, increasing transmission risk,” Matthew Aliota, a professor at the University of Minnesota, who specializes in these kinds of viruses, previously told The Independent.

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Friday, August 14, 2026

COVID on the uptick again in a nation that learnt nothing from the pandemic

A stylised editorial illustration juxtaposes carefree summer life with the renewed threat of infectious disease. Families socialise beside a swimming pool beneath a bright sun, while oversized representations of a virus, mosquito, rodent and microscopic pathogens loom symbolically overhead. In the foreground, a vaccine vial and syringe stand amid a tangled red cord resembling an epidemic curve. At right, an infant sleeps in a cot beside medical symbols and an anxious older woman. A red graph rises and falls dramatically across the composition, linking seasonal recreation with resurgent illness, vaccination and public-health vulnerability.

image generated via ChatGPT

COVID-19 rears its ugly head once more this summer, though ‘evidence of growing herd immunity’ may likewise be present. {NPR 14 August}

https://www.npr.org/2026/08/14/nx-s1-5927115/summer-vaccine-covid-19-surge

Fear not: the government of Trumpistan has matters thoroughly in hand —

FTA: Unlike previous years, the CDC hasn't issued updated recommendations for the vaccines because of litigation over the Trump administration's efforts to overhaul immunizations in the U.S. The administration no longer recommends that everyone aged 6 months and older routinely get an annual shot.

But major medical groups still do recommend it. And insurers have indicated they will keep covering vaccines. The shots are likely to remain available for free through government programs like the Vaccines for Children program.

Public health experts worry that conflicting messages will cause confusion, discouraging people from getting another shot.

"The message is that COVID vaccine and flu vaccine will be available, they're covered by insurers, they're recommended by medical societies. People should get them and get them for their kids," says Clare Hannan, executive director of the Association of Immunization Managers, which advocates for immunization programs.

On second thoughts… perhaps, just when nobody is expecting it, a newer and more lethal strain of COVID shall emerge — resistant to existing vaccines and more readily transmissible than prior strains — to wreak havoc anew, as though 2020 were repeating itself in full. A karmic reckoning visited upon those belligerent individuals who still have not finished crying and fearmongering about masks, social distancing, vaccination, and ‘muh freedumb’, and who did so much to prolong the pandemic with their lack of cooperation. Verily, this nation hath been tempting providence through its wholesale rejection of science and reason, and through its restoration to the presidency of the very incompetent imbecile who so catastrophically mismanaged the pandemic’s initial wave. People no longer trouble themselves even to wash their hands, let alone don masks whilst unwell or extend to others the most rudimentary courtesy of physical distance — that very simple concept somehow seems lost on most everybody now, even the few and far among thee who actually are well-meaning.

Then again, it need not even be COVID: the next major public-health emergency — whatever form it ultimately assumes — shall find America considerably less prepared than circumstances demand. So many possibilities, more so now than in decades thanks to the dominant white working-class electorate deciding to return an elderly felon, probable paedophile, and certified destroyer of nations to the presidency; and that orange motherf**ker’s subsequent decision to place foxes (led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.) in charge of the proverbial henhouse that is public health and safety. We have not, of course, even addressed here the irreversible damage this cabal is inflicting upon national security, human rights, the environment, America’s international standing, or the global and domestic economies alike.

The people in our lives who cast their votes for this man — particularly those who did so three times over — are going to be brought to understand that America’s reputation in the world is never going to be restored. At least not in our lifetimes. History has a habit of rendering its own verdicts. Whether they acknowledge it or not, those who empowered this administration shall forever be obliged to live with the consequences of that choice. Something along the order of another pandemic — one perhaps two or three times more devastating than the COVID pandemic of 2020–22 — would likely prove insufficient to induce some ninety-five per cent of these individuals ever to concede their error in following this reprobate president. They voted as they did out of pure spite, and each shall go to their grave with spiteful hearts, unsatiated by whatever fleeting thrills Daddy Trump furnished them in their miserable, grievance-filled lives.

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Wednesday, August 12, 2026

The fragile weight of hope

A symbolic illustration depicts an enormous antique balance standing upon cracked, barren ground. Its lower pan contains a cluster of glowing glass medicine vials enclosed within a fragile, luminous protective sphere. The raised pan holds only a feather and scattered fragments of paper, some blowing away into the air. Fine cracks radiate from the scales’ ornate base, while a small, solitary child stands beneath the weighted pan, gazing upwards. Torn documents litter the foreground as dark reddish flecks rise behind the scales, reinforcing an atmosphere of instability, vulnerability and threatened protection.

image generated via ChatGPT

Washington Post editorial: ‘The arrogance of Trump’s vaccine policy’. {11 August}

https://wapo.st/4xAzGzx

FTA: Previously, the government recommended universal childhood vaccines for 18 illnesses. Trump’s schedule reduces that to 11 and recommends administering them at separate medical visits “to the maximum extent feasible,” stressing “maximal parental choice.”

That would further erode Americans’ faith in lifesaving vaccines and undermine herd immunity.

In the Oval Office, Trump claimed that the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine might be “quite lethal,” and that if the components were delivered separately, they would be “not at all lethal.”

The claim is irresponsible, possibly deadly. The MMR vaccine has been available in its combined form since the early 1970s, and research has repeatedly affirmed its safety. It’s also not possible to simply administer the vaccine as three separate shots. Developing such an option would take years of clinical trials.

Yet Trump’s assertion might convince parents to forgo the vaccine at a time when measles is spreading at its highest levels in more than three decades.

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Monday, July 20, 2026

“Lettuce celebrate... mmm, maybe not just yet”

A vibrant, highly detailed illustration inspired by traditional Mexican art depicts a joyful woman kneeling amid a vast field of fresh green cabbages beneath a brilliant blue sky. She has long flowing black hair, a radiant smile and wears a flowing white dress that billows around her as cabbage leaves cling playfully to her clothing and hair. Behind her, rolling farmland stretches towards a majestic volcanic mountain framed by towering clouds adorned with colourful folk-art motifs. Rich saturated colours, bold decorative patterns and expressive painterly textures celebrate rural Mexico’s natural beauty, agricultural abundance and exuberant spirit, creating a scene filled with warmth, movement and infectious happiness.

generated via ChatGPT

“Fruit and vegetable producer Taylor Fresh Foods says it is voluntarily removing all iceberg lettuce sourced from central Mexico from the U.S. market amid an ongoing cyclosporiasis outbreak across the country that has sickened more than 1,600 people.” {ABC News 19 July}

https://abcnews.com/GMA/News/taylor-farms-amid-cyclosporiasis-outbreak/story?id=134846473&cid=social_twitter_abcn

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🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Saturday, July 18, 2026

The battle no one wanted to fight again

A sombre, highly detailed illustration portrays an Ebola treatment ward where a critically ill young African woman lies upon a hospital bed beneath patterned blankets, her face glistening with perspiration and tears as she stares upward in exhaustion. A healthcare worker in full yellow protective suit, gloves, respirator and face shield gently rests one hand upon her forehead while offering reassurance with the other. Additional clinicians in identical protective equipment prepare intravenous treatment and monitor her condition amid IV drips, medical instruments and isolation screens. Warm, muted lighting, richly textured brushwork and meticulous realism underscore the emotional gravity of humanitarian medicine confronting a deadly infectious disease in a temporary field hospital.

generated via ChatGPT

Seven American aid workers quarantined in Kenya after Ebola exposure. {WP 18 July}

https://wapo.st/4vAlqp2

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Friday, July 17, 2026

No comfort in marble

A highly detailed glamour-style illustration of a distressed blonde woman seated upon a white toilet in an opulent marble bathroom with polished brass fittings. She wears a white satin nightdress beneath a loosely draped silk robe, one hand pressed against her lower abdomen while the other supports her tear-streaked face. Her flushed cheeks, reddened eyes, and pained expression convey exhaustion and severe gastrointestinal illness. Luxurious details, including crystal perfume bottles, folded towels, and gleaming marble surfaces, contrast sharply with her evident discomfort. Warm golden lighting accentuates the satin fabrics and refined décor, creating a poignant juxtaposition between elegance, vulnerability, and physical suffering.

generated via ChatGPT

Figures: #Murican fast food icon Taco Bell and supplier Taylor Farms tied to cyclospora outbreak in five states. {AP 17 July}

https://apnews.com/article/cyclospora-lettuce-taco-bell-cdc-fda-13d9e9ebdc46a4d05a58da2ae8e8d0de

Not the first time either of these parties have been negligent. Food safety standards are not what they should be in what we — as Americans — are commanded to believe is the freest, richest, most advanced nation on earth. Alas, I do not suspect most Taco Bell consumers care all that much about food safety, but I digress.

FTA: The FDA’s traceback investigation identified a single supplier of iceberg lettuce from Mexico used by the Taco Bell locations where people who got sick ate, federal officials said. The Mexican food chain is among the restaurants linked to foodborne illness outbreaks in the past. Taylor Farms also was tied to a 2013 cyclosporiasis outbreak linked to salad mix and a 2024 E. coli outbreak tied to onions served at McDonald’s.

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Sunday, July 12, 2026

Summer beyond the window

A highly detailed illustration depicts a glamorous blonde woman resting inside a vintage iron lung in a rustic ranch-house bedroom. Only her head and neck emerge from the polished metal cylinder, which stretches across most of the room and is fitted with gauges, portholes, valves, and mechanical components. Her hair is styled in elegant mid-century curls, and she gazes upward with a calm, reflective expression while resting on a white pillow. The warmly lit room features wooden panelling, framed photographs, a bedside lamp, a saddle draped over a chair, and a view of open countryside through the window. The contrast between the sophisticated portraiture and the imposing medical device creates a poignant atmosphere, evoking themes of resilience, isolation, and life sustained through technology.

generated via ChatGPT

The last American polio patient to still rely on an iron lung device hath died, aged 78. {AP 12 July}

https://apnews.com/article/iron-lung-last-patient-died-polio-41e5b4da4f4e710344dd0872d7fcf987

FTA: Polio was once one of the nation’s most feared diseases, with annual outbreaks causing thousands of cases of paralysis. The disease primarily affects children.

Vaccines became available starting in 1955. According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a national vaccination campaign cut the annual number of U.S. cases to fewer than 100 in the 1960s and fewer than 10 in the 1970s. In 1979, polio was declared eliminated in the U.S., meaning it was no longer routinely spread.

If Americans had thought in the 1950s the way so many do today — and if public-health policy had been dictated by the likes of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — the widespread adoption of Jonas Salk's vaccine would never have been possible. There would be far more individuals like Martha Lillard in the world (albeit most would not live anywhere near as long), and the polio virus would likely remain a scourge upon the planet.

Martha Lillard was told not to expect to live beyond the age of twenty, and the fact that she reached seventy-eight is undoubtedly a testament to the human will to live. I would have thrown in the towel decades ago, so she hath my deepest respect.

Fare thee well.

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Monday, July 6, 2026

The return of an old scourge and the lessons we forgot

A warmly lit, nostalgic hospital-room illustration depicts a compassionate red-haired nurse attending to a young blonde woman recovering in bed. The nurse, dressed in a traditional white uniform and cap, gently places a cool cloth upon the patient’s forehead while resting her other hand reassuringly on the bedding. The patient reclines against crisp white pillows beneath neatly arranged sheets, gazing upward with an expression that combines fatigue, vulnerability, and gratitude. A red spotted rash is visible across her face, neck, shoulders, and upper chest, indicating illness. Sunlight filters through a nearby window, illuminating floral curtains, polished wooden furnishings, glass medicine bottles, and a vintage metal bed frame. Rich golden tones and careful period detail evoke a mid-twentieth-century atmosphere of attentive care, quiet dignity, and human compassion in the face of sickness.

generated via ChatGPT

Measles returns with a vengeance in the former US, 25 years after ‘elimination’, forcing doctors to relearn how to combat it. {Washington Post 6 July}

https://wapo.st/4gjahFm

Entirely shameful, and entirely preventable. Religious freedom should not mean religious supremacy. As was demonstrated very clearly during the COVID pandemic, these anti-vaxxers and assorted types chanting muh freedumb do not believe in the freedom of others to be protected from them and their bloody germs. Liberty to them is the liberty to impose themselves on others. They are the types who blast obnoxious music at all hours of the day, and become offended when asked to stop and shout ‘it’s a free country!’ They have been the types, throughout my thankless life, who have hassled me at every turn when my aching psyche just wants everything around me to slow the hell down and quiet down. Respect for others is tyranny to these people, and all too many of them out there.

Hell, most Americans — and not even merely the anti-vaxxers and Christofascists — could not even handle the simple concept of social distancing. They would be miserable living in Germany, where quiet on Sundays is simply a societal custom that doth not need enforcing by law; it is just respected by nearly all people.

Call me insane, in what we are still told is the most prosperous and educated nation on earth — obviously less and less true with each passing year, but stay with me — for expecting to be able to step outside and be reasonably certain I am not going to contract a deadly disease on any given day. Diagnose me with 'TDS' if some simple civility and respect for others is infringing upon the individual ‘rights’ of lunatics, bullies, religious zealots, and other assorted tyrants of society who make up the Trump/GOP base. Call me a bigot against people of faith — and I do consider myself a Christian, albeit a very poor and not particularly devout one, and my faith is not particularly strong at present — if the right of the general public to be protected against a scourge that was supposed to have been eliminated decades ago is less important than the feelings of bigamists, cultists, and all these assorted and dangerous weirdos who are only growing in number in this most horrific of timelines.

Somebody shoot me, I am so over all of this bulls**t.

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Monday, September 29, 2025

CDC issues Level 2 Cuba travel alert as chikungunya outbreak spreads—an affliction leaving victims bedridden for months.

{Daily Mail 29 September}:

Americans are being advised to practice caution when traveling to a Caribbean island because of an outbreak of a deadly virus.

The CDC has placed a Level 2 travel warning on Cuba after local officials raised the alarm over an outbreak of chikungunya virus, a painful viral infection that can leave victims bedridden for months.

The disease is spread by mosquitoes, with patients suffering a sudden fever and then joint pain in the hands and feet that can be so severe that sufferers are left unable to walk for months. In rare cases, the disease can be fatal.

Officials in Cuba have not revealed how many people are infected, but say that the outbreak is focused in Matanzas province, 60 miles east of Havana. There have been no deaths reported so far.

It is not clear what prompted the CDC advisory, but the alert comes just days after US health officials began investigating a possible locally acquired case of chikungunya on Long Island, New York, the first ever detected in the state.

The infection was detected in a woman who said she had not recently traveled off the island, home to more than eight million people and the celebrity-loved Hamptons.

And amid a surging outbreak of the disease in South America, with health officials at the Pan American Health Organization warning that Brazil, with 210,000 cases, is among the worst affected.

Globally, more than 317,000 cases and 135 deaths involving the virus have been detected this year, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, which tracks international figures. In 2024, there were 620,000 cases and 213 deaths.

Copyright 2025, Arthur Newhook. On X-TWITTER: @DollsFallen and @Sunking278. BLUESKY - @arthurnewhook.bsky.social. REDDIT - https://www.reddit.com/user/SiberianKhatru278/. FULL LIST OF LINKS - linktr.ee/arthurnewhook. DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED on Cash App ($ANewhook) and at https://tinyurl.com/ArthurNewhook.

Wednesday, August 31, 2022

Standing at the edge of a potential apocalyptic meltdown: Recapping an eventful month of August 2022

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PUTIN’S WAR OF AGGRESSION AGAINST UKRAINE

'Nuclear winter' from a US-Russia conflict would wipe out 63% of the world's population - Any questions as to why the Biden administration and Congress have appropriated billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine? You do not want nuclear warfare, whoever ‘you’ may be. Do not underestimate Vladimir Putin; much of the rhetoric currently coming from Russia - all of it directed by the Kremlin, and Putin basically is the Kremlin - is outright apocalyptic. {Live Science 8/18}

Слава Україні: Ukraine begins counter-offensive to retake Kherson and other southern regions held captive by the Russians. {Reuters 8/29}

Vladimir Putin signs decree increasing the size of the Russian military - Considerably more important news than griping about student loans, gas prices, or what other people are doing with their private parts. Putin has completely gone insane, albeit in a ‘crazy like a fox’ sort of way; he is going for broke in his assault on Ukraine, and there are exactly zero checks on his power within Russia. Knowing there is no one to stop him internally, and knowing that the West - by and large - lacks the willpower or desire to confront him in earnest (this being most especially evident among the citizens of the United States, though thankfully our government under President Biden’s leadership has taken actions to support the Ukrainian people), Putin has taken a huge gamble: He will either succeed in subjugating Ukraine, or he will die trying and bring down his own country and as much of the world as he can take with him. Perhaps you all will start caring when nukes start falling out of the skies over the heartland (even then, I’m not so sure.) {Reuters 8/25}

Russia risks nuclear disaster by shelling Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant; Russians, as is their M.O., claim the Ukrainians are at fault - Welcome to the future, where any anti-Western tyrant can commit atrocities and simply blame the other side, and millions in the west will willfully spread their lies out of spite for their own societies.{AP 8/08}

Ukraine literally averts a global nuclear catastrophe at Zaporizhzhia - All life on human earth would have been endangered had urgent action not been taken. Preventing World War III is a serious matter, but just keep on griping, #Murica, about the government sending billions of dollars in aid and weapons to Ukraine. Yes, by all means, because isolationism and turning a blind eye to imperialist Fascism worked so well in the 1930s. Excerpt: ‘President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the world narrowly avoided a radiation disaster on Thursday as the last regular line supplying electricity to Ukraine's Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was restored hours after being cut. Zelenskiy blamed shelling by Russia's military for fires in the ash pits of a nearby coal power station that disconnected the reactor complex, Europe's largest such facility, from the power grid. He said back-up diesel generators had started to ensure power supply and keep the plant safe. "If our station staff had not reacted after the blackout, then we would have already been forced to overcome the consequences of a radiation accident," he said in an evening address. "Russia has put Ukraine and all Europeans in a situation one step away from a radiation disaster." International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) officials should be given access to the site within days, he said, "before the occupiers take the situation to the point of no return."’ {Reuters 8/25}

Reuters

Russia railway station strike kills 22, injures dozens - Prayers for Chaplyne. As much an outrage as the attack itself is, just as great an outrage are the millions turning a blind eye, or possessing delusions about the war - informed by Russian propaganda - that lead to victim-blaming and desensitization to this genocide. {BBC 8/24}

The Russian Defense Ministry blames sabotage for Crimea depot blast, ‘a rare admission that armed groups loyal to Ukraine are damaging military logistics and supply lines on territory it controls.’ {Reuters 8/15}

Five key findings on Russia’s massive intelligence failures prior to invading Ukraine. {WaPo 8/19}

U.S. rejects Ukraine’s request for a blanket visa ban on all Russians - The State Department is erring on the side of political correctness. Protecting the lives of innocent Ukrainians, and putting the fear of God into Russians, ought to have highest priority. My suggestion to Russian dissidents - if they are sincere - would be to go to Ukraine, if the Ukrainians will have them, and take up arms. Or stay in Russia, and foment revolution there. I feel for their plight and admire their courage to stand against Vladimir Putin, but America is not where they are needed at this moment. {Reuters 8/22}

Flashback: Alexander Litvinenko may have been assassinated, in part, for alleging Putin is a pedophile. {The Independent 1/21/2016}

Disrupt and kill the enemy by any and all means necessary: Ukrainians embrace guerrilla warfare tactics against the occupying Russians and domestic turncoats. {NYT 8/17}

Dmitry Serebryakov/AP

Hundreds gather in Moscow to pay tribute to Fascist political operative Alexander Dugin’s daugher, herself a Putin propagandist, who was killed in car bombing - The only good Russian nationalist is a dead one. {AP 8/23}

‘The U.S. for the first time Friday said it will give Ukraine Scan Eagle surveillance drones, mine-resistant vehicles, anti-armor rounds and howitzer weapons to help Ukrainian forces regain territory and mount a counteroffensive against Russian invaders.’ {AP 8/19}

Damaged Russian tanks put on display on the streets of Kyiv in advance of Ukraine’s independence day. {DW 8/20}

GEOPOLITICS

Basketball star Brittney Griner sentenced to nine years in Russian prison - A f**king outrage, and anybody making excuses for the Russians - or saying any peaceful, non-violent American civilian deserves this treatment anywhere in the world - can kiss my royal ass. We all know why the Russians are making an example of this individual, and it has nothing to do with a vial of hash oil that wouldn’t harm an earthworm. And we also know why most Americans are not moved by this individual’s plight. Said it before and am going to keep saying it over and over: If I sound as though I’m being unfair to most people, just remember that most people lost the benefit of the doubt after the 2016 presidential election. True colors are coming through like never before in our lifetimes, and the ugliness is astounding. {AP 8/04}

Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un pledge a new era of ‘strategic and tactical cooperation, support and solidarity’ between Russia and North Korea. {Reuters 8/15}

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China fires missiles near Taiwan in drills after Nancy Pelosi visits - Good on Speaker Pelosi for going to Taiwan. A strong message must be sent to China that they are not to emulate their friends, the Russians, in invading lands that do not belong to them. Forget all this lamenting I’m seeing all over the place - and from both sides of the spectrum - about ‘provoking’ China, Russia, etc., for the United States and its allies need not be pushed around or allow malevolent players to set the global agenda. Now, if/when Fascism takes complete control and #Murica completely replaces the United States of America, then it’s going to be a very different story. We already got a taste of that during Trump’s term, with his capitulations to Putin, Kim Jong-Un, the Saudis, so forth. But for now, the U.S. officially remains the world’s leading superpower and guardian of global order, its hold on power is tenuous as it is. Far from further weakening us, only bold reassertions of what it is that we are supposed to stand for - global order, human rights, economic liberty, and sanity - will restore worldwide respect for, and fear of, the United States. Standing around fretting that we are ‘provoking’ dictators and demanding that #Murica withdraw from the international scene because we have too many problems at home are getting us nowhere with the likes of Xi and Putin. {Reuters 8/04}

‘Chinese troops will travel to Russia to take part in joint military exercises led by the host and including India, Belarus, Mongolia, Tajikistan and other countries, China's defence ministry said on Wednesday.’ {Reuters 8/17}

How the CIA identified and killed al-Qaeda leader Zawahiri. {Reuters 8/01}

Author Salman Rushdie said to be awake and ‘articulate’ following stabbing attack in western New York state. {CNN 8/16}

Breaking agreement to use a condom is a sex crime, Canada high court rules. {NYT 7/29}

POLITICAL S**TSHOW IN #MURICA

Terry Manna/AP

FBI raids Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, retrieve classified documents held in a safe - The FBI did what is necessary, and in a better country the a**hole would have been in prison long ago (and never would have been elected to begin with.) But I hate false hope more than anything in life. I continue to maintain that this man is never going to prison, and may even be re-elected in 2024. Why do I stress this so hard, so often? Because a large percentage of this country is populated by angry, hateful, violent zealots who are more loyal to their leader than they are to God or sometimes even their own families; they own virtually all the guns and are heavily embedded in the military, law enforcement, state legislatures, the churches, so forth. The FBI, DOJ, the White House, and all relevant agencies know the moment Trump is put in handcuffs is the moment that civil war begins for real. Underestimate #Cult45 at one’s own peril, one of the largest, deadliest, and most effective cults in human history. They are far more determined to gain control over society than the rest of us have shown willing to preserve and protect those things which once made us a relatively decent and prosperous country. Most do not even have a basic understanding of what is at stake. They do not fully grasp what has happened to our fellow citizens, at least not yet. They will soon enough, when the killings start en masse. Believe me, I wish I could be jumping for joy at this news, but I can't do it: We’ve been burned one time too many. {AP 8/08}

‘The initial batch of documents retrieved by the National Archives from former President Donald J. Trump in January included more than 150 marked as classified, a number that ignited intense concern at the Justice Department and helped trigger the criminal investigation that led F.B.I. agents to swoop into Mar-a-Lago this month seeking to recover more, multiple people briefed on the matter said.’ {NYT 8/22}

Jennifer Rubin: Trump’s risk of indictment for his document snatch just skyrocketed. {WaPo 8/23}

Rudy Giuliani now a ‘target’ in Georgia election interference probe, Fulton County DA’s office announces - Anybody else remember what a universally respected figure this man was in the immediate aftermath of 9/11? May as well have been a thousand years ago now. {AP 8/15}

‘Former President Donald Trump once asked his White House chief of staff Gen. John Kelly why his generals couldn’t be more like Adolf Hitler’s, who were, in Trump’s view, “totally loyal.”’ {Yahoo! News 8/08}

Former CFO of the Trump Organization, Allen Weisselberg, pleads guilty to his role in long-running tax fraud scheme, agrees to testify against his former company. {AP 8/18}

U.S. faces a new era of political violence as threats against lawmakers rise; ‘Members of the US House of Representatives will now receive up to $10,000 to upgrade security at their homes.’ - Cooler heads are not prevailing. {The Guardian 7/31}

Jonathan Drake/Reuters

An expert on the right urgently warns: Beware of another Oklahoma City - Referring, of course, to the horrors of April 15, 1995. Millions of potential Timothy McVeighs surround us, and they’re being egged on by Trump and the GOP. Excerpt: ‘Threats of political violence appear to be rising. Donald Trump continues to treat his effort to incite the violent overthrow of the government as a righteous cause, and a large swath of his party is embracing him in that project. What’s more, with Trump under investigation for hoarding highly classified documents, escalating threats toward the FBI have done nothing to dissuade Republicans from throwing around virulently hyperbolic rhetoric about alleged federal law enforcement thuggery. And Republicans have launched a new wave of wild-eyed nonsense about the IRS amid still more threats.’

{Greg Sargent 8/25}

#Cult45 ‘activists,’ such as they are, swarm election officials across the country for ‘public-records requests to seek evidence for the former president’s false stolen-election claims and to gather intelligence on voting machines and voters’ - Information about voters. The local right-wing loons want to know who in their communities didn’t vote the way they wanted, and what are these people going to do with that information? Harassment of Biden voters is already at least a minor problem, and harassment of election officials a big problem, and all will grow worse the more riled-up and wound-up #Cult45 becomes. {Reuters 8/03}

Christian author David Dark calls out churches for staying silent about their abusive MAGA members and their violent antics - Silence is consent. {Raw Story 8/20}

If eliminating fear of the state is a liberal country’s first job, America is in trouble - The cruelty is the point. Very interesting history here about the Jewish, Lativan-born political philosopher of the mid-20th century, Judith Shklar: A brilliant lady who argued that the ultimate goal of liberalism should be the avoidance of deliberate cruelty, who understood that the majority of people in most any given time and place are uncaring and spiteful to one degree or another. Americans in the 21st century are operating on an epic scale, some of the cruelest and more grievance-filled human beings in world history. After 9/11, the people of this nation gradually changed in many respects, none of them for the better. The election of the most obvious conman of all-time to the presidency in 2016 - an individual that nearly all but the very most brain-dead of his supporters knew, deep-down, was a conman and an incompetent - was driven 100% by grievance and hatred, not by logic and reason. At this rate, #Cult45 are ultimately going to win in the end, because most outside their cult - and not all of them being good people themselves, not by any means - either refuse to acknowledge or understand the extent to which the people of this nation want to destroy each other, or just have zero clue as to what is going on. We can get rid of Trump, vote out all of these seditious GOP lawmakers, silence the rhetorical bomb-throwers on the hard-left who are only fanning the flames, and shut down all of the leading far-right propagandists on cable ‘news’ networks tomorrow, but the deadliest threat would remain: American citizens; the lay people enabling these grifters, traitors, and tyrants in the name of oppressing other American citizens. {Shikha Dalmia 8/08}

Paul Miller: Is the Republican Party becoming the Sinn Fein of America? {The Dispatch 8/11}

An extremism glossary: Eleven red flag words and what they mean. {CNET 8/15}

Open Culture

Schools districts across America facing a ‘catastrophic’ teacher shortage - So this is what happens when people demand that school teachers be the first line of defense against literal bullets and killer plagues without complaint or additional compensation; but, at the same time, they also recklessly accuse the same teachers of poisoning kids’ minds with hard-left propaganda, because some right-wing blowhard on TV or the Internet said so and therefore it must be true. Who would have thought? At this rate, the most remote backwaters of the world will soon surpass the United States in metrics such as literacy, infant mortality rates, etc. Name a malady, and angry, ignorant populists of all stripes are busy making it worse. Because, you know, ‘freedom.’ {WaPo 8/03}

The highest-ranking Republican in North Carolina calls for eliminating science and history lessons for fifth-graders and younger. {Raw Story 8/22}

Second ‘swatting’ incident directed at the home of Rep. Marjorie Traitor Greene in two days - ‘Swatting,’ for those who are unaware, is ‘the action or practice of making a prank call to emergency services in an attempt to bring about the dispatch of a large number of armed police officers to a particular address’ (definition via the Oxford dictionary.) I understand wanting to give an unholy provocateur like this one a taste of their own medicine - because this is the sort of thing her and her kind stoop to - but it is really immature and will accomplish nothing except draw sympathy for this cretin. {CNBC 8/25}

#Cult45 adherents in Florida charged with stealing the president’s daughter’s diary and selling it to Project Veritas, a seditious propaganda front that bills itself as a ‘conservative,’ ‘anti-corruption’ organization. {NYT 8/25}

President Biden names new Secret Service director. {AP 8/24}

President Biden announces ‘$10,000 in student debt cancellation for millions of Americans, and up to $10,000 more for those with the greatest financial need’ - College tuitions have long been out of control and a criminal scam; most young people are steered toward degrees in often useless fields, just for the sake of having a degree. It doesn't work anymore. Not everyone, or even most, are university material. {AP 8/24}

COVID-19

André Chung/Washington Post

Dr. Anthony Fauci announces his forthcoming retirement after 27 years leading NIAID - Thank you, Dr. Fauci, for your exemplary service to this nation. It is hard to imagine how pissed off this man must be: To have led a nation’s response against a deadly virus - the likes of which hadn’t been seen in a century - only to have been egregiously slandered and accused of crimes against humanity by Republicans, ‘conservative’ media whores, religious zealots, conspiracy theorists, white supremacists, and various others who could not/would not comprehend the reality of COVID-19. If it were me, I would have told Trump and the American people, in no uncertain terms, to ‘kiss my ass’ and ‘good luck, motherf**kers’ right at the very height of this pandemic. Seriously, I would have retired to some peaceful, remote place far away from this s**thole rather than continue to endure such ingratitude. #Murica is going to pay a deadly cost - far more so than it already has - for the disgusting and shameful manner in which it treats its best and brightest minds. {WaPo 8/22}

COVID-19: The CDC drops social distancing and quarantining recommendations - After how this agency has debased itself by caving to pressures from a restless general public, sleazy politicians, and media blowhards, the CDC has little credibility left. It is also amazing - that is, pathetic and enraging - how bad human beings are at such a simple task of giving other human beings a little bit of physical space. Seriously, we do not need to be pack animals and I do not want anybody within six feet of me anymore; keep your f**kig hands and your fu**king germs to yourselves, glorified swine. {AP 8/11}

‘Policies designed only to keep us out of the hospital are not enough to stop the virus from disrupting our lives in other ways.’ CDC promises to end disruption; its new guidance won’t do it. {Anne Sosin and Rene Dhillon 8/17}

‘As the novel virus has evolved to become more transmissible and virulent, it’s also shortened its incubation period, according to a study out of two Beijing universities published Monday by the Journal of the American Medical Association.’ {Fortune 8/23}

COVID-19 ‘evolves fast. It has adapted quickly to us. Now arises the crucial question of whether humans and human ingenuity can adapt faster. Unless the answer is yes, we face a long, doleful future of continued suffering. Some experts reckon the toll of endemic Covid might be somewhere from 100,000 to 250,000 deaths every year, just in the United States. Millions of lives depend on whether human science, human governance and human wisdom can outpace the ingenuity of SARS-CoV-2.’ {NYT 8/10}

‘At the peak of the Omicron wave, Covid killed Black Americans in rural areas at a rate roughly 34 percent higher than it did white people.’ {NYT 7/28}

‘A study published this week in the Lancet Psychiatry showed increased risks of some brain disorders two years after infection with the coronavirus, shedding new light on the long-term neurological and psychiatric aspects of the virus.’ {WaPo 8/19}

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New data shows long COVID is keeping as many as four million people out of work - Likely wouldn’t be happening if everybody had just done as they were told at the start of the pandemic. Which, if we’ve forgotten, was to stop the damn spread! F**king petulant herd animals, can’t stay out of each others’ space or follow basic directions even if to prevent needless death and suffering during a public health emergency. That’s another thing: Most have seemed to have gone terminally stupid when it comes to understanding what a state of emergency is, and why norms do not apply during emergencies. The World War II generation is looking down on us and are completely aghast at the utter senselessness and foolishness of now. {Brookings Institution 8/24}

Researchers at Cedars-Sinai: The majority of those who contracted the omicron variant never realized it. {NPR 8/19}

Ivermectin among generic drugs that failed to help COVID-19 patients avoid hospitalization - Another lesson on never taking medical advice from morons and con-artists. {Jerusalem Post 8/21}

Celebrity doctor and U.S. Senate candidate Mehmet Oz ‘repeatedly emailed top-level Trump administration officials, urging them to push the ineffective malaria drug, hydroxychloroquine’ - Lord help us, this man is going to be a United States Senator, and we already have enough sociopaths on Capitol Hill. {Ars Technica 8/24}

SCIENCE & HEALTH

Christian Chavez/AP

Treating death? Scientists revive cells in dead pigs, raising hopes, and questions - Absolute madness. Creepy, disgusting, and 100% unethical: Death is not some ‘disease’ or malady for science to overcome; since the beginning of time, it has been a natural and necessary stage of life, and it will not be defeated. Why the hell would anyone, in their right mind, actually want to live forever on this rotten planet? Seven billion and more mouths to feed as it is - at least three times or more the number of human beings the world actually needs or should have living on it - what happens when we are no longer allowed to die? {Times of Israel 8/04}

The FDA allows certain hearing aids to be sold over-the-counter for adults with moderate hearing problems. {AP 8/16}

CDC: Romaine lettuce on Wendy’s sandwiches the likely culprit in regional E. coli outbreak. {NYT 8/19}

CLIMATE CHANGE

Almost two-thirds of Europe is affected by drought; ‘may be the worst "for at least 500 years,"’ says European Commission spokesperson. {DW 8/23}

Rhine River water levels reach historic lows. {DW 8/11}

‘An "extreme heat belt" reaching as far north as Chicago is taking shape, a corridor that cuts through the middle of the country and would affect more than 107 million people over the next 30 years.’ {NBC News 8/15}

Fifth set of human remains found in rapidly receding Lake Mead in Nevada. {ABC News 8/18}

OBITUARIES

AP/Mark J. Terrill

Vin Scully has died - Forever the greatest baseball play-by-play man. Thank you, good sir, for everything you gave to us. This feels like losing a grandfather. {LAT 8/03}

Bill Russell. Greatest athlete in Boston sports history - No finer gentleman to ever play that sport, and arguably the most important player in all of NBA history. {AP 8/01}

Olivia Newton-John dies at 73 - What rotten news to randomly come across on a miserably hot Monday afternoon. Just rip my heart and soul away, sure. The kind-hearted, girl next door type we all wanted to marry, but don’t truly exist in any great number in the real world. {AP 8/08}

Judith Durham: Australian folk singer known for the international hit 'Georgy Girl' dies at 79. {BBC 8/06}

Noted Motown songwriter Lamont Dozier dies at 81. {CBC 8/09}

One of the world’s greatest historians, David McCullough, passes away at 89. {NYT 8/08}

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Rest in Peace, Mikhail Gobrachev. 1931-2022 - Very sad news. Mikhail Gorbachev was a great man, and probably the most humane leader Russia has had in its ruthless and inhumane history. {BBC 8/30}