Well, we can hope so. My concern for the future is some sort of antibiotic-resist disease that very well could wipe out humanity if pathogenic enough with high transmission. With viral infections, the transmission and virulence relationship can be complicated, because viruses need hosts to replicate, and so keeping the host alive is within the interest of the virus. With bacteria or some sort of fungi, they can self sustain without a host.

I interpreted the poster to be referring to some sort of primitive organism that might out evolve humans, but I suppose an existing pathogenic organism could  enter the gradations of evolution and become a super bug that wipes out humanity.

But it is not even an indirect factor. What was the causal factor of this person ruining his life? It's his own addiction to drugs and alcohol. Blaming crypto for this is like blaming the car when a drunk driver gets into an accident and kills an entire family. It was the person consuming alcohol that was the issue, not the vehicle.

And notice how this story is slanted. When a gambling addict loses all their money in the stock market shorting stocks, or even taking out loans to day trade, the story is about the gambling addiction, it isn't how a predatory stock market. I don't see why this story should be any different. The guy had other problems far from crypto that caused his demise.

It was more than that. People recognize how absurd it was for the government to tightly regulate the fiscal system of their country, so much so that the inflation rate spiraled out of control as a result of shutting down the economy. The pandemic was the best thing to ever happened to crypto, it catalyzed adoption. It wasn't a matter of boredom that people recognize crypto to be essential, merely looking into it as a result of being stuck at home, it was necessity.

First of all, I think a war with Russia by any western countries would further cripple the Russian economy, but also any country that is investing the resources for military intervention, so there is mutual benefit to let Ukraine fall by both sides. The US is the only NATO country with an economy willing to take on the burden of a war, not that they would want to, but also recognize that Russia has nukes which deter any conflict escalation.

Second point is that China will continue to be an economic partner of Russia no matter what they choose to do with Ukraine, so whatever sanctions might be placed, there is still an economic relationship with the world's second largest economy. I anticipate a crypto dip if a full invasion were to occur, just due to the uncertainty associated with a war that might breakout, with speculation of the US's involvement, but again, my thoughts are the US will not be getting involved -- they have no interest in Ukraine.

China and Russia have no problem being business partners, so the US can place whatever sanctions they'd like. Russia's economy isn't very strong, they only have nuclear weapons which makes them a global power.

Question remains how much is the US willing to concede of Ukraine before any military conflict. It's my opinion that they will refuse any military intervention even in the event of a full invasion. I could be wrong, but there is no motivation for the west to defend a non-NATO country. Besides, they don't have any oil either 

I'm thinking they might stop with the booster requirements (maybe). Seeing countries like the UK and Ireland drop a lot of their mandates/restrictions (in fact Ireland recently announced a lift on most of their COVID restrictions today), it would appear all the sane folks are getting over the COVID panic.

New study out of Israel shows a 4th booster shot does not provide much protection despite raising antibody levels to a level at or slightly higher than that of the 3rd dose.

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israeli-study-shows-4th-shot-covid-19-vaccine-not-able-block-omicron-2022-01-17/

Only 154 participants, but to my knowledge, one of the few in the world that are experimenting with 4 doses.

Pumping people full of booster shots does not do anything against Omicron, so they're getting the message that the vaccine is no longer a viable strategy to stop COVID. It will be here forever, and there's only getting used to it. Eradication is impossible.

Good, perhaps better late than never, I enjoyed Johnson's speech. Emphasized the guidelines still in place, advocating for masking and vaccination, but relayed that people can make their own choices.

I've seen recent studies suggesting that natural immunity is more robust against omicron so it explains the emphasis on natural immunity. Previously, I think it's been common thinking that the booster on top of full vaccination was more robust against omicron, turns out that wasn't true. Israel published a study, very small - perhaps a couple hundred participants, which demonstrated a 4th booster shot was not effective against omicron, so there is no more work the current vaccines can do against the current variant.

I corrected the OP, we can blame drugs and alcohol for ruining his life. Had it not been crypto, it would have been something else to gamble on as he fed his drug/alcohol addiction. I'm rather surprised it isn't in your title, but I suppose we need to blame crypto currency for someone making bad choices in life? Even absent of the drugs and alcohol, people make poor choices. It's not fair to attribute those bad choices on anything than the individual themselves.

Omicron is not like the flu, it is like a normal cold for the vast majority of people with an extremely low death rate relative to any previous strains. No good comes out of testing anyone that is asymptomatic. And before you might mention that it's so they can isolate themselves from the vulnerable, the vulnerable can get vaccinated and use respirator masks if they choose. Having the young and healthy test themselves when they are asymptomatic, and at no risk, prolongs the pandemic when it need not go on any longer. Now, a COVID test would only be useful to someone that is symptomatic, because the symptomatic transmit the disease at a high rate and it would be best to isolate them. Universal free COVID tests means people that do not need to be tested will get tested, and surely enough a portion will come back positive. Then, government officials will pretend to act surprised when the COVID case load increases.

Looks like the guy that got a lot of "COVD money" was just a con man hopping from failed business to failed business until he found a way to make millions off COVID tests. It's just ripping off the government because they want to spend money frivolously, but realistically the tax payer is the person that always gets the short end of the stick. Whether his business gets shut down or not, some other testing facility will siphon away millions from tax payers over useless COVID tests that aren't needed. It's only a question about how much money people are willing to throw away over a pandemic that will never go away. At some point there has to be some self awareness.

After Biden's press conference, you can expect an invasion of Ukraine by Russia.

As many have predicted, the US will not be supporting Ukraine if an invasion were to commence. Russia can use Biden's press conference as a segue to an invasion as the US have made their intent to Putin very clear. Any defense systems the US may have funded and implemented in the area are futile to Russia's army. Biden alluding to defensive systems placed in Ukraine, as if they would make any difference. Finland's PM has said their nation will likely not join NATO, meanwhile Ukraine is begging to join NATO. I imagine Finland's PM would be of a different opinion under the threat of Russian aggression, not that Putin is interested anyways.

This is a common problem for any therapeutics that work against bacteria or fungi, I see this being the next global health crisis after COVID. We can't use penicillin to treat staph anymore, it became resistant. Not all antibiotics will work, and in the event they do work, if they are over prescribed, the bacteria become resistant.

It could be a larger part to immediately jump to medication instead of naturally letting a disease progress, but I see no reason to turn away therapeutics as long as they work. Maybe in the most mildest cases of infection, let the immune system handle it. Though it's tough to tell a patient who demands to be treated that they be refused medication over an issue that does not affect them personally. If you asked anyone if they cared about microbial resistance they probably could not even grasp the concept.

"Gaming" is the biggest form of entertainment there is, and Activision is apparently involved in some mobile games as well, another free-for-all type market. Microsoft is only heading where the money is, I'm not seeing where the connection to the "metaverse" is.

Too many people throwing around a buzzword proposed by disconnected silicon valley tech elites that need to generate more start up funding from venture capitalist billionaires. I'm sure introducing the "metaverse" helps with their funding rounds, but perhaps not to anyone else that doesn't live in that tech bubble.

Humans aren't suppose to evolve unless there's a mechanism, perhaps a catotrosphic event, which forces people to compete with limited resources. Then, there's selection for particular traits based on those who survive and reproduce, ie - people physically unable to compete for resources, or not smart enough, would not reproduce, and there genes would not become part of the gene pool. Evolution is true, but evolution is no match for the first world we enjoy living in. I'd say on a macro scale humans are devolving physically.

Imagine if the grocery stores went empty today, would it be possible for modern day humans to adapt to any resemblance of hunter/gather type living? We are too accustomed to our current lifestyle, supplemented by technology. That's the same reason why there would never be an organism to evolve further than humans. Humans would just use technology to destroy anything that becomes a threat (after all, we compete for the same resources).

Localities in the US and plenty of places outside of the US were stopping gatherings. It just seemed the health experts were so keen on stopping certain gatherings while not stopping others. Only difference was one was one gathering was politically feasible.



Maybe the theme of all the COVID hysteria is that people do unreasonable things when they're afraid, including drinking their own piss. Though this story is isolated, I recall a story in which a mother loaded her own child into the trunk of her car because she had COVID. This may have been in Texas. And apparently the mother was a teacher too so I can't imagine what type of education she's providing to others.

I don't treat Trump like a medical doctor. He spouts off what he wants to and so I don't take medical advice from him. Tanning advice, maybe.


Or COVID lockdowns, perhaps?

Governments implemented all kinds of restrictions, you couldn't gather in places of worship if you wanted to because any congregate settings were deemed to be unsafe. The government can use COVID as an excuse to stop religious practices or recreational practices, but they can't use COVID to stop radical racial demonstrations, plenty of which erupted oi violence, according to the 1200 doctors that signed that letter. Do you see the double standard here?

I only recall a few of his statements that he mentioned with his interview with Joe Rogan, where he explains the context. Some of these are misleading. He said there were no reinfections before omicron, and he was generally correct. With the alpha strain, there was no reinfection. With delta, there wasn't much either. He's acknowledged that reinfection is possible with omicron. And he was minimizing the significance of asymptomatic spread from what I recall. Dr. Fauci himself says the asymptomatic do not act as chief vectors of transmission, so there's clear disagreement to the extent asymptomatic individuals spread Covid. I didn't take from his statement that it was impossible for an asymptomatic person to spread Covid, but rather symptomatic individuals drive spread, which isn't an unreasonable theory.



I am not suggesting that people like Dr. McCullough or Dr. Malone have all the answers, just that people with politically inconvenient opinions about COVID have been shut down. Didn't 99 percent of doctors say we needed lockdowns too? Seemingly the few experts on public health that disagreed with the lockdowns were targeted. It was over a year after lockdowns that some officials at WHO admitted lockdowns weren't a feasible strategy. They all seem to be significantly behind, it would seem.

Remember when "doctors" suggested it was okay to gather in large crowds as long as it was for protesting for social justice?

https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/05/health/health-care-open-letter-protests-coronavirus-trnd/index.html

I don't see anyone calling these people quacks, I wonder why that is.

Variants are always "on the way." There is no possible way that COVID can be stopped. It will continue to mutate with new variants infecting the healthy population, similar to the flu. I can't help but laugh at how slow government are in recognizing things, one being the endemic nature of COVID. This isn't necessarily the fault of Sri Lanka, but the supply chain issues are effecting global markets, partly because countries home to large manufacturing of goods continually restrict their economy as a precaution due to COVID. Combine this with the shipping bottlenecks, Sri Lanka is only the start of many countries that will have their currencies enter hyper inflation. The US has already hit a 7 percent inflation level, a 40 year high.

We know why he was removed, COVID disinformation. And COVID disinformation changes depending on whatever people like Dr. Fauci wants to say. Regardless of whatever alleged disinformation he may or may not have spread, character attacks of a physician who is the most published author in cardiology and nephrology seems perfectly in line with people who don't want to hear what he has to say. His qualifications are not in dispute.

And by the way, he could be a quack. I just have not seen any legitimate arguments that he is. If you watch his interviews, his focus is on pre-hospital treatment of COVID patients if they get infected. He's not an anti-vaxxer.

You define "purpose" only by any self interest that someone might have and it brings into question the "nature v. nurture" argument. If it's someone's dream to be an engineer in life, but they are limited by their IQ (or their physical circumstances), their purpose is limited by factors out of their control. And children aren't meant to think of these limiting factors, they're children. No matter how hard they might try, no matter how hard their parents might set him/her up for success, it will end up in failure.

So the answer is, nothing. Sometimes accepting things are out of your control is the only option, as pessimistic as it may sound.