BASED ON A TRUE STORY

(most of the time)

A

series

by Bad Billy Laveau

hordes of newly formed viruses that fail the massive replication mechanics and we never know about them.

Rapidly multiplying viruses gradually predominate. They need a host, a friendly home. Humans seem like a perfect prospect. We number almost 8 billion worldwide. A huge birth rate: 140 million yearly. Humans travel all over the world. 146 billion cars and ground vehicles. 25,000 aircraft with 100,000 commercial flights each day. 30 million boats, not counting commercial and military watercraft.

Humans tend to live in close proximity to each other. They breath. They touch. They cough. They sneeze. They are not careful what they do. Such acts readily disseminate viruses.

Since we make it so easy for them, viruses get around something fierce. And there are lots of them. About 380 trillion viruses live in your body and mine at any one time. That’s ten times as many as the bacteria living in you. Scary, isn’t it?

What is the mechanical secret of how viruses live and proliferate in your cells? Viruses multiply in our cells, causing our cells to lyse, releasing the virus to invade another cell and start over. Let’s consider how aggressive and deadly viruses behave. The most recent and notable is COVID.

COVID attacked many weakened hosts: the sick, the elderly, the immune compromised. COVID killed hundreds of thousands. Shut down our business, our schools. Changed our society norms. COVID did not care how many died … until the number of vulnerable hosts started to decline. When a deadly virus kills its host, it has nowhere to live. This is a self-limiting behavior. If you burn down your house, you are homeless. The same goes for viruses.

Viruses are not stupid. They might make us sick, but as long as they don’t kill us, they have a place to comfortably live and multiply. Darwin’s theory of natural selection works for them. The virus that becomes less deadly lives longer and multiplies. Less lethal viruses predominate. We used vaccines, education, sanitation, and good common sense to diminish the deadly effect of COVID. Meanwhile, the COVID virus mutated and adapted. The virus figured, as long as we just make humans sick but don’t kill them, we’ll have a place to thrive. Beats the heck out of being homeless.

We have developed herd immunity (which is not 100% effective, but very helpful) while the virus adapted. COVID is more “friendly” now. These days many people get COVID and don’t even know. I have had 5 vaccinations and COVID 2 or 3 times. Maybe I even “carry” the virus now. Hopefully my antibodies will win out when the next struggle erupts.

COVID-19 clearly has mutated and is more communicative (that is bad), but less deadly (that is good). COVID is probably with us forever, just like flu. We are adjusting to live with COVID … just as COVID is adjusting to live with us. As they say in the movies, “It’s a Mexican stand-off.” No offense intended toward Mexicans. I don’t want sign-carrying marchers outside my home. I’m having enough trouble appeasing my COVID virus inhabitants.

Whether you are an evolutionist or a creationist matters not. This is how we will have to coexist with COVID for a long time to come.

by Kim Beavers, MS, RDN, CDCES

Registered Dietitian Nutritionist, Chef Coach, Author Follow Kim on Facebook: facebook.com/eatingwellwithkimb

Watermelon Banana Smoothie

Quick, easy, and refreshing! Packed with immune boosting nutrients!

Ingredients

• 3 cups watermelon, cut into chunks

• 1 cup almond milk

• 1 medium banana

• 1 tablespoon chia seeds

• ¼ cup whole almonds

• 10-20 mint leaves

• ¼ cup crushed ice

Directions

Put all the ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth. Serve immediately. Garnish with additional mint leaves if desired.

Yield: 4 cups (Serving size: 1 cup)

Nutrient Breakdown: Calories 135, Fat 6g (3g monounsaturated fat), Cholesterol 0mg, Sodium 41mg, Carbo- hydrate 22g, Fiber 4g, Protein 3g, Potassium 216mg, Phosphorus 72g

Carbohydrate Choice: 1 1/2 Carbohydrate

Diabetes Exchanges: 1 Fruit, ½ Milk

Inspired by: Sharon Palmer, RD at www.sharonpalmer. com

by Ken Wilson Steppingstones to Recovery

I’m referring to Fentanyl. And well, maybe “nobody” is a stretch…but it’s hard to turn on the TV these days and not hear of yet another celebrity overdosing on the drug. They didn’t mean to. They just fell asleep and their lungs quit working, very slowly, and they never woke up to even realize their error in judgment. Some in posh hotels…some in a homeless tent. Fentanyl is no respecter of persons.

Tuesday May 9 was Fentanyl Awareness week here in the US, and all last week was Fentanyl Awareness week. So you ask, “What is this stuff that on the one hand is so good, but on the other hand is so bad?”

Dr. Paul Janssen developed it in 1959 (I was 8 years old! How old were you?) for surgery anesthesia, not for euphoria and pain relief like on the streets today. I’ve been under its influence a couple times myself and it works marvelously when medically monitored. But so often these days, not so much…at least on the street.

Dealers have discovered that it’s cheap, easy to get because it’s synthetic (made in a lab), and packs a powerful punch. They are mixing it in with every addictive chemical known: marijuana, cocaine, meth, and so on. For a few cents it seems to boost the effect. Addicts like it, and dealers make more money. How good is that?

Actually, it’s not good at all. That “made in a lab” part... it’s not exactly a precision lab monitored by the FDA, and getting a few specks extra in a joint or pill could spell instant death. It’s a game of Russian roulette. Fentanyl is an opiate that is 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine. A million dos-