COVID mystery, Superdodgers, #No5GNearSchools, Fake food race, Impossible Foods bleeding, Choline brain health, The real domestic threat, Biden moonshot details, Monsanto/Bayer War, Royal beekeeper duty and MORE!
September 13th, 2022 3-5PM ET
Tuesday on The Robert Scott Bell Show:
The Mystery of Why Some People Don’t Get Covid We all know a “Covid virgin,” or “Novid,” someone who has defied all logic in dodging the coronavirus. But beyond judicious caution, sheer luck, or a lack of friends, could the secret to these people’s immunity be found nestled in their genes? And could it hold the key to fighting the virus? In the early days of the pandemic, a small, tight-knit community of scientists from around the world set up an international consortium, called the COVID Human Genetic Effort, whose goal was to search for a genetic explanation as to why some people were becoming severely sick with Covid while others got off with a mild case of the sniffles. After a while, the group noticed that some people weren’t getting infected at all—despite repeated and intense exposures. The most intriguing cases were the partners of people who became really ill and ended up in intensive care. “We learned about a few spouses of those people that—despite taking care of their husband or wife, without having access to face masks—apparently did not contract infection,” says András Spaan, a clinical microbiologist at Rockefeller University in New York. Spaan was tasked with setting up an arm of the project to investigate these seemingly immune individuals. But they had to find a good number of them first. So the team put out a paper in Nature Immunology in which they outlined their endeavor, with a discreet final line mentioning that “subjects from all over the world are welcome.”
So you haven’t caught COVID yet. Does that mean you’re a superdodger? Back in the early 1990s, Nathaniel Landau was a young virologist just starting his career in HIV research. But he and his colleagues were already on the verge of a landmark breakthrough. Several labs around the world were hot on his team’s tail. “We were sleeping in the lab, just to keep the work going day and night because there were many labs all racing against each other,” Landau says. “Of course, we wanted to be the first to do it. We were totally stressed out. ” Other scientists had identified groups of people who appeared to be completely resistant to HIV. “People who knew they had been exposed to HIV multiple times, mainly through unprotected sex, yet they clearly were not infected,” Landau explains. And so the race was on to figure out why: “Are these people just lucky or did they really have a mutation in their genes that was protecting them from infection?'” he says. Now 25 years later, scientists all over the world are trying to answer the same question but about a different virus: SARS-CoV-2. By this point in the pandemic, most Americans have had at least one bout of COVID. For children under age 18, more than 80% of them have been infected, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates. But just as with HIV, some people have been exposed multiple times but never had symptoms and never tested positive.
#No5GNearSchools — Keep Cell Towers Away From Schools and Demand 5G Safety Studies Our kids need your help to protect them from harmful 5G and cell tower radiation! Schools are accepting financial incentives from telecom giants to add cell towers to their properties. In true Big Tech fashion, corporate profits have taken priority over public health. Children’s Health Defense (CHD) wants to stop the uncontrolled rollout of 5G and cell tower equipment near schools and residential neighborhoods. We need your help to force legislative action to stop the ever-increasing risk to our children caused by dangerous radiofrequency (RF) radiation emitted by this equipment. Contact your elected officials today to demand they introduce and support federal and state legislation banning cell towers and small cells from being on or near school grounds. School districts around the country are risking our children’s health and safety by partnering with telecom giants Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T to install cell towers directly on school grounds in exchange for monetary gains. Yet, scientific literature confirms the harms of RF radiation on children’s health, and no long-term studies exist that show 5G is safe. In fact, experts in the fields of human health and telecommunications recommend a minimum distance of 1640 feet between cell towers and school grounds.
Why the Fake Food Race Is Worth $3 Trillion For years, I have advocated for an organic diet to optimize your health, avoid common health problems and help regenerate the environment. Choosing organic foods reduces your exposure to pesticides, herbicides, genetically engineered (GE) foods, synthetic food additives and nano ingredients, many of which do not appear on the food label. In addition to protecting the environment and rebuilding soil, buying organic also supports animal welfare and promotes the biodiversity of plants and wildlife. Unfortunately, Americans not only eat a preponderance of processed food, but 57.9% of it is ultra-processed — products at the far end of the “significantly altered” spectrum that have been robustly linked to obesity, ill health and early death in a number of studies. The developed world in general eats significant amounts of processed food, and disease statistics reveal the ramifications of this trend. Any food that isn’t directly from the vine, ground, bush, body of water or a tree is considered processed. Depending on the amount of change the food undergoes, processing may be minimal or significant. For instance, frozen fruit is usually minimally processed, while pizza, soda, microwave meals and lab-created meat alternatives fall into the ultra-processed category. The rise of processed and ultra-processed food as dietary staples also has a largely hidden impact, in that it threatens overall food security. While edible gardens have become more popular in recent years, few are growing their own food these days, relying instead on processed fare from the grocery store, much of which is made with patented GE ingredients.
Impossible Foods seeks EU and UK approval for its GMO “fake meat” bleeding ingredient Impossible Foods’ GMO “fake meat” ingredient, soy leghemoglobin (SLH for short), is currently being considered for approval for food use in the EU and the UK. This summer, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) asked the company to provide more information that was clearly missing from its application, including details on possible toxicity and allergenicity. The company submitted its application to EFSA in September 2019. EFSA recently asked the company to provide the EU’s GMO detection lab with additional information on SLH. If EFSA issues a favourable opinion on SLH, the matter then passes to the EU Member States for a vote. If they vote to approve the GMO, it will be allowed to be used in Impossible Burgers, which Impossible Foods wants to market in the bloc. If, as is virtually always the case with votes on GMOs, no qualified majority is reached, the Commission can approve it unilaterally (but undemocratically) via a process called comitology. The GMO SLH is the key ingredient that make the fake meat burgers “bleed” a red substance that resembles the blood that oozes from rare beef. SLH in its natural state exists in the roots of soybeans and has never been a part of the human diet. So it does not have a history of safe use in food. In addition, Impossible Foods’ SLH is derived from a genetically engineered strain of Pichia pastoris yeast. Pichia pastoris, whether GMO or not, also has no history of safe use in food.
The One Nutrient You Are Probably Missing for Brain Health (and Foods That Have It) Trying to keep your brain health in check is a no-brainer (pun intended). Since having a healthy brain is essential to our ability to communicate effectively, make decisions, and generally live an independent and productive life, it is no wonder why so many people are focused on keeping this key organ in tip-top shape. A wide variety of factors can impact our brain health, and not all factors are within our control (we’re looking at you, age and genetics). But factors like our dietary choices may profoundly impact how our noggin fares as we go through the aging process. Among the many diets out there, the MIND diet appears to be your best when choosing a diet pattern for supporting your brain health. As a combination of the Mediterranean and the DASH diet, this way of eating is rich in antioxidants, healthy fats, and a wide variety of micronutrients that may keep our noodles sharp. Plus, this diet limits fried food, red meat, cheese, and sweets. Sure, eating blueberries, olive oil, and other foods included in the MIND diet is a fantastic idea if you are trying to support your brain health. But along with focusing on antioxidant-rich and anti-inflammatory foods, you may want to include eating foods rich in choline to your “to-do” list for doing all you can to keep your melon functioning properly because you may not be getting enough of this essential nutrient.
Hour 2
Yes, There IS a Domestic Threat in America. It’s Our Own Government The federal government loves labeling folks who think differently from them as domestic terrorists. We’ve seen it multiple times over the years and this name-calling has picked up recently. The flames are being fanned. There was Joe Biden’s speech casting Trump supporters as villains. The attacks on dissent are nearly constant. Celebrities are being praised on outlets beloved by millions of young people for walking away from their own families over politics. Everything is meant to be divisive, to cause even more internal strife in America before the midterm elections by painting approximately half of the country as the enemy. No longer are differing opinions a constitutionally protected right – they’re practically criminal and seen as a reason for hatred. And now, there’s a vile comparison to 9/11. Regardless of what you believe happened on September 11th, I think we can all agree that it wasn’t a bunch of Trump voters hijacking planes. More recently, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Mark Warner, compared those who participated in the events on January 6th to the people responsible for the devastating attacks on September 11th.
Aaron Rodgers says California’s strict COVID-19 rules destroyed small businesses in his hometown Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers is slamming COVID-19 rules once again — this time on claims they destroyed small businesses in his hometown, he said. In an episode of Bill Maher’s “Club Random” podcast, Rodgers calls out the state of California for strict social distancing and mask guidelines in 2020 and 2021, according to a preview of the episode shared by SFGate ahead of its Sunday premiere. Rodgers told Maher he believes the “state’s going to shit” and chastised California officials for their coronavirus prevention tactics. “I grew up in a small town, very little cases up in Chico, California, but all the small businesses? Fucking gone,” Rodgers said on the podcast. An estimated 40,000 small businesses in California were closed in September 2020, more than any other state since the beginning of the pandemic, according to a report published by Yelp. At the time, half of these companies were permanently shuttered, the report said. On the podcast, Rodgers also blasted Governor Gavin Newsom for his bill, AB 2098, that would make spreading misinformation or disinformation a punishable offense by a physician or surgeon.
Biden touts his ‘cancer moonshot’ on the anniversary of JFK’s ‘man on the moon’ speech It’s been 60 years since President Kennedy delivered his iconic moonshot speech, marking a goal for America to launch a man into space to step foot on the moon, and bring him back to Earth. On Monday, President Biden gave a speech at the Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston, outlining the progress on his own self-described moonshot: ending cancer. “This cancer moonshot is one of the reasons why I ran for president,” Biden said. “Cancer does not discriminate red and blue. It doesn’t care if you’re a Republican or a Democrat. Beating cancer is something we can do together.” Biden said cancer is often diagnosed too late, and said “there are too few ways to prevent it in the first place.” He also added that there are stark inequities in cancer diagnosis and treatment based on race, disability, zip code, sexual orientation and gender identity. “We know too little about why treatments work for some patients, but a different patient with the same disease, it doesn’t work for. We still lack strategies in developing treatments for some cancers,” he said, adding “we don’t do enough to help patients and families navigate the cancer care system.” While Biden announced many of his cancer moonshot goals in February, in his speech Monday he laid out some updates.
Monsanto/Bayer Declares War on the 30,000 Roundup Cancer Victims Who Are Suing Them Fresh off a fifth-in-a-row trial victory, Monsanto owner Bayer AG is rejecting a proposed “global resolution plan” put forward by plaintiffs’ lawyers as a last chance to try to settle tens of thousands of pending Roundup cancer claims before a wave of new trials get underway, newly filed court documents show. The company stance comes at a pivotal point in the ongoing nationwide litigation involving plaintiffs who allege they developed non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) from exposure to Monsanto’s glyphosate-based weed killers, such as Roundup. The group of law firms leading the cases in what is called “multidistrict litigation (MDL)” asked US District Court Judge Vince Chhabria to approve a plan that would set a 60-day window in which both sides would try to forge a final global settlement that would cover the claims of roughly 30,000 plaintiffs. If no settlement can be reached, the plaintiffs’ firms want the judge to start the process of dissolving the MDL and clearing waves of cases to go to trial in the states where they originated. The plaintiffs’ law firms say the current court-approved settlement process, which has been ongoing for two years, is too slow and ties plaintiffs into a mediation process that provides only low-ball settlement offers to plaintiffs while delaying trials.
Royal beekeeper has to inform palace bees that the Queen has died in strange ritual The royal beekeeper has taken part in a peculiar ancient tradition by telling bees that the Queen has died. It is understood that the bees were informed of the change from Elizabeth II to Charles III through whispered tones. The stinging news was shared with the bees at their hive homes on the grounds of Buckingham Palace and Clarence House. John Chapple, who is the official palace beekeeper, had to make the solemn journey to the hive locations on Friday September 9 to inform the insects of the Queen’s passing, the Mirror reports. The bees showed their respect by having black ribbons tied in bows on the outside of their hives where thousands of the honey collecting beasties live. The ritual took place through the 79-year-old informing the bees that the Queen had died and they would have a new master. Afterwards the bees were urged to be good to their new boss King Charles. This strange and quirky ancient superstition is said to have become common practice after it was believed that keeping the bees out of the loop would lead to them not being able to produce honey, abandoning the hive or dying.
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