Welcome to Friday, March 13, 2026: another Friday the 13th. It’s Donald Duck Day, celebrating the pantsless mallard who first appeared in a cartoon in 1934. The link says this:
In a 1941 biography of Donald Duck, Walt Disney’s The Life of Donald Duck, it says that Donald was born on a Friday the 13th. The 1949 short film “Donald’s Happy Birthday” celebrates his birthday on March 13. The license plate of his car is the number 313, likely a reference to his birthday.
Here’s the cartoon, from my birth year. It will keep playing over and over again as you read this post, so press the “stop” button if you’ve seen it or don’t want to hear it, but I recommend your watching, as it’s classic Donald, Huey, Dewey, and Louie, with his nephews conspiring to buy him a box of cigars on his birthday.
It’s also K-9 Veterans Day, National Chicken Noodle Soup Day, National Coconut Torte Day, National Ginger Ale Day, National Riesling Day, and World Sleep Day (oy, could I use some!)
Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the March 13 Wikipedia page.
Da Nooz:
**Breaking news. From the Everyone Hates the Jews Department, there was an attack on a synagogue in Michigan. A guy drove his explosive-packed ehicle into a synagogue and then exchanged fire with security guards. He was killed. Apparently he tried to ignite the explosives, but they failed to go off.
An attacker is dead after plowing his vehicle into a synagogue on Thursday outside Detroit and then exchanging gunfire with security guards in what the authorities described as a “targeted act of violence against the Jewish community.”
Federal officials said the attack was carried out by 41-year-old Ayman Mohamad Ghazali. Officials were still searching for a motive.
Give me a break! Fox News says this:
He reportedly targeted the Jewish community after suffering family losses in Lebanon during the country’s conflict with Israel, Dearborn Heights Mayor Mo Baydoun said, adding that Ghazali was a resident of the city.
The NYT doesn’t like to deal with “motives” when it comes to synagogues.
And there was another terrorist attack in Virginia that left the attacker, an ISIS supporter, dead, but also one ROTC candidate:
When a convicted ISIS supporter stepped into an ROTC classroom at Old Dominion University on Thursday and opened fire, the group of students inside barely hesitated before leaping up to subdue their attacker.
By the end of the struggle, the shooter was dead, but so too was one of their peers.
The FBI is now investigating the Thursday morning attack as an act of terrorism, identifying the shooter as Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, a former Virginia National Guard member who has served prison time for attempting to aid the Islamist militant group a decade ago.
Before the attack began, FBI Special Agent In Charge Dominique Evans said Jalloh shouted “Allahu Akbar” — or “God is greater.”
The religion of peace my tuchas.
*War news from the WSJ. Mojtaba Khamenei, the next target Supreme Leader of Iran, is keeping a low profile because he knows that he’s the Most Likely Iranian to be Targeted now. But yesterday he issued a public statement that shows that the new boss is the same as the old boss.
Iran’s new supreme leader, in his first official message since he took over from his slain father, said his country would keep the Strait of Hormuz closed. Shipping on the crucial oil route and nearby waters suffered a rise in attacks.
Mojtaba Khamenei also raised the possibility of opening new fronts in a war that the International Energy Agency said is causing the biggest-ever disruption to oil supply, according to a written statement attributed to him.
The U.S. military has turned down requests to escort tankers or other civilian ships through the strait, with defense officials saying it won’t do so until the threat of Iranian fire has eased. The head of U.S. Central Command said its focus remains on destroying Iran’s missiles and drones.
. . . Khamenei said Iran would open new fronts in the war. Iran has responded to U.S. and Israeli strikes by broadening the conflict, including hitting civilian infrastructure and energy facilities in Arab nations across the Gulf. He said Iran sought good relations with its neighbors, but that they over the years had allowed the U.S. to establish bases on their soil.
- Oil futures touched $100 in response to troubles surrounding the Strait of Hormuz, even as the U.S. said it would release 172 million barrels of oil from emergency stockpiles as part of a global effort.
- Vessels in the Persian Gulf came under attack, including two tankers hit in Iraqi waters that caught fire and leaked oil. Bahrain said Iran targeted fuel tanks at one of its facilities.
- Israel carried out fresh airstrikes on Hezbollah targets after the Lebanese militia launched dozens of rockets at Israel.
- A United Nations agency said the war has internally displaced up to 3.2 million people in Iran so far.
- Saudi Aramco is in talks to buy Ukrainian drones to protect its oil fields.
- The White House is considering a Jones Act waiver to speed up oil and food shipments between U.S. ports.
Buckle up: this fight is going to take longer than we thought. I can’t imagine what it would take to cause regime change and give freedom and democracy to the beleaguered Iranian people, who totally deserve it. That seems no longer to be a goal of the American/Israeli attack.
*The NYT reports that the frequency of Iran’s “retaliatory” strikes is slowing.
Nearly two weeks of U.S. and Israeli strikes have battered Iran’s arsenal, and now, the pace of Tehran’s retaliatory attacks appears to be slowing.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday that Iran had fired the lowest number of missiles in a 24-hour period since the war began.
“Our strikes mean we’ve made significant progress in reducing the number of missile and drone attacks out of Iran,” he said.
Across the Gulf countries alone, Iran has launched more than 2,100 drones, 500 ballistic missiles and 20 cruise missiles since the war began on Feb. 28, according to a New York Times tally of reports from defense ministries and regional officials. More strikes have hit Israel, but the government is not sharing data about the quantity of weapons coming in.
But there are mounting signs that Iran has had to curb its attacks, according to experts, either because of depleted stockpiles or to conserve weaponry in case the war is prolonged.Here’s what we know about Iran’s weapon capabilities.
Signs grow that Iran’s weapons are degraded.
In the first two days of the war, Iran launched about 100 attacks on Israel, according to data compiled by the independent Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv. That number has since fallen to a handful each day, the data shows.
The slowdown is reflected in figures from some Gulf countries, which Iran has targeted for their alliances with the United States and, in some cases, for hosting American bases.
“Ballistic missile attacks continue to trend downward 90 percent from where they’ve started,” Mr. Hegseth said in his remarks on Tuesday. “And one-way attack drones have decreased 83 percent since the beginning of the operation, a testament to our air defenders and our air-defense systems.”
*In a post called “The heretics list“, the LGB Courage Coalition website reports about petition in which a group of scientists summoned up their own courage to sign a statement saying that women produce eggs. (h/t Loretta). The statement itself and its signatories was apparently the work of our own Emma Hilton with help from Colin Wright. Emma reports on “Project Nettie” on her Beetlebomb website. Here’s the statement on Emma’s site:
Male and female are scientific descriptions of the two sexual reproductive functions evolved to produce two specialised types of sex cells: small, mobile gametes (e.g. sperm or pollen) and large, immobile gametes (e.g. eggs).
In humans, there are two classes of individuals, each with a molecular and anatomical developmental pattern corresponding to adult reproduction via either sperm or eggs.
This division of the two reproductive functions across two classes of individuals is a simple outcome of our species’ evolutionary history.
In humans, anatomical developmental patterns are fixed during early embryonic development, and sex does not change throughout the individual lifespan.
While (rare) individuals have medical conditions that affect their anatomical reproductive development and/or function, not one of these individuals represents an additional sex class. One’s inability to produce gametes (e.g. those who are infertile or post-reproductive) does not change sex from that defined by reproductive anatomy.
Attempts to recast biological sex as a social construct, which then becomes a matter of arbitrarily chosen individual identity, are wholly ideological, scientifically inaccurate and socially irresponsible.
The project is explicitly modeled after “Project Steve“, in which scientists named Steve were asked to affirm their acceptance of evolution. In this case the model is Nettie Stevens (1861-1912) the American woman geneticist who discovered sex chromosomes. Emma is thinking of reactivating it; if you’re an academic or biologist and would sign it, put that in the comments and I will see what I can do.
From the website:
The signatories
The list of signatories found on Hilton’s Substack is worth reading in full, not for the prominence of those who have signed (although some names are well known), but for the depth of their professional commitment. These are not retired academics with nothing left to lose; they are active clinicians at the peaks of their careers. The list spans emergency medicine, pediatrics, psychiatry, endocrinology, pathology, and general practice.
Notable signatories include:
William Malone, an endocrinologist at the forefront of the debate over the use ofcross-sex hormones and puberty blockers on children and adolescents
Melanie Newbould, a pediatric pathologist and Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists
David Curtis, a fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists with a PhD in genetics from Cambridge
Ryan Clark, a consultant in emergency and pediatric emergency medicine
Lord David Triesman and Lewis Moonie, both members of the House of Lords with backgrounds in epidemiology and psychiatry.
These are not fringe figures. They are credentialed experts in fields where misdefining biological sex has direct, negative consequences for patient care.
. . .The existence of such a list is a symptom of an ailing scientific community.
Such declarations do not appear in healthy environments; they emerge only when institutional capture by ideologues and frauds is so near-total that stating the most basic of biological truths requires a formal act of defiance. This list is not merely a record of consensus, but a map of the resistance—a ledger of those willing to tether their professional reputations to material facts within an environment threatened by enforced delusion.
That courage has costs. Hilton herself has faced professional hostility for her public positions on biological sex. Others on the list have faced similar treatment. The signatories know what they’re doing when they add their names, which makes the list more than a record of who believes what, but who also had the courage to step forward.
In observance of Women’s History Month, it is imperative to reclaim the legacy of the woman who provides this project with its name and its moral anchor: Nettie Stevens.
There are more signers; the ones above are just the “notables.” I wasn’t asked to sign it at all (an oversight, I’m sure).
*A WaPo op-ed by writer/reporter James Kirchick describes how two Representatives were guilty of false accusations in the wake of Epsteingate, “How Ro Khanna turned a sex trafficking scandal into a campaign stunt.”
The following day on the House floor, Khanna made good on that threat, reading the names of “six, wealthy, powerful men” into the congressional record “to hold the Epstein class accountable.”
It took the Guardian three days to discover that four of the men Khanna named had “no ties to Epstein.” A car mechanic from the nation of Georgia, an information technology specialist, the owner of a home improvement store in Queens and a man Massie later admitted to misidentifying who shares a name with an Italian former member of the European Parliament — none of them are “wealthy” and “powerful.” A more accurate description was provided by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who referred to them as “completely random.”
Rather than apologize to the public he deceived and to the men he smeared, Khanna blamed the Justice Department. Acknowledging that the innocent men “were just part of a photo line up and are not connected to Epstein’s crimes,” Khanna said that the department nonetheless “failed to protect survivors.” Less than two weeks later, having evidently learned nothing, he claimed that the files showed that Epstein had visited CIA headquarters. A Washington Free Beacon report demonstrated that Khanna was likely referencing a photo of Epstein at a Hermès design studio. (When asked for comment, Khanna acknowledged that “the photograph which had online buzz about being at CIA headquarters was apparently at Hermes.”)
Ever since appointing himself chief congressional inquisitor in the Epstein investigation, Khanna has been deceiving the American people with conspiracy theories. Last summer, the FBI released a memo debunking the two primary components of what independent journalist Michael Tracey, who has done more than anyone to expose the mainstream media’s sensationalist coverage of this story, refers to as the “Epstein mythology.” According to the bureau, there’s no evidence that Epstein possessed a “client list” of people he subjected to sexual blackmail, nor is there any information “that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.” Nothing in the 3.5 million files that the department released in January at the urging of Khanna and others changes that assessment.
It’s a shame, as Khanna has many stands I agree with, and I used to consider him a viable dark-horse Democratic for President, though I’m not keen on this (from Wikipedia):
In November of 2025, Khanna was one of 20 Democratic congress members who cosponsored a resolution introduced by Representative Rashida Tlaib to officially recognize Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people.
Aligning with Tlaib on this is inexcusable, as is the dumb “genocide” accusation.
*Finally both the AP and UPI’s “odd news” features a red fox that crossed the Atlantic as a stowaway. This is from the UPI:
This stowaway truly was sly as a fox.
A red fox somehow slipped onto a cargo ship that traveled from Southampton, England, to New York, where the animal is now in the Bronx Zoo’s care.
The zoo said Wednesday that the 11-pound (5-kilogram) male fox appears healthy after early examinations.
“He seems to be settling in well,” Keith Lovett, the zoo’s director of animal programs, said by phone. “It’s gone through a lot.”
It’s not clear how the animal got on the ship full of automobiles, which left Southampton on Feb. 4, according to the zoo. The ship arrived Feb. 18 at the Port of New York and New Jersey, and officials brought the fox to the zoo the next day. He’s estimated to be 2 years old.
Zoo representatives weren’t sure how and when the fox was discovered. Messages seeking those details were sent to government agencies involved with the port.
ADThe species, formally named Vulpes vulpes, is widespread in Europe, Asia, North America and parts of Africa. A long-term home for this fox will be found once he clears some more health screening.
For now, he’s in the zoo’s veterinary center. Being an omnivore, he’s getting a diet of produce, proteins and some biscuit-like items.
Here’s a new report on the fox. I want to know if his “new home” will be in England versus America. It’s an illegal immigrant, and should be deported:
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Andrzej and Hili are both carping the diem (but Hili wants beef, too):
Hili: Carpe diem, my dear, time is running away.
Andrzej: You are right, I will have some wine, and I will give you some cream.
Hili: There are more interesting options as well.
In Polish:
Hili: Carpe diem, mój drogi, czas ucieka.
Ja: Masz rację, ja napiję się wina, a tobie dam śmietanki.
Hili: Są również ciekawsze opcje.
*******************
First, yesterday’s NYT front page is still giving all negative news about the war. Again, I swear it wants the U.S. to lose, and isn’t hiding it. Click to enlarge:
From Jesus of the Day:
From Stacy:
From This Cat is Guilty:
From Masih, more warning from Iranian authorities that protesting equals death:
Today, Iran’s police chief Ahmadreza Radan, openly declared that “security forces have their fingers on the trigger, ready to shoot protesters.”
That is why I called on the United States and democratic nations to remove him. And to you Prime Minister @sanchezcastejon, When an… pic.twitter.com/2RPok21lR2
— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) March 12, 2026
From Luana. I had forgotten that the mayor of Seattle is the daughter of evolutionary biologist David Sloan Wilson. Looks like she’s going the way of Zohran Mamdani in NYC.
Seattle’s socialist Mayor Katie Wilson has officially declared war on grocery chains.
She claims she will unilaterally BAN grocery stores from closing down in her city, arguing that food access is a human right that overrides business decisions.
She said : “We cannot allow big… pic.twitter.com/tR2P8CNXNG— Mike Netter (@nettermike) March 11, 2026
From Barry. Sound must be up on this one!
My cat sleeps all day and then keeps me awake all night so this gave me a good laugh. Credit – @dagnylill on Instagram
— Brian Gormley D7 (@bgormley.bsky.social) 2026-03-11T20:52:12.668Z
From Cate; animals having fun in the wild (see the scientific paper here):
In 2014 Dutch scientists left a hamster wheel outside, to see if wild animals would use it like domesticated counterparts.
The answer: hell yes! 734 visits from wild mice, plus rats, shrews, slugs (!) & even frogs and snails.
The apparent reason: fun. Just fun. pic.twitter.com/O7fBhNmxk8
— Mike Sowden (@Mikeachim) March 11, 2026
One from my feed; Elica is reliable:
This is unbelievable. An Israeli flag is projected onto a building in Ekbatan, Tehran, as a message of gratitude. Iranians are risking their lives to communicate their voices over western suppression.
Almost didn’t post this because I thought it was AI, but AI says it is not AI. pic.twitter.com/9B356UNQhN
— Elica Le Bon الیکا ل بن (@elicalebon) March 12, 2026
One I reposted from The Auschwitz Memorial: a grim fate for this priest:
This Polish priest, in his early thirties, met a grim fate: he was severely beaten and then drowned in a barrel of fecal matter because he refused the Nazi order to step on a rosary. He was beatified by Pope John Paul IIen.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%B3…
— Jerry Coyne (@evolutionistrue.bsky.social) 2026-03-13T10:24:37.371Z
Two from Dr. Cobb. First, a dad joke (he loves those, but of course he’s a dad):
Does this surprise you? I can’t wait for the next polio epidemic. . .
This is RFK, Jr.'s MAHA Institute's recent meeting in D.C.Slide presentation titles:“The Polio Fraud” and “The flu shot has given 1,900,000 Americans Alzheimer’s,” and “VACCINES ARE GREATEST SCAM IN MEDICAL HISTORY.” (capitals, theirs)www.notus.org/health-scien…
— Jan Kirsch, M.D., M.P.H. (@drjanicekirsch.bsky.social) 2026-03-11T03:23:20.547Z
I don’t think Donald Duck is a mallard. Wikipedia suggests he’s an American Pekin duck: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Duck#:~:text=Donald%20Duck%20is%20portrayed%20as,fingered%20hands%20with%20opposable%20thumbs.
Sal Mercogliano is a former Merchant Mariner, now professor of maritime history at Campbell University. His “what’s Going on with Shipping?” Youtube channel is my trusted source for all issues that are sea/ship related. The first 15 minutes of yesterday’s posting addresses what appears to be his disgust at the incompetence of this administration in not properly accounting for the defensive safety and economic well being of our merchant marine fleet as impacted by the current war offensive they are enacting. Url for this edition should be at:
I watch him everyday, thanks to your tip. Very informative and not overly political.
Yes, he did remind the administration that they have plenty of experts and should be consulting them. Which is true!
In UK news, banknotes are no longer going to feature historical figures. No more Churchill, no Issac Newton, no Alan Turing or Michael Faraday or Jane Austen or Charles Darwin.
Why? Well, I’m sure you can guess. None of the above are “of colour”, and there are no notables “of colour” in British history.
In BBC or Netflix dramas one could simply have the white historical figure portrayed by a black actor, but that’s not quite going to work on a banknote, so now it’s going to be wildlife, squirrels and hedgehogs and such.
For the currency: Shamima Begin? – the schoolgirl Bangladeshi-Brit who volunteered for ISIS, went there, worked for them in Syria and “had heads in the wastepaper basket”?
It’d be in keeping with the new Islamic Republic of England.
D.A.
NYC
I am a retired biologist, but my name is not Steve.
Of course I would sign a statement that “I believe in evolution”, though I would rather put it as “evolution is a fact”. Or actually, a theory, one comprising many facts with convergent support from many disparate scientists, and subjected to one helluva lot of experimental testing. But I will take what I can get to support the idea.
What I cannot understand are scientists, especially biologists, who do not “believe in evolution’. It seems to me that a scientist should be able to evaluate evidence, and the evidence for evolution is so overwhelming (as opposed to alternatives) as to be beyond scientific doubt.
When I took a course on evolution at University of Chicago (pre-Jerry), the instructor asked for a show of hands from people who “believed in evolution”. He said that he didn’t. I can’t remember his exact words, but he went on to say that evolution is a scientific theory and you are either convinced of its truth or not.
I thought that was in a Coyne book (but may have been Dawkins, etc) that I read something to the effect: one believes IN religion but simply believes science; or specifically you believe in creationism but you believe evolution.
We can land in different places on this. I like to say that I accept the evidence that the best explanation about the history of life is evolution. “Belief” is a term regarding ones’ position about Santa Clause.
I don’t think people do enough to emphasize that while there is a “theory” of evolution (i.e., an explanation of how it occurred), there is also the observed “fact” of evolution, just like the observed fact of erosion for example. Thus, even if the current theory of evolution were somehow discredited, it would not eliminate the observed fact of evolution (unless the discrediting of the theory resulted from a change in the observed facts — e.g., a rabbit in the Cambrian).
(Sorry…this was meant to be a reply to Coel’s banknote comment…mea culpa yet again!)….It’s been a few years since I last spent time in the UK, Coel, but I think I only recall the Queen Elizabeth portrait..and now I would guess King Charles. I do not recall historical figures on your folding money. Is that new or just my faulty memory?
Historical figures were introduced in the 1970s. Personally I can’t remember banknotes prior to that, but you might be old enough to! 😏 Yes, the Queen/King always was and still will be on one side.
Thanks Coel (and Starwolf). I was working there over several weeks at a time during the mid80’s to early 90’s. I remember the Queen’s portrait well, but may not have noticed reverse sides.
I did notice the wonderful representations of scientific and literary figures honored at Westminster Abbey…hopefully they will not be cancelled.
The scientists (and others) are on the reverse side.
It is not too difficult to understand the motivation behind replacing these stars of Western Civilization with pictures of animals. After all, one never know when one of these individuals might be cancelled for saying, at o ne time or another, something regarded as worse than murder by the woke police.
——————
The MAHA group’s meeting makes me wonder about these people. Are they evil, or just stupid beyond stupidity? Those are not mutually incompatible, of course.
I don’t believe in Hell, but if I did, there would be a special place in it for people like Del Bigtree, involving fecal matter baths (for the BS that he propagates) and 150 dB disco music played continually. And the fact that RFK Jr. gives ear to that BS makes him by far the worst of the Trump appointees.
As long as the featured animals are native to lands with black and brown people, I’m all for it!!!
Well there it is on the MAHA charts: due to getting flu shots, 1.9 million people who would have died early from influenza, had their lifetimes extended long enough to get Alzheimer’s!
Ummm…
Is that beer can story .. true?…
I mean, it looks like abrasion, but …
Thanks!
So awesome! I thought it looked a bit like film too … wow!
Regime change is realistically less a goal than an aspiration. Militarily, it was never one of the objectives, being very difficult to impossible to achieve solely from the air. Netanyahu as of yesterday was, however, still asking the Iranian people to seize what little chance they have while they have it. I suspect more of the regime’s enforcement apparatus will have to be eliminated to prompt that uprising—if it ever comes.
I would be stunned if the US invades Iran with the intent of regime change. A limited yet intense operation to seize Iran’s enriched uranium is more likely, but it would be a far more difficult endeavor than was capturing Maduro.
It appears from early reports that the Old Dominion ROTC cadets fatally stabbed the man who murdered their unit commander. Or, as the FBI official on scene said, “They rendered him no longer alive.” That seems to me like a sensible way to deal with the matter; perhaps one day we can revisit why we allowed a naturalized citizen convicted of supporting terrorism to retain his citizenship and then get released from prison early.
I’m not sure about the Left’s attitude towards the war with Iran. I don’t doubt that some people agree that the U.S. is the great Satan. I am sure that for many the major reason to be against it is that it is a Trump initiative. Their rhetorical strategy (Trump = Hitler) would make it difficult to agree with him on anything. If they did that, then they would be forced into meaningful discussion about anything he does in order to demonstrate that this time it is fascism. That’s aside from people who have Trump Derangement Syndrome.
Some people with TDS:
John Mearsheimer doesnot hold back
And a somewhat excited Jeffrey Sachs
By all means specifically point out any lies they tell. (And for that matter, any lies Trump tells.)
Sorry, I was being sarcastic. (I know it is difficult to recognize because you don’t know the other person.)
Today, Huey, Dewey, and Louie would all be diagnosed with ADHD or some such nonsense and drugged to the gills with Ritalin.
There is another explanation for the decline in the number of Iranian attacks. Ballistic missiles require launch pads. If these are destroyed, Iran can have as many missiles in reserve as it wants. It just cannot use them anymore.
What matters is not the number of missiles stored somewhere in some bunkers and silos, but Iran’s ability to launch them.
Donald Duck is very popular in Sweden. Just search Donald Duck Sweden for the story on that. There, he’s known as Kalle Anka (Kalle is the familiar for Karl, and Anka is duck). My old lab in Stockholm was sometimes known as Kemi Amino, a shorthand reference to protein chemistry since proteins are made from amino acids. Since Kalle Anka and Kemi Amino have the same initials, the password into our computer system was kalleanka. (The lab’s chief was also a world-class birder, who has probably seen every species of duck on the planet, too.)
This morning I heard the ODU shooter described as “found dead” afterward. I imagine that means that he was suffocated after all the students piled onto him. An old classmate’s wife works @ ODU, and reported safe afterward, This is noteworthy since his son reported safe at Brown last year after the shooting in the building next to him.
Projected flag: Bravo!
Junior Kennedy: Jesus Haploid Christ but I must continually repeat myself. He ought to be on the run after the findings that receipt of Shingles and other vaccines diminishes the chance of developing dementia.
I suggest injecting vaccine denialists with the diseases they don’t want to be vaccinated against!
🙂
At the height of an ebola breakout in Congo, about a decade ago, I was in a chat group where someone insisted that it was all a conspiracy and that vitamin C would cure it.
I said it was great to hear that, and offered to pay for her flights to Congo to go and treat the victims with vitamin C.
Needless to say she didn’t reply, and soon after, I was kicked out of the group. They obviously didn’t really want to help victims. 🤷♀️
A neighbour gave me a huge jar of vitamin C tablets during my first cancer.
My oncologist said vitamic C would degrade the effects of the chemo. (If the HPV vaccine was available back then, chances are I would not have got the cancer at all.)
I discussed using medical marijuana with my oncologist during my second cancer. She said it would reduce the efficacy of my immunotherapy drugs by 50%.
Doctors! What do they know?
Doctors aren’t infallible, they can’t be total experts on every single illness. Someone with a particular illness has a great incentive to find out as much as any layman can.
Before it went woke, the website Science Based Medicine had some fascinating studies on medical marijuana use. One study [of a small number of people] showed that there may be positive effects on a type of brain cancer, but IIRC the dosage was equivalent to hundreds of joints and the activive ingredient was extracted and injected directly into the brain. If the study stands after peer review, hopefully there will be more research.
I don’t see any harm in sharing information you find with a doctor as they may not know about recent innovations, I would look at studies to gather information but still defer to a doctor I trusted as they have the qualifications to look at the whole picture.
A friend decided she would treat her breast cancer holistically as she felt she knew best. It killed her.
I was in Congo about a decade ago. After I flew home, I was sitting in my kid’s karate class with the other parents. Two hippy-type women were sitting to the left of me voicing their anti-vaccine views to each other.
I really wanted to tell them that I had been in a hospital in the Republic of Congo less than two weeks ago, and are they not relieved that I am thoroughly vaccinated?
I did not say anything, as I am a polite person. But I wanted to. So many people lack the life experience to understand that they hold luxury views.
It concerns me that these ‘parents’ are risking the lives of their children. A friend had parents who refused to get him vaccinated. When he was 18 he went to get all of the vaccines that he’d missed out on.
The polio vaccine is such a ‘fraud’ that thousands of Americans every year are victims of it. Oh. Wait. They aren’t. Last time I checked, polio had been eradicated in all but two countries. The real fraud is people claiming that the vaccine is a fraud 🤦♀️
If they believe that about the flu vaccine, then they should be pushing the shingles vaccine. A massive study of the population in Wales showed that those who received the shingles vaccine had a 25٪ (IIRC) less chance of developing Alzheimer’s. It’s why I paid £450 to get the vaccine early, rather than wait for the date I would qualify to get it free from the NHS.
I wouldn’t mind if antivaxxers died from the diseases that they refused to be vaccinated against, but the problem is that their ignorance takes a lot of vulnerable people with them.
Isn’t “a lot” something of an exaggeration, though, Joolz? What “vulnerable” people are dying? A tiny handful of children (yes, three) died from measles during large outbreaks in Texas and Ontario* in 2025. We get the odd case of tetanus (a non-contagious disease) in Ontario, usually older people who haven’t had a booster in decades, although there was a case in an unvaccinated 6-year-old in 2015. (He survived with a short stay in the ICU, as will most. Much better prevented than treated, for sure.) Measles (because it’s common without vaccine) and tetanus (because it’s horrible and deadly but rare) are your canaries in the coal mines. Nobody’s dying like flies.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/tetanus-infection-in-ontario-child-prompts-calls-from-worried-parents-1.3095824
8% of children are unvaccinated against measles (and tetanus and polio, btw), so nearly all the cases and all the deaths will have to occur in that small segment. Another 0.1% can’t receive live-virus vaccines (and may not make good immune responses to the ones they can have.) Parents of such children are well aware that the rest of society couldn’t care less about them and they know to have as little contact with unvaccinated children as possible. They know not to rely on altruistic herd immunity. That is the world we live in.
All the rest of us can safely regard the hippies, flat-earthers, and religious fanatics who refuse vaccination as harmless kooks. No amount of tut-tutting and finger-wagging will make them see the error of their ways and get their children vaccinated. They are no hazard to the rest of us. Why not save our breath? If the public health authorities wanted to, they could get laws passed making these children temporary wards of the state to get their shots over parental objection. But this power has to be used judiciously; it requires spending political capital. The current reality is that they couldn’t make it stick, it’s not worth trying, so they don’t. Voluntary vaccination works well. It’s highly beneficial to those who want it and its benefit is not attenuated by refusers. Probably the best you can do in a free society.
(*The two deaths in Ontario were congenital, meaning their non-immune mothers acquired it and transmitted in utero. )
“Nobody’s dying like flies” at the moment because we have had vaccines for a long time, and most people know that they work and get vaccinated, so diseases like polio and measles haven’t been able to get a firm hold.
The problem is that when the vaccine levels drop, the rates of infection increase, and we could end up back in the 1950s when hundreds in the USA died from measles related issues every year. If we let the vaccination rates drop that far it will take decades to recover.
“They are no hazard to the rest of us”. I disagree. If they get measles, they could easily pass it on to someone who is immunocompromised. One child who dies because someone chose not to get vaccinated is one too many.
But the biggest hazard is that they push their conspiracy theories and some people will believe them. That’s why we need to nip this nonsense in the bud and stand up for vaccinations.
I’m not advocating forced vaccinations, but the government should be supporting public health and promoting them, not attacking vaccinations. They should show the effects of diseases that many have forgotten about, eg iron lungs. The excellent film Breathe shows ranks of people stuck in iron lungs. We have to do what we can to stop that happening again.
It costs costs a few dollars to vaccinate someone against polio. Compare that with the cost of the hospitalisation and medical treatment that a victim would need over their lifetime. Many vaccines are cost effective.
The HPV vaccine is already saving lives, there has been a 62% reduction in cervical cancer deaths in the USA. All those children who still have a mother. Women who will now be able to work and contribute to society by paying tax. All that cancer treatment money that can be used for other cancers. Even on a financial level, vaccines help society.
We don’t disagree that vaccination is beneficial. The economics can’t be argued off the top of one’s head, especially since no vaccine program is founded primarily on financial concerns. It’s the health of children that drives them. Vaccines just have to be affordable, not cost-saving. Like all health interventions, the benefit is claimed to be infinite when the person who benefits isn’t paying personally. My health is worth whatever it costs as long as I can beg, borrow, steal, or tax it from you.
Vaccines are expensive, though. At least in rich countries, you can’t vaccinate against polio for “a few dollars”, more like a few hundred dollars.
You say you don’t want forced vaccination. I don’t know how else you are going to “nip this nonsense in the bud”, though. The refusers don’t care how much you and the government sneer and look down your noses at them. That you really strongly want them to get vaccinated is their reason not to. Ontario promotes vaccination, makes it free for children, requires it for school and daycare, makes refusers watch a scary video before they can claim their religious exemption, and excludes children from school during outbreaks, which can last for months. And we still get only 92% acceptance.
The other 8% are children of kooks. For ye have the kooks always with you. (Minus the 0.1% with legitimate medical exemptions.)
You don’t need to be an accountant to calculate the cost effectiveness of many vaccines. The HPV jabs cost over a billion dollars to develop, and have already saved a million and a half lives and are expected to save 50 million by 2100. Chemo and hospitalisation costs will be saved for 50m, but also 50m more people contributing to the economy.
I paid a lot of money for Shingrix, but if it prevents me from getting Alzheimer’s then it will save both me and the taxpayer a lot of money. Hopefully, research into the effects they found in the Welsh study will be the springboard to find a proper vaccination for Alzheimer’s.
Economic savings are only one reason why we should be promoting vaccines. Most people know it’s common sense to be vaccinated, but if people can’t be persuaded with common sense, then perhaps they can be persuaded because of the financial impact in their pocket.
Vaccines aren’t all expensive, the polio vaccine only costs a few dollars to manufacture, as I mentioned, but in private medicine, the price gets bumped up to make profit. Today’s ventilators are cheaper than iron lungs, but they still cost money and need to be maintained if polio makes a comeback.
You don’t need to make vaccination compulsory to encourage people to be vaccinated, governments just need to make a solid enough case and show people the effects of not vaccinating, as you say there are already videos, but when you have an influential government like the USA spreading lies about vaccines, that number could well drop.
There will always be some who want to opt out of vaccines, but if 92% are vaccinated that will protect a lot of people. Health departments globally should make sure the number doesn’t drop.
Females do not produce eggs after birth. They release eggs between puberty and menopause. Females are born with all of the eggs they will ever release. Some maturation of the immature follicles in the ovaries before they eggs are released. See https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/body/ovum for more details. I am reasonably confident that Emma Hilton and Colin Wright know all this (and more).
So Donald was hatched in 1931 or 1925?
Re Trump, Iran, threats, killing, ideology, and immigrants —
Trump may be an erratic uncaring fool, but:
● Being erratic does allow him to occasionally do a good thing (as long as he expects it to serve his personal interests; that is never erratic).
● I suspect that he does intuitively understand the belligerence of Khamenei II and other winner-identifying losers. IMO he expects it, even relishes it, and is sure he can crush it.
IMO, Orwell’s villain in 1984 was not completely incorrect in saying that one can eliminate a belief by destroying the records and killing the people who support it. It’s almost always too costly, risky, and repugnant to attempt that; but….
And IANAL, but if the fox can be deported as an illegal immigrant then surely he also has standing for someone to apply for asylum on his behalf, since the fox is clearly in danger of fatal persecution if sent back to Britain — they have a long history of killing his race just for pleasure.