If you’re vaccinated, you’ll be glad to know that the Covid vaccines will not make you glow in the dark. Or else you’ll be disappointed. How you feel about it is up to you, but the reality remains unchanged.
I mention this because Newsmax’s White House correspondent tweeted that “the vaccines contain a bioluminescent marker called LUCIFERASE so that you can be tracked. Read the last book of the New Testament to see how this ends.”
The last book of the New Testament? When’s it due out? I’ll pre-order it and get back to you with a spoiler as soon as I have it in my non-glowing paws.
In the meantime, though, let’s talk about luciferase, which does exist, isn’t scary, and doesn’t need capital letters. It’s the stuff that makes fireflies glow at night. And (because we can’t take anything for granted anymore) they glowed well before Covid vaccines were created.
Irrelevant photo: Bindweed, also known as a morning glory
Is luciferase in any of the Covid vaccines? No, but it is used in labs–and again, and was well before any of us put the letters C, O, V, I, and D together in that order.
Let’s turn to Axandra Becker for an explanation of what scientists at the Texas Medical Center did with the stuff earlier in the pandemic–and let’s switch to the past tense to do it: It was used to “develop faster and more accurate diagnostic tests for Covid-19 as well as to analyze potential therapies and gain a clearer understanding of the SARS-CoV-2 virus itself.”
They inserted luciferase into the genomes of the Covid, Zika, and West Nile viruses. That produced light, which made it easier to track where they (I believe that’s the viruses we’re talking about) went in a cell culture, along with what they’re reading and what they do on social media.
Okay, I’m filling in a bit where the explanation of the tracking went wavery. All it said was that they could track what was happening in them.
Admit it, my version’s more fun.
What’s any of this got to do with Lucifer? Because we can’t take anything for granted, we’ll start on the ground up and work our way up. Lucifer’s the antagonist who makes sure that there’s a market for that forthcoming book of New Testament, because without tension, no one can keep a plot rolling for that many pages and through two testaments, and antagonists are a cheap and easy way to create tension. If you open with “And God created the world and everything was nice from there on,” you have a short book.
Lucifer’s name comes from the Latin for bringer or light, or morning star, so when scientists isolated the stuff that makes fireflies (and a few other lucky creatures) glow, some clever devil named it luciferase.
Okay, we’re done with the name, now let’s go back to the vaccines: There’s no luciferase in them. None. Zero. It was used in research only. I’m multiply vaccinated and even in this post-truth era of ours I still can’t see my arm after I turn off the light. No matter what religion you do or don’t adhere to, you can get your vaccine safe in the knowledge that Lucifer–whether you believe in him or not–is not in it.
And you’ll still need a light source other than your own lovely self if you want to read in bed.
“A disease of the unvaccinated”
A doctor who writes as the Secret Consultant (consultant is British for a senior hospital-based doctor) says that although some vaccinated people are hospitalized with Covid, they tend to be elderly or frail or have underlying health problems. In Britain, an unlucky few otherwise healthy people will be hospitalized briefly on the general wards, but in the intensive care unit, “The patient population consists of a few vulnerable people with severe underlying health problems and a majority of fit, healthy, younger people unvaccinated by choice.”
None of them glow in the dark. Do you have any idea how helpful it would be if they did?
An update on needleless vaccination
Assorted groups of scientists are working on ways to deliver vaccines without using needles. One group’s working on a Covid vaccine in pill form. A trial has been approved in South Africa and will start enrolling people any day now–if it hasn’t started already.
A second approach uses a patch with spikes so tiny you can’t actually see them. These deliver the vaccine into the skin, not the muscle, which turns out to be an advantage. Muscle tissue is–well, think of it as a semi-arid zone as far as immune cells are concerned. You won’t find many of them there. Skin, on the other hand, goes into high alert when you bother it with a bunch of teeny tiny needles. The immune system wakes up, asks, “Did you need something from me?” and sends out messengers, who quickly learn to fight what looks like an invading army.
But patches have other advantages as well:
- They use less vaccine than a needle.
- Babies don’t scream when they’re vaccinated–or if they do it’s for some other reason.
- The vaccine in patches is stable at room temperature and keeps for longer than the stuff used for needles.
- Anyone who can find one arm with the other one could use them. That means you could stick the patches in the mail for people to use at home.
One version of the patch has been tried on mice. Other versions–well, I don’t know what stage they’re at. The problem at the moment seems to be how to produce them in large enough quantities.
Antiviral news
Scientists working at assorted universities and institutes in India have found an antibiotic that also works as an antiviral by messing with Covid’s ability to replicate.
But let’s not pretend that I can explain how it works. The best I can do is try to scare you with phrases like “amino acids . . . present in the ‘finger’ subdomain of the nsp12 protein” and “the viral protein’s ‘palm’ subdomain cavity and the linear form of Kannurin.”
What matters is that “this approach could help us address the pandemic threat when yet another novel coronavirus emerges and medicine needs new pharmaceutical treatments ahead of the development of a suitable and widely available vaccine.”
It’s good to know that, however screwed up humanity is, we have people among us who can figure this stuff out.
Why you should take candy from strangers
A test group of 3,000 people will be sent a piece of colorless hard candy every day for 90 days. They’ll sniff it and eat it and then log onto an app to report what flavor it is and how sweet or sour it is. If the app notices any drop in drop-off in their sense of smell or taste, it will tell them to quarantine and get a Covid test.
The goal is to see if this is a way to spot Covid in otherwise asymptomatic people.
How does Britain fight Covid?
Why, by pissing money out the window, that’s how.
Okay, that’s not entirely fair. It got a vaccination program rolling early and that’s been reasonably successful, although the government followed that up by encouraging us all to run out and infect each other, since, what the hell, we’re mostly vaccinated.
Except for the people who aren’t. Or are too frail for the vaccines to spark a good immune response. But that’s okay, because compassion’s not a big thing lately so we don’ thave to care.
But let’s go back to the money: We’re in the midst of a sleaze-valanche, and every few days we get more news about conflicts of interest and politicians giving lucrative favors to friends and donors.
Now comes the news that we’re spending roughly £1 million a day on consultants for the test and trace system.
Those aren’t consultants as in very senior doctors. Those are consultants as in the outsiders who fly into an organization, look important, and charge a lot of money for it. They may perform priceless services. They play Tetris all day. I wouldn’t know. Either way, they do charge lots of money. On average, test and trace is paying £1,000 a day (and in a pinch a person could probably live on that), but some are making as much as £6,000 a day. In September, test and trace had one consultant wandering the halls (or working from home–again, I wouldn’t know) for every civil servant doing the same.
A year ago, it was going to reduce the ratio to 60%, although I’m not sure which side of the balance was 60 and which was 40. It doesn’t matter, though, since it didn’t happen.
What’s the country gotten for its money? Let’s fall back on the House of Commons spending watchdog, which said test and trace hadn’t achieved its main objective, which was to cut infection levels and help the country return to normal.
So as of earlier this fall, it had spent £37 billion in the process of failing to meet its objective. I wouldn’t mention that–I mean, what’s a few billion pounds between friends?–except that I mention the government’s incompetence so much that I thought I’d give you a quick sample of what I’m talking about.
Notes from the U.K. 
“How many fireflies had to die for your vaccine, you horrible, uncaring meat-eaters!”
I bet something along these lines will show up as a placard before long…
LikeLiked by 2 people
If may, but as far as
LikeLike
It may–and probably will–but when you see your first placard, you can tell them Lord Google says, “Luciferase can be produced in the lab through genetic engineering for a number of purposes. Luciferase genes can be synthesized and inserted into organisms or transfected into cells.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
I do actually know that. But am sure that many anti-vaxxers and conspiracy folk don’t.Unless they saw it on Farcebook!
LikeLiked by 2 people
I didn’t and was relieved to find out. It hadn’t occurred to me to wonder until I saw your comment. But yes, when you cut yourself loose from any basis in fact, life gets–
Strange is too week a word, isn’t it?
LikeLiked by 2 people
Yes. “Weird” comes closer. The uneducated rabble that once howled down the old wise woman who lived alone in the forest and “knew things” has abandoned her and is howling down the scientists.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Indeed they are.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It would be good to inject Luciferase into any MP found to be sleazy, that would save money on electricity in the Commons and recoup a fair bit of what they’re spending on not testing and tracing.
LikeLiked by 4 people
Great idea. It would also mean we could see them coming–at least at night.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I cannot be the only person who would quite like to glow in the dark and as a bonus be Bluetooth enabled. Pairing with Alexa could have its benefits although she can be stern at times.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I wouldn’t mind glowing in the dark myself, although I’m not sure how the cats would take to it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
So you got the vaccines that don’t make you glow in the dark?
Wow.
And now you’re telling me that none of the vaccinated will glow in the dark?
Wow.
I feel immensely thankful on this day after the American Thanksgiving. I thought Pretty and I had the wrong vaccines since neither of us glowed in the dark – even after our boosters.
Have a happy weekend.
LikeLiked by 2 people
It would be good if we all had a visible marker like that to let us know we’re safe. At least until the new variant comes. But no,, we just have to take it on faith.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Just FYI, morning glory seeds contain something similar to LSD . Maybe the morning glories are getting into the conspriacy theorists somehow ?
https://www.acepnow.com/article/toxicology-qa-answer-morning-glory/
The Black Hills natives referred to the late General Custer as “Son of the Morning Star.” (among other things)
As soon as Fragglerocking perfects their idea. it needs to be immpediately exported to Washington D.C. And Texas. And Florida.
On an encouraging note, some scientists (!) think that vaccinating kids will help cut down on the risk of variants creating themselves.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I do remember talk about morning glory seeds in the late sixties/early seventies. It came with the warning that if you swallowed enough to make you high, they’d also make you sick as a dog. Mind you, I didn’t know anyone who tried, so that’s strictly rumor.
I’m sure vaccinating kids would cut down on the pool within which transmission is easy, but that would apply only to well-vaccinated countries, which are sitting back and watching poorer countries struggle to vaccinate any sizable group of people, leaving the virus a lovely playground where it can mutate at will.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s incredible what rubbish people spread and how many people will believe it. Still, now we have omicron (I am struggling with the pronuncation, is that “O-Micron” or “Om-i-cron”?) so at least people in England have to put their masks back on in shops and on public transport…like the regular Delta version wasn’t air-borne too? Your mention of Zika virus made me feel nostalgic for viruses that used to far away and not floating around in my local supermarket.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m not sure, but I’d go for OH-mi-cron. I keep wanting to substitute Ohmigawd.
From what I see in today’s paper, it looks like we start with the masks as of tomorrow, because, um, it’s a weekend and we can’t be expected to take care of ourselves on a weekend.
Idiots, idiots, idiots.
Aren’t you glad I keep my political opinions out of this blog?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, Oh My Gawd!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Just another example of “you can’t cure stupid.” It’s incredible to me that there are people who honestly believe these conspiracy theories but I’m convinced that the leaders of Q are just having a good laugh at all of their stupid followers’s expense–like fiddling while the world burns.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Possibly. They could also be just batshit crazy. Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference. What that doesn’t account for is the pandemic of craziness. Or stupidity. Or whateverness. Remember when they used to be a fringe, not the center of the damn rug?
LikeLiked by 2 people
Maybe they’re learning. I just read that your health minister is talking about a mask mandate in light of the newest variant
LikeLiked by 1 person
They are. It starts, I think, on Monday. The variant doesn’t work weekends. We’re having a moment of sanity. How long it lasts is anyone’s guess.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Online I see that President Biden officially said masks were back, then forgot his within hours. I think they could be useful; I’ve been in quarantine for Delta COVID though I’m only taking the word of people who were ill at the same time that that’s what it was. (More noticeable than the original COVID was, still nothing to compare with a glyphosate reaction.) But some people don’t want to stop eating between meals, and pulling faces as a code to show they’re lying, unless they’re convinced that they, personally, will die…
A tip. The topic of hostility came up in the car pool and someone said of a hostile person “Does she wear a mask? People who do that are all soooo hostile. I’m not wearing one, JUST to” (ruder variant of “yank their chains”).
When I wear a mask, I’m not hostile. I think of it as sparing the world the sight of my teeth (think Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez after another 30 years of damage). But some mask wearers are awfully selfrighteous.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Some everythings are self-righteous. It’s not limited to mask wearers. Or mark non-wearers. Nor is hostility. But knowing that some people’s sense of their personal rights includes the possibility of infecting me and anyone else they cross paths with means that I have to expend some serious effort not to get self-righteous and hostile.
LikeLike
If you want a bit of fun, take a look at what South Africa think of the reaction to their scientists being all clever and noticing something new, something which is already elsewhere (and here), but this is the time we decide to close the borders. No need to worry South Africa, I’m sure Stanley Johnson will figure out a work-around which won’t require being quarantined in an expensive hotel in either direction. Just to be clear: I mean expensive in terms of what you’ll be charged rather than high quality. Eyes continue to roll at Bojo & co.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I don’t have enough eyes to keep up with the eye-rolling that outfit requires. But yes, I did hear something on the radio about the reaction in S. Africa.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I have South African friends – much of what they say in private is funny, but entirely unrepeatable in public :D
LikeLiked by 1 person
What I heard on the radio boiled down to, Guys, we did the right thing in making this public. Don’t make us regret it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yup, that’s the polite version. South Africans are not known for holding back though… But yeah, in essence, that’s it.
Clearly it’s too early to know much detail of where we’re going with this new variant, and of course SA doesn’t have the same population make-up as does the UK (and the US). But SA has all too recent experience of being put into isolation by the rest of the world, so are somewhat sensitive.
LikeLiked by 1 person
When the Delta variant was first identified, I thought the UK was too slow to shut down flights from India, and lo and behold, the variant took a solid hold on the UK and is now the dominant one. But with this one it looks like it’s already loose, so–well, the horse is gone so we’d better lock the barn door.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Quite. It feels more about being seen to take action than anything else.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That sounds about right.
LikeLike
Very informative.
I can see why some people are bothered upon seeing a compound names Luciferase!
Thanks for sharing.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I suppose you’re right right about the name. This is probably where it helps not to be a believer.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Your versions are always more fun, so there.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you. That’s what I was hoping for.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Is luciferase in any of the Covid vaccines? you haven’t done your research. It is in the patents of both Moderna and Pfizer. Even the DOD applied for a patent called luciferase to track and trace. They know who is vaccinated and who is not and you will glow when you have to pass through their Machines. It is not a conspiracy theory but a conspiracy fact.
LikeLike
Sigh.
LikeLike