Hurricane Hilary Threatening "Catastrophic" Flooding Across California

 As Hurricane Hilary churns 235 miles south of the southern tip of the Baja California Peninsula, moving northwest at 16 mph, the National Hurricane Center warned of "catastrophic and life-threatening flooding" across the Southwestern United States. 

"Heavy rainfall in association with Hilary is expected across the Southwestern United States, peaking on Sunday," NHC wrote in an advisory, forecasting total rainfall amounts between 3 to 6 inches, with some areas expected to receive as much as 10 inches of rain. Those areas are portions of Southern California and Southern Nevada. 

On Saturday morning, Hilary weakened from a very dangerous Category 4 with winds of 130 mph to Category 3 status, with maximum sustained winds of 125 mph. 

National Weather Service posted tropical storm warnings across Southern California, affecting 42 million people -- for the first time since Nora in 1997. 

Ahead of the storm's arrival, Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo called up the National Guard. 

"These Guardsmen will be put in place to provide support to southern counties, which may be significantly impacted by flooding.

 "As the state takes the necessary steps to prepare for flooding and severe weather, I strongly urge all Nevadans to do the same," Lombardo said in a written statement.

NHC's latest trajectory and warnings about the storm:

A newly updated forecast of the "catastrophic flooding impacts are expected late tonight through early Monday" for Southern California and Nevada. 

The Weather Prediction Center warned entire "Towns could get cut off" due to mudslides and landslides: 

The heavy rainfall combined with high winds expected at elevation could lead to mudslides and landslides, which would be exacerbated where trees uproot within saturating soils. Debris flows and rock slides are a given considering the volume of rainfall expected. The overall combination of effects could block and undermine roads, particularly sensitive areas such as sections of U.S. 50 in NV. Towns could get cut off. Given the overall uniqueness of this event and expected impacts, the High Risk for areas of southern CA remains justified. The main change was the joining of the two separate High Risk areas and some slight westward shift of the risk areas in CA, NV, UT, and AZ and some northward stretching of the threat areas to account for the slightly accelerated guidance.

Stefanie Sullivan, a forecaster with NWS, said a tropical storm to come off the ocean and make landfall in California is "exceedingly rare." The last time this happened was in 1939. 

https://www.zerohedge.com/weather/towns-could-get-cut-hurricane-hilary-threatening-catastrophic-flooding-across-california

Intensive Ivermectin Use Had 74% Reduction In Excess Deaths In Peru: New Study

 by Megan Redshaw, JD via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

According to a new peer-reviewed ecological study, a natural experiment occurred when the government of Peru authorized ivermectin for use during the COVID-19 pandemic resulting in evidence of the drug’s effectiveness and ability to reduce excess deaths.

The paper’s results, published August 8 in Cureus, found a 74 percent reduction in excess deaths in 10 states with the most intensive ivermectin use over a 30-day period following peak deaths during the pandemic. When analyzing data across 25 states in Peru, researchers found these reductions in excess deaths correlated closely to ivermectin use during four months in 2020.

When ivermectin was available without restriction, there was a fourteenfold reduction in nationwide excess deaths. Once access to ivermectin was restricted by the government, a thirteenfold increase in excess deaths was observed in the two months following the limitation of its use. The findings align with summary data from the World Health Organization for the same time period in Peru.

Ivermectin is a widely-known and inexpensive treatment against parasitic diseases. Scientists believe the drug can also bind to the spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, limiting its morbidity and infectivity.

Peru Promoted Then Restricted Access to Ivermectin

Before Peru implemented COVID-19 vaccine mandates, the country relied on mitigation strategies such as lockdowns and therapeutics to control the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19, as did many other nations.

The Peruvian Ministry of Health, on May 8, 2020, approved ivermectin widely for use prompting 25 states in Peru to implement inpatient and outpatient treatments with ivermectin to different extents and in different time frames. Additionally, through the Mega-Operación Tayta (MOT)—a national program led by the Ministry of Defense—Peru’s government began distributing ivermectin on a wide scale.

Through a partnership with 11 other government agencies, MOT aimed to reach every targeted region with rapid response teams to detect COVID-19 cases, administer ivermectin, and provide food to encourage people to isolate for 15 days. Shortly thereafter, MOT began distributing the therapeutic to everyone identified as high-risk, regardless of whether they tested positive or were symptomatic for COVID-19.

The government of Peru independently tracked daily COVID-19 deaths and all-cause deaths through numerous Peruvian national health databases, allowing researchers to calculate excess deaths. Additionally, they extensively tracked data for deaths and other public health parameters allowing analysis of the potential efficacy of interventions such as ivermectin during the pandemic.

When President Francisco Sagasti took office on Nov. 17, 2020, the government stopped distributing ivermectin and made it available only by prescription. This made the drug significantly more difficult for people to obtain and allowed researchers to see nationwide changes in daily excess all-cause deaths before and after restrictions went into place.

Impact of Ivermectin on Excess Deaths

Excess all-cause deaths were calculated from the total deaths recorded for January through February 2020. During this period, monthly all-cause deaths fluctuated with a mean value of 5.2 percent and a standard deviation of 3.8 percent. By May 2020, total deaths fluctuated by more than double the baseline value calculated in January through February.

An analysis of excess all-cause deaths was performed state-by-state for those aged 60 years and older to establish the date of peak excess deaths during the pandemic’s first wave. Decreases in excess deaths from the peak date of death to 30 and 45 days afterward were tracked. The 25 states were then grouped by the extent of ivermectin distribution: maximal distribution—occurring through operation MOT, medium, and minimal.

Results showed that the 10 MOT states had a sharp decrease in excess deaths after reaching peak values—with a 74 percent drop at 30 days and an 86 percent drop at 45 days after the date of peak deaths. For 14 states that locally administered ivermectin, excess deaths dropped by 53 percent at 30 days and 70 percent at 45 days.

In Lima, where ivermectin treatments were delayed until August—four months after its initial pandemic surge in April—excess deaths only dropped by 25 percent at 30 days and 25 percent at 45 days after peak deaths on May 30.

According to the study, mean reductions in excess deaths 30 days after peak deaths were 74 percent, 53 percent, and 25 percent, respectively, for the maximal, medium, and minimal states that distributed ivermectin. Forty-five days after peak deaths, mean reductions were 86 percent, 70 percent, and 25 percent.

The researchers noted that ivermectin distribution may have yielded such positive numbers due to the drug’s ability to both prevent and treat COVID-19 when distributed to an at-risk population on a greater scale.

https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/most-intensive-ivermectin-use-had-74-percent-reduction-excess-deaths-peru-new-study

British Columbia on high alert as wildfires force emergency, disrupt main highway

 Thousands of British Columbia (B.C.) residents were on high evacuation alert on Saturday after rapidly intensifying wildfires forced the Canadian province to declare a state of emergency, while some sections of a key transit route between the Pacific coast and the rest of western Canada were partially closed.

The western province of B.C. has experienced strong winds and dry lightning in the past 36 hours due to a cold mass of air interacting with hot air built-up in the sultry summer. That intensified existing forest fires and ignited new ones.

By Friday, an out-of-control fire in southern B.C. grew more than one hundredfold in 24 hours and forced more than 2,400 properties to be evacuated. The fire was centred around Kelowna, a city some 300 kilometres (180 miles) east of Vancouver, with a population of about 150,000.

As conditions continued to deteriorate quickly through Friday evening, Premier Daniel Eby declared a province-wide state of emergency to access temporary authoritative powers to tackle fire-related risks.

"This is an historic wildfire season for British Columbia," Eby told a briefing.

The fires moved so rapidly on Friday that the number of people under evacuation order went from 4,500 to 15,000 in an hour, while another 20,000 were under evacuation alert. The province currently accounts for over a third of Canada's 1,062 active fires.

"The state of emergency declaration ... communicates to people across the province the seriousness of the deteriorating situation," Eby said. "(It) enables a number of legal tools for us to issue specific orders and to ensure that resources are available."

The flames have already destroyed several structures in West Kelowna and authorities have been warning that the province could potentially face the worst couple of days of the fire season this year.

MAIN EAST-WEST ARTERY UNDER THREAT

The TransCanada highway was closed near Chase, around 400 km northeast of Vancouver, and between Hope, 150 km east of Vancouver, and the village of Lytton. However, the government's Drive B.C. said detours were available.

TransCanada is the main east-west artery used by thousands of motorists and road freight heading to Port of Vancouver, the country's busiest.

Some 5,000 customers are also without electricity in interior B.C. due to the fires, the main utility said.

Forest fires are not uncommon in Canada, but the spread of blazes and disruption underscore the severity of its worst wildfire season yet.

The fires have drained local resources and drawn in federal government assistance as well as support from 13 countries. At least four firefighters have died in the line of duty.

About 140,000 square km (54,054 square miles) of land, roughly the size of New York state, have already burnt, and government officials project the fire season could stretch into autumn due to widespread drought-like conditions in Canada.

The escalation in B.C. comes as the northern Canadian city of Yellowknife evacuated most of its roughly 20,000 residents due to a large approaching blaze.

People left their homes and property behind on Thursday and Friday to seek refuge in neighbouring provinces due to the threat of the creeping fire cutting off land exits and potentially doing worse harm.

Residents and tourists drove away on roads flanked by fire and smoke, while local and federal authorities flew out some others.

The massive blaze threatening Yellowknife, the Northwest Territories' capital city, made little headway on Friday as firefighters held it back.

But strong winds could still blow the blaze toward the city, and it could reach the outskirts this weekend, the territory's fire service has cautioned.

https://news.yahoo.com/british-columbia-residents-high-alert-100356778.html

Study On 'COVID-19 Misinformation' Rife With Misinformation: Critics

 by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

A new study claiming some doctors offered "COVID-19 misinformation" is full of false and misleading information, critics say.

Dr. Sarah Goff and colleagues in their study claimed that the COVID-19 vaccines are completely safe, that only nine deaths have been confirmed as being caused by the vaccines, and that there are no negative consequences to wearing masks.

In some instances, the authors went against their own definition of misinformation. They defined misinformation as information that went against guidelines issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) or "unsubstantiated claims."

The CDC in 2021 acknowledged severe allergic shock as a COVID-19 vaccine side effect. The agency also said that year that the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines likely caused heart inflammation and that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine caused blood clotting.

The study was published by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Network Open and covered January 2021 to December 2022.

Dr. Goff, an associate professor of health promotion and policy at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and other researchers from the university, also labeled as misinformation saying post-infection immunity, or natural immunity, was better than vaccine-bestowed immunity.

A statement from January 2022 from Dr. Marty Makary, a surgeon at Johns Hopkins University, saying "natural imm[unity] is more effective than vax [immunity]" was included as an example of purported misinformation.

According to the CDC, natural immunity provided better protection than the vaccines during the Delta era. Another CDC study, which came after the time period the study covered, found the same for the Omicron era.

"JAMA, CDC, & the government’s Truth™️ agencies spread a lot of misinformation during the pandemic," Dr. Makary said in a social media post. "But when they use the term it’s to justify censoring different scientific opinions—even after they are later supported by solid research."

Dr. Goff and JAMA did not respond to requests for comment.

The researchers said that their study found "widespread, inaccurate, and potentially harmful assertions made by physicians across the country," adding that "Further research is needed to assess the extent of the potential harms associated with physician propagation of misinformation, the motivations for these behaviors, and potential legal and professional recourse to improve accountability for misinformation propagation."

But Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a professor of health policy at Stanford University, said the study itself promoted misinformation and will contribute to the falling trust in public health.

"The U.S. public health establishment failed to safeguard the health and well-being of the American public during the pandemic. A primary reason for this is that the establishment embraced many policies and ideas unsupported by scientific evidence, such as the efficacy of toddler masking or the inefficacy of immune protection after COVID recovery. They pushed vaccine mandates on the false premise that the COVID vaccine could stop COVID," Dr. Bhattacharya, who was not involved in the research, told The Epoch Times via email.

"For JAMA to publish a piece on misinformation—citing true facts as if they were misinformation—without mentioning the much more consequential misinformation that public health and medical authorities pushed further, diminishes public trust in public health and medicine," he added.

Other Claims

Dr. Goff and the other authors reviewed statements made on social media and during interviews and analyzed them to see if they were "unsupported by or contradicting" CDC guidance or "contradicting the existing state of scientific evidence for any topics not covered by the CDC."

Themes of purported misinformation, the authors claimed, included statements that the COVID-19 vaccines were ineffective at preventing the spread of COVID-19 and that the vaccines were harmful.

The clinical trials for the vaccines did not test efficacy against transmission and vaccinated people almost immediately began becoming infected despite being vaccinated, records show. Studies have found that vaccinated people have similar viral loads to unvaccinated people.

Side effects, meanwhile, have been acknowledged by the CDC and other agencies starting in late 2020 with anaphylaxis, or severe allergic shock. Other known or suspected side effects include heart inflammation, Guillain-Barre syndrome, and blood clotting.

While dismissing vaccine risks, the authors also said that doctors distributed misinformation by contradicting the CDC's position that COVID-19 vaccines have only been confirmed as causing or contributing to nine deaths. But death certificates and other evidence undercut the CDC's position, and authorities in other countries have confirmed additional deaths.

The authors also said that alleging COVID-19 originated in a laboratory in China, where the first COVID-19 cases were detected, "contradicted scientific evidence at the time" and was thus misinformation. But their two citations were from 2023, after the study was completed. Experts remain divided on the COVID-19 origins, and many support the theory it came from the lab.

They also took issue with Dr. Bhattacharya's December 2022 statement that "we found that government actors across a dozen federal agencies were in contact with Twitter, with social media telling the social media companies what to censor and in many cases who to censor regarding COVID information."

Court documents from a case in which the doctor was involved support his statement. A federal judge overseeing the case later said the plaintiffs  “have produced evidence of a massive effort by Defendants, from the White House to federal agencies, to suppress speech based on its content.”

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/study-covid-19-misinformation-rife-misinformation-critics

AcelRx upped to Buy by Wainwright

 From Neutral

https://seekingalpha.com/news/4004490-arcellx-upgraded-hc-wainwright-likely-authorization-anticoagulant

FDA approves higher dose of Regeneron's eye disease drug Eylea

 The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a higher dose version of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals' drug Eylea for treatment of a disease that is a leading cause of blindness among the elderly, the company said in a statement on Friday.

The drug, Eylea HD, is priced at $2,625 per single-use vial in the U.S. and is used to treat patients with wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD), diabetic macular edema (DME) and diabetic retinopathy (DR), Regeneron said.

Eylea, which is jointly developed with Bayer, is normally given in doses of 2 milligrams every eight weeks. Two late-stage trials had shown Eylea was as effective as the lower dose version when given at 8 mg at longer intervals without any additional safety issues.

In June, the FDA declined to approve the higher dose version of Eylea and said it had outstanding questions, citing an ongoing review of inspection at third-party manufacturer Catalent.

Earlier in the day, the FDA approved another Regeneron drug, branded as Veopoz to treat a rare blood disease CHAPLE.

With Veopoz's approval, the company said earlier that the pre-approval inspection issues related to the marketing application of Eylea HD, or aflibercept, has been addressed.

An estimated 1.4 million people in the U.S. have wet AMD, according to Regeneron.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/1-us-fda-approves-higher-235510917.html

"End Is Nearing" - Seymour Hersh Slams White House "Wishful Approach" To Ukraine War

 by Seymour Hersh via Substack

It’s been weeks since we looked into the adventures of the Biden administration’s foreign policy cluster, led by Tony Blinken, Jake Sullivan, and Victoria Nuland. How has the trio of war hawks spent the summer?

Sullivan, the national security adviser, recently brought an American delegation to the second international peace summit earlier this month at Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. The summit was led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as MBS, who in June announced a merger between his state-backed golf tour and the PGA. Four years earlier MBS was accused of ordering the assassination and dismemberment of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, for perceived disloyalty to the state.

As unlikely as it sounds, there was such a peace summit and its stars did include MBS, Sullivan, and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine. What was missing was a representative of Russia, which was not invited to the summit. It included just a handful of heads of state from the fewer than fifty nations that sent delegates. The conference lasted two days, and attracted what could only be described as little international attention. 

Reuters reported that Zelensky’s goal was to get international support for “the principles” that that he will consider as a basis for the settlement of the war, including “the withdrawal of all Russian troops and the return of all Ukrainian territory.” Russia’s formal response to the non-event came not from President Vladimir Putin but from Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Ryabkov. He called the summit “a reflection of the West’s attempt to continue futile, doomed efforts” to mobilize the Global South behind Zelensky. 

India and China both sent delegations to the session, perhaps drawn to Saudi Arabia for its immense oil reserves. One Indian academic observer dismissed the event as achieving little more than “good advertising for MBS’s convening power within the Global South; the kingdom’s positioning in the same; and perhaps more narrowly, aiding American efforts to build consensus by making sure China attends the meeting with . . . Jake Sullivan in the same room.” 

Meanwhile, far away on the battlefield in Ukraine, Russia continued to thwart Zelensky’s ongoing counteroffensive. I asked an American intelligence official why it was Sullivan who emerged from the Biden administration’s foreign policy circle to preside over the inconsequential conference in Saudi Arabia.

“Jeddah was Sullivan’s baby,” the official said. “He planned it to be Biden’s equivalent of [President Woodrow] Wilson’s Versailles. The grand alliance of the free world meeting in a victory celebration after the humiliating defeat of the hated foe to determine the shape of nations for the next generation. Fame and Glory. Promotion and re-election. The jewel in the crown was to be Zelensky’s achievement of Putin’s unconditional surrender after the lightning spring offensive. They were even planning a Nuremberg type trial at the world court, with Jake as our representative. Just one more fuck-up, but who is counting? Forty nations showed up, all but six looking for free food after the Odessa shutdown”—a reference to Putin’s curtailing of Ukrainian wheat shipments in response to Zelensky’s renewed attacks on the bridge linking Crimea to the Russian mainland. 

Via AFP

Enough about Sullivan. Let us now turn to Victoria Nuland, an architect of the 2014 overthrow of the pro-Russian government in Ukraine, one of the American moves that led us to where we are, though it was Putin who initiated the horrid current war. The ultra-hawkish Nuland was promoted early this summer by Biden, over the heated objections of many in the State Department, to be the acting deputy secretary of state. She has not been formally nominated as the deputy for fear that her nomination would lead to a hellish fight in the Senate. 

It was Nuland who was sent last week to see what could be salvaged after a coup led to the overthrow of a pro-Western government in Niger, one of a group of former French colonies in West Africa that have remained in the French sphere of influence. President Mohamed Bazoum, who was democratically elected, was tossed out of office by a junta led by the head of his presidential guard, General Abdourahmane Tchiani. The general suspended the constitution and jailed potential political opponents. Five other military officers were named to his cabinet. All of this generated enormous public support on the streets in Niamey, Niger’s capital—enough support to discourage outside Western intervention.

There were grim reports in the Western press that initially viewed the upheaval in East-West terms: some of the supporters of the coup were carrying Russian flags as they marched in the streets. The New York Times saw the coup as a blow to the main US ally in the region, Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who controls vast oil and gas reserves. Tinubu threatened the new government in Niger with military action unless they returned power to Bazoum. He set a deadline that passed without any outside intervention. The revolution in Niger was not seen by those living in the region in east-west terms but as a long needed rejection of long-standing French economic and political control. It is a scenario that may be repeated again and again throughout the French-dominated Sahel nations in sub-Saharan Africa.

...

So the White House’s wishful approach to the war, when it comes to realistic talk to the American people, will continue apace. But the end is nearing, even if the assessments supplied by Biden to the public are out of a comic strip.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/seymour-hersh-summer-hawks