Data Report

FACTS - The singer Toni Kelly & American Football player Marquise Goodwin have recently had medical emergencies involving blood clots (see their respective topics here on this board). News sources cite that BOTH medical emergencies involved having blood clots in their legs and near their lungs.

SPECULATION - What if this is a condition caused by "Pulmonary Embolism"? Also, if so, one cause of this condition is current or prior infection of Covid-19. Granted, this hypothesis is speculation; There are several non-Covid-19 reasons for why someone would be afflicted with this condition. HOWEVER, there is, as of yet, no data to rule this possibility out.

LINKS -

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/pulmonary-embolism/symptoms-causes/syc-20354647

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35059331/

SUMMARY - Singer Tori Kelly, age 30, was hospitalized on Sunday night (2023-07-23) after she suddenly collapsed while at dinner. Her current known status is that she is suffering from blood clots in her legs and near her lungs.

The singer is known for winning the 2019 Grammy Award for Best Gospel Album.

LINK - https://www.tmz.com/2023/07/24/singer-tori-kelly-rushed-hospital-blood-clots/

SUMMARY - WestVac, a Chinese-based pharmaceutical company, has developed a Covid vaccine made to combat the XBB lineage of the virus to be ready for clinical trials.

COMMENTARY - Although promising, let us remember that China (and, by extension, a lot of their companies) is not entirely transparent with it's information and details concerning a lot of topics, including Covid-19.

Entering a clinical trial is not synonymous with succeeding in what the treatment sets out to achieve. A lot of these trials fail. If every drug or treatment that entered clinical trials succeeded in what they had wanted to accomplish, we would already had cured several forms of cancer along with Alzheimer's & Parkinson's disease by now. This is also not an mRNA-styled vaccine, such as the ones from Moderna or Pfizer and, given past history, mRNA-styled vaccines have had the most success in dealing with the virus.

As in all such cases, let us hope for the best from these clinical trials but be prepared to keep searching for a more successful response.

LINK - https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-first-of-its-kind-in-the-world-the-recombinant-multivalent-covid-19-protein-vaccine-against-xbb-variants-by-westvac-biopharmawest-china-medical-center-sichuan-university-has-been-approved-for-clinical-trials-by-the-national-301828543.html

No one likes being a "spelling czar" (especially me) but...

If you have a spare moment, "Canadain" should be "Canadian" (as in the topic, "Canadain Covid Support").

If anyone else sees a spelling mistake on this forum, share it here so that it may be corrected in due time. Be polite and, just remember: Everyone makes mistakes and what's important is correcting those mistakes so that readers have the best information possible.

On the one hand, an unfortunate development but, on the other hand, completely understandable given the circumstances.

Pfizer & Moderna dominated the initial market in the US and, subsequently, never relinquished it. J&J had an initial advantage being only one shot and also capable of not needing special cold storage. However, factors such as limited vaccine acceptance & it's initial problems with manufacturing ultimately doomed it.

I felt as though there should be some follow-up to this topic, even though the topic is no longer as current as it once was.

According to the below article, Grant Wahl died of a ruptured aortic aneurysm and not from Covid or other virus-related reason. Although the World Cup had great potential for being a superspreader event (and I have little doubt that it DID contribute to Covid-related illnesses in it's own way), at least we can conclude that Mr. Wahl didn't die from the virus but from an undiagnosed heart condition.

To be completely fair, extreme heat and a significant change in venue (along with the stress associated with being at the venue in a professional and not personal capacity) will exacerbate any adverse health conditions.

LINK - https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/14/us/grant-wahl-cause-death/index.html

I took a break for about a week and a half. In the meanwhile, I did some traveling. While I traveled, I observed how many people wore masks (N95s, KN95s, cloth or surgical). Naturally, I always wore one.

Overall, very few people wore masks but there were still people who wore masks.

I attended an outdoor graduation ceremony. Unfortunately, EXTREMELY FEW people wore masks. To say that 0.1% of the attendees (graduates, audience, faculty) wore masks at the event would be an over-estimation. None of the faculty wore a mask and I didn't see any of the graduates wear masks either (to be fair, though, how the event was structured made it impossible to see if all of them did or not). There was one family that all wore masks and I saw a smattering (not including myself) of others who also wore masks.

I took public transportation and while using it I was slightly heartened to see at least a few people wearing masks. 0.25% might be stretching the estimate and 1% would definitely be stretching it but at least you could always see at least one person wearing a mask.

I walked through a few museums and became a bit disappointed with mask-wearing. Overall, the estimate was far more closer to the outdoor graduation. I did see a group of Asians (perhaps all related but I shouldn't judge as they may have been close friends or simply part of a larger group) who mostly wore masks; That skewed the statistics ever-so-slightly at least for one incident.

I attended a small concert (less than 200 attendees) and was heartened by the mask wearing in both the crowd and the musicians; While 5% might be stretching it, it was definitely the highest percentage during the entire break.

Overall, though, I am extremely disappointed in the level of mask-wearing for where I went (a major city and urban center). I didn't see a single person of considerable authority wearing a mask; They were all individuals such as myself.

During my break, I didn't feel the onset of any symptoms and, hopefully, will not feel them in the coming weeks. I did not see anyone around me fall ill.

If anyone else would like to share their experiences in places outside of your local area, please feel free to do so in this thread.

SUMMARY - A Yuma bat from Colorado in March 2023 tested positive for "White-Nose Syndrome," a lethal infection for North American bat species which is caused by a fungus called "Pseudogymnoascus destructans" or "Pd" for short. The fungus is of European origin, as European bat species have adapted to it but North American bat species have not, causing a pandemic amongst bat species.

LINK - https://wildlife.org/white-nose-syndrome-discovered-in-colorado/