Read This First, 1. Biodisaster Supplies, 2. 1918 Flu, 3. Taiwan in Isolation, ↕4. Mosquito Borne, 5. Climate Drama, 6. Altruism, 7. Strategic Framework, 8. Stench, 9. Singing Grief, 10. Paris Agreement.
-1. Gather Emergency Supplies. If a disaster strikes in your community, you might not have access to food, water, or electricity for several days. You may think that you will have enough time to run to the grocery store, but stores quickly sell out of important supplies following emergency warnings. Unfortunately, about half of adults in the United States do not have the resources and plans in place for a possible emergency. Preparing emergency kits for your family is an important step in keeping them safe and healthy during a disaster. Surprisingly this still recommends 3 days, Is 72 Hours Enough. For biodisaster I would recommend planning for 60 days though supplies will not last 60 days if the event lasts that long. Within two weeks attrition of the population will change the demographics of a community, the size and composition of the family will change, and there will be emergent systems for obtaining and distributing needed supplies, some of which will not be on lists before the disaster A↓. The most important thing is not survival tools but survival knowledge when modern conveniences no longer operate (Living off the Grid), when people, animals, plants, food, water, air become the vehicle of biodisaster. Design and Build a Biosuit, Ebola Protection - DIY Homemade Medical Suit (Video), Bola Bucket (Diy Ebola Protection Suit in a Bug out Bucket) (Video), [Photo], DIY Gas Mask to Survive Contamination, Understanding Respiratory Protection Against SARS, Top 5 Easiest DIY Water Filters You Can Make at Home. Why Emergency Funds Are a Bad Idea, but do keep safe records that others can access about where one has investments and property, to include health insurance and a Trust.
-A. An example of a critical item that was not known to be critical 1↑. Baking Soda Shortage Has Hospitals Frantic, Delaying Treatments and Surgeries. Amid a national shortage of a critical medicine, US hospitals are hoarding vials, delaying surgeries, and turning away patients. The medicine in short supply: solutions of sodium bicarbonate – aka, baking soda. Hospitals Have a Big Problem: Baking Soda.
-1.1. Part of knowledge are the critical thinking skills to identify what is convincing but not true. This Researcher May Have Discovered the Antidote to Health Bullshit. A big, new experiment shows it’s possible to train kids to detect dubious health claims. Kids who were taught basic concepts about how to think critically about health claims massively outperformed children in a control group. ¶ One indispensable reading for anyone interested in evidence based thinking in health is Testing Treatments. The basic idea behind the book is that you don’t need to be a scientist to think critically and ask good questions. ¶ Key Concepts That People Need to Understand to Assess Claims about Treatment Effects. The list includes 32 concepts divided into six groups: (i) Recognising the need for systematic reviews of fair tests, (ii) Judging whether a comparison of treatments is fair comparison, (iii) Understanding the role of chance, (iv) Considering all the relevant fair comparisons, (v) Understanding the results of fair comparisons of treatments, (vi) Judging whether fair comparisons of treatments are relevant. [Meter, Meme]. Critical Thinking Can Be Taught, Teaching Critical Thinking to Combat Fake News and Bullshit: You Have to Start Young. ¶ Unfortunately this inability to distinguish bullshit from real shit in health claims permeates the whole anthroposphere, The Lie about Seth Rich, and How the Corrosion of Reality Should Worry Every American. The State of Critical Thinking Today (2004), Are We Losing Our Ability to Think Critically (2009), College Students Lack Critical Thinking Skills, but Who’s to Blame (2011) You’re 100 Percent Wrong about Critical Thinking (2014). The irony is that to initially create fake, imaginative, innovative, questioning, examining assumptions requires critical thinking, but once rumors or fake news are in acceleration they require uncritical thinking, the copying of the idea without creative imagination, but small innovations (refinements) that don’t question the underlying assumptions. Why Science Denial Isn’t Necessarily Ideological.
-1.2. In parademic the seminal example of lack of critical thinking is anti-vax. However keep in mind that both sides of the issue accuse the other side of not using critical thinking. Parents' Reasons for Not Vaccinating Children Influence Public Attitudes Toward Them. Mothers* are viewed negatively if their child hasn't been vaccinated, no matter the reason. But mothers who outright refuse to vaccinate their children are viewed in a harsher light compared to those who delay vaccines because of safety concerns or who aren't up to date due to time constraints. Why Do Parents Who Usually Vaccinate Their Children Hesitate or Refuse (2014). Even parents who are not "vaccine refusers" and who usually comply with routine vaccination programs may hesitate or refuse to vaccinate their children based on poor communication from the relevant healthcare provider, as well as concerns about the safety of the vaccine. Expression of Privilege in Vaccine Refusal. Not all students returning to school this month will be up to date on their vaccinations. A new study shows that the reasons why children may not be fully vaccinated depends on the class privilege of their mothers. Middle and upper class "vaccine-refusers" are mothers who have the resources, education, and time to make decisions regarding vaccinations. These mothers consent only to vaccines they believe are most beneficial for theirchildren and instead rely on other practices they see as rendering vaccines less necessary. Exploring the Reasons Behind Parental Refusal of Vaccines (2016). Note that the focus is on mothers or parents, rarely is their mention of fathers. Dad Takes Anti-Vax Mum to Court.
-*‡. This may be part of the push back on over parenting, helicopter moms [Meme] Local Organic Mom Pleased to Have All Natural, Antibiotic Susceptibility Free Infection. Adorable Unvaccinated Pertussis Infected Baby Sues Her Parents. Organic Farming is Bad for the Environment. ¶ When dealing with parademic one needs to be aware of Poe’s Law and Poe’s Corollary. Mike Adams on Vaccines: Orac’s Corollary to Poe’s Law Strikes Again. A frequent lament of members of the anti-vaccine movement is that they are not “anti-vaccine” but rather “pro·safe vaccine.” they like to claim that they are not opposed to vaccines in general. Of course, in many, if not most or even all cases, that denial is either a lie or self delusion. After all, even the most die hard anti-vaccine zealot realizes that being anti-vaccine is quite correctly viewed by the vast majority of people as not rational. Even with that concept one is now always sure [Cartoon 10.2↓].
-1.3. #Linguistics, influence of language on behavior. Obamacare Support: When Polls Mention Repeal it Seals the Deal. Does the American public want former President Obama's health care law repealed and replaced. It depends on how you ask the question. ¶ Researchers analyzed hundreds of national opinion polls from March 2010, when Obama signed the Affordable Care Act, through the recent presidential election. They wanted to know whether different wording in survey questions would predict support for Obamacare. Support for Obamacare is significantly higher – by about 9 percentage points – when the survey question explicitly mentions "repeal" or "repeal or replace" as an option, they found. Given that 'repeal and replace' has been the mantra of Republican lawmakers, it's interesting that polls mentioning that term don't show higher support for getting rid of the law. It actually seems to put people in a mindset where they support the existing law even more. Bit of a reversal in meaning from when branding the Affordable Care Act as Obamacare was intended to undermine it‡.
-‡. Poll: Majority Sees GOP Health Bill as Step Backward. CBO: ObamaCare Repeal Bill Would Leave 23M More Uninsured, Nearly 20 Million Have Gained Health Insurance Since 2010. The Senate’s Getting its Ticket to Ride on the Health Care Roller Coaster. Gingrich: Abolish ‘Totally Destructive’ CBO. Senators Rush for Distance from CBO Report: The AHCA Is a First Step, but Not the Solution, [Cartoon], Strategies to Defend Unpopular GOP Health Bill: Euphemisms, False Statements and Deleted Comments, A Complete List of All the Reasons Senate Republicans Can't Repeal Obamacare Yet. Perspectives on the Trump Budget: Examining the Charged Language Used to Respond to It; and What Does it Say about Trump and His Voters.
-1.4. The 5 Rules of Success for Highly Effective Lifestyle Gurus. How to frame and present a health – or other types of – scam. 1) Have a compelling origin story. More a hero story, struggling and winning against the impossible. 2) Know your moment of truth. The reveal. 3) Offer a quick fix for contemporary health woes — and remind your clientele that everything they know is wrong. Create and exploit conditions of uncertainty the Dark Allure of Conspiracy Theories, Explained by a Psychologist. 4) Arm yourself with anecdotes to “prove” your potions work. This includes celebrity endorsements. 5) Be gorgeous, charismatic, attractive, trustworthy, a friend, a rebel. The Natural Cancer Cure Narrative, Confessions of a Quack: Holistic Harry Tells the Inside Story of Alternative Medicine.
-2. #Book: Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed the World [Cover]. With a death toll between fifty and one hundred million people across the globe, the Spanish flu of 1918-1920 was one of the greatest human disasters of all time. Nevertheless, it exists in our memory as a mere footnote to World War I. Drawing on the latest research in history, virology, epidemiology, psychology, and economics, Laura Spinney narrates a catastrophe that changed humanity for decades to come. In doing so, she reveals that the Spanish flu was as significant – if not more so – as the two world wars in shaping the modern world by disrupting, and often permanently altering, global politics, race relations, family structures, and ingenuity across medicine, religion, and the arts. From my biased view this is not about the pandemic, but the parademic that stemmed from that event, one that is still influencing the present day.
-3. Taiwan's Vice President Talks to Time about the Global Health Risks Arising from the Island's Isolation. When the World Health Assembly convenes in Geneva on Monday, it will do so for the first time in nine years without Taiwan, a self-governed democracy that also boasts some of the highest medical standards in Asia. Since 2009, Taiwan has been an official observer at this annual WHO gathering, allowing it to participate in the global fight against disease. Seems to me that it would be better to maintain a polite fiction than force the issue at the risk of Global Health [Map, Map]. China Is Trying to Bar Taiwan from the World's Top Health Summit. The Consequences Could Be Deadly, WHO Should Not Allow Politics Between Taiwan, China to Hamper Public Health, [Cartoon]. This pursuit of policy in the face of an avian flu in China andTaiwan that damages poultry markets and may jump to humans makes this particularly absurd. CHP Investigates Case of Legionnaires' Disease in Hospital. US ‘Disappointed’ Taiwan Not at WHO Assembly.
-3.1. Speaking of global health travel UN Health Agency Slammed for High Travel Costs, WHO Responds to Criticism of Travel Expenses. Personally I would suggest going a bit further and having private jets that can travel to and where needed, get closer to the hot zone, possibly overfly in situations where aerial observation would be helpful. When quick response is a factor and one wants those responding to be as rested and update on the situation while in transit. These private jets don’t have to have luxury fixtures, but food, places to sleep and work, communications access and a conference area. The Most Affordable Private Jets [Photo]. ¶ This makes as much sense as arguing that it would be cheaper if one did not have fire houses and argued about The Price of a Fire Engine. The fact is that costs would go dramatically down. Of course fires would spread and take more time to control, adding millions to the costs [Poster].
-3.2. Border Walls May Pose Big Challenges to Biodiversity, but Smaller Ones to Humans. With the prospect of a US-Mexico border wall looming, research and reporting on the ecological impacts of walls is both important and timely. If the wall is completed, it will create a considerable biodiversity conservation challenge – one unlikely to disappear anytime soon
Walls that impede animal movement may produce dramatic effects on populations. Perhaps more significant is that hardened border barriers may be ineffective in preventing passage by the species they are intended to impede – humans. This study so far is focused on large mammals, not the small animals, seeds, insects, mosquitoes that are disease vectors. Humans are the largest animal in size that crosses the border. It also happens to have the largest brain size in ration to body size to help solve the problems of a barrier. Border Walls and Biodiversity: New Barriers, New Horizons. Immigration Anxiety Got Trump Elected. Congress Isn’t Touching It.
-3.3. From EMS to NHS: Emergency Management and Health Security. Conversations about national health security often take place within the context of the public health field. Yet medical care is just as critical to national health security. Public health is fundamentally the collective health of every individual in the community, and in a disaster or public health emergency, the nation's emergency medical services - that "pre·hospital" care - stands on the front lines of our nation's defense.
↕4. Emerging Infectious Diseases: Actions Needed to Address the Challenges of Responding to Zika Virus Outbreaks. Since Zika virus disease was a newly emerging disease threat in the US, and relatively little was known about the Zika virus prior to the 2016 US outbreak, the CDC, and the states were not fully equipped with needed information and resources at the beginning of the outbreak. If there is a major Zika outbreak this or next summer then this report, that no one saw, will undoubtedly be discovered. This would be a parademic accelerating a biodisaster. Women Not Getting Zika Follow Up and Budget Threatens Funding 5.1↓. Baltimore Braces for Spread of Mosquito Borne Zika. A Quarter of U.S. Babies With Zika Related Birth Defects Were Born in New York.
-4.1. Once again, slow, hidden. Miami's Zika Outbreak Began Months Before it Was First Detected. Travelers infected with the Zika virus in the Caribbean brought it to South Florida multiple times before officials realized it had reached the U.S. Genomic Epidemiology Reveals Multiple Introductions of Zika Virus into the United States, Virus Hunters Draw a Map of Zika’s Spread with DNA, Zika Reached Miami at Least Four Times, Caribbean Travel Likely Responsible, Zika Studies Uncover Early Spread, Factors Fueling Florida Outbreak. Findings from three new Zika genome studies add more pieces to the puzzle about how the virus became established in Brazil and spread through the Americas, and all carry the common theme that Zika was already present long before it was detected in humans. And due to delays there is now a problem of testing vaccines, same as happened with testing Ebola vaccines. In Africa, a Decline in New Ebola Cases Complicates Vaccine Development (2015).
-‡. Drop in Cases of Zika Threatens Large Scale Trials. ADDED FROM 160410-4.3↓ Stagnant U.S. Funding for Tools Against Infectious Diseases Leaves U.S., World at Serious Risk. Congress’ Inaction Hobbles U.S. Preparation for a Major Zika Virus Outbreak. Zika Funding Battle Steals States' Public Health Emergency Money. This withholding money began with ADDED FROM: 160221-4.5↓ Zika Virus: Why Emergency Funding Is Necessary, and Why it Shouldn’t be. GOP Congressmen Question the Need for $2 Billion to Fight Zika Virus. Congress Should Allocate Money to Fight Zika. There were still problems getting access to the funding as recently as 170409-4↓. Zika Fund(Search) 170219-4.1↓. 4.1A, 6.1↓. Zika Virus Infection – India. Trump Wants to Slash Funding for Birth Defect Research as States Brace for Zika Season.
-A. I suspect that my preexisting biases about the source makes this a bit incredulous to me, on the other hand given previous behavior 4.1‡↑ it is not out of the realm of possibility. The GOP Health Bill Would Make Zika the Newest Preexisting Condition. The mosquito borne virus is just one on a nearly endless list of preexisting medical conditions – cancer, asthma, pregnancy – for which insurers could potentially charge higher premiums if Republicans get their way. ¶ The confluence of Zika and the GOP health care bill could have political consequences in places like Florida, where the virus has already proved to be a potent electoral issue. Two South Florida congressmen – GOP Reps. Carlos Curbelo and Mario Diaz-Balart – championed a bill last year that sent $1.1 billion to the CDC and the NIH to combat Zika. Both also voted for the Obamacare repeal bill. Neither of their offices responded to requests for comment. [Cartoon].
-5. Art, music and drama have always had political implications. These are suspect when funded by government or used as examples of waste. ‘Climate Change Musical’ Is Cited as Tax Waste at Budget Reveal. Wait, What. During a White House conference on the proposed 2018 federal budget, Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney invoked a musical that, seven years ago, won a government grant worth nearly $700,000.
-‡. Shining a Spotlight on Climate Change Musical, Other NSF Grants. Mulvaney: Trump Budget Pulls Back from 'Crazy' Climate Stuff. $697,177 for a ‘Climate Change Musical’: You Call That Science (2014). Research is often a wise investment of tax dollars, but agencies also fund ridiculous boondoggles. Taxpayer Funded Climate Change Musical Closes Early (2014). ¶ SDSU Students Use Musical Chairs to Demonstrate Climate Change 170521-6A↓, From a scientific perspective, climate change can be complex, but viewed through a game of musical chairs, it becomes a lot more digestible. Right now environmental issues are seen as sort of an ideology instead of a fact. Fighting Trump on Climate, California Becomes a Global Force. Trump EPA Transition Chief Laments Slow Progress in Killing Green Rules [Cartoon]. A Curious Plan to Save the Environment With the Blockchain, The Key to Protecting Life on Earth May Be Barcoding It. Pope Francis Gave US President Donald Trump a Copy of His Encyclical on Climate Change When the Two Met in the Vatican on Wednesday Morning “I signed it personally for you”, Pope Francis Gave Trump 2015 Encyclical on Climate Change Trump responded to the gifts by saying “Well, I'll be reading them”, [Cartoon, Cartoon, Cartoon], 150628-9↓. Trump’s Views on Climate Are ‘Evolving,’ Aide Says, amid Pressure from Europeans. In Europe, World Leaders Try to Change Trump's Mind on Climate Change. Don’t Call it ‘Climate Change’: How Government Is Rebranding in the Trump Era. Some federal agencies are rebranding their public communications in the hope of protecting their missions and livelihoods amid deep budget cuts. The moves signal changes in how agencies are carrying out their missions, some of which have changed radically since the inauguration. Australian Climate Expert Says Pain in the Ass America Should Just Ditch the Paris Agreement Already, Trump Delays Decision on Paris Climate Accords. What if US Quits Climate Deal. Doesn’t Look Good for Earth. President Trump Has Enacted the ‘Theseus Protocol’: What Does That Mean for America. Republican Senators Reportedly Using a Bogus Argument to Convince Trump to Exit the Paris Agreement. Trump Will Almost Certainly Break His Promise to Read the Pope's 192 Page Letter on Climate Change. 10↓.
-5.1. #Document A New Foundation for American Greatness The Budget Message of the President Page 3 is the summary of the budget philosophy. From a parademic standpoint it identifies the wrong problems, does not link how its goals are reached by budget, increases vulnerable and stigmatized populations, lowers the probability of mitigating biodisaster. Glaring areas missing are not mentioning lowering drug costs Who Knew Bringing down Drug Prices Could Be So Complicated [Meme, Cartoon, Meme], or solving drug addiction Trump Praises Philippine Leader for Drug Crackdown, After Outcry, Trump Budget Largely Preserves ‘Drug Czar’ Funding, \fs24ulTrump's Quiet on Drug Pricing, but His FDA Isn't. ¶ This is budget may be an attempt to return to the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union [Photo], or the Gilded Age in terms of poverty, immigration, robber barons, disease, food and drug safety, industrial pollution. May 25, 1787 Constitutional Convention Convenes in Philadelphia.
-‡. #BioEconomics, #BioPolitics, Trumpnomics, or Trump Theater 4↑, Trump’s Budget Proposes Dramatic Changes to Federal Government, Slashing Safety Net Programs, [Cartoon, Cartoon], Trump's $5.8 Billion Cut to NIH Encounters Swift Opposition, Trump Budget Seeks Huge Cuts to Disease Prevention and Medical Research Departments, Medical Research, Disease Prevention Programs Would Be Casualties of Trump’s ‘Skinny Budget’, Trump’s Budget Cuts Deeply Into Medicaid and Anti-Poverty Efforts (H5N1 Comment) [Cartoon], Trump’s Proposed Budget Slices Safety Net for Poor, Disabled, Trump Budget: ‘A New Foundation for American Greatness’. The Dumb Accounting Error at the Heart of Trump’s Budget, One Huge Problem with Trump's Promise to Grow the U.S. Economy, The White House Justifies its Savage Budget with a Divisive Lie. Cuts to AIDS Programs Could Cost a Million Lives. Trump’s Budget Aims to Cut All Federal Funds from Planned Parenthood. HIV Programs, Mental Health: 8 Ways Trump’s New Budget Might Affect Public Health. The Former Head of the CDC Has a Warning for Trump: Your Budget Cuts Will Cause More Deaths. Proposed Cuts Land with a Thunk in Congress: The Budget Was Dead Before the Ink Was Dry. Fund to Curb Outbreaks and Chronic Disease on the Chopping Block. Trump’s Budget Forgets That Science Is Insurance for America, An Insurance CEO Says Trump Has Made Obamacare More Expensive. Trump’s FDA Chief Punts on Defending His Boss’s Budget. Proposed Cuts to FEMA's Flood and Pre Disaster Mitigation Programs. Trump’s New Budget Puts Americans’ Health in Serious Danger. EPA Remains Top Target with Trump Administration Proposing 31 Percent Budget Cut, The Trump Documents, Environmental Protection Agency. White House Physician Warns of Infectious Disease Outbreak.
-5.2. Why Your Next Favorite Fictional Protagonist Might Be on the Autism Spectrum. Many of the works put a positive spin on autism. These autistic characters have abilities as well as disabilities; they exist not only as mirrors or catalysts to help others solve their problems, but as active agents with inner lives. Autism lit is not without controversy: Many readers object to the prevalence of the autistic savant. And in fact, most of these protagonists are gifted: Christopher Boone, for example, is about to sit for his A levels in math, a heady accomplishment in England, where the book takes place. Nathaniel Clark is graduating college (with a double major, he reminds us more than once) at the age of 14. In reality, savant skills are as rare in the autism spectrum community as they are in the neurotypical one. Those who dislike the (stereotype) reason cite the 1988 film Rain Man [Photo, Photo] in which Dustin Hoffman plays Raymond Babbit, who can memorize a thick phone book in one night. Thirty years later, the belief persists that autistics can reliably count a pile of toothpicks at a glance. This is a powerful negative stereotype that autistic children (and their parents) must overcome. Parademic has followed Autism for years, especially its changing face in public media. Most recently Julia Why it Matters That Sesame Street’s Newest Resident Has Autism ADDED FROM: 170326-3↓. From personal experience with people with ASD, the disorder includes being totally non-verbal or communicative in any way, violence, very weird behavior, perseveration, and it is a condition that affects the whole family. I’ve seen an idiot savant that could multiple a long string of numbers with another long number with just a glance, but could not go to the bathroom on their own. I have also seen the magical behavior of parents trying to find an explanation for why and for a cure. This gives me a degree of sympathy for those who grab onto anti-vaccine, but not those who exploit those parents.
-5.3. Which of Your Favorite Superheroes Is Destroying the Earth. Measuring the carbon footprints of your favorite comic book heroes, from Batman to Jessica Jones. The average American clocks in at a whopping 44,093 pounds of carbon dioxide equivalent. The Carbon Footprint of Superheroes. The “best” carbon footprint probably belongs to Superman or Swamp Thing. Superman’s footprint is equal to zero. Swamp Thing might actually have a negative carbon footprint; he’s taking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. The title of “worst carbon footprint” probably goes to Oracle/Barbara Gordon, who uses a LOT of electricity to power her computers. The only other serious contender is the Flash, who requires tens of billions of calories per second to run at his absurd speeds. [Meme, Meme, Photo, Photo] What are we to think about these untouchable elitists. Even Green Arrow only pretends to be green, do we know that the carbon footprint of Queen Industries is. And claiming Superman has a zero foot print is absurd. What about all the paper Kent is responsible for, not to mention fake news. ¶ How Trump Policy Will Affect US Carbon Emissions, in One Graph.
-6. The Right Thing to Do: Why Do We Follow Unspoken Group Rules. How you dress, talk, eat and even what you allow yourself to feel – these often unspoken rules of a group are social norms, and many are internalized to such a degree that you probably don't even notice them. Following norms, however, can sometimes be costly for individuals if norms require sacrifice for the good of the group. Fortunately as a species it is good there are individuals who will sacrifice for the group. Unfortunately those who sacrifice themselves are not necessarily the ones who should have, and there are those who believe the norm is for others to sacrifice for their personal benefit, with the excuse that their survival is for the greater good*. Abusing Power Hurts Leaders, Too. We know that power can corrupt, making people act in ways that harm others. But when the powerful misbehave, they hurt themselves. When leaders felt powerful, they were more likely to act abusively and perceive more incivility from their coworkers, which in turn harmed their own well being. One point not made is that in disaster social norms are suspended (and if followed tend to cause more damage and death), and new leaders emerge when previous ones are unavailable or prove incompetent.
-* The Liberian President’s Son Is a Doctor. Here’s Why He’s Staying Away from Ebola. One story circulating about Trump is that he was deferred from the draft for bone spurs [Meme] Donald Trump’s Draft Deferments. An overview of Donald Trump's Selective Service records from 1964 through 1972, when he was classified 4-F (not qualified for military service). Trump Evades Specifics on His Draft Deferment. [Cartoon, Meme].
-6.1. Trump's Response to Disaster Relief Raises Alarms. After last fall's devastating Hurricane Matthew, Donald Trump's presidential campaign headed to North Carolina towns ravaged by the disaster with around $29,000 worth of emergency supplies in tow. Now the Trump administration had denied more than 99 percent of the aid Cooper sought, providing the state a mere $6.1 million. Nearly $700 million needed to meet housing needs, more than $170 million to assist farmers, repair public facilities and provide health services to storm survivors, and $39 million to help close to 700 small businesses. It has been a concern that the current administration would harm its ability to respond to biodisaster, may accelerate them, and lack the leadership qualities required to effectively respond. 170507-1.1 -D, 170409-8, 170305-3, 170220-9.3-T↓. This is taking on the qualities of the TV Trope of Impossible Insurance, when due to greed, vengeance or to save money, funds are withheld at the cost of lives 4.1↑. ∩ What If it Happened Here. Imagine a Manchester style attack in the US. Now imagine Trump handling it.
-7. Released by the World Health Organization (WHO), A Strategic Framework for Emergency Preparedness is a unifying framework that identifies the principles and elements of effective emergency health preparedness. It adopts the major lessons of previous initiatives and lays out the planning and implementation process by which countries can determine their priorities and develop or strengthen their operational capacities. Not a bad introduction for initial planning, but very limited on the range of biodisasters it addresses.
-7.1. From Panic and Neglect to Investing in Health Security: Financing Pandemic Preparedness at a National Level. The IWG was set up following a series of reports in the aftermath of the Ebola crisis, all of which recommended the need to strengthen and scale up investments in global health security as an urgent priority. The IWG seeks to propose ways in which national governments and development partners can effectively and sustainably finance investments to strengthen country and regional preparedness capacities for health emergencies. World Bank Says Nations Ill Prepared to Battle Pandemic Diseases.
-7.2. The Clock Is Ticking: WHO’s next Chief Faces Sobering Challenges. Huge challenges face Tedros, as he is known, when he takes over the embattled global health agency’s top job on July 1. Those problems don’t all boil down to inadequate funding — and threatened funding cuts from the WHO’s second largest donor, the US government. But the question of how to secure the cash the agency needs to do the job expected of it is pretty much top of the list, people familiar with the organization and its troubles said. It’s never a great thing to walk into an organization that’s broke.
-7.3. Too Many Health Clinics Hurt Developing Countries. Donors like the World Bank and the World Health Organization often urge developing countries to invest in national health systems. But while rushing to construct clinics and other medical facilities in even the remotest regions may seem like a straightforward approach to ensuring universal health coverage, that has not turned out to be true. When countries rush to build more clinics, the resulting facilities tend to be hastily constructed and lacking in the equipment, supplies, and staff needed to deliver vital health services effectively. This situation is the direct result of a piecemeal and hurried approach to investment in health care infrastructure, fueling fierce competition for limited resources. Local councils, seeking to grab the biggest possible slice of the pie, began to push forward new projects, leading to rapid and uncontrolled expansion of the health system.
-8. The Brain Detects Disease in Others Even Before it Breaks out. The human brain is much better than previously thought at discovering and avoiding disease, a new study reports. Our sense of vision and smell alone are enough to make us aware that someone has a disease even before it breaks out. And not only aware – we also act upon the information and avoid sick people. Have some doubts about this. Would have implications if it is an unconscious behavior, but is it sensing illness or being sensing someone is different from the group (smell, appearance, dress, malnutrition, cues of being poor). In addition is this sense overwhelmed in dense populations where it is likely one will be in contact with someone who is sick everyday, in an environment that has massive and sensory inputs of pollutants, body odor, sewage. You Smell Sick: Detecting Illness by Scent. The Stench of Disease: Public Health and the Environment in Late Medieval English Towns and Cities.
-9. Grief and memorials(Search) are a characteristic of death, mass casualty, biodisaster and parademic. This can take many forms. In the case of biodisaster however there may be things left in memory, but I suspect that there will not any group memorials during a infectious biodisaster, more likely a solitary voice or instrument in an otherwise silent place. Manchester Crowd Spontaneously Sings Don't Look Back in Anger Following Minute's Silence. [Photo, Photo, Photo]. 170312-2.4*↓+. Watch a Muslim Man and an Elderly Jewish Woman Pray Together at a Vigil for Manchester.
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-Lyrics: |
And so, Sally can waits She knows it's too late as we're walking on by |
Her soul slides away But don't look back in anger I heard you say |
-9.1. A Third of America's Bee Colonies Died Last Year and That's 'Good News'. You know bees are having a rough time when a survey finds that professional beekeepers lost 33.2 percent of their colonies this year and that statistic is considered a significant improvement over the previous decade.
-10. #BioTrumpism. Another theme of parademic is that from what I have observed parademic cooperation and relationships are the key to avoiding, mitigating and surviving biodisaster, while parademic competition and conflicts creates the conditions of and accelerates biodisaster. The parademic interest in Trump’s recent overseas trip was the Paris Agreement 5‡↑. European Allies See the Two Sides of Trump. As Trump headed home, European officials were left with mixed feelings: relief that he had been patient enough to listen to their arguments and unsettled by a Jekyll and Hyde figure [Photo] who is still finding his way on the big policy issues. It all fits with his strategic ambiguity approach to life. It may do wonders when dealing with adversaries. But it doesn't work when dealing with allies. The Group of Seven final communique acknowledged a split between the United States and its six partners over honoring the 2015 Paris accord on climate change. There was irritation at Trump's refusal to show his hand on the Paris agreement to curb carbon emissions. Near the end of the summit, he tweeted teasingly that he would make a decision on Paris next week, leaving delegations to scratch their heads about why he would not commit. The trip had confirmed Trump's zero sum game view of the world in ewhich you are either a winner or a loser and relationships are transactional. His rhetoric and actions suggest he does not consider it a priority to build good and engaging relations with allies the U.S. so far considered its most important ones. Ultimately zero sum games only can continue with a winner as long as there is something that loses. The winner each time has less with each win. +1 (win) -1 (lose) = 0 [Cartoon, Strip], to continue to win one must continuously escalate. Trump Is Setting up a 'War Room' to Counter Attacks over the Russia Probe 10.2↓.
-Quote: Generating a rapidly changing environment – that is, engaging in actively that is so quick it is disorienting and appears uncertain or ambiguous to the enemy – Inhibits the adversary’s ability to adapt and causes confusion and disorder that, in turn, causes an adversary to overreact or underreact. Whoever can handle the quickest rate of change is the one who survives. – John Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War.
-10.1. Losing Sleep over Climate Change. Climate change may keep you awake -- and not just metaphorically. Nights that are warmer than normal can harm human sleep, researchers show in a new paper, with the poor and elderly most affected. According to their findings, if climate change is not addressed, temperatures in 2050 could cost people in the United States millions of additional nights of insufficient sleep per year. By 2099, the figure could rise by several hundred million more nights of lost sleep annually. Consequences of Insufficient Sleep.
-10.2. From the beginning there has been speculation about Trump’s mental state, a search to explain his (and his supporter’s) behavior 170220-6.2-P↓. In my opinion this is a futile task as it directed at the wrong problem. There is no single answer, and when there is an answer it is only for a very limited range of time and circumstances, not applicable to the present. This is not understanding an individual, but a trend of a nebulous social movement. Trump Wasn’t Always So Linguistically Challenged. What Could Explain the Change, Reporter’s Notebook: I Never Thought I’d Be Writing about Trump’s Mind. I Study the Psychology of Adolescent Bullies. Trump Makes Perfect Sense to Me. This Article Is Why Psychiatrists Were Banned from Diagnosing Politicians like Trump. Trump’s Weird Adherence to this 1980s Concept Explains His Whole Presidency, Donald Trump Is Stuck in the 1980s, 170220-6.3-T↓. The Rise of the Liberal Conspiracy Theorist, Psychiatry’s “Goldwater Rule” Has Never Met a Test like Donald Trump. How Donald Trump Sees Himself, Donald Trump’s Greatest Self Contradictions. The Shallow State. Forget the conspiracy theories. Something much more dangerous is seeking to gut our government and change the character of our society. A Study in Shallowness. [Cartoon 1.2*‡↑]. The Madness and Science Behind the Donald Trump Handshake. ¶ Is Donald Trump a 2016 Manchurian Candidate, Has Trump Become an Unwitting Manchurian Candidate, Donald Trump - The Manchurian Candidate, [Meme], Russia Is Playing Games with Trump and Pushing its Own Global Agenda, [Photoshop], this is a second wave of a narrative from about 6 months ago 10↑. The True Story of Brainwashing and How It Shaped America.
-Quote: We’ll be fine with the environment. We can leave a little bit, but you can’t destroy businesses. – Donald Trump, interview with Chris Wallace 10/18/15 [Cartoon, Cartoon].
ADDED:
- 170521-6‡: ADDED: Sinkhole Forms in Front of Mar-a-Lago; Metaphors Pour in [Cartoon, Tweet, Photo, Meme, Cartoon]. Mar-a-Lago Has a Sinkhole. They’re a Serious Problem in Florida. Visual Perception May Depend on Birthplace and Environment.
- 170521-6.3: Deep Inequities Exist in States’ Preparedness for Public Health Emergencies, 2017 Index Shows [Chart] Domains.
- 170521-9: DR Congo: 3,000 Health Workers Vaccinated Against the Monkeypox Virus, a reminder that it's never just one damn disease at a time. Vaccine Could Soon Be Enlisted in the Fight Against Ebola in the DRC.
- 170521-10: Tips for Staying Healthy When Traveling Abroad.
- 170521-14‡: Measles Vaccination Campaign Launched in Mogadishu. Harmless Measles. Minn. Officials Want Parents to Know It's a Deadly Virus. Imams Take on Anti-Vaccine Movement During Ramadan. Controversial Anti-Vaccine Doc 'Vaxxed' Gets Secret Cannes Screening.
- 170514-3‡2: Tell the FDA Not to Embrace Quackery: Write to Oppose its Proposal on Acupuncture and Chiropractic for Chronic Pain.
- 170507-1A: Italy Makes 12 Vaccines Mandatory for School Children in an Attempt to Combat ‘Anti-Scientific Theories’, and we will ignore that this is the country that jailed seismologists.
- 170430-4*A: Vaccines Not Wrong from the Islamic Perspective.
- 170423-10.1: Cutting H-1B Visas Endangers Scientific Progress for Everyone.
- 170226-2.1: Farther from the Forest: 'Eye Opening' Study Shows Rural Us Loses Forests Faster than Cities. Forests to Play Major Role in Meeting Paris Climate Targets. Ancient Peoples Shaped the Amazon Rainforest. 170312-6↑. How Thousand Year Old Trees Became the New Ivory. Ancient trees are disappearing from protected national forests around the world. A look inside $100 billion market for stolen wood.
- 170226-3.3A*: How HIV Became a Matter of International Security.
- 170129-6.1: Dilbert’ Creator on How Trump Is like the Founding Fathers & Jesus (2015), Going After the Families of Terrorists (May 2017).
- 161030-6.1: 2 Years after MERS, Korea Still Struggles with Public Health System.
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