LONG COVID

Will Nikki Haley hang in there until Super Tuesday on March 5?  She is behind Trump 58% to 32% in her home state of South Carolina on February 24. Even before that, Trump will get all the electoral votes on February 8 because Haley will not even be included in the Nevada caucus, which is the only way to get support in that state.

The way the Republican primaries/caucuses are designed, Donald Trump will be selected as the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on July 18.  Take California, with 169 delegates.  Any candidate that gets more than 50% of the votes gets 100% of the delegates.  This poll as of today has Trump at 69% and Haley at 19%.

Here is why the Republicans are weeping.  The latest Quinnipiac University poll:

• Biden holds a 6-point lead over Trump, but this narrows to 2 points with the three most logical third party candidates, and much of those court trials are yet to come.
• 
  Haley leads Biden by 5-points in a hypothetical head-to-head match, and age will become a huge issue.
• As I personally think about all this, it occurred to me that as much as I am a Democrat, the threat of Haley becoming president is fine.  I just fear the prospects of Trump destroying democracy in the USA.

• 
  The Supreme Court could yet further derail Trump.
• So the most likely next president of the USA should be either Biden or Haley.  Not a nightmare. 

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This section was added after I posted this article.  CNN had a new poll about the presidential election.

• Donald Trump  49%.....Joe Biden  45%.
• Nikki Haley  52%.........Joe Biden  39%.
• As you know, the Fox channel works with the Republican party, while CNN and MSNBC link with the Democratic party.
• So you  would think that the above must be awful for Biden.
• You can't really prove if these channels directly work with their candidate to push their cause, but the primary goal of the Democratic party, CNN and MSNBC, 278 days from 5November2024, is to insure that Donald Trump is the Republican candidate.
• So why would CNN/MSNBC/Biden want to promote Trump?  
• For CNN/MSNBC, Trump attracts more viewers.
• Because Trump will more and more fall behind once those court cases occur.  If he somehow gets convicted, he won't win.  But even if not, just the negative publicity will ease Independents in the Democratic direction.  In Gallup's latest poll this year of voters:  Republicans 25%, Independents 45% and Democrats 27%.
• More so, Trump will screw up state congressional elections, because he will knock off those Republican incumbents who have not kissed his ring, allowing a less credible Republican to run against the Democrat.  Trump's continued run as the Republican candidate for president will help Democrats retain control of the Senate and win back the House.  Voters will also remember that this current Republican-controlled House was worse than useless.
• This CNN article, if you read it, is written to promote Donald Trump.  Strange from CNN.  There must be a purpose.

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About COVID-19:

• There were 140,460 reported World cases this past week, so the virus is still around.  
• And note that these are reported cases.  Many countries don't bother to count anymore.  
• There were 1920 deaths this past week.
• The USA led the world with 69,152 cases this past week.  
• Russia #2 with 24,288.
• Australia #3 with 8,208.

• 
  Where not to go?  Pluses are bad.  Minuses means cases are dropping.  New cases increase this past week per million population.
• #1    Barbados  +632
• #2    Chile  +85
• #3    Turks and Caicos  +252
• #42  USA  -56
• #59  New Zealand  -1168
• 
  
• 
  A Science article last week about long COVID.  Last month I hinted that I quit subscribing to Science because the presentation was too abstruse and detailed.  Try reading this article and see what you think.  The following simplifies the findings.
• Apparently there are 16 million sufferers of long COVID just in the USA.  As we are 4% the world population, this could mean 400 million worldwide.
• Long COVID can last, for some, years.
• The cause remains unclear, but the suspicion is that some of us have overactive immune cells.
• There is no known cure.
• Can cause up to 200 symptoms.
• Risk increases with multiple infections.
• Higher percentage in minority communities.
• Other notes.
• Those who had long COVID had evidence of inflammation, hemolysis, platelet activation and tissue injury in their blood.
• The National Institutes of Health has been provided more than $1 billion since 2020 to study long COVID.

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