Cannabis and COVID

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35007072/

Abstract

As a complement to vaccines, small-molecule therapeutic agents are needed to treat or prevent infections by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) and its variants, which cause COVID-19. Affinity selection-mass spectrometry was used for the discovery of botanical ligands to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. Cannabinoid acids from hemp (Cannabis sativa) were found to be allosteric as well as orthosteric ligands with micromolar affinity for the spike protein. In follow-up virus neutralization assays, cannabigerolic acid and cannabidiolic acid prevented infection of human epithelial cells by a pseudovirus expressing the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and prevented entry of live SARS-CoV-2 into cells. Importantly, cannabigerolic acid and cannabidiolic acid were equally effective against the SARS-CoV-2 alpha variant B.1.1.7 and the beta variant B.1.351. Orally bioavailable and with a long history of safe human use, these cannabinoids, isolated or in hemp extracts, have the potential to prevent as well as treat infection by SARS-CoV-2.

YOU stay healthy, Mark. Damn dude. Glad you're still around. Scary. Coyotte, too. Geez. 

Yeah, it's big right now. Utah is 3rd in the nation in cases (over 10,000 today alone), and our gov is refusing to enforce the county mandate in state buildings and the county council will be voting on whether to stop it soon. We're heavy in Q Anon types here. The chair, who caught COVID recently, first said no we won't vote on that, but then flipped and after a long and loud and raucous hearing yesterday dominated by a state group telling people to go county to county to influence policy, even if they don't live there, it looks like the council will have a vote. Legally required to give 24 hours notice. Here's a pic a local reporter tweeted out - with the Stanley Mouse pin. 

Here's a post from last March from the county councilman leading the effort. Unbelieveable this man holds public office. 

Wow, JR. Yeah Mark, he's an elected county official and a former mayor of a right-wing town. 

Looks like the latest is the chair of the council, a right-winger who just had COVID, will vote to keep the mandate after all. Vote is at 4:00. What I've heard so far is it's about "keeping kids in school", not the 10,200 cases they announced today. We've had about 9,000 per day for the last few days. Wondering about that Rose Bowl?  Hmmmmmm.

The council voted last night to keep the TEMPORARY 30 day "mandate" that's wasn't even enforced at the county's own buildings. The Chair said they would let people exercise "choice" and yesterday was a shit show I didn't bother to attend. The local FOX affiliate, which is actually good and not Carlson/Hannity-based shit, broadcast it live so I watched from the safety of my living room.  

The pro-mandate people protested outside the building with masks, while the anti-mandate people went inside without masks. Only saw two masked people in that room, and one reported being coughed on by someone purposefully and being treated rudely. This is on a day when the Health Dept reported  the newest record of 13,000 new cases and a positivity rate of 50%. Yes, 50%!  Many schools are now going remote. 

Here's some info if ya care to see it. 

The local FOX station   https://www.fox13now.com/news/coronavirus/local-coronavirus-news/salt-la...

The church-owned TV station  https://www.ksl.com/article/50327835/salt-lake-county-council-declines-t...

My reason for posting is I was blown away by Mr. Alvord saying he was just voting to represent the 8-1 ration of e-mails in his inbox and he assured us that HIS constituency in his district is very knowledgeable about the issue. Seriously? Who quantified that, and where they get their knowledge from? FOX and OAN? After all, they voted for an asswipe with the opinions written above. I support a representative listening to his constituency, but on science and health matters, let's stay away from politics. Maybe he was just trying to deflect that much of the crowd is being whipped up by a statewide organization who is asking members to go from county to county to influence policy. 

“I wonder what information my colleagues feel like they have that the people don’t have,” said Councilman David Alvord. “I feel like in this instance, the people are very well-informed and they made their will very well-known to me at least.”

The COVID-infected right-wing chair said she was really "pissed" at her fellow members for the lack of help (she really lost her composure), but would vote to keep the mandate but will call for another vote after meeting with the right-wing legislative leadership on Monday, the MLK holiday. They have indicated if the county council didn't stop the mandate, they would step in when the state legislative session begins on Tuesday. The second right-wing member who voted with the demos announced she and members of her family were COVID-positve and voted from home.   

One council member, who has an undergrad degree in biology and who's husband is a first responder stated "masks aren't working, vaccines aren't working, so here we are" as she votes to overturn the mandate. Kinda perplexing. She was the one the chair turned to when she said she was "pissed" about people just wanting to make political statements. 

So this already temporary "mandate" won't be lasting long. After about 50,000 cases in the last week, hopefully the surge behaves like it has in other places and goes down soon.  

For protection, I had a 10 mg edible before going to work out. That's how I'm gonna handle it. Heart rate up to 141 on the elliptical should have that shit running through my body real nice.