Wednesday, June 03, 2020

MONKEYS-FERRETS COULD BE CURE TO COVID-19


REVELATION 6:7-8
7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse:(CHLORES GREEN) and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth,(2 billion) of (8 billion) to kill with sword,(WEAPONS)(500 million) and with hunger,(FAMINE)(500 million) and with death,(INCURABLE DISEASES)(500 million) and with the beasts of the earth.(ANIMAL TO HUMAN DISEASE)(500 million).

EARTH DESTROYED WITH THE EARTH IN NOAHS DAY(BECAUSE OF SIN,VIOLENCE AND GODLESS PEOPLE)

GENESIS 6:11-13
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.(WORLD TERRORISM,MURDERS)(HAMAS IN HEBREW IS VIOLENCE)
12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence (TERRORISM)(HAMAS) through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

HOSEA 4:1-3
1 Hear the word of the LORD, ye chil dren of Israel: for the LORD hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.
2 By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood.
3 Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven; yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away.

DEUTORONOMY 28:22-24
22  The LORD shall smite thee with a consumption, and with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning, and with the sword, and with blasting, and with mildew; and they shall pursue thee until thou perish.
23  And thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron.
24  The LORD shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust: from heaven shall it come down upon thee, until thou be destroyed.

AS OF JUNE 03,20-THERE ARE 356,606 DEATHS OF THE 5,731,837 COVID-19 CASES WORLDWIDE.

Death toll up to 9 in US protests, includes restaurant owner, ex-football star-The Times of Israel-Dozens more have been injured during incidents related to unrest following death of George Floyd; tens of thousands have marched peacefully against police brutality and racism-By LISA MARIE PANE-JUNE 2,20-Today, 1:39 pm

AP — One man was the beloved owner of a Louisville barbecue restaurant who made sure to provide free meals to officers. Another was a man known as “Mr. Indianapolis,” a former star football player. Yet another was a federal officer working security during a protest.They are among the people who have been killed as protests have roiled American cities in the past week since 46-year-old George Floyd died when a white officer jammed his knee into the back of the black man’s neck.The deaths have at times been overshadowed by the shocking images of chaos engulfing cities across America, from heavy-handed riot police tactics to violence, vandalism and arson. Tens of thousands have marched peacefully in demonstrations against police brutality and racism.Many of the people killed were African Americans, compounding the tragedy for black families to lose more members of their community amid the unrest.Dozens more have been hurt in various altercations — vehicles plowing into crowds, police officers suffering head injuries and broken bones and protesters ending up in emergency rooms with a variety of injuries from the melees.The death toll and circumstances surrounding the killings are still being sorted out in many cities, but here is what we know about the cases so far:Louisville-As local police and the National Guard sought to disperse a crowd early Monday, they heard gunshots and returned fire, killing the owner of a barbecue restaurant, David McAtee. The mayor has since terminated the city’s police chief after finding out that officers on the scene did not activate their body cameras. The state police and the US attorney also are investigating.The 53-year-old McAtee was an African American man known for offering free meals to officers who stopped by.“We lost a wonderful citizen named David McAtee,” Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer said. “David was a friend to many, a well-known Barbecue man.”Demonstrators protest over the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky, June 1, 2020. (Darron Cummings/AP)-The protests in Louisville have centered not just on Floyd’s killing but also the death of Breonna Taylor, a black woman killed in her home in Louisville in March. The 26-year-old EMT was shot eight times by narcotics detectives who knocked down her front door as they attempted to enforce a search warrant. No drugs were found in the home.Oakland-A federal law enforcement officer was providing security at the federal courthouse in Oakland during a protest when someone fired shots from a vehicle.Dave Patrick Underwood, 53, died and another officer was critically injured in the shooting.It was not immediately clear if the drive-by shooting was related to the protests, though the federal building’s glass doors were smashed and the front entrance was sprayed with anti-police graffiti.Underwood, who was black, and the other officer were contracted security officers and employed by the Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Protective Service; they were monitoring a nearby protest.No one has been arrested and a motive for the shooting has not yet been determined.A man runs from police officers in Oakland, California, June 1, 2020. (Noah Berger/AP)-Underwood was the brother of Angela Underwood Jacobs, recently a Republican candidate to fill a vacant US congressional district north of Los Angeles.Indianapolis-Two people were killed over the weekend amid unrest in Indianapolis, including 38-year-old Chris Beaty, a former offensive lineman for Indiana University.Beaty was known as “Mr. Indianapolis” and remained involved with the Hoosiers long after his graduation. He also was a prominent businessman in the city and ran multiple nightclubs.A pedestrian photographs the boarded up store front in Indianapolis, that features the names of African Americans who lost their lives in incidents with police, June 1, 2020. (Michael Conroy/AP)-“I am at a loss for words. The news of the passing of Chris Beaty is just devastating,” coach Tom Allen said in a statement. “Since I returned home to coach at Indiana, Chris embraced me, encouraged me and supported me! His passion for life and Indiana Football energized me every time we were together.”The circumstances of his shooting weren’t immediately clear but some media reports said it happened near an apartment where he lived. It also occurred the same night that an 18-year-old man also was fatally shot as protests broke out in the city.Minneapolis-In what is believed to be the first killing since the protests broke out, a 43-year-old black man was fatally shot outside a pawn shop as rioting broke out last week in Minneapolis and then spread nationally.The owner of the pawn shop, who is white, was arrested in the death of Calvin L. Horton Jr. Police say they are investigating the circumstances surrounding the killing, including whether it was related to protests in the neighborhood.The shop was described as having been significantly damaged during unrest.Omaha, Nebraska-A 22-year-old black man was killed after authorities said he tussled with the owner of two bars in downtown Omaha. Surveillance video of the strip of bars shows a group of people, including James Scurlock, approach bar owner Jake Gardner.Two people are seen on the video tackling Gardner, who ended up on his back and fired shots in the air. Seconds later, Scurlock is seen tackling Gardner, who then fires the gun over his shoulder, striking Scurlock.Authorities have declined to press charges, calling the shooting self-defense.Detroit-A 21-year-old man was killed in downtown Detroit after someone fired shots into a vehicle during a protest. According to a police report, the man was sitting in the driver’s seat of a car in a parking lot with two others when someone fired shots into the vehicle and then fled on foot.Chicago suburb-Two people were killed during unrest Monday in the Chicago suburb of Cicero, according to a town official. Spokesman Ray Hanania did not provide details about those who were killed but said it happened amid protests there.

World outrage grows at Floyd’s death; European Union ‘shocked, appalled’-The Times of Israel-EU foreign policy chief says fatal incident was an abuse of power; demonstrators in Australia join protests, call for change in their own society-By LORNE COOK and RICK RYCROFT    Today, 3:14 pm

BRUSSELS (AP) — World outrage at George Floyd’s death in the US was growing Tuesday as the European Union’s top diplomat said the bloc was “shocked and appalled” by it and thousands marched in Australia’s largest city.In France, protests were planned for the evening in Paris and across the country after calls from the family of a French black man who died shortly after he was arrested by police in 2016. A protest was also planned in The Hague, Netherlands.Floyd died last week after he was pinned to the pavement by a white police officer in Minneapolis who put his knee on the handcuffed black man’s neck until he stopped breathing. His death set off protests that spread across America.EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell’s remarks in Brussels were the strongest so far to come out of the 27-nation bloc, saying Floyd’s death was a result of an abuse of power.Borrell told reporters that “like the people of the United States, we are shocked and appalled by the death of George Floyd.” He underlined that Europeans “support the right to peaceful protest, and also we condemn violence and racism of any kind, and for sure, we call for a de-escalation of tensions.”European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell addresses a video press conference at EU headquarters in Brussels, June 2, 2020. (Olivier Hoslet, Pool Photo via AP)-Protesters around the world have expressed solidarity with Americans demonstrating against Floyd’s death.Thousands marched through downtown Sydney on Tuesday. The protesters in Australia’s largest city chanted, “I can’t breathe” — some of the final words of both Floyd and David Dungay, a 26-year-old Aboriginal man who died in a Sydney prison in 2015 while being restrained by five guards.The demonstrators carried placards reading, “Black Lives Matter,” “Aboriginal Lives Matter,” “White Silence is Violence” and, referring to those protesting in cities across the US, “We See You, We Hear Your, We Stand With You.” Other placards read, “We’re here because they aren’t,” with depictions of Floyd and Dungay.The protesters, who appeared to number around 3,000, marched from Hyde Park to the New South Wales state Parliament, with plans to continue to the US Consulate.“It’s just gut-wrenching the climate of what’s happening in America, and it’s also happening here in Australia, though it’s subtle. Racism is real for me,” said one of the protesters, Aoatua Lee.Around 2,000 demonstrators had gathered in Australia’s west coast city of Perth on Monday night to peacefully protest Floyd’s death, and rallies are planned for other Australian cities this week.An indigenous Australian lawmaker called on governments to use Floyd’s death as an opportunity to reduce deaths of indigenous people in custody.Linda Burney, the opposition spokeswoman on indigenous Australians, said Tuesday that more than 430 indigenous people had died in Australian police custody since 1991.“I think we should be using it as an opportunity,” Burney told Australian Broadcasting Corp., referring to Floyd’s death. “Whether we like it or not, it doesn’t take much for racism to come out of the underbelly of this country.”“It seems to me that there are lots of things that state and territory governments could do, and the federal government could do to lower the number of Aboriginal people in custody,” she added.While indigenous adults make up only 2% of the Australian population, they account for 27% of the prison population.Opposition leader Anthony Albanese backed Burney’s call. “There are far too many indigenous Australians who are incarcerated today. As a percentage of the population, this is a tragedy and it’s one that must be addressed as an absolute national priority,” Albanese told reporters.Meanwhile, more African leaders are speaking up over the killing of Floyd.“It cannot be right that, in the 21st century, the United States, this great bastion of democracy, continues to grapple with the problem of systemic racism,” Ghana’s president, Nana Akufo-Addo, said in a statement, adding that black people the world over are shocked and distraught.
Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo addresses participants of the ‘G20 Investment Summit – German Business and the CwA Countries 2019’ in Berlin, Germany on November 19, 2019. (John MacDougall/Pool via AP)-Kenyan opposition leader and former Prime Pinister Raila Odinga offered a prayer for the US, “that there be justice and freedom for all human beings who call America their country.”Like some in Africa who have spoken out, Odinga also noted troubles at home, saying the judging of people by character instead of skin color “is a dream we in Africa, too, owe our citizens.”And South Africa’s finance minister, Tito Mboweni, recalled leading a small protest outside the US Embassy several years ago over the apparent systemic killings of blacks. Mboweni said the US ambassador at the time, Patrick Gaspard, “invited me to his office and said: ‘What you see is nothing, it is much worse.'”In Europe on Monday, thousands spilled across streets in Amsterdam to denounce police brutality, and those demonstrating in Paris urged the French government to take police violence more seriously and held up signs like “Racism is suffocating us.”Some government leaders have seen the US unrest as a chance to highlight what they see as American hypocrisy on protest movements at home versus abroad.Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam questioned the foreign criticism over an imminent national security law being imposed in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory.“They take their own country’s national security very seriously, but for the security of our country, especially the situation in Hong Kong, they are looking at it through tinted glasses,” Lam said Tuesday.

Monkeys, ferrets offer needed clues in COVID-19 vaccine race-The Times of Israel-Researchers infect animals with the coronavirus to study their bodies’ reaction, but say that much work still needs to be done-By LAURAN NEERGAARD-june 2,20-Today, 1:55 pm

AP — The global race for a COVID-19 vaccine boils down to some critical questions: How much must the shots rev up someone’s immune system to really work? And could revving it the wrong way cause harm?Even as companies recruit tens of thousands of people for larger vaccine studies this summer, behind the scenes scientists still are testing ferrets, monkeys and other animals in hopes of clues to those basic questions — steps that in a pre-pandemic era would have been finished first.“We are in essence doing a great experiment,” said Ralph Baric, a coronavirus expert at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, whose lab is testing several vaccine candidates in animals.The speed-up is necessary to try to stop a virus that has triggered a pandemic, killing more than 360,000 worldwide and shuttering economies. But “there’s no question there is more risk in the current strategy than what has ever been done before,” Baric said.The animal testing lets scientists see how the body reacts to vaccines in ways studies in people never can, said Kate Broderick, research chief at Inovio Pharmaceuticals.With animals, “we’re able to perform autopsies and look specifically at their lung tissue and get a really deep dive in looking at how their lungs have reacted,” Broderick said.A participant in a COVID-19 coronavirus vaccine trial receives an injection in Kansas City, Missouri, April 8, 2020. (Center for Pharmaceutical Research via AP)-She’s awaiting results from mice, ferrets and monkeys that are being exposed to the coronavirus after receiving Inovio’s vaccine. Since no species perfectly mimics human infection, testing a trio broadens the look at safety.And there’s some good news on the safety front as the first animal data from various research teams starts to trickle out. So far, there are no signs of a worrisome side effect called disease enhancement, which Dr. Anthony Fauci of the US National Institutes of Health calls reassuring.Enhancement is just what the name implies: Very rarely, a vaccine doesn’t stimulate the immune system in quite the right way, producing antibodies that not only can’t fully block infection but that make any resulting disease worse.That first happened in the 1960s with failure of a vaccine for respiratory syncytial virus, RSV, an infection dangerous to young children. More recently, it has complicated efforts at vaccines against mosquito-spread dengue fever.And some attempted vaccines for SARS, a cousin of COVID-19, seemed to cause enhancement in animal testing.Fast forward to the pandemic. Three recently reported studies in monkeys tested different COVID-19 vaccine approaches, including shots made by Oxford University and China’s Sinovac. The studies were small, but none of the monkeys showed evidence of immune-enhanced disease when scientists later dripped the coronavirus directly into the animals’ noses or windpipes.Some of the best evidence so far that a vaccine might work also comes from those monkey studies. Oxford and Sinovac created very different types of COVID-19 vaccines, and in separate studies, each team recently reported that vaccinated monkeys were protected from pneumonia while monkeys given a dummy shot got sick.But protection against severe disease is just a first step. Could a vaccine also stop the virus’s spread? The Oxford study raises some doubt.Those researchers found as much virus lingering in the vaccinated monkeys’ noses as in the unvaccinated. Even though the experiment exposed monkeys to high levels of the coronavirus, it raised troubling questions.In this April 2014 photo, a researcher holds a ferret at a facility in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. (VIDO-InterVac at the University of Saskatchewan via AP)-The type of vaccine — how it targets the “spike” protein that coats the coronavirus — may make a difference. Researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston designed six different vaccine prototypes. Some only partially protected monkeys — but one fully protected eight monkeys from any sign of the virus, said Dr. Dan Barouch, who is working with Johnson & Johnson on yet another COVID-19 vaccine candidate.In monkeys, the new coronavirus lodges in the lungs but seldom makes them super sick. Ferrets — the preferred animal for flu vaccine development — may help tell if potential COVID-19 vaccines might stop the viral spread.“Ferrets develop a fever. They also cough and sneeze,” infecting each other much like people do, said vaccine researcher Alyson Kelvin of Canada’s Dalhousie University.And while COVID-19 is a huge risk to the elderly, vaccines often don’t rev up an older person’s immune system as well as a younger person’s. So Kelvin also is studying older ferrets.Some vaccine makers are reporting promising immune reactions in the first people given the experimental shots, including production of “neutralizing” antibodies, a kind that latches onto the virus and blocks it from infecting cells. But there’s a hitch.Said Inovio’s Broderick: “Let me be honest. We’re still not clear at all on what those correlates of protection are” — meaning what mix of immune reactions, and how much, are needed.Some clues come from the blood of COVID-19 survivors, although “there’s a huge variation” in immune reactions between the severely and mildly ill, Broderick added.Still, if vaccinated animals that produce the same neutralizing antibody levels as certain COVID-19 survivors are protected — and people given test doses likewise produce the same amount — “that is great comfort that your vaccine approach actually may work,” said Kathrin Jansen, head of Pfizer Inc.’s vaccine research.But ultimately the real proof won’t come before huge studies of whether vaccinated people get sick less often than the unvaccinated.

US vows to prevent ‘corrupt’ ICC from probing Americans, Israelis for war crimes-The Times of IsraelSecretary of State Pompeo says there will be ‘series of announcements’ aimed at preventing The Hague from opening investigations in Afghanistan, Palestinian territories-By Raphael Ahren-JUNE 2,20-Today, 11:08 am

The US is about to launch a concerted effort to prevent the International Criminal Court from opening war crime investigations that could see American and Israeli officials in the dock in The Hague, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Monday.“I think that the ICC and the world will see that we are determined to prevent having Americans and our friends and allies in Israel and elsewhere hauled in by this corrupt ICC,” he told a podcast hosted by the American Enterprise Institute think tank.“I don’t want to get ahead of the announcements we’re going to make in the coming days but I think you’ll see,” he said.The ICC is currently weighing whether to open separate criminal investigations into the “situation in Afghanistan,” which could see UK and American troops tried for war crimes, and the “situation in Palestine,” which may result in Israelis and Palestinians being tried for war crimes.“I’m very concerned about it,” Pompeo said. “You’ll see, in the coming days, a series of announcements, not just from the State Department, all across the United States government, that attempt to push back against what the ICC is up to.”Neither the US nor Israel are members of the court and therefore reject the ICC’s attempt to exert criminal jurisdiction over their nationals.US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, left, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his Jerusalem residence, May 13, 2020 (Kobi Gideon/PMO)-“And under international law, one of the key features of exercise of power by a body such as the ICC is that you say yep, I want to be part of that. We never signed up for the [Rome Statue, the ICC’s foundational document],” the US top diplomat said.“And now this court has become corrupted and is attempting to go after the young men and women of the United States of America who fought so hard… And they think that the ICC ought to be able to haul these young men and women in. We will never let that happen. We’re working along many fronts to prevent it from happening.”Pompeo added: “They’re doing this not just to us, but to Israel, where they’re beginning to look into what took place in the West Bank. Again, it’s completely inappropriate. It’s completely inconsistent with international law. And it puts our young men and women at risk and it’s something President [Donald] Trump and our team aren’t going to permit to happen.”Pompeo has long fought the ICC’s efforts to pursue investigations into cases where Americans or Israelis are involved. Last month, after a brief visit to Israel, he issued a formal statement reiterating Washington’s “longstanding objection to any illegitimate ICC investigations” into Israel and threatening that any attempt to assert jurisdiction over Israelis would “exact consequences.”Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, center, and Deputy Prosecutor James Stewart, right, attend the first audience with the chief of Central African Republic’s soccer federation Patrice-Edouard Ngaissona at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, the Netherlands on January 25, 2019. (Koen Van Well/Pool photo via AP)On April 30, ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda reiterated her position that Palestine is a state for the purposes of transferring criminal jurisdiction over its territory to The Hague.It is now up to a pretrial chamber to rule on the matter. The three judges of that chamber — Péter Kovács of Hungary, Marc Perrin de Brichambaut of France and Reine Adélaïde Sophie Alapini-Gansou of Benin — have no set deadline to hand down their decision but are expected to do so in less than 90 days.Israel argues that Palestine is not a sovereign state and therefore cannot transfer criminal jurisdiction over its territory to the Hague. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly denounced the ICC and declared thwarting a possible war crimes probe one of the new government’s top priorities.