Category Archives: medical news

medical news

POTUS praises ex-POTUS

President Biden today did something worthy of a word of praise, as it shows a largeness of spirit that too often was missing from his immediate predecessor.

Biden today offered a word of praise to Donald J. Trump for getting a booster shot — and admitting to it — and for the development of the vaccines that are protecting 200 million or so Americans from the killer COVID-19 virus and its assorted variants.

Imagine the former POTUS doing such a thing. I know. It wouldn’t happen. It won’t happen.

Biden’s magnanimous spirit comes in the heat of a contentious political climate. His immediate predecessor keeps spewing The Big Lie about “rampant voter fraud” in the 2020 election and yet the man who defeated him in that election found a moment today to toss a bouquet at the former POTUS.

It might that President Biden has an ulterior motive. He well could be appealing to that base of Trump cultists who refuse to get vaccinated. It might be that he is seeking to soften their foolish resistance to the vaccine. Whatever it takes … you know?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

medical news

Oh, Sarah … shut up!

REUTERS/Rick Wilking

Oh, my. Sarah “Barracuda” Palin had been MIA for a while. Then she shows up again to sputter absolute nonsense about the COVID-19 vaccine.

She said she would be vaccinated “over my dead body.” What the hell? I mean, she’s already come down with the virus. I don’t recall if she got sick from it. Frankly, I hope not. I hope she has made a full recovery. I also wish she would keep her trap shut when talking about the vaccine. Indeed, the “over my dead body” statement very well could become something of a self-fulfilling prophecy, given that the vast majority of people who are dying from the virus are, um, unvaccinated. Don’t misunderstand me: I do not want that to happen to her; I am just stating what I know to be the truth.

She doesn’t know what the hell she’s talking about. The 2008 Republican vice-presidential nominee and former half-term Alaska governor is an anti-vaxxer.

She said her kids won’t be vaccinated, either. Doesn’t this dimwit understand she is putting her kids in jeopardy? Well, several of the young Palins are adults now, so they can decide for themselves what to do. My guess is that they’re following Mom down the path of foolishness and recklessness.

I just kind of wish now that Sarah Palin would just slink back into the shadows.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

medical news

Mask up, America!

Here comes my latest declaration: With the Omicron variant spreading, along with those other COVID-19 variants, I have decided that I will go nowhere without a mask.

We have a bunch of ’em in the console in our truck. They all fit nicely. They all seem to do what they are intended to do, which is protect us from the virus that is infecting, sickening and killing Americans.

They’re shutting down Broadway shows, ordering fans at pro basketball games to wear masks, reopening COVID testing stations. Dang, man … we’re falling back into some sort of pandemic-defense mode.

There’s a sliver of good news to share. It is that the Omicron variant produces symptoms that appear to be milder than the Delta variant. That’s good, except that Omicron is more contagious; it spreads more easily.

I feel as though we have dodged thousands of bullets so far. We are vaccinated fully, including the booster shot. Our immediate family is taking precautions, too, and they have worked. Another member of my family got quite sick nearly a year ago from the COVID virus, but she’s bounced back.

With this Omicron mess getting messier, I intend now to ensure that I mask up when I enter indoor settings full of people I do not know, nor know their vaccination status.

One more point: I intend to follow every single government “mandate” to the letter.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

medical news

What’s wrong with mandates?

So help me I don’t understand how the vaccination campaign against a killer virus has become such a political debate point.

Republicans keep slamming the nation’s top Democrat, President Joe Biden, because he wants to enforce mandates on companies to require employees and customers to (a) wear masks and/or (b) be fully vaccinated.

I mean, holy crap, man! We’re in the midst of a pandemic that’s still killing us!

I happen to be one American who doesn’t object for a single moment to the efforts the government is making to protect my family and me from the ravages of this disease. It has killed 800,000 Americans already and the number is sure to climb.

Let us remember, too, this little factoid: The United States comprises about 5 percent of the world’s population, but our infection, hospitalization and death rates far exceed that percentage. We can thank the inept, ignorant and cowardly government response to the initial reports of the pandemic in late 2019 and early 2020.

President Biden is trying to make amends by imposing these limits. Yet he’s getting push back from Republican politicians who keep hiding behind some phony mantra about “too much government control over people’s lives.” What a pile of sh**!

Too many people’s lives are ending prematurely because they aren’t doing what they should to protect themselves and their loved ones.

Yet the mandates continue to take their place as a political talking point when we should be rallying behind the effort to protect us from the killer.

Ridiculous.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

medical news

Patience gets tested

It’s time for an admission: The latest surge in COVID-19 variants, this one is named Omicron, is testing my patience.

OK, that all said, I don’t intend to give up, to surrender to the virus that has now killed more than 800,000 Americans.

It’s just that these surges are driving me batty. Dr. Anthony Fauci wonders whether we’re prepared for another “surge” of cases caused by Omicron. Sheesh, man!

I am starting to believe what some medical experts have suggested: that we’ll never be free — as in totally free — of the virus. I don’t know if Dr. Fauci has said such a thing. He well might have; I just lose count of the warnings.

I simply am going to just suck it up with regard to masks, social distancing, frequent hand washing, generous use of hand sanitizer … those kinds of things.

My wife and most of my immediate family are vaccinated fully; my wife and I have received our booster shots, too, along with our sons and daughter-in-law. I hear that some members of my extended family are digging in against getting vaccinated against the killer virus; I hear they distrust what’s in the vaccine and one of my extended family members reportedly has said she won’t heed the warnings given by “liberals and Democrats.” She lives far away from us, bless her steely heart.

I’ll deal with the Omicron variant the way I have dealt with prior variants. I’m just gonna keep my distance, mask up and say a prayer that we can get this virus under control.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

medical news

Fauci is no Mengele

Unbelievable.

That’s how I’ll start with this brief post about something I heard on — where else? — Fox News.

Lara Logan, a supposed journalist, compared Dr. Anthony Fauci to the notorious Nazi doctor Joseph Mengele, who during World War II conducted hideous experiments on Jews. Mengele’s aim was to perfect ghastly treatments and he used Jews as experimental patients. Many of those patients died from the experiments.

Logan somehow, in some fashion, conflated the mask and vaccine mandates enacted to fight to COVID-19 pandemic with what Mengele did during the Second World War.

What makes this idiocy even worse is that the Fox News anchors allowed her to continue that trash rant of hers without challenging what in the name of human decency she was alleging.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2021/12/02/fauci_im_astounded_fox_news_has_not_disciplined_lara_logan_for_comparing_me_to_mengele.html

You can see it on the link I just attached to this post.

Good Almighty God in heaven! What in the world is it going to take to shut down these hate mongers who do nothing but slander and defame the reputations of learned professionals who are trying to help this nation get through a medical crisis?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

medical news

Big Lie gets even weirder

I never thought it was possible to embellish The Big Lie but the Republican nut cases who occupy public offices have managed to do so.

It goes like this …

There are those within the GOP who contend now that Democrats are fabricating the impact of various COVID-19 variants to “cheat” their way to winning future elections. One of the Republican nut jobs in Congress, Rep. Ronny Jackson of Amarillo, went on Fox News to suggest that very thing. The hosts on “Fox and Friends” let the moronic physician-turned-politician mutter that trash without challenging him.

One of the hosts said Jackson is “probably right.” Umm, no! He’s not right! He is wrong. So are those who suggest that the impact of the latest variant, called Omicron, is made up, that it’s a fabrication.

The Big Lie was born out of Donald Trump’s phony claim of “widespread voter fraud” in the 2020 election. It has now grown more legs and to my utter horror it is beginning to take root in the gullible mindlessness of Republican cultists’ noggins.

Good grief. Is there no end to this idiocy?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

medical news

POTUS tells us: do not panic

Message received, Mr. President.

Joe Biden went on TV this morning to tell us the Omicron variant that began in southern Africa but which is working its way around the world provides no reason to panic.

He said we have to do the same things we have done to suppress the original COVID-19 virus and the assorted variants of the virus that have sprung up. Omicron is no different, President Biden said.

I hear ya, Mr. POTUS. My hope is that we all hear the president. That we all do the things we need to do to keep the virus variant from spreading. You know what they are, so I won’t belabor the point here.

I remain an eternal optimist that we are going to weather this matter. The timing of when we get the all-clear signal remains an open question.

No worries as far as my family and I are concerned. We aren’t waiting with bated breath for someone to tell us we’re in the clear from the virus. We are going to stay with the good-practices recommendations and do our part to put this virus — and the variants — down for keeps.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news, medical news

Thank you, first responders

This is the second consecutive Thanksgiving we are celebrating under the threat of a killer virus.

I am going to offer a brief — but most assuredly heartfelt — word of thanks and gratitude for those who answer the call when people are stricken.

I live next door to a neo-natal nurse who I am certain has seen her share of heartache. A law enforcement officer shares her home with her and he, too, is called upon to respond to those who need help.

They have earned our gratitude and our thanks.

I hear about parades taking place today around the country that are dedicated to saluting first responders. They enforce the law, respond to fires, they work in ambulances and assorted rescue vehicles. They are neighbors who lend a hand for those nearby who, for whatever reason, are under stress and duress.

They rush to people’s sides. They hold their hands. They tend to their needs. They do so out of dedication to the careers they have worked hard to pursue; that dedication carries a serious implication, which is that they must tend to others’ needs.

In the spirit of the holiday, I want to be among the millions of Americans who thank these individuals for the work they do selflessly and with dedication to caring for our well-being.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

medical news

Not your call, Okie National Guard

Let’s look briefly at an astonishing defiance of the commander in chief, OK?

The Oklahoma National Guard command has declared that its soldiers do not have to adhere to Defense Department requirements for vaccination against the COVID-19 virus.

This is a seriously wrong-headed call.

The National Guard is part of the U.S. military apparatus. Thus, it is under the command of — here it comes — the commander in chief, the president of the United States of America. The current commander in chief, President Biden, has declared that members of the military are required to be vaccinated against the virus, unless they have a valid military of religious exemption.

The commander in chief, therefore, has issued a lawful order. Those who serve the commander in chief are obligated under military law to obey such orders or else face the consequences.

The Oklahoma National Guard, accordingly, is seeking to disobey that lawful order.

It won’t work.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com