“Judge in Virginia Strikes Down Federal Limit on Age of Handgun Buyers,” Glenn Thrush, New York Times
“18-to-20-year-olds can’t be barred from buying handguns, judge rules,” Salvador Rizzo, Washington Post
“Children and teens are more likely to die by guns than anything else,” Annette Choi, CNN
“Child and Teen Firearm Mortality in the U.S. and Peer Countries,” Matt McGough, Krutika Amin, Nirmita Panchal, and Cynthia Cox, KFF Global Health Policy
The virulent bird flu virus H5N1 might be on the verge of triggering a devastating pandemic, like it did in 1997. The canarys in the coalmine are actually minks, in Spain, which succombed to H5N1 last October. USDA recorded 110 outbreaks in other mammals in 2022-2023. Will it reach pandemic status in either poultry or people? At this point, nobody knowns for sure, but it may be wise to prepare for the worst.
More:
“Tracking the bird flu, experts see a familiar threat — and a virus whose course is hard to predict,” Helen Branswell, STAT
Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
Image Disclaimer:This blog post is not intended to substitute for the advice of qualified physicians, virologists, epidemiologists, airline reservation clerks, ornithologists, pharmacists, travel agents, or licensed health, veterinary, and aviation professionals. Contact your health care provider if you suspect you have a medical problem, buy only AMA-certified poultry feed, and confirm departure time before going to the airport.
Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.
So the CSPS is studying the matter. Nobody is talking about a gas stove ban, and safety measures are as simple as turning on the exhaust fan when you cook, but that didn’t stop Fox fearmongers and their outraged audience. Gas-happy MAGAheads will continue to stoke stove-ban outrage until they cook up their next spurious rage-and-resentment recipe.
More:
“Republicans turn up the heat on a new culture war target: gas stoves,” Alaina Demopoulos, The Guardian
“How the humble gas stove became the latest flash point in the culture wars,” Maxine Joselow, Washington Post
“Republicans Mocked Over Outraged Claims Government ‘Coming for’ Gas Stoves,”Aila Slisco, Newsweek
“5 myths about gas stoves, the latest culture war clash,” Rebecca Leber, Vox
Related:
“How the Fossil Fuel Industry Convinced Americans to Love Gas Stoves,” Rebecca Leber, Mother Jones
Photo (Toy stove with pots and pans, left on the sidewalk for young aspiring chefs) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht,NotionsCapital.com
Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.
GOP Governor Ron DeSantis is weaponizing Florida’s court system to attack the vaccines that would have saved the lives of the Floridians he sacrified to COVID. Mr. DeSantis wants a grand jury to investigate the rare cases of heart inflamation attributed to vaccinations, when such conditions are seven times more frequent among those suffering from COVID. Since anti-vaccine rhetoric is killing more Republicans than Democrats, you’d think self-serving MAGA hacks like Ron DeSantis would avoid bad-mouthing vaccines.
“More than 80% of urine samples drawn from children and adults in a US health study contained a weedkilling chemical linked to cancer, a finding scientists have called ‘disturbing’ and ‘concerning.’
The report by a unit of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that out of 2,310 urine samples, taken from a group of Americans intended to be representative of the US population, 1,885 were laced with detectable traces of glyphosate. This is the active ingredient in herbicides sold around the world, including the widely used Roundup brand. Almost a third of the participants were children ranging from six to 18.”
— “‘Disturbing’: weedkiller ingredient tied to cancer found in 80% of US urine samples,” Carey Gillam, The Guardian
A previous study found the herbicide 2,4-D in a third of US blood samples. If the science won’t convince Red State farmers to cool it with these chemicals, maybe Susan Werner‘s song (above) will give them pause.
Still got facemasks? Good, because COVID isn’t going anywhere soon. When it comes to mask use, public policy now puts the burden of choice on you. Kimberly Mas reviews personal and community risks in this Vox video:
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Top photo (Subway poster, Farragut West Metro station, Washington DC ) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
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The Supreme Court of the United States thinks you should be able to carry a concealed handgun in public just because you think it’s cool and want to feel like a big shot. For over a century, New York had required gun owners to have a reason to carry a concealed weapon. Police issued concealed carry permits to business owners who carry bags of cash to a bank’s night deposit facility, those who had a demonstrable proper cause to be concerned for their personal safety, and so on. Now any dumb schmuck who hasn’t been caught committing a crime — yet — will be enabled to do so, with deadly consequences, thanks to six SCOTUS conservative ideologues. That doesn’t sound like a “well-regulated militia” to us.
What can you expect?
More gunshot deaths, murders and suicides.
More civilians killed by police, who will be more likely to assume that anyone they come into contact with is armed with a concealed deadly weapon.
More:
“Supreme Court strikes down New York’s concealed carry gun law,” Oriana Gonzalez, Axios
“U.S. Supreme Court expands gun rights, strikes down New York law,” Andrew Chung and Lawrence Hurley, Reuters
“Supreme Court strikes N.Y. law, finds right to carry guns outside home,” Robert Barnes and Ann E. Marimow, Washington Post
“SCOTUS Strikes Down New York Gun Control Law, Expanding Gun Rights In Wake Of Mass Shootings,” Kate Riga, Talking Points Memo
White-tailed deer are carrying COVID-19. They may have gotten it from human contact during food sharing or from eating trash infected with coronavirus:
“Humans have infected wild deer with Covid-19 in a handful of states, and there’s evidence that the coronavirus has been spreading among deer, according to recent studies that outline findings that could complicate the path out of the pandemic.”
“About one-third of the deer sampled had active or recent infections, the study says. Similar research in Iowa of tissue from roadkill and hunted deer found widespread evidence of the virus.”
— “Covid is rampant among deer, research shows,” Evan Bush, NBC News
More:
“There’s a Covid-19 epidemic in deer. It could come back to haunt us.” Brian Resnick, Vox
“Is the Coronavirus in Your Backyard?”, Emily Anthes and Sabrina Imbler, New York Times
“Are Deer In COVID’s Crosshairs?” Paul Schattenberg, Texas A&M Today
“SARS-CoV-2 infection in free-ranging white-tailed deer,” Vanessa L. Hale, Patricia M. Dennis, Dillon S. McBride, et al., Nature [pdf]
Image (“COVID-Infested Deer, after Atelier Disney”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.
Republican state lawmakers in Colorado, Florida, Idaho, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Mississippi, Indiana, Virginia, and West Virginia have proposed legislation that allows quack doctors to prescribe ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine to prevent and treat Covid-19 which, despite pronouncements on Fox News and right-wing podcasts, they do not do. North Dakota and Tennessee have already passed such laws, even though:
” … those treatments have not proven effective at preventing or treating Covid and infectious disease experts see the bills as examples of right-wing lawmakers politicizing medicine – a trend that is increasing as the pandemic wears on in America in to its third year amid an increasingly fraught political atmosphere.
And so it goes with the latest suspect Covid-19 treatment that has become about more than just a drug, but rather about whether to trust established public health organizations or doctors who stray from their guidelines, and podcast and cable news hosts.”
— “Concern as Republicans push to make dubious Covid cure prescriptions easier,” Eric Berger, The Guardian
More:
“Republicans Are Changing State Medical Board Rules So It’s Easier For Doctors To Prescribe Hydroxychloroquine And Ivermectin,” Kadia Goba, BuzzFeed News
“While the Second Amendment protects every citizen’s right to own a gun, it does not require taxpayers to subsidize that right,” said San José mayor Sam Liccardo in a statement.
U.S. states and DC require automobile drivers to obtain liability insurance or post cash bonds against liability, and motor vehicles, unlike firearms, aren’t even designed to be killing machines. Nowhere does the Second Amendment forbid a well-regulated program to ensure firearms responsiblity.
More:
“San Jose passes first U.S. law requiring gun owners to get liability insurance and pay annual fee,” CBS News
“A city will require gun owners to have liability insurance in an effort to incentivize safety,” Timothy Bella, Washington Post
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