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Why Do So Many More Men Die From Coronavirus Than Women?

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hqanon
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Written by Jenny Graves, Professor of Genetics at La Trobe University.

All over the world – in China, Italy, the United States and Australia – many more men than women are dying from COVID-19.

Why? Is it genes, hormones, the immune system – or behaviour – that makes men more susceptible to the disease?

I see it as an interaction of all of these factors and it isn’t unique to the SARS-Cov-2 virus – the different response of men and women is typical of many diseases in many mammals.

The Grim Figures

In Italy and China deaths of men are more than double those of women. In New York city men constitute about 61% of patients who die. Australia is shaping up to have similar results, though here it’s mostly in the 70-79 and 80-89 age groups.

One major variable in severity of COVID-19 is age. But this can’t explain the sex bias seen globally because the increased male fatality rate is the same in each age group from 30 to 90+. Women also live on average six years longer than men, so there are more elderly women than men in the vulnerable population.

The other major factor is the presence of chronic diseases, particularly heart disease, diabetes and cancer. These are all more common in men than women, which might account for some of the bias.

But then we must ask why men are more vulnerable to the diseases that put them at greater risk of COVID-19.

Men and Women Are Biologically Different

Men and women differ in their sex chromosomes and the genes that lie on them. Women have two copies of a mid-sized chromosome (called the X). Men have only a single X chromosome and a small Y chromosome that contains few genes.

One of these Y genes (SRY) directs the embryo to become male by kick-starting the development of testes in an XY embryo. The testes make male hormones and the hormones make the baby develop as a boy.

In the absence of SRY an ovary forms and makes female hormones.

It’s the hormones that control most of the obvious visible differences between men and women – genitals and breasts, hair and body type – and have a large influence on behaviour.

The Y Chromosome and Hormones

The Y chromosome contains hardly any genes other than SRY but it is full of repetitive sequences (“junk DNA”).

Perhaps a “toxic Y” could lose its regulation during ageing. This might hasten ageing in men and render them more susceptible to the virus.

But a bigger problem for men is the male hormones unleashed by SRY action. Testosterone levels are implicated in many diseases, particularly heart disease, and may affect lifespan.

Men are also disadvantaged by their low levels of estrogen, which protects women from many diseases, including heart disease.

Male hormones also influence behaviour. Testosterone levels have been credited with major differences between men and women in risky behaviours such as smoking and drinking too much alcohol, as well as reluctance to heed health advice and to seek medical help.

The extreme differences in smoking rate between men and women in China (almost half the men smoke and only 2% of women) may help to account for their very high ratio of male deaths (more than double female). Not only is smoking a severe risk factor for any respiratory disease, but it also causes lung cancer, a further risk factor.

Smoking rates are lower and not as sex-biased in many other countries, so risky behaviour can’t by itself explain the sex difference in COVID-19 deaths. Maybe sex chromosomes have other effects.

Two X Chromosomes Are Better Than One

The X chromosome bears more than 1,000 genes with functions in all sorts of things including routine metabolism, blood clotting and brain development.

The presence of two X chromosomes in XX females provides a buffer if a gene on one X is mutated.

XY males lack this X chromosome backup. That’s why boys suffer from many sex-linked diseases such as haemophilia (poor blood clotting).

The number of X chromosomes also has big effects on many metabolic characters that are separable from sex hormone effects, as studies of mice reveal.

Females not only have a double dose of many X genes, but they may also have the benefit of two different versions of each gene.

This X effect goes far to explain why males die at a higher rate than females at every age from birth.

And another man problem is the immune system.

We’ve known for a long time that women have a stronger immune system than men. This is not all good, because it makes women more susceptible to autoimmune diseases such as lupus and multiple sclerosis.

But it gives women an advantage when it comes to susceptibility to viruses, as many studies in mice and humans show. This helps to explain why men are more susceptible to many viruses, including SARS and MERS.

There are at least 60 immune response genes on the X chromosome, and it seems that a higher dose and having two different versions of these gives women a broader spectrum of defences.

Sex Differences in Diseases – the Big Picture

Sex differences in the frequency, severity and treatment efficacy for many diseases were pointed out long ago. COVID-19 is part of a larger pattern in which males lose out – at every age.

This isn’t just humans – it is true of most mammals.

Are sex differences in disease susceptibility simply the by-catch of genetic and hormone differences? Or were they, like many other traits, selected differently in males and females because of differences in life strategy?

It’s suggested that male mammals spread their genes by winning competitions for mates, hence hormone control of risky behaviour is a plus for men.

It’s also suggested female mammals are selected for traits that enhance their ability to care for young, hence their stronger immune system. This made sense for most mammals through the ages.

So the sex bias in COVID-19 deaths is part of a much larger picture – and a very much older picture – of sex differences in genes, chromosomes and hormones that lead to very different responses to all sorts of disease, including COVID-19.

The Conversation / Creative Commons

R. Kennedy Jr. Exposes Bill Gates’ Injectable Microchip / Covid-19 Agenda

By
hqanon
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Bill Gates appears to be the embodiment of the American dream, a self-made man who pulled himself up by the bootstraps. However, since the revelations of Snowden and Julian Assange, many reputable experts have questioned that American big tech companies like Microsoft are truly independent from the government, and in particular, the deep state and military industrial complex.

For instance, according to Edward Snowden, Microsoft allowed the NSA to collect communications data for analysis. The connections run deep.

However, Gates’ ties with the US military are not only based around computer technology, but also on genetics. As the NGO Friends of the Earth noted in 2017 “Over 1,200 emails released under open records requests reveal that the US military is now the top funder and influencer behind a controversial genetic extinction technology known as “gene drives” pumping $100 million into the field. The trove of emails, obtained through open records requests, also shed light on a $1.6 million dollar UN gene drive advocacy operation paid for by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.” Jim Thomas of the ETC Group says that technology (for example genetically modified mosquitoes) may be used as potential biological weapons.

On a seperate but not exactly unrelate note, the ties between Gates and prominent sex offender and pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, who mysteriously died in New York prison, are a testament to this “philanthropist’s” morality.

Jeffrey Epstein isn’t the only person connected to Bill Gates who died under mysterious circumstances. The grand-daughter of Robert Kennedy (nephew of former president John F. Kennedy and famous critic of Bill Gates) and her son were recently found dead. The details surrounding their deaths are anything but straightforward.

While there is no direct evidence to connect Gates to the coronavirus epidemic or prove he has any long-term nefarious goals, his actions and statements in light of the outbreak have given the world cause for concern. Take, for example, the recent performance of the scandalous artist Marina Abramovich (google her earlier work such as her “spiritual cooking”). She was featured in Microsoft’s new ad for a mixed reality headset, the HoloLens 2. After thousands of dislikes, Microsoft was forced to remove the video from its channel on Youtube.

Robert Kennedy Jr. about Bill Gates’ Vaccine Agenda

In one of his latest posts, Robert Kennedy Jr., who is the son of Robert Kennedy and the nephew of the former U.S. president John F. Kennedy, makes clear, why he is no friend of Bill Gates:

A New York Times reporter asked me yesterday about the “conspiracy theory” that #BillGates is developing injectable chip to store vaccine records. Here are the facts:

The Bill and Melinda #GatesFoundation invested more than $21 million to perfect a “microneedle technology” that embeds, under the skin, a vaccination record visible by infrared light that can be read by a “minimally-adopted smartphone technology.” The technology will allow health officials to scan U.S. citizens to detect their vaccination compliance.

A study funded by the Bill and Melinda #Gates Foundation and published in December 2019 by researchers from MIT, the Institute of Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Gates-funded Intellectual Ventures Laboratory in Bellevue, WA, describes how “near-infrared quantum dots” will be implanted under the skin along with a vaccine to encode information for “decentralized data storage and bio-sensing.” Gates’ technology uses a tattoo-like mechanism to inject invisible nanoparticles subcutaneously. Gates’ researchers are now testing the implant with a vaccine against the #COVID-19 virus.

The Gates-funded report boasts that the chip system will allow “house-to-house” compliance searches to be conducted by government enforcement teams with “minimal training,” and will “open up new avenues for decentralized data storage and biosensing.” The #MIT paper is titled “Biocompatible near-infrared quantum dots delivered to the skin by microneedle patches to record vaccination.” Gates began funding implantable tracking chips and ratio biotechnology in 2011 with a grant to TransDerm Inc. Gates is currently making multiple investments to develop different versions, including grants to Vaxxas Pty Ltd, Micron Biomedical Inc, Georgia Institute of Technology, and Vaxess Technologies Inc.

I urge you to contact Bill Gates on his social media. Gently explain that tagging and tracking humans may appeal to his government cronies in totalitarian China, but those activities are inconsistent with American values and traditions.

The people of the world have every reason not to trust Bill Gates: a globalist, a crypto-Mathusian, a predatory capitalist. Given what we know about his life, ideology and interests, we should be more suspicious of the idea that he is simply altruistically interested in the betterment of mankind.

It is indicative that since the founding of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Gates’ fortune has only grown. The coronavirus pandemic is a major chance for him and others like him to make an incredible money from vaccines and medicines while expanding their power and control. Given what we know about Bill Gates’, do we really believe he will not take full advantage of this opportunity if he is able to?

Attorney General Barr Blocks Release of 9/11 Documents Despite Promises to Victims’ Families

By
hqanon
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0

On Monday, U.S. Attorney General William Barr, acting director of national intelligence Richard Grenell, and other senior officials called on a federal judge to prevent the disclosure of files related to the role of the government of Saudi Arabia in the September 11 attacks. The officials told the judge in the civil case that the release of the files would endanger national security.

The files are being sought by families of the 9/11 victims who have spent the last two decades attempting to uncover the truth about the attacks. The families filed a lawsuit in federal district court in New York in 2017 as part of their effort to uncover the role of the Saudi government. What is publicly known is that the alleged 9/11 hijackers had a relationship with Saudi government officials. As Pro Public reported, at the 2019 White House September 11 memorial, U.S. President Donald Trump promised the families he would help them uncover the truth about 9/11. He made similar promises while he was campaigning for president.

“He looked us in the eye on 9/11, he shook our hands in the White House and said, ‘I’m going to help you—it’s done’,” Brett Eagleson, a banker whose father was killed in the World Trade Center, told Pro Publica. “I think the 9/11 families have lost all hope that the president is going to step up and do the right thing. He’s too beholden to the Saudis.”

The Trump Administration stated that the national security threat was so great that even sharing the reasoning behind the request for secrecy could cause harm. According to Pro Publica, AG Barr told the court that public discussion of the issue “would reveal information that could cause the very harms my assertion of the state secrets privilege is intended to prevent.”

Pro Publica notes that four statements from FBI and Justice Department officials were also under seal and can not be seen by the public. Another five statements from FBI, Justice Department, and CIA officials were only seen by the judge and could not even be shared with the families’ lawyers. Steven Pounian, a lawyer for the families also suggested that “there must be some deep, dark secret that they’re still trying very hard to hide after almost 20 year,” and that it “might be a Saudi government secret.”

“But how can these be secrets that still need to be kept from the American people after all this time?” — Steven Pounian, attorney for the 9/11 victims families

The call for secrecy was questioned by three Senators who asked the Justice Department’s inspector general to investigate why the FBI has refused to release information about Saudi connections. The information is being sought as part of a subpoena filed by the 9/11 families in 2018. Senators  Charles Grassley of Iowa, Charles Schumer of New York, and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut questioned the FBI’s decision to keep the files classified.

“The September 11 attacks represent a singular and defining tragedy in the history of our Nation. Nearly 20 years later, the 9/11 families and the American public still have not received the full and transparent accounting of the potential sources of support for those attacks to which they are entitled,” the senators wrote to Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz.

Barr stated that Justice Department guidelines set down by the Obama administration in 2009 prevented the government from asserting a state secrets claim as a method of concealing illegal behavior or embarrassing actions. Barr told the judge that he believed these guidelines had been met. Unfortunately, in the absence of any further information the American public is resigned to trusting Barr, Trump, and anonymous FBI and CIA agents.

Unfortunately, William Barr does not have a record of trustworthy actions. As far back as 1989 Barr discussed his belief that the FBI could legally abduct people in foreign countries without the consent of the foreign government. The opinion was revealed in a leaked legal memo authored by Barr while he was serving as the head of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC). Barr chose to withhold the full memo and asked the public to trust his conclusion.

In the weeks after 9/11, when the U.S. government began to seize powers to roundup foreign citizens, spy on Americans, and torture anyone accused of terrorism, Newsweek noted that Barr had played a role in paving the way for such actions:

“Now the Bush administration and Congress seemed primed to do just about anything to foil future attacks. Justice Department lawyers have been told to take a fresh look at “everything,” one official said. Perhaps the most startling idea under examination would be a new presidential order authorizing secret military tribunals to try accused terrorists. The idea first occurred to former attorney general William Barr after the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988. Barr, at the time chief of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, got the idea after learning that his office was used during World War II to try—in secret—German saboteurs who were later hanged. The idea was rejected, but it’s being revived on the theory that terrorists are de facto military “combatants” who don’t deserve the full run of constitutional rights.”

More recently, Barr has been involved in perpetuating the myth that encryption is a tool that only terrorists and dangerous criminals use and launching an “orwellian pre-crime program.” In October 2019, MintPress News reported that Barr had recently laid the groundwork for this new program:

“Indeed, since becoming Attorney General under President Trump, Barr has spearheaded numerous efforts to this end, including pushing for a government backdoor into consumer apps or devices that utilize encryption and for a dramatic increase of long-standing yet controversial warrantless electronic surveillance programs.

On July 23rd, Barr gave the keynote address at the 2019 International Conference on Cyber Security (ICCS) and mainly focused on the need for consumer electronic products and applications that use encryption to offer a “backdoor” for the government, specifically law enforcement, in order to obtain access to encrypted communications as a matter of public safety.”

Barr would go on to issue a memorandum to all U.S. attorneys, law enforcement agencies, and high level Justice Department officials calling for the implementation of a new “national disruption and early engagement program” aimed at detecting potential mass shooters before they commit any crime. This memo called for the DOJ and FBI to “refine our ability to identify, assess and engage potential mass shooters before they strike.” Barr called for the pre-crime program to be implemented in early 2020.

The blocking of state secrets related to the September 11 attacks is just the latest in a long line of cover ups and corrupt practices by Attorney General William Barr.

By Derrick Broze | Creative Commons | TheMindUnleashed.com

Scientists Discover Aggressive Coronavirus Mutation That Will Probably Render Vaccines Useless

By
hqanon
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0

The prospect that SARS-CoV-2, the “novel” coronavirus responsible for causing the illness COVID-19, might be mutating and evolving as it spreads across the globe has been such a terrifying prospect for the scientific community, that medical experts like Dr. Anthony Fauci seem to avoid even engaging on the topic.

Asked about the possibility of viral mutation during one of the White House’s inaugural task force press briefings, Dr. Fauci assured the public that scientists have found “no evidence” of any concerning mutations, though the prospect that a mutated version of the virus might return during next year’s flu season has kept some virologists up at night with nightmares about needing to start the vaccine clock from zero.

The problem is that vaccines often aren’t as effective against viruses that mutate, like the flu does every season (that’s why you need to keep getting that flu shot year after year).  And now, a new scientific paper that – like most of the coronavirus research being cited in the press – has yet to be peer reviewed claims to have identified a mutation in a sample of the virus collected in India that could create serious problems for researchers working on a vaccine.

Monitoring the mutation dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 is critical for the development of effective approaches to contain the 21 pathogen. By analyzing 106 SARS-CoV-2 and 39 SARS genome sequences, we provided direct genetic evidence that 22 SARS-CoV-2 has a much lower mutation rate than SARS. Minimum Evolution phylogeny analysis revealed the putative original status of SARS-CoV-2 and the early-stage spread history. The discrepant phylogenies for the spike protein and it receptor binding domain proved a previously reported structural rearrangement prior to the emergence of SARS-CoV-2. Despite that, we found the spike glycoprotein of SARS-CoV-2 is particularly more conserved, we identified a mutation that leads to weaker receptor binding capability, which concerns a SARS-CoV-2 sample collected on 27th January 2020 from India. This represents the first report of a significant SARS-CoV-2 mutant, and raises the alarm that the ongoing vaccine development may become futile in future epidemic if more mutations were identified.”

The ominous discovery underscores how the virus’s destructive potential will likely be tied to the vagaries of viral evolution.

Fortunately, the team appeared to confirm an earlier finding by a team of researchers in Italy that the virus “has a much lower mutation rate and genetic diversity” than SARS, which means that a vaccine will likely be able to treat wide swaths of people before becoming ineffective as the virus changes and evolves.

However, this new finding shows that it’s not just the speed of the mutation that matters, but the specific nature of the mutations, when scientists are developing a vaccine.

Experts say that a vaccine could take up to two years to develop, and some city officials have warned that life likely won’t return completely back to normal until a vaccine is ready for mass production. But a mutation could throw a wrench in this process, transforming the process of developing a workable vaccine into a “cat and mouse” game – or at the very least lengthen the time it takes for the initial vaccine to be developed.

Amazon Bans Sale Of N95 And Surgical Masks To General Public – Where Can I Buy N95 Masks Now?

Amazon has banned the sale of N95 and surgical masks to the general public, claiming it would restrict sales to hospitals and government organizations dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.

The ban took effect April 1, according to Recode, after the company said in a forum for Amazon sellers that the ban includes “facial shields, surgical gowns, surgical gloves, and large-volume sanitizers.”

Ok, but where can I Buy N95 masks now?

With Pharmacies, Walmart and nearly all other physical stores out of stock, Amazon out of the game and ebay selling mostly gas masks from China, there’s not much place left to buy N95 masks to protect yourself in th Covid-19 crisis and even if they claim to sell N95 masks, it’s mostly cheap fake masks that won’t offer any protection at all:

Even on ebay, N95 masks are sold out.

As you may already know, the Darknet is selling pretty much everything that is hard to get by in stores or completely illegal. So even if you come by to find a shady shop or entity selling overpriced masks, you never know if they really are what they are advertised (N95 standard) and work and you also never know if they will ever arrive. However, there are still some online shops that are selling the very last N95 masks, one of them being a small company called Amazyble.com.  

With the coronavirus pandemic quickly spreading, U.S. health officials have changed their advice on face masks and now recommend people wear cloth masks in public areas where social distancing can be difficult, such as grocery stores.

Research on SARS, another coronavirus, found that N95 masks were highly effective at blocking transmission of that virus. Even ill-fitting medical face masks have been found to interrupt airborne particles and viruses, keeping them from reaching as far when someone sneezes.

The universal use of mouth and nose covering with masks is a low-risk intervention that can only assist in reducing the spread of this terrible illness. If everyone wears a mask, individuals protect one another, reducing overall community transmission. It could even remind people not to touch their faces after touching potentially contaminated surfaces.

Man Waiting for $1,700 Stimulus Check Finds $8.2 Million in Bank Account Instead

By
hqanon
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0

With some 80 million people expecting stimulus money to hit their bank accounts starting Wednesday in the biggest and unprecedented instance of the government passing helicopter money directly to Americans’ pockets in history, there are bound to be mistakes and errors.

A volunteer firefighter in New Chicago, Indiana was awaiting a $1700 stimulus payment but upon withdrawing a mere $200 from his dwindling available balance at an ATM last Friday was shocked to find his remaining balance $8.2 million.

Apparently, the US Treasury — or possibly the bank itself, it’s unclear which — made a huge mistake in making Charles Calvin an overnight millionaire.

The story originated in WGN9 Chicago and quickly went viral:

“I went to the ATM at the Family Express and once I withdrew $200 out of my account I looked at the available balance still left in my account,” he said.

He said his account had $8.2 million in it. He was only supposed to receive $1,700.

Not believing what he was seeing, he ran his card again but it said the same thing.

The millions may have stayed in his account over the weekend before it appears someone on the other end realized the massive error. Calvin says he notified his bank upon opening in order to investigate the funds’ origins.

In disbelief he had gotten both a friend and store clerk to verify that what he was looking at was real.

He went to the clerk at the gas station where the ATM was to ask if there was something wrong with the machine, but no issues had been reported, he recalled.

“I showed her the receipt and she looks at the receipt, she looks at me, looks back at the receipt,” he told NBC Chicago in a separate interview. “She said, ‘You have this much money in your account?’ I said, ‘No, I am poor. I’m over here trying to get money out so I can pay my rent’.” — CNBC

By Monday the bank said they didn’t see that balance in his account anymore, but did verify his stimulus money was sent. CNBC later reported the bank thinks it was actually an ATM error.

“It kind of sucks,” Calvin told WGN9. “You go from being a millionaire one second then back to being broke again. But hey, once you’re poor you don’t have anywhere else to go but up.”

It’s still unclear exactly what happened, but its entirely possible that with Washington passing around trillions – it could very well happen again.

“Calvin still isn’t sure if this was an error on behalf of the federal government, his bank or the particular ATM he used, but he said he’s just glad he did end up with the amount he was entitled to,” WGN9 wrote.

By Tyler Durden | ZeroHedge.com | Republished with permission

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