MOSCOW, Idaho – The brutal slayings of four University of Idaho students early on a November Saturday marked the first homicides in Moscow in years, according to authorities, but while such crimes are rare, details about the few can be shocking.
Sunday marks four weeks since the slayings of Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20, in a rental house across the street from the university’s Greek Row. The three women lived there, and Chapin, who lived in a frat house 200 yards away, was visiting his girlfriend, Kernodle. Police have not publicly named a suspect or any persons of interest.
While the city’s last murders came in 2015, in August 2011, a university professor turned a gun on a graduate student with whom he’d been romantically involved, then killed himself in a murder-suicide, school workers told Fox News Digital Friday.
Katy Benoit, a 22-year-old musician and psychology student from Boise, was gunned down in her off-campus apartment months after her romantic relationship with University of Idaho professor Ernesto Bustamante ended.
IDAHO MURDERS: POLICE URGE PUBLIC TO ‘STAY VIGILANT’ AS FAMILIES GATHER FOR FALL GRADUATION
A University of Idaho memorial for Katy Benoit, a former graduate student who was shot and killed by a professor in 2011. Inset: Katy Benoit. (University of Idaho/Facebook, Moscow Police Department)
The Associated Press reported in 2011 that the police affidavit contained a statement from Bustamante’s friend, Rowdy Hope, who alleged “that Bustamante had multiple handguns and multiple personality disorders…[including] one Bustamante calls a ‘psychopathic killer’ and another Bustamante calls ‘the beast.'”
Police reportedly found Bustamante in a hotel room the day after Benoit’s slaying, dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
IDAHO MURDERS: SLAIN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ NEIGHBOR SAYS FRONT DOOR LEFT WIDE OPEN AFTER ATTACKS
“We are shocked and saddened by the death of Kathryn ‘Katy’ Benoit, who was killed outside of her off-campus residence in Moscow last night,” the university wrote on Facebook on Aug. 23, 2011. “There is no way to express how devastating the loss of any life can be, but especially someone so young with such potential.”
UNIVERSITY OF IDAHO MURDERS TIMELINE: WHAT WE KNOW
“Her last weeks as a physical being on Earth were filled with excitement and anticipation for her new role as a Teacher’s Assistant, where she would be teaching undergraduate classes in Social Psychology and Developmental Psychology,” her family wrote in an online obituary. “Katy was a recipient of the Bronze, Silver and, just this past year, Gold Congressional Awards, which are given by Congress to outstanding young Americans with high achievement in volunteer public service, physical fitness and personal development.”
A University of Idaho memorial for Katy Benoit, a former graduate student who was shot and killed by a professor in 2011. (University of Idaho/Facebook)
Benoit’s death prompted the school to begin an annual event called the Campus Safety Week and Katy Benoit Safety Forum. The university also installed a memorial in her honor on campus.
“The Katy Benoit Safety Month is still held annually and includes a safety forum, a ‘lighting audit’ for students, trainings and other events,” Jodi Walker, the school’s executive director of communications, told Fox News Digital Saturday.
Moscow is generally regarded as a safe community, where there have been few slayings over the years.
Ethan Chapin, 20, Xana Kernodle, 20, Madison Mogen, 21, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, along with the women’s two other roommates in Kaylee Goncalves’ final Instagram post, shared the day before the slayings. (@kayleegoncalves/Instagram)
Court records show the 2015 homicides involved a local man named John Lee, also known as Kane Grzebielski, who later pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree murder and another count of aggravated battery.
Lee fatally shot his adoptive mother, his landlord and a local restaurateur, the Associated Press reported at the time, and he injured another man who survived.
Lee is currently serving a life sentence for the crimes at the Idaho State Correctional Institution.
IDAHO MURDERS: CONVICTED KILLER ARRESTED A MILE FROM UNIVERSITY STABBINGS
In 2007, another man, James Leonard, shot and killed Tyler Lee in a driveway in Genesee. He initially claimed self-defense but pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was later freed – only to be arrested last week in Moscow on domestic violence charges just over a mile from the off-campus house where someone killed four students in the early hours of Nov. 13.
Police said his arrest had no connection to the murder investigation.
Moscow, Idaho detectives are interested in speaking with the occupant(s) of a white 2011-2013 Hyundai Elantra, with an unknown license plate in relation to the investigation of a quadruple homicide on November 13, 2022. This image is not the car in question, it is just for reference. (Moscow PD)
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Anyone with information is asked to call the tip line at 208-883-7180 or to email tipline@ci.moscow.id.us.
Police are also looking to speak with the occupant or occupants of a 2011 to 2013 white Hyundai Elantra that was near the crime scene around the time of the slayings.
Michael Ruiz is a reporter for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to michael.ruiz@fox.com and on Twitter: @mikerreports
Mexican authorities are searching for two Americans who went missing after a kayaking trip off the coast of Puerto Peñasco in the Gulf of California, local authorities said late Saturday.
It’s unknown exactly when the couplewent missing.
Yeon-Su Kim is a forestry professor at Northern Arizona University, according to her university bio.
Kim’s husband is Corey Allen, according to a verified GoFundMe page established to raise funds to aid the search for the missing couple.
“The search will be reinforced with reconnaissance flights from the Navy and by land from the Secretary of Public Security and municipal authorities of Puerto Peñasco,” the state coordinator for the civil protection agency of the Mexican state Sonora said on Twitter.
Puerto Peñasco, also known as Rocky Point, is a fishing and resort city on the Gulf of California, south of Arizona.
A Northern Arizona University spokesperson issued a statement after the couple’s disappearance.
“The NAU and Flagstaff communities are hoping and praying that Yeon-Su and her husband Corey are found soon and brought home safely,” the statement said.
“Yeon-Su is a respected member of our NAU faculty and is well known for the warmth she shares with everyone she works with and her passion for our forestry mission,” the statement continued.
“We are so thankful to everyone helping with the search as well as those providing resources to support these efforts.”
Retsef Levi, a former Israeli military intelligence officer, an expert in risk management and health systems, and a professor at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management, coauthored a paper that found a 25 percent rise in heart attack emergency calls among young Israelis after the country’s rollout of the COVID genetic vaccine.
Levi argues that there is enough data from this and various other studies on the vaccine’s adverse heart effects, to stop its use and run a thorough investigation into why many once-healthy young people suffer or die from heart inflammation after being vaccinated.
“The main question that we need to ask ourselves is, do we have enough evidence from this study and many other studies, to say halt!” Levi said during a recent interview with Epoch TV’s “American Thought Leaders” program. “We’re going to stop these vaccines, for young individuals, but maybe overall, and we’re going to take the time to really look very, very carefully and scrutinize every piece of data and bring together every possible piece of data to understand what is the answer.”
Levi has worked extensively in the areas of analytics and modeling, looking at issues of risk management in the field of healthcare and other related systems. Mainly, analyzing data sets to see what they reveal about quality, safety, risks, etc.
His coauthored paper in Nature Scientific Reports looked at Israel’s national emergency calls in the first five months of 2021 and found a 25 percent increase in cardiac arrest and heart attacks in men aged 16-39 as compared to the year before the national vaccine rollout.
The study found, “a temporal correlation between this increase starting in early 2021, and the launch of the vaccination campaign in Israel,” said Levi.
The paper does not conclude a causal relationship between the vaccine and the observed increase in heart problems, but it definitely gives enough evidence to warrant an in-depth investigation said, Levi.
Further, Israel’s health ministry should want to know why there was an increase in heart problems; but instead, they “launched an attack on us, both in the public domain, as well as even actively trying to approach the journal and asked the journal to retract the paper,” said Levi.
An artist rendering of a heart and SARS-CoV-2 virus particles. (By Lightspring)
Sound Scientific Process Abandoned
There is a lot of data that strongly suggests an increase in myocarditis or death in young people who have been vaccinated. Levi believes that the haste with which the vaccines were produced, approved, and deployed, neglected safety and best practices for rolling out vaccines.
This deviation from basic sound scientific principles has put health officials in Israel and the United States, “in a situation where you essentially cannot admit any wrong anymore because that will imply that you did something very, very disastrous,” said Levi. “We approve it in a very expedited way, and we approve it to everybody regardless of the risk, and that was basically the fundamental mistake that we’ve done. And I think everything else can be explained by that.”
There was strong early evidence, including a 2020 study done by Stanford University researchers John Ioannidis and colleagues concluding that people under 65, with no comorbidities, had very little risk of death from COVID-19 and should have helped target vaccines to the high-risk populations.
Levi believes health agency officials and governments should not have required vaccinations for healthy young people, and by doing so, “put them in a situation when they take an unknown risk that now we know is actually, in some cases pretty substantial, and could really compromise the future of young people and including causing their death.”
Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo. (York Du/The Epoch Times)
Mounting Evidence Against Vaccinating Youth
Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo, recently advised Floridians not to vaccinate healthy young people, because he found an 84 percent increase in heart problems among young men. While his study also does not prove a causal relationship, “at the very least, this should just raise your concerns that something really, really disturbing is happening here,” said Levi.
Levi thinks the public should look at a variety of studies when determining the safety of any vaccine or health guidance, and that Ladapo’s findings are in keeping with a large body of evidence that supports his guidance, even though the mainstream is dismissing this evidence.
Levi believes Ladopo was correctly following the mounting evidence of vaccine-related heart problems and deaths, and the principle of “do no harm.” “Ladopo was saying, I don’t feel comfortable to continue to give these vaccines to young individuals, given the evidence that I have,” said Levi.
Fear Is Destroying Health Systems
“I actually think that the regulatory agencies, with the support of some scientists in the media, are essentially representing a very extreme approach and a very dangerous approach, if I may say, because again, they are undermining the fundamentals of proper scientific and medical work,” said Levi. “And I’m very, very concerned about the future of science, the future trust in science and medicine.”
Fear has caused many people to make poor decisions said, Levi. “What I realized is that in many cases, it [fear] shuts down intellect, rationale, ethics, [and] scared people can do very, very bad things to each other.”
This fear caused health officials to abandon reason and prevented them from looking at the whole health of an individual, including the mental, emotional, and physical aspects, especially in the case of young people said, Levi.
Consequently, young people have been deeply affected, with among other things, a loss of education, weight gain, increased anxiety, and depression, much of which could have been prevented had leaders used a holistic and science-based approach to mitigating the threats of the pandemic, Levi said.
A cyclist with a trailer for children passes a “Beach Closed” sign on the boardwalk in Miami Beach, Fla., on March 22, 2020. (Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images)
We have failed our children, said Levi.
“And to me, that’s not only a scientifical scientific flaw, but this is also an ethical flaw. This is an ethical failure, that as a society, we then [did not] put the young and the children as a top priority. That, to me, that’s what the society is supposed to do.”
The lockdown protocol used around the world failed miserably, especially in China said, Levi.
“What is striking to me is that freedom is a fundamental value of democratic societies, but it’s also a fundamental value of science,” but was largely ignored, said Levi.
Instead, those in democratic societies used the most draconian policies to take away fundamental freedoms and in the scientific realm, people were “essentially imposing censorship mechanisms that I’ve never seen, in my over 16 years as a scientist, I’ve never seen something close to that,” said Levi.
A medical worker prepares to give 62-year-old Moshe Geva Rosso a fourth dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, at Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, Israel, on Dec. 31, 2021. (Nir Elias/Reuters)
Israel’s Vaccine Monitoring
“The Ministry of Health (MOH) in Israel, is actively hiding critical information about side effects of the vaccines from the Israeli public,” said Levi. In addition, the health ministry did not have a functional monitoring system for vaccine adverse effects until recently.
This is a critically important fact because Israel has been at the forefront of requiring their citizens to get vaccinated and boosted, having signed a contract with Pfizer early on in the pandemic, “that essentially made Israel a worldwide lab for the rest of the world,” said Levi.
Israel only started to broadly monitor adverse side effects at the end of 2021, and hired a team to research what they found regarding adverse effects, which is why they leaked a video showing Israel’s health ministry discussing the issue, said Levi.
The Israeli MOH commissioned researchers to analyze adverse event reports submitted by Israelis. The researchers presented findings from the new surveillance system at an internal June meeting, video footage of which was obtained by an Israeli journalist. This research team’s findings are contrary to the health ministry’s claim that the adverse events, if any, are short-term.
Many of the side effects are in fact, not short term. These health problems, “actually last weeks, months, and sometimes over a year. When I say side effects, I talk about menstrual irregularities, I talk about serious neurological side effects, and so forth,” said Levi.
In these videos, the team of researchers is heard advising the Israeli health ministry to use caution when speaking to the public about the vaccines’ adverse health effects.
“It seems that the Ministry of Health in Israel took this to their attention because when you look at the actual report that they post in the public domain, they essentially took out a lot of the messages, a lot of the findings that were found by the research team that they hired. And moreover, they misrepresented the data, and misrepresented the reporting rates of the different side effects and made them look like very, very rare,” said Levi.
The reports that the ministry put up for the Israeli public to see were clearly manipulated said, Levi.
“And essentially, these reports are representing only six months out of a year and a half, and only 15 to 17 percent of the population in Israel, rather than the entire population and all the doses that were given in Israel.”
The Epoch Times reached out to Israel’s MOH for comment but had not receive a reply before publishing time.
Rechallenge
“So, now I have a situation when every time they take the vaccine I see the same response, that is called rechallenge,” said Levi. A positive rechallenge was reported in 10 percent of the women who complained of menstrual issues, according to the researchers, who also identified cases of rechallenge for other adverse events.
The phenomenon of rechallenge—when adverse events reoccur or worsen following additional vaccine doses—proved that some of the events were caused by the vaccine, researchers said.
Dr. Sharon Alroy-[Preis], who is the number two healthcare official in the Ministry of Health, when interviewed on Israeli TV said the adverse reactions that women are facing with things like menstrual irregularities were fleeting, and of no great concern.
“In fact, there are women that suffer from weeks and months, and over a year sometimes, of irregular menstrual cycles and different types of irregularities,” said Levi. “And there is no acknowledgment from anybody in the Ministry of Health, there is no acknowledgment that I’m aware of, from any health authority or health agency in the world, [that] hey, there is a problem here.”
Eroded Trust
“And the worst thing is they ignore the voice of the patient.”
Public health agencies around the world, including the United States and Israel, have not been transparent about the vaccines and the adverse events from the shots, said Levi, to such an extent that it takes a lawsuit to get the data they have collected.
The public should be told, “what is the impact of these vaccines on all-cause mortality and other health outcomes in a way that is informative, so that people can make their risk-benefit decision based on their age, health background, beliefs, whatever. But this is unheard of that health agencies behave in a way that you need to take them to court to release data,” said Levi.
These agencies need to return to basic principles of transparency and empathy, fundamental to public health, in order to eliminate the mistrust created by the lack of honesty during the pandemic.
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Jan Jekielek is a senior editor with The Epoch Times and host of the show, “American Thought Leaders.” Jan’s career has spanned academia, media, and international human rights work. In 2009 he joined The Epoch Times full time and has served in a variety of roles, including as website chief editor. He is the producer of the award-winning Holocaust documentary film “Finding Manny.”
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Masooma Haq began reporting for The Epoch Times from Pakistan in 2008. She currently covers a variety of topics including U.S. government, culture, and entertainment.
Harvard economics professor Matthew Ferranti has created a bit of a stir with a new research paper where he advises central banksto buy Bitcoin BTC/USD
What Happened: According to Ferranti’s research, it makes sense for many central banks to hold a small amount of Bitcoin under normal circumstances, and much more Bitcoin if they face sanction risks.
See More: Best Cryptocurrency to hedge against inflation
In his paper “Hedging Sanctions Risk: Cryptocurrency in Central Bank Reserves,” Ferranti explores the possibility of Bitcoin serving as a hedging alternative asset.
In the event that a central bank is unable to sufficiently hedge its sanctions through physical gold, the better option according to him is Bitcoin.
Why It’s Important: Gold is the obvious choice for a country looking to protect itself against sanctions, he said in an interview with Forbes. However, obtaining physical gold may be difficult in certain cases.
“It may take a long time to obtain gold, which a country under threat of sanctions may not have, and physical possession of it may be impossible.” This is where Bitcoin can come to the rescue.
According to his research, from 2016 to 2021, countries facing a higher risk of U.S. sanctions saw an increase in their gold reserves, while countries facing a lower risk saw a decrease in their gold reserves.
Despite the face-ripping price volatility of Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies, Ferranti’s model shows that they could serve as an effective sanction insurance policy.
Price Action: BTC is trading at $16,493, up 4.97% at the time of writing, according to Benzinga Pro.
Read Next:Cathie Wood Reiterates $1M Price Target For Bitcoin: ‘Sometimes You Need To Go Through Crisis To See Survivors’
A former student fatally shot a faculty member inside a building at the University of Arizona on Wednesday afternoon, sending the campus into a lockdown as officers searched for the gunman, police said.
Police said the shooting took place shortly after 2 p.m. inside the John W. Harshbarger Building, near East Second Street and North Mountain Avenue. The building houses the Department of Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences. The victim was identified as a male professor in the Department of Hydrology, but his name was not immediately released.
Chief Paula Balafas of the University of Arizona Police Department shared information on the shooting death of a male professor on Oct. 5. The suspect, 46-year-old Murad Dervish, was arrested by the Department of Public Safety near Gila Bend three hours after the shooting.
Video by Jesse Tellez / Arizona Daily Star.
Jesse Tellez
UA Police Chief Paula Balafas said the suspect was arrested by the Department of Public Safety shortly after 5 p.m. on Interstate 8 at Gila Bend. He was identified as Murad Dervish, 46.
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Balafas said that just after 2 p.m. UA police received a call from someone inside the building that a former student was there and that the ex-student was not allowed inside the building. The person requested officers come to Harshbarger and escort the person out. Before officers arrived within a few minutes another caller reported a shooting inside the building.
“Someone recognized the student and knew that he was not allowed inside the building,” Balafas said. She said the time from the initial call to the shooting call was only a “matter of minutes.” It was not disclosed Wednesday why Dervish was not allowed inside the building.
University of Arizona Police escort students from the scene of a shooting at the John W. Harshbarger Building.
Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star
The campus was locked down and students and staff were asked to shelter in place for more than an hour as police searched for a gunman. The shooter was identified by police, but he had fled from the building before officers arrived.
Video shot outside the building showed Tucson Fire personnel carrying a man outside the building to a waiting ambulance. The patient was then placed on a gurney and put into the ambulance, which quickly drove away. The victim was taken to Banner-University Medical Center, where he was later pronounced dead.
Veer Nayyar, an undergraduate student, was nearby when he heard sirens and saw officers running into the building. He later saw emergency personnel put a victim on a stretcher. Nayyar said the victim looked to be an older person and he did not see anyone running away from the scene.
University of Arizona and Tucson Police officers at the the scene of a shooting at the John W. Harshbarger Building on the University of Arizona campus.
Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star
A faculty member who was in the building at the time said he heard seven to 10 gunshots. The faculty member asked not to be identified.
All remaining in-person classes, activities and performances on the UA campus were canceled for the rest of Wednesday, according to a UA police update. At about 3:30 p.m., UA police said the campus lockdown and shelter-in-place have been lifted, but people should stay away from the Harshbarger building. No decision had been made on whether there would be in-person classes on Thursday. The building where the shooting occurred will be closed indefinitely.
Balafas encourages students and faculty who may be shaken up by the incident to get in touch with the UA’s Counseling and Psych Services. CAPS is able to provide crisis counseling.
“I don’t know what the suspect’s issue was in this case, but if you see something, don’t just say something but do something. If you know someone struggling with mental health issues or anger issues, please reach out,” Balafas said.
Two people hug after a shooting at the John W. Harshbarger Building on the University of Arizona campus.
Rebecca Sasnett / Arizona Daily Star
This year marks the 20th anniversary of a shooting at the UA College of Nursing in which three professors were killed by a failing student, who then took his own life on Oct. 28, 2002.
More recently, a 20-year-old UA sophomore was fatally shot in a campus parking garage on Feb. 20, 2021. Forrest Keys was killed during a confrontation with three people in a car who drove by him late at night. Two 18-year-old men received 30-year prison sentences for the slaying.
The University of Arizona campus was locked down Wednesday afternoon following a shooting inside the John W. Harshbarger Building, near East Second Street and North Mountain Avenue. Video by Rebecca Sasnett and Pascal Albright / Arizona Daily Star.
Pascal Albright
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Rebecca Sasnett
Jamie Donnelly covers breaking news for the Arizona Daily Star. Contact her via e-mail at jdonnelly@tucson.com
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Maitland Jones Jr., a chemistry professor at New York University who also taught for four decades at Princeton, was fired in August after undergraduate students circulated a petition complaining that his course was too difficult.
Dozens of the college students, many of them aspiring doctors, signed on to the petition in the spring.
“We are very concerned about our scores, and find that they are not an accurate reflection of the time and effort put into this class,” the petition read, according to the New York Times.
“We urge you to realize… that a class with such a high percentage of withdrawals and low grades has failed to make students’ learning and well-being a priority and reflects poorly on the chemistry department as well as the institution as a whole.”
New York University campus on Macdougal Street at 37 Washington Square West. (iStock)
Jones, 84, told the New York Times that he started seeing a loss of focus among students about a decade ago, but the problem was exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.
“They weren’t coming to class, that’s for sure, because I can count the house,” Jones told the newspaper. “They weren’t watching the videos, and they weren’t able to answer the questions.”
PROFESSOR FINDS MOST STUDENTS CAN’T DIFFERENTIATE BETWEEN US AND RUSSIAN CONSTITUTIONS
A spokesperson for New York University disagreed with the way Jones’ dismissal has been framed, saying that in addition to the petition, Jones’ class also had a “very high rate of student withdrawals” and “evaluations scores that were by far the worst” across the school’s undergraduate science courses.
“In short, he was hired to teach, and wasn’t successful,” an NYU spokesperson told Fox News Digital. “NYU has lots of hard courses and lots of tough graders among the faculty – they don’t end up with outcomes that raise questions about the quality and effectiveness of the teaching, as this class did.”
Purple and white NYU flags hang from a New York University building on West 4th Street in Manhattan. ( )
Before lecturing at NYU, Jones pioneered a new way of teaching that emphasized problem-based learning over a “lecture-memorize-regurgitate facts” style, Princeton University’s Dean of Faculty wrote.
“Our aim is to teach the best course in organic chemistry anywhere,” the course description for his organic chemistry class read.
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Jones told the New York Times that he’s concerned about the precedent his firing could set.
“I don’t want my job back,” he told the newspaper. “I just want to make sure this doesn’t happen to anyone else.”
Paul Best is a breaking news reporter for Fox News Digital and Fox Business. Story tips and ideas can be sent to Paul.Best@fox.com and on Twitter: @KincaidBest.
ANN ARBOR – As cases of monkeypox continue to grow worldwide, the United States recently declared a national public health emergency amid the outbreak.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were 31,800 cases around the world as of Aug. 9. Nearly 99% of those cases were found in countries that had not historically reported monkeypox, according to the CDC.
Two epidemiologists at the University of Michigan recently discussed the disease and the implications of its spread.
Joseph Eisenberg is a professor of epidemiology and an infectious disease epidemiologist who studies environmental determinants of infectious diseases, specifically those that are vector borne or waterborne. Andrew Brouwer is an assistant research scientist in epidemiology who uses statistical and mathematical models to address how infectious disease, cancer and tobacco control impact public health.
The university released the following Q&A with Eisenberg and Brouwer on the topic.
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Should we be worried now that the monkeypox virus (MPV) has been declared a public health emergency in the United States?
Brouwer: MPV has been declared a public health emergency by the World Health Organization, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and some states and localities. These declarations serve to bring attention to the topic, enhance coordinated responses, and make money and resources available. It does not mean that we’re all in imminent danger of being infected.
Is monkeypox going to be the next pandemic?
Eisenberg: Monkeypox is the next pandemic. It is spreading globally through several countries, including the U.S. In the U.S., cases are rapidly increasing into the thousands. It’s a different kind of pandemic than what we see in COVID, however, because it is much less infectious and it is currently affecting a specific risk group that involves very close, intimate contact. And so, yes, it’s a pandemic, but it’s not anything like the COVID pandemic.
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Brouwer: The COVID-19 pandemic has sensitized us to disease transmission. Other outbreaks, such as the hepatitis A epidemic (predominantly 2016-2018, with more than 30,000 cases in the U.S.), received much less attention. That is not to say that we should let the MPV and other outbreaks fly under the radar, but we should have some perspective that outbreaks of various diseases happen all the time and not all are existential threats.
It is good that there is a lot of attention being paid to MPV so that transmission can be interrupted and those infected can be treated. But MPV is not the next COVID.
Unlike SARS-CoV-2, MPV is not spread by casual contact. It is primarily sexually transmitted. It is unlikely to become a widespread epidemic in the broader public, and we should not be too worried about catching it when we’re in public. However, the virus has likely spread to many localities throughout the country, so sexually active individuals should be aware of the signs and discuss MPV with their sexual partners.
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What is monkeypox?
Eisenberg: Monkeypox is a viral disease related to smallpox. It’s different from smallpox in that the disease primarily is spread among nonhuman animals like rodents and primates—what we call a zoonotic disease—and historically has been endemic in central and west Africa, primarily in rainforest areas.
Historically, monkeypox is able to be transmitted from animals to humans with some limited person to person spread. But this new strain is different in that it is now spreading more rapidly through close person-to-person contact and spreading globally throughout different countries in the world. We don’t fully understand why this strain is spreading globally.
How is monkeypox spread?
Eisenberg: This virus is spread through very close contact, often skin to skin. Monkeypox causes lesions and rashes, and the fluid from the lesions and rashes are infectious. It also can be through droplets, that is, droplets that are released through your mouth, through even just talking.
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The virus can, in addition, contaminate objects like fabrics and it can survive there for a period of time, and people can be exposed through touching those objects, but this mode of transmission seems to be rare.
Brouwer: The vast majority of monkeypox transmission is through skin-to-skin sexual contact. Transmission can also occur through nonsexual close contacts and from contaminated objects, typically within a home.
Should we be worried that this is going to spread like COVID-19?
Eisenberg: No. The big difference between monkeypox and COVID is that monkeypox is much less effective in spreading. First of all, it can’t aerosolize into the air and therefore stay in the air for hours or even days like COVID. Second of all, it requires a much higher dose to become infected. So the fact that it’s much less infectious is one reason why monkeypox will not spread in the way we see something like COVID spreading.
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Also, it is thought that only symptomatic individuals that have these rashes and lesions are infectious. As far as we know, people that are infected but presymptomatic cannot transmit the disease. And that’s also very different from COVID, as somebody could be walking around with COVID without any symptoms and be infectious and spread the disease.
What are the symptoms?
Eisenberg: A lot of the initial symptoms of monkeypox are what we call broad spectrum, symptoms like fever, headache, muscle ache, typical respiratory symptoms—types of symptoms that don’t necessarily tell you that it’s monkeypox as opposed to COVID, the flu or common cold. The lesions are what’s the most characteristic symptom of monkeypox. And those lesions are what is diagnostic for a clinician to say, oh, this is monkeypox and not COVID. And that comes sometimes a little later than the first phase of just having your general fever and headache and respiratory symptoms.
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What should someone do if they are experiencing these symptoms?
Eisenberg: If they’re experiencing these symptoms, they should isolate themselves. If they’ve got lesions and rashes, they should separate even within their house, separate themselves from animals, because this can be transmitted to animals as well as family members. And then contacting their physician would be also prudent to see whether or not there are treatments that are available for them.
There’s been some confusion about the spread of this disease, and there has been a lot of focus on the gay and queer communities. Is MPV an STI? Should we be focusing on those communities?
Brouwer: MPV is a sexually transmitted infection. Sexual transmission is not the only mode of transmission, but it is by far the most important one right now. The fact is that 98% of cases worldwide in this epidemic have been in men who have sex with men. To gloss over this fact creates incorrect risk perceptions for both low- and high-risk individuals.
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It is possible to be forthright about who is currently at highest risk and what precautions can be taken without stigmatizing whole populations. In general, public health messaging needs to do a better job of recognizing that diseases create fear responses and that people with infections (of any kind) are often blamed for their infection. We saw this in the COVID-19 pandemic, too.
And how concerned should the public be? Should everyone get the vaccine?
Eisenberg: Only people that have been potentially exposed or have high-risk behaviors or are immunocompromised should be considering getting a vaccine. It’s just not widespread enough to make it something that everybody should be getting.
Brouwer: No, at this point the vaccine should be targeted to high-risk individuals. There is little indication that the outbreak will become epidemic in the larger population. It may become an endemic sexually transmitted infection, however, so continued awareness and education is important.
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So if I go to the grocery store, I most likely won’t get monkeypox?
Eisenberg: Exactly. So that is not the kind of casual contact that can occur and cause transmission for, again, COVID, the flu, common cold, those are all things that you could get if you just went to the grocery store. Monkeypox is much less infectious.
Can you talk about zoonotic diseases and how climate change might impact how often we see these types of diseases coming up?
Eisenberg: Zoonotic diseases are diseases that are coming from nonhuman animals, livestock and even wild animals. Most of the emerging and reemerging pathogens that become human diseases, including all the childhood diseases like measles and smallpox and such, were originally zoonotic. That is, pathogens have been emerging from animals into human populations, ever since the development of agriculture. Agriculture created a situation where there is much more intimate contact with animals.
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What climate change has done is exacerbate the risk of new emerging or reemerging pathogens that we’ve always had. For some pathogens, we will see an expansion of transmission and more intense transmission. For other pathogens, we’ll just see geographic shifts. That is, some locations will have less transmission and in some locations we will have an increasing amount of transmission.
This geographic shift in transmission will be challenging to address. Public health infrastructures will have to be much more nimble and flexible in addressing future risks that may be different than what the risks were in the past. So, again, we should not only be focused on the idea that climate change is going to be increasing the risk of disease, rather that it’s going to be shifting where the high-risk locations are over time.
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It’s been confirmed Shin-chan: Me and the Professor on Summer Vacation – The Endless Seven-Day Journey [6 articles]”>Shin-ch Shin-chan: Me and the Professor on Summer Vacation – The Endless Seven-Day Journey [6 articles]”>an: Me and the Professor on Summer Vacation – The Endless Seven-Day Journey (based on the Japanese manga and anime series Crayon Shin-chan) will be getting a western release on the Switch eShop and PlayStation 4 this August.
This particular release was first made available in Japan in 2021 and is a lot more fleshed out than that endless runner one from a few years ago. It’s a game where you explore a town as the series’ five-year-old protagonist – taking pictures, fishing, catching bugs, exercising, spotting dinosaurs and more. It’s a bit similar to series like Animal Crossing and Story of Seasons.
It’s published by Neos Corporation and developed by Millennium Kitchen – the team known for the ‘My Summer Vacation‘ games, and Attack of the Friday Monsters on the 3DS.
Below is some back story. It’s also been confirmed the game will support English, Japanese, German, Spanish, and Portuguese subtitles (thanks, Gematsu).
Hiroshi has to go on a business trip to Kyushu, so now the entire Nohara family has decided to stay with an childhood friend of Misae’s in Assou, Kumamoto.
But when they arrive at Kumamoto Station on their way to Assou, they meet a strange man who offers them an even stranger camera on the condition that they’ll act as his witnesses…
With his new camera in hand, Shinnosuke can enjoy his summer vacation in the beautiful Assou fields and mountains to the fullest. The scenery is even crawling with creatures that he would never find in Kasukabe. And there are townspeople to help and new friends to make.
That said… don’t these kids look an awful lot like the ones he knows from home?
One cool summer night, Shinnosuke witnesses a giant creature outlined against the light of a full moon. Next to the creature is a strange man with a wide smile.
It’s the same weird man who gave him the camera at the station…
And he calls himself the Evil Professor. Following this encounter more and more strange things start to happen around Assou…
Is this a release you’ve been waiting for on the Nintendo Switch? Leave a comment down below.
Publisher Neos [8 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/companies/neos”>Neos Corporation and developer Millennium Kitchen [4 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/companies/millennium-kitchen”>Millennium Kitchen will release Shin-chan: Me and the Professor on Summer Vacation – The Endless Seven-Day Journey [6 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/games/shin-chan-me-and-the-professor-on-summer-vacation-the-endless-seven-day-journey”>Shin-chan: Me and the Professor on Summer Vacation – The Endless Seven-Day Journey for PS4 [23,417 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/platforms/playstation/ps4″>PlayStation 4 and Switch [11,711 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/platforms/nintendo/switch”>Switch in August worldwide, the companies announced. It will support English, Japanese, German, Spanish, and Portuguese subtitle options.
In Japan, where the game is currently available for Switch, the initial PlayStation 4 release will be digital-only, but a physical edition is also planned. Further information regarding the physical release will follow at a later date.
It is currently unknown whether a physical edition is planned for release in the west.
Developed by the studio behind the Boku no Natsuyasumi series, Shin-chan: Me and the Professor on Summer Vacation – The Endless Seven-Day Journey first launched for Switch on July 15, 2021 in Japan and May 4, 2022 in Asia, and has since surpassed 400,000 combined shipments and digital sales.
Here is an overview of the game, via its official website:
Story
Hiroshi has to go on a business trip to Kyushu, so now the entire Nohara family has decided to stay with an childhood friend of Misae’s in Assou, Kumamoto.
But when they arrive at Kumamoto Station on their way to Assou, they meet a strange man who offers them an even stranger camera on the condition that they’ll act as his witnesses…
With his new camera in hand, Shinnosuke can enjoy his summer vacation in the beautiful Assou fields and mountains to the fullest. The scenery is even crawling with creatures that he would never find in Kasukabe. And there are townspeople to help and new friends to make.
That said… don’t these kids look an awful lot like the ones he knows from home?
One cool summer night, Shinnosuke witnesses a giant creature outlined against the light of a full moon [8 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/games/moon”>moon. Next to the creature is a strange man with a wide smile.
It’s the same weird man who gave him the camera at the station…
And he calls himself the Evil Professor. Following this encounter more and more strange things start to happen around Assou…
Characters
Shin-chan and the Nohara Family – At the center of it all is the inexhaustible five-year-old Sinnosuke Nohara himself! Accompanying him are his dad Hiroshi, his mom Misae, his sister Himawari, and his beloved pet dog Shiro. The Noharas have traveled all the way from Kasukabe to Assou. Everything is lined up for a fun week of summer vacationing! Or at least, so it seems…
The Hinoyama Family – From left to right: Yoyoko, Lalako, Cap The Hinoyama family is hosting the Noharas while they’re in Assou. Yoyoko runs the local Hinoyama Cafe. She’s actually one Misae’s childhood friends! Lalako is Yoyoko’s younger sister, and she became quick friends with Shinnosuke. Their father, who runs the local news agency, is actually called Mamoru, but everyone just calls him Cap!
Evil Professor – The self-proclaimed “Scariest Mad Scientist of All Time.” He’s easily one of the most important characters in this entire story!
Kazuma, Kine, Masaya, and Bu – Some of the local kids that Shinnosuke meets in Assou… Why do they look exactly like his friends from Kasukabe?!
Yoshiko Kurogami, Mott Yamada, Saburo Aoyama, Jiro Aoyama, Ichiro Aoyama, Hata Aoyama, and Shinobu Ginga – Assou’s villagers. All kinds of stories will unfold through Shinnosuke’s interactions with the locals.
Stage
Set In Assou, Kumamoto – A town surrounded by beautiful nature. Misae’s childhood friend and many other interesting characters live here.
A Place Housing a Mysterious Legend – It seems there exists an ancient and mysterious tale known to all of the town’s people.
Filled with All Sorts of Interesting Characters – The town is filled with all sorts of unique personalities. From the local shopkeep to a girl worried about love. There’s even an eccentric professor and a real-life ninja descendant?!
A Summer Vacation Spent with Other Children – Why do these kids look exactly the same as the ones from Kasukabe?! Well, either way, you can play together and solve problems around town. Together, you’ll have the best summer vacation ever!
Gorgeous Japanese Scenery – Enjoy the feeling of Japan in the height of summer. Wander beneath the wide open skies and listen to the sound of cicadas ringing through the mountains and the gentle babbling of brooks as they wind through the greenery. It’s an experience that’ll instantly have you nostalgic for Japanese summer.
Our Secret Hideout – This town houses a secret base that only the children know about! Gather everyone to have your own Dinosaur Showdown! There’s plenty of ways to have fun in Assou!
Summer Vacation
Morning Exercise in Assou – Japanese summer vacation isn’t complete without morning gymnastics! Everyone in town gets together to do these morning stretches! Sit back and enjoy the show!
Fun Meals – The Nohara and Hinoyama families eat all their meals together. Once seated, they say their thanks for the meal and dig in! The meals look amazing, but I guess you can’t expect anything less when you’re staying at a real cafe!
Explore as You Please – Run around, play, and explore in a wide variety of places. Since it’s surrounded by nature, Assou is also home to all kinds of rare insects and fish! Catch fish and bugs, help the townspeople, and enjoy your summer holiday to the max!
Evening Bath – After a day of fun and exploration, it’s time to take a bath with dad! You can even see the starry sky from within the traditional tiled bathtub. Wash away the fatigue and ready yourself for the next day!
Picture Diary – Record all your fun experiences in the picture diary. It’s the best way to treasure your summer memories, be they the day’s happenings, new things you’ve discovered, or the types of fish and bugs you’ve caught!
Become a News Reporter – When Shinnosuke visits Cap at the News Agency, he gets appointed as a child journalist! The things he reports will be printed in the paper and pinned to the bulletin boards around town! As the newspaper pulls in more subscribers, the company will flourish! Try to hunt for the hottest scoop!
Catch Bugs – Assou’s rich surroundings are filled to the brim with insects. Some of them are even quite rare, definitely not the type you’d find back in Kasukabe! Ready your bug net, aim, and SWING! All the bugs you catch will be recorded in your Insect Encyclopedia!
Catch Fish – Assou’s rivers and ponds are rich with fish, so you can enjoy a spot of fishing whenever you want! Ready your rod, reel it in at the right time, and you might just catch something rare! All the fish you catch will be recorded in your Fish Encyclopedia!
Grow Vegetables – You can grow healthy veggies over at the Kurokami Farm! If you bring the vegetables you grew to the Hinoyama Cafe or other shops around town, you can even earn a bit of pocket money.
Help the Stores – Hinoyama Cafe, the local curry restaurant, and the supermarket are always looking for more fresh ingredients. Earn pocket money by bringing them the ingredients they list on the bulletin board!
Dinosaur Showdown – Befriend the other kids in Assou and you’ll be able to duke it out in Dinosaur Showdown! It’s a place where both powerful dinosaurs and familiar characters collide! You can collect Dino Card [15 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/genres/card”>Cards by buying Chocobi from the Kirishima Store!
Be a DJ – If you befriend the owner of the cafe and bar Dancing Jiro, you can become a DJ yourself! The tracks are composed of the game’s background music! Mix them up however you like and play your tracks in the store!
Special
Regular Cast
Shinnosuke Nohara (voiced by Yumiko Kobayashi)
Misae Nohara (voiced by Miki Narahashi)
Hiroshi Nohar (voiced by Toshiyuki Morikawa)
Himawari Nohara (voiced by Satomi Korogi)
Shiro / Kazuma (voiced by Mari Mashiba)
Kine (voiced by Tamao Hayashi)
Bu (voiced by Chie Sato)
Masaya (voiced by Teiyu Ichiryusai)
Original Cast
Evil Professor (voiced by Tadashi Miyazawa)
Hata Aoyama / Narration (voiced by Yukiko Motoyoshi)
Yoyoko Hinoyama (voiced by Riko Kohara)
Lalako Hinoyama (voiced by Megumi Nishikiori)
Cap (voiced by Nobuhiro Fukui)
Yoshiko Kurogami (voiced by Yuki Kaneko)
Mott Yamada (voiced by Miki Horiba)
Shinobu Ginga (voiced by Yuhi Asagiri)
Ichiro Aoyama / Jiro / Saburo (voiced by Takafumi Maeuchi)
A Canadian professor mask-shamed a United Airlines flight attendant, but it backfired spectacularly when he suffered a complete meltdown online.
Amir Attaran is a professor in the Faculties of Law and School of Epidemiology and Public Health at the University of Ottawa. On Saturday, Attaran was aboard a United Airlines flight from Ottawa to Chicago, Illinois. Attaran saw that one of the flight attendants was not wearing a face mask – which goes against Canada’s current travel restrictions that require travelers wear face masks when departing from Canada.
Attaran took multiple photos of the flight attendant and posted them on Twitter with the caption: “Hey @United, why are you breaking the law? Masks are required on all flights out of Canada. Your flight attendant isn’t wearing one! This is UA3737 in Ottawa right now.”
Attaran attempted to get the flight attendant in trouble by tagging the official Twitter account for United Airlines.
United Airlines responded on Twitter, “Hi Amir, thanks for bringing this to our attention. We’ve informed the appropriate teams for further review.”
Plus, Attaran tagged the official Twitter accounts for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Canada’s transportation department, the Air Passenger Rights organization, as well as Canadian news outlets Global News, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and Globe and Mail.
u201cHey @United, why are you breaking the law? Masks are required on all flights out of Canada. Your flight attendant isnu2019t wearing one! This is UA3737 in Ottawa right now. @rcmpgrcpolice @Transport_gc @AirPassRightsCA @CBCPolitics @globeandmail @globalnewsu201d
— Amir Attaran (@Amir Attaran)
1655563360
Attaran spoke with the flight attendant after he mask-shamed her on his Twitter account.
“In Chicago now. Had a friendly chat with the flight attendant, and found she is blameless because @United misinforms its crew,” Attaran tweeted. “WTF, United? Look here: on flights leaving Canada, masks are mandatory the ‘entire travel journey.’ FOLLOW THE LAW!”
The Canadian professor then called for United Airlines to be banned from operating in Canada because of the mask infraction.
“United should be forbidden flying to Canada—immediately. Our country, our rules,” Attaran wrote in a post that tagged Omar Alghabra – Canada’s Minister of Transport. “Even the supervisor I talked with in Chicago didn’t understand Canadian rules apply to flights departing Canada.”
Attaran then lashed out at Americans, “Don’t like Canada’s laws? Then keep your American companies in your own country. Our country, our rules. That’s why your COVID death rate is triple ours, a**holes.”
He added, “Canada is not the USA, you f***ers.”
The professor then called Republicans a “death cult,” and seethed, “See Americans, you get crazy mad about COVID safety and attack science—and then you die. You drank the GOP Kool Aid and it’s mass suicide, basically. We in Canada did a lot better. So when you pout and cry about our rules—well, it’s kind of cute. Ratio that, motherf***ers.”
“Oh, and if you Republican Reptiles dislike Canada’s COVID safety laws, you’ll TOTALLY HATE our gun safety laws—if you’re not already shot and dead,” he feverishly ranted. “Cuz Yankees murder their own far more than Canadians. Even kids. It’s awful. I’m so glad I emigrated from California to Canada.”
For hours, Attaran raged on Twitter as he battled anyone who criticized him for trying to mask-shame the flight attendant.
Attaran even blustered about former President Donald Trump’s sex life and genitalia.
Twitter reactions to Attaran mask-shaming the flight attendant frustrated the Canadian professor.
Gov. Ron DeSantis spokesperson Christina Pushaw: “Leave her alone. This is beyond creepy. A professor taking photos of a young worker to shame her. Maybe don’t fly if you can’t handle seeing someone’s face.”
Journalist Yashar Ali: “Do you know what kind of hell flight attendants have been through during this pandemic? Dealing with harassment and bullying nonstop? And you post this poor woman’s photo and target her? And then admit later she didn’t even know?”
Art dealer Eli Klein: “Posting photos of someone publicly to report a mask breach and trying to get her fired/disciplined is unacceptable. Covid has really brought out the worst in people. Shame on you.”
Lawyer Preston Byrne: “More evidence for the proposition that no profession has lost more professional standing as a result of social media than law professors.”
Podcast host Hans Mahncke: “As @elonmusk might say, at their heart, mask mandates are divisive, exclusionary, and hateful. They basically give mean people a shield to be mean and cruel, armored in false virtue.”
Conservative activist Ned Ryun: “And vaxxed 4x, 3x boosted and triple masked and you should be totally bulletproof. . . Against a virus with over 99% survival rate. Make sure to travel with a binkie and support animal next time. It will lessen the trauma maybe?”
Evolutionary behavioral scientist Gad Saad: “Every single time that this guy’s tweets have come across my feed, I’m reminded that he is an execrable cretin. He was dancing in pure orgiastic happiness when he found out that @jordanbpeterson was gravely ill. What could lead a person to be so consistently mean-spirited?”
Commentator Michael Malice: “I didn’t notice until now that professor Karen literally called in the cops on a black woman, and is blaming Trump fans for being reminded that he is absolute scum.”
Columnist Derek Hunter: “Liberal attacking black woman in the hope that she get fired. #Typical#Progressive.”
YouTuber Kelly Lamb: “Thanks Hall Monitor Attaran! You probably literally saved thousands of lives by reporting this to the correct authorities. A brave & truly selfless act.”
A Twitter user remarked: “I’ll never understand the mentality of people who gleefully try to destroy other people’s lives just to gain a few minor but imaginary ‘social credits.’ Is there a more thirsty and sniveling personality type out there?”
Last year, Attaran was suspended from Twitter for attacking Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for not rolling out COVID-19 vaccines for children fast enough to his liking.
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