⚠️NEXT BIG ONE—CDC has royally screwed up—unreleased data shows #XBB15, a super variant, surged to 40% US (CDC unreported for weeks!) & now causing hospitalization surges in NY/NE.➡️XBB15–a new recombinant strain—is both more immune evasive & better at infecting than #BQ & XBB.🧵
2) Multiple models show #XBB15 is much worse in transmission R value and infection rate than previous variants — faster by LEAPS and BOUNDS. @JPWeiland did some the earliest models on #XBB15 watching data in NY. it has only grown worse nationwide.
3) in fact, when @JPWeiland first modeled #XBB15 before Xmas, the data shows XBB15 was 108% faster than the previously king #BQ1 variant. But with more data, XBB15 has further accelerated to now being 120% faster!
4) Regarding the data — notice that #XBB15 was not reported last week or any prior week! ➡️However, my source within the CDC information network let me know that the CDC somehow has not been reporting that XBB15 was over 1% for several weeks. CDC didn’t break it out as promised.
5) this exact incompetence at the CDC in not breaking out a new variant happened 2 months ago too… when I first warned about it—when the @CDCgov didn’t break out new variants over 1%. But this is now worse—XBB15 is going from unreported to 40% overnight on CDC website! (Soon??)
6) And indeed, my SCOOP on the @CDCgov’s unpublished data and disastrous reporting delay was indeed confirmed 2 months ago. I was told by sources that CDC’s leadership was upset at me for posting leaked data—they promised to do better. Now EPIC FAIL AGAIN! open.substack.com/pub/drericding…
7) I previously warned about XBB from Singapore. But people need to realize #XBB15 is likely an American-originated recombination variant that is 96% faster (worse) than old XBB. The XBB15 popped up in the New York area in October and been causing trouble since.
8) New York has been suffering the largest #COVID19 hospitalization in almost a year. And it’s not coming down quickly like in recent waves Omicron waves. That’s because #XBB15 is not your typical Omicron - it’s a special recombination mixture variant that is further mutated.
9) Wastewater #SARSCoV2 virus concentrations are now the second highest of any wave— the highest since the initial Omicron wave, especially in the Northeast US. And it’s still climbing. Again, the poop 💩 data doesn’t lie.
10) So let’s validate this #XBB15-driving hospitalization surge hypothesis—where else in XBB15 now dominant? ➡️ In Connecticut. And is Hospitalization surging in CT recently? Yes.
11) Need more proof? Validate this #XBB15-driving hospitalization surge hypothesis—where else in XBB15 now dominant in New England? In Massachusetts. And is Hospitalization surging in MA recently too? Yes. Just like NY and CT. Three separate states — all #XBB15 dominant.
12) we know that #XBB15 is one of the most evasive variants known to date — it’s on par with our ability to neutralize distant cousin SARS1 from decades ago. That means it’s bad. But evading neutralization isn’t everything—it’s also about success in infection and binding cells…
13) Thus, if we look at the ability of #XBB15 in binding ACE2 cell receptor… XBB15 is much better (bad) in binding affinity to ACE2 than both old XBB & better than #BQ11. Note— Ba275, while good ACE2 binding, is not that evasive. ➡️XBB15 hence worse on 2 fronts!
14) Let me translate the above for folks—#XBB15 is:
📌one of the most immunity-evasive variants to date
📌one of the best variants for entry and invading human cells.
📌Appears to spread much faster than old XBB or BQ
📌Causes hospitalizations wherever it’s dominant.
Got it?
15) Many people asking if the older Wuhan 1.0 or Bivalent Omicron vaccines will still work? I say that the #bivalent BA5 (used in US) & bivalent BA1 (used in UK) likely has some efficacy. But unclear how much because #XBB15 is a special recombination of BA2 strains—don’t know.
16) I’m going to pause for the night and update folks tomorrow. Hopefully @CDCgov will get their act together and release the startling #XBB15 data soon with more details. Because I’m staring at the shocking #XBB15 data—I can’t believe @CDCDirector hasn’t sounded the alarm yet!
17) I will update the post with more details soon. My posts on COVID are free. Getting scoops and CDC insider memos come at enormous personal resources and energy. Hope worthwhile for folks. Stay tuned for more. Please subscribe — FREE — for updates. drericding.substack.com/subscribe
18) Typo in post #11 above— here are the correct #XBB15 variant surge and MA hospitalization pair. I had posted NJ’s #XBB15 with MA hospital by mistake. Here is also NJ’s #COVID hospitalization. All bad.
19) where else is #XBB15 being found in the US? All states bordering New York and in New England, but also beginning to be seen in the South and in California (which does a lot of sequencing).
21) NEW—it seems #XBB has been found in China🇨🇳. The sequencing data (submitted by scientists there, not by the govt) shows #XBB1 is close to ~ 10% in Shanghai—but unclear yet if it’s #XBB15.
If it is #XBB15–it is so fast—it could swamp out any new China variant.
23) Wastewater #SARSCoV2 viral levels in both Northern Boston and Southern Boston now the highest since last winter’s Omicron. And it is still exponentially climbing.
24) the above wastewater is almost certainly #XBB15 — and same with the **doubling** of #COVID19 hospitalizations in MA in just 1 month. This #XBB15 surge will likely go global. That’s why XBB15 is already been nicknamed “The Kraken”. The WHO needs to give it a new Greek letter.
25) 📍CONFIRMED—at last, @CDCgov has posted the new bad #XBB15 variant numbers — and it seems they did it a day earlier than planned (their website says Dec 31st)—maybe it was under public pressure? ➡️The new data now confirms the wide spread of #XBB15 nationwide—Look at the map!
26) To be clear— #XBB15 is by far the “worst of both worlds” in terms of both existing immunity escape & binding to ACE2 receptor—allowing it enhanced ability infect human cells. This is why it is nicknamed “The Kraken” by @TRyanGregory - and called a super variant. Be vigilant.
27) Unreleased data on XBB15, a super variant that is more immune evasive and better at infecting, surged to 40% of US cases. SCOOP on the spread of this new #COVID19 variant's surge to 40% that went unreported by CDC for 4 weeks. (free to all subscibers) drericding.substack.com/p/the-next-big…
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Plastic cookware should not be used. Period. Especially BLACK PLASTIC cookware, that often mixes in toxic recycled electronic waste materials. DISPOSE OF ALL PLASTIC COOKWARE, especially if black colored plastic ones. Pass it on to your family.
2) Because optical sensors in recycling facilities can’t detect them, black-colored plastics are largely rejected from domestic-waste streams, resulting in a shortage of black base material for recycled plastic. So the demand for black plastic appears to be met “in no insignificant part” via recycled e-waste, according to Turner’s research. TV and computer casings, like the majority of the world’s plastic waste, tend to be recycled in informal waste economies with few regulations and end up remolded into consumer products, including ones, such as spatulas and slotted spoons, that come into contact with food.
3) You simply do not want flame retardants anywhere near your stir-fry. Flame retardants are typically not bound to the polymers to which they are added, making them a particular flight risk: They dislodge easily and make their way into the surrounding environment. And, indeed, another paper from 2018 found that flame retardants in black kitchen utensils readily migrate into hot cooking oil. The health concerns associated with those chemicals are well established: Some flame retardants are endocrine disruptors, which can interfere with the body’s hormonal system, and scientific literature suggests that they may be associated with a range of ailments, including thyroid disease, diabetes, and cancer. People with the highest blood levels of PBDEs, a class of flame retardants found in black plastic, had about a 300 percent increase in their risk of dying from cancer compared with people who had the lowest levels, according to a study released this year. In a separate study, published in a peer-reviewed journal this month, researchers from the advocacy group Toxic-Free Future and from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam found that, out of all of the consumer products they tested, kitchen utensils had some of the highest levels of flame retardants.
⚠️MASK MANDATE RETURNING TO ALL NIH PATIENT CLINICS—Effective November 4, 2024, masking will be required in all patient care & waiting rooms. Furthermore, testing for COVID, flu A, flu B, and RSV will be required for all inpatients & rooming-in visitors. cc.nih.gov/patient-servic…
2) This means wearing a mask will be REQUIRED in all patient care areas, including waiting rooms. ➡️This change is due to an anticipated increase in COVID-19 and other respiratory virus activity in the community. 😷
3) I think people should stock up on COVID tests again. The Cheapest COVID test on the U.S. market is now as low as $1.50 with special promo code “COV20”… expiring Jan or March 2025.
⚠️CDC warning of “fast moving” situation—McDonald’s E. coli outbreak—1 dead, 49 sickened from an E. coli outbreak linked to McDonald’s Quarter Pounder hamburgers across multiple states. @McDonalds has now stopped selling Quarter Pounders from locations in several states. Still yet unknown exact ingredient contaminated. Results still pending. Some suspect it’s the onions, which is why it’s been pulled in some places already. But tracing the exact ingredient source requires tricky case-control studies that needs contact tracing. Nutritional epidemiology of these foods one of the most difficult since people scattered nationwide and lots of ingredients to investigate. Need to be vigilant. Updates coming. cdc.gov/ecoli/outbreak…
The same strain of bacteria has sickened dozens of people in 10 states, although the C.D.C. said most people were from Colorado and Nebraska. One Colorado resident has died. Ten people were hospitalized, including a child who the health agency said has a complicating illness.
3) All of those interviewed said they had eaten at McDonald’s recently, and most said they had consumed Quarter Pounders. The fast-food chain told investigators it mainly uses fresh onion slivers on that item.
Food and health investigators are also trying to determine whether any contaminated beef has been sold to other retailers or grocery stores.
When it comes to the economy, Donald Trump plans to give another massive tax cut to billionaires and big corporations—and further drive up the deficit. All at the expense of the working class.
New study, involving nearly 250,000 adults, found that those with any type of COVID-19 infection in 2020 had📍2x the risk of suffering a major cardiac event in the 3 years after a diagnosis. If COVID hospitalized—then📍4x future cardiac risk. @cbarbermd fortune.com/2024/10/11/cov…
2) In the nearly three years following the acute infection in 2020, the study’s authors found double the risk of heart attack, stroke, and death compared with the uninfected group. Somewhat surprisingly, the elevated risks did not abate over the three years of study, suggesting a problematic staying effect.
3) “The two-fold increased risk observed in year one following infection was also seen in year two, and even year three,” says study author Stanley Hazen, chair of the Department of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Sciences at the Cleveland Clinic. “This was seen in all subjects independent of age, sex, or risk factors for cardiac disease.” (The ages of those in the study ranged from 50 to 86, with an average age of 67.)
📍Trump secretly sent covid tests to Putin during 2020 shortage.
As the coronavirus tore through the world in 2020, and the United States and other countries confronted a shortage of tests designed to detect the illness, then-President Donald Trump secretly sent coveted tests to Russian President Vladimir Putin for his personal use.
Putin, petrified of the virus, accepted the supplies but took pains to prevent political fallout — not for him, but for his American counterpart. He cautioned Trump not to reveal that he had dispatched the scarce medical equipment to Moscow, according to a new book by Bob Woodward.
Putin told Trump, “I don’t want you to tell anybody because people will get mad at you, not me.”
2) All the while, Trump basically told state leaders to go pound sand and buy the tests themselves. There was a worldwide shortage. But Trump prioritized Putin over everyday Americans.
3) Mr. Trump, while still in office early during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, secretly sent Mr. Putin what were then rare tests for the virus for the Russian’s personal use. Mr. Putin, who has been described as particularly concerned about being infected at the time, urged Mr. Trump to not publicly reveal the gesture because it could damage the American president politically. “I don’t want you to tell anybody because people will get mad at you, not me,” Mr. Putin reportedly told him.