Consumed by the Coronavirus

Everyday we hear about it, people are talking about it in their local communities, many are experiencing it whether they know or not. There are many things we know about it and they are many things we don’t know about it. It has altered the way we currently live in our daily lives. And for some people it will alter their lives permanently one way or another. Millions have lost their jobs as their companies had to shutdown, some temporarily while others it might be permanent but many wonder when is normal coming back. We are consumed by the coronavirus! This is not your typical subject matter that is discussed here but since this is a major worldwide epidemic disease that has impacted many people all over the world in different ways and will change economies and perhaps governments as we know them, I decided to address what has been going on and address some very important things you need to know concerning the coronavirus!

In December 2019, word leaked out about an outbreak of people getting sick in Wuhan, Hubei Provence, China. The Chinese government decided to suppressed the discovery by arresting the doctor who originally discovered the virus and charged him with spreading rumors. They considered the new disease a threat to their power on the world stage because it could weaken their economy which was struggling already for other reasons. Later on, the doctor who was arrested and then put in jail for a time supposedly died from the Coronavirus. Some say he was killed either way he died. The story got little attention from the corporate media like CNN and MSNBC and in some regards Fox News.

During the original cover up, China allowed five million people to travel from the affected area to other areas for about a month. And acted as though nothing had happened. This, in turn, allowed the virus to spread from one city to the next eventually people from other countries were infected within one month. China’s decision was intentional, the Communist government in China wanted to share the virus with the rest of the world so it wouldn’t be the only country to feel its negative impact.

Then on January 31st, 2020 the United States bans non-citizens from China from entering the country. The ban did not include US citizens who were warned about traveling to China by the CDC on January 8th and were encouraged to take precautions. Prior to that on January 14, 2020 at 5:18am the World Health Organization countered the seriousness of the outbreak which was growing by tweeting this from their twitter account…

“Preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel #coronavirus (2019-nCoV) identified in Wuhan, China.”

Helping The Spread: Racial Identity Politics

The World Health Organization tweet helped fuel racial identity politics show its ugly head because it encouraged people not to social distance and those who did were considered racists. It was also being used to criticize the Trump administration’s taking the virus seriously along with the new travel ban policy as being racist. NY leaders had downplayed the virus comparing it to a common cold or the flu while using racial identity politics. Here is an example, take a look on what the Mayor of NY tweeted in the beginning of March 2020…

“We want New Yorkers to go about their everyday lives — use the subway, take the bus, etc.,” city Health Commissioner Dr. Oxiris Barbot said, explaining that COVID-19 “is not an illness that can be easily spread through casual contact.” From AP report, “Officials try to calm nerves as NY reports 1st COVID-19 case” March 2nd, 2020.

A week later the Mayor doubled down on his advice but the following week he accused the Trump administration of abandoning his city where the virus was infecting many New Yorkers who were getting sick and some were dying. Since then on April 4th, 2020, slightly over a month later since the first case was confirmed, NY York city has 63,000+ inflections with 500 to 700 new cases a day as well as over 1500+ deaths! Not only that but there are 307,000+ cases in the United States alone! Those numbers are expected to increase substantially for another week or more. And it wasn’t just the Mayor of New York, this failure had to do with preparation and this time it wasn’t the Mayor of the city of New York but the Governor of New York! The New York Health Department published a report guidelines for ventilator allocation in November 2015. It reads as follows…

“…during a severe influenza pandemic there is likely to be a shortfall of ventilators during peak week demand”

Governor Andrew Cuomo during that time decides not to buy more ventilators despite what his own health department warned about in the report! The Governor instead ordered his commission to find ways to ration what ventilators they had which was about 2,000. In other words, during that time, having a sufficient amount of ventilators in time for a severe flu outbreak was not a priority for the ones who voted him into office. Perhaps when a crisis would arise, he would rather have the Federal government supply his state while he could spend New York’s tax money on other things he found to be more important like a 750 million dollar solar project. This policy hurt his voters big time when the coronavirus rapidly spread throughout his state and the rest of the country and world which created a high volume of demand for ventilators that caused shortages!

So here you have the mayor NY encouraging crowds along with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi encouraging people to gather in the streets for the Chinese New Year, a NY State Senator doing the same and you have a governor who did not want to buy much needed supplies for medical reasons, helped increase a major disaster for New York as well as for the rest of the country! Many people flow in and out of New York before social distancing was finally accepted and practiced there!

Six days later after the World Health Organization’s tweet downplaying the virus, WHO does a complete flip much like the mayor of the city of New York did a little over a month later as the cover up became uncovered, people were getting infected and sick by the Coronavirus all over the world! On January 20th, 2020 the World Health Organization called it a “public health emergency of international concern”. The United States creates a Coronavirus Task Force on January 29th. By January 31st the Coronavirus was declared a pandemic!

I went on vacation in Florida in February 2020, at the time, a Japanese Cruise Ship was infected by the virus, people were not allowed to leave the ship. Confined to their cabins with a crew that was serving them was also infected! As a result, more and more people got infected on the ship. Cases began to surface in the United States but it was hard to tell how fast it was spreading. Because it was against the law to use test kits not made by the CDC (Center for Disease Control), also it was against the law for private companies to manufacture the test kits even those proven to be reliable.

The CDC test kit creation did not work originally, often to referred to as a snag which slowed down testing of the virus in the United States! This is one of the reasons why too much government control can be harmful to people’s health and hinder a response to the pandemic. Instead of using test kits that already were working and allowing private companies to produce them right away, they had to follow the law and do it this way which was a diseaser. The CDC did fix the problem and test kits were allowed to be manufactured by private companies as the Trump Administration relaxed the laws, but precious time was wasted with all the red tape that had to be cleared which took time! The virus with its novelty was spreading faster than anyone could have predicted!

Coronavirus Ever Growing Diverse Profile

Like some Americans, I’m an essential worker. I have continued to work while this crisis is going on. I have to take a health screening test everyday for work as well as for physical therapy. My health remains in good shape. Because we don’t know a lot about the virus, these screenings have been narrowed a bit, and in some cases broaden. Broaden in a sense that if you are sick even if it’s not the virus, you stay home until you are well enough to come back. Being sick doesn’t automatically mean you have the virus. Although it does makes you more vulnerable to the virus if you are sick! Since the human body is complex and different for each person, the virus tends to have different effects on people which is why it has a diverse profile of symptoms. However, a recent discovery about the coronavirus that is not unique is the loss of taste and smell. So if this happens to you, there is a good chance that you have the virus.

A List of Symptoms

The most common symptoms which is generally connected with the most serve cases is shortness of breath, fever, temperature of 104, coughing, and sneezing. A non-common symptom one of which I have been tested on and that is holding your breath for 10 seconds and releasing. Do you feel a burning sensation? Do you feel dizzy after doing that? If the answer is no, you passed this test. But if not, there is a chance that you have the virus which likes to attack your lungs! More symptoms are being added as we learn more about the virus so try to keep updated.

Protecting Yourself & Others

Help stop the spread! You hear this a thousand times, some of you need the constant reminding but it is very important to practice social distancing and wash your hands. Only travel out of necessity and not for luxury until the crisis is over. This is a very infectious virus, one that we do not fully understand. Having said that, we should not panic. I have noticed and so of many of you that may be reading this but people have been hoarding certain items. Some fear a major shutdown.

You have to understand, this is not the end of the world. If people take what they generally need with some extra in case they get sick, the shelves would be filled more like normal and people wouldn’t have to stress looking for items or wondering if they will ever get to buy those items. These items would be available like normal if people buy smartly. And what I mean by buying some extra is not buying a month’s supply in one week! A little extra here and there each week if you haven’t prepared will go a long way. Don’t worry as the suppliers are still working and will eventually catch up with the demand.

The US government is now suggesting face masks but not the N95 ones. Paper face masks do not work, the coronavirus is small enough to go through those. A scarf or cloth. Also, I want to point out, just a face mask will not prevent you from getting the coronavirus. It helps not to give the virus to people but it doesn’t totally protect you. I saw one man in the store wearing an n95 mask but his eyes were exposed which means he could still get the virus. Yep, your eyes are connected to your respiratory system and if the virus can get on your eyes if can infect you that way so if you really want to protect yourself, you cover not only your mouth and nose but your eyes too.

I want to conclude this post with this. God is in control of all things, and it’s Him we should rely on which is why I believe He allows such things like this to happen. We will get through this crisis with His help. Christians are not alone, God is always here to help!

There might be more on this topic in the coming weeks along with other topics, so stay tuned!

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New Discoveries About Neanderthals Continues to Falsify Old Assumptions

Neanderthals for many years have this story about them based on the hypothesis of evolution. Yes, hypothesis because I’m not longer calling evolution a “theory” because usually most theories have so much more scientific evidence than what evolution provides.

Neanderthals is a clear example of Paleoanthropologists making up behaviors, how Neanderthals lived, their level of intelligence and what they may have sounded like and often referred to as “brutes” was all based on evolution and you know what? They have been so way off the mark because of their belief in evolution!

In Spain, discoveries were found that Neanderthals had ancient tools like drills and scrapers which they used to process minerals in the caves. Neanderthals created artwork which gave us some insight on how they really lived. They also had their own language which didn’t entail grunting noises as suggested! In the Smithsonian Magazine published on May 19, 2019 said that for years (evolutionists and some non-evolutionists) people described Neanderthals as “stocky, stooped figures, preternaturally low-browed, who became extinct as sapiens inherited the earth.” Basically the fairytale suggested that Neanderthals were too primitive so they went extinct.

In the beginning, if researchers had used the scientific method like they were supposed to do rather than use the discovery for the evolutionary tree without evidence, Neanderthals would have been considered fully human and all this falsification that we have witnessed over the years in recent times would not exist.

As the Smithsonian Magazine correctly points out…

“Through advances in archaeology, dating, genetics, biological anthropology and many related disciplines we now know that Neanderthals not only had bigger brains than sapiens, but also walked upright and had a greater lung capacity. These ice age Eurasians were skilled toolmakers and big-game hunters who lived in large social groups, built shelters, traded jewelry, wore clothing, ate plants and cooked them, and made sticky pitch to secure their spear points by heating birch bark. Evidence is mounting that Neanderthals had a complex language and even, given the care with which they buried their dead, some form of spirituality. And as the cave art in Spain demonstrates, these early settlers had the chutzpah to enter an unwelcoming underground environment, using fire to light the way.”

Now that sounds like ancient humans related to the human race of today! And I suspect more discoveries on how fully human they always were will also surface. But these discoveries haven’t overturned the dating problem that is used by evolutionists. Neanderthal DNA is still around! DNA is organic, we know it decays rapidly. Well, evolutionists believe Neanderthals lived about 40,000 to 400,000 years ago and somehow the organic material (DNA) survived through all them years under extreme conditions. Plus DNA mutates about 100 new mutations every generation! The half life of DNA is estimated at 521 years along with DNA not being stable outside of a living cell!

Courts have ruled that DNA many decades old is too damaged to be used as evidence in a court of law! Just look up cases that involve reconstruction of old DNA for criminal cases. There are even debates in college campuses about the reliability of old DNA. So there are issues in the modern times about how quickly DNA can get damaged, 40,000 to 400,000 years ago would be so damaged thus rendering it unrecognizable rather than remaining intact and in fairly good shape as we see with the Neanderthal DNA today!

More Soft Tissue Is Discovered

Soft tissue from ancient animals like dinosaurs have been controversial. Not for creationism because this confirms the biblical account of the earth and the rest of the universe of being thousands of years old, not billions. Scientists who believe in evolution have had a new challenge among them since the discovery in 2005, by Mary Schweitzer which she found by accident. Prior to that time, no researcher was looking for soft-tissue. However, the discoveries must be by a person who believes in evolution! California State University, Northridge scientist Mark Armitage who is a creationist was fired after his discovery of soft-tissue which was published in a peer-review paper in 2014! Socialism breeds no freedom outside its narrative likewise so does evolution! The two go hand in hand.

To date, 41 fossils and counting have been discovered containing their original soft-tissue in them. Researchers are not only looking for soft-tissue which has lead to more new discoveries within the fossils, but they are also are in an uphill losing battle about trying to explain material that rapidly decays in a short period of time and then turns that observation around as proof of vast long periods of time which would confirm their belief in evolution.

Yale’s press release caption

We will now take a look at one of the more recent explanations, then turn our attention to some cool new discoveries concerning soft-tissue!

Yale put out a new study in its press release…

“We took on the challenge of understanding protein fossilization,” said Yale paleontologist Jasmina Wiemann, the study’s lead author. “We tested 35 samples of fossil bones, eggshells, and teeth to learn whether they preserve proteinaceous soft tissues, find out their chemical composition, and determine under what conditions they were able to survive for millions of years.”

While the study embraces long periods of time due to its Darwinian narrative, its estimate on “rapid decay” of organic material is massively overstated. They estimate organic material completely degrades in a span of four million years. Yet, even by their own estimation, it presents a major challenge for them. How do you explain fossils with organic material in them that is supposedly 65 to over 100 million years old that was able to survive in extreme environmental conditions for long periods of time as well.

Trying to defy the Law of Entropy is no easy task but some scientists are determined to come up with an explanation that just does that! If not, more people might start doubting evolution or it might even confirm doubts from those on the fence who were leaning toward evolution but not quite fully embracing it and perhaps some of their funding would also be affected as taxpayers find it more necessary to fund other things.

The Toaster Effect

In order to defy the Law of Entropy, you have to come up with an ideal environment which produces material that is resistant to decay. Sounds like rust inhibitor for your car which didn’t happen by accident but intelligently designed. They partly tested their theory in a lab, one problem and it’s a major problem, scientists do not believe soft-tissue can be found in reducing environments!

Decalcified vertebrate hard tissues (representing a total of 7 specimens). a Paleonisciform ganoid scale (Oxfordian (Jurassic), Xinjiang, China) showing articulated blood vessels (abv) of the dentine and organic matrix with peripheral aligned and ordered (otpn), or unordered (utnp), tubular nerve projections. The left scale bar equals 500 μm, the right one 250 μm.

The Toaster Effect (which I call it as) requires that this delicate material along with its fine details remain fully intact as a result of miraculously avoiding rapid decay over a period of 65 million to over 100 million years. It is quite a challenge in trying to convert something thousands of years old into many millions of years! This hypothesis fails to confirm evolution which is why we will see many more explanations about this particular issue in the future!

On to more exciting discoveries! Two more fossils have been discovered, one in Germany and another in China that contains soft-tissue. Mary Schweitzer who was previously mentioned at the beginning of this blog posted a press release about the new discovery…

“Both the body outline and remnants of internal organs are clearly visible,” says Lindgren. “Remarkably, the fossil is so well-preserved that it is possible to observe individual cellular layers within its skin.”

“Researchers identified cell-like microstructures that held pigment organelles within the fossil’s skin, as well as traces of an internal organ, thought to be the liver. They also observed material chemically consistent with vertebrate blubber, which is only found in animals capable of maintaining body temperatures independent of ambient conditions.”

Because these animals haven’t been in the fossil record for millions of years, we can learn more about them because their bodies are more intact than they would have been otherwise. It’s awesome to find out that ichthyosaurs were warm-blooded and may have had camouflage! Interesting to note, a question for evolutionists, how could an animal fossil supposedly 180 million years old still have its original protein that is still stretchy and flexible? Caught up in their own narrative of evolution, they wait for someone to come up with a miraculous but impossible explanation to confirm it whereas observations are falsifying it.

“The team’s discoveries relied in part on an array of new technologies for studying fossils. But the German fossil is also unusual in that it appears to have fossilized very quickly, preserving soft tissues before they rotted away. It won’t be the only one of its kind, Lindgren says. “I expect there are other specimens out there, for sure.”

Yes, I agree with Lindgren on this issue, he’s right about other possible specimens who have been “fossilized very quickly” but what about a great flood that buried this animal and others like it? Creationists believe that is exactly what happened to this animal. It had been rapidly buried by Noah’s flood and since it’s not that old its original protein was preserved and now available for research! Since Lindgren is trapped into the narrative of evolution like so many others in his field, he calls the ichthyosaur a “reptile” despite the fact that this animal is warm-blooded and has no scales and looks like a toothed whale or dolphin. The narrative requires a belief that the sea made animals evolve alike! If this was a valid theory, one of the things we would be finding is less variety in the sea, not more, many creatures do not look alike in the sea! Since the evolution narrative says that reptiles were before mammals and these two fossils are before what they consider the mammal period, they clearly have to believe despite evidence to the contrary that this mammal (ichthyosaurs) is a reptile. Confusing isn’t it? This generally happens consistently in the explanations of evolution. 

Main slab of Pengornithid Enantiornithine, preserved in three-dimensions unlike most compression fossils from the Jehol Biota. Scale bar is one centimeter. Credit: Jingmai O’Connor

The second fossil discovered in China is a medullary bone commonly found in female birds today and some dinosaurs from the past. The bone itself contains a very fragile type of tissue which only exists during egg laying. A huge problem for those trying to explain millions of years but not a problem for a young earth. The medullary bone was also discovered in a T-Rex back in 2005, which shocked many evolutionists who are now working on an explanation, one of which we previously went over in this blog.

In conclusion, we don’t have to be trapped inside such a narrative that gets astoundingly confusing because of conflict with observations! There are surprises in science but not like this on a regular basis. We can think outside the box and get excited about new discoveries which confirm the Bible! Looking forward to more new discoveries in this area of science. Thanks for reading this article!

Is The Stem Cell Debate Over?

Harvesting embryonic cells for research had sparked a debate with the pro-life movement. Not with the research itself but how the stem cells were obtained. Years ago, I can remember some friends of mine who were highly critical of George W. Bush for withdrawing funding for the research along with celebrities like Michael J Fox who had Parkinson’s disease. All of which was found to be a non-issue with the discovery in 2007 when scientists were able to reprogram adult stem cells back to their embryonic state.

In the last few years, there hasn’t been much news about stem cell research in general. Here are a few new developments in the field… Wildfires have been raging in California, fighting fires like these often times result in injuries. Canadian researchers have devised a way to grow stem cells from the burnt victims own skin in order to increase the recovery time.

From Medical Xpress…

“Until now, almost nobody thought of looking for viable cells in the burned skin itself, which is normally considered medical waste. When the U of T researchers began looking in the first pieces of discarded skin, they hoped to find even one living cell. They were exhilarated by the discovery of thousands of cells – in some cases up to one million cells.”

“Much faster healing would be a major step forward.”

Not only would faster healing be a tremendous accomplishment but also limit the rejection rate. Prior to this proposed research, stem cells used in this type of treatment came from other people’s bodies. The rejection rate is very high for the patients who obtained this type of treatment which is something critics of the pro-life movement failed to take into an account.

Who would have thought to use burned skin? Practically nobody but these Canadian researchers decided to think outside the box and will put into practice next year as they test their new theory! This is great research hopefully they will get good results!

The debate over harvesting embryonic cells for research isn’t quite dead, despite the fact that stem cells can be used from a patient’s own body whether that be reprogramed stem cells or adult stem cells, in general, which produces a much greater success for recovery. Some Scientists are trying to be a little sneaky about using embryonic cells which are considered to be human. They changed the term to “hES” cells rather than calling it “human embryonic stem cells”., Of course, there is an ethical issue with their experiment so even though they admit as much, they still try and hide it. So if are a patient of this research, be aware of the terms used so you know what you are getting because it’s not only your life (because your immune system can perceive them as “foreign,” and reject them) but someone else’s life too.

Scientists do not have to be sneaky, in fact, it’s unethical to be that sneaky! They can use better alternatives like the Canadian researchers are planning on doing next year. Another indication that the debate is not over is the fact that there is a rising popularity with cloning. By cloning the person, embryonic cells would have a much better chance of being accepted by the patient’s body. However, when Human Embryonic cells were injected into mice, the mice got tumors which were cancerous. There is no margin for error, if just one cell doesn’t reproduce the right way, it would mean death for the patient. So the treatment may someday cure someone with one disease but then kill them with another.

Reprogrammed cells have not eliminated the cancer threat. If scientists can reprogram adult stem cells without altering the DNA which may reduce the risk of cancer, you might see the pro-life movement and those against it on the same side on this issue!