Read This First (170423), Heuristics (170801), Glossary (170815), Mini Lessons (New 170827)
1. Graffiti as Health Indicator, 2. Narrative and Behavior, 3. Health and Costs, ↕4. Mosquito Borne, 5. Medical Art Skills, 6. Medicinal Chocolate, 7. Grief and Other Bad News, 8. Parasite Extinction, 9. Jobs vs Recession, 10. Chicken Resistance, ↕C. Communications, <ADDED> PAHPRA, Cuban Health Diplomacy, Dr Sims, Vaccine Overseas Testing, Arresting Nurses, Harvey Aftermath (Continued and New), Law and Climate Regulation, Rabies Vaccine, Mental Disease Diagnosis, Cyber Attack, Permafrost, Global Health Disagreements,
Tags: BioTrumpism, BioPolitics, Vaccine, Biosphere, Disaster, Humor, Climate Change, Magical Thinking, Decision Making, Profiting in Spite of Disaster, Opioid Epidemic or War, Fentanyl, Compassion Limits, Nuclear War, Law Enforcement and Medical Conflicts, FDA, Alt Right, Misogyny, Rocky and Bullwinkle, Peanut Allergy, Biological Determinism, Social Darwinism, Medical Experiments, Abuse, Planning, Irma, Harvey
-1. Have covered changes that have occurred due to the impact of biodisaster and human depopulation. It occurred to me when reading Watch Postcards of MidCentury Resorts Transform Into Their Abandoned Ruins that after a biodisaster there may be no graffiti in the ruins, signs of animal occupation, no plant life in the cracks, or evidence of human squatters and scavenging. [Art, we were here].
-2. Indigenous Storytelling Is a New Asset for Biocultural Conservation. Some of the areas hosting most of the world's biodiversity are those inhabited by indigenous peoples. In the same way that biodiversity is being eroded, so is the world's cultural diversity. As a result, there have been several calls to promote biocultural conservation approaches that sustain both biodiversity and indigenous cultures. Diversity is an indicator of global health. Anthropogenic tendency tends to be toward destruction and homogeneity. [Art].
-2.1. The parademic issues related to restriction of basic essentials of survival – food, water, shelter/clothing, health care, identity, information – are illustrated by the following. ∩ #Book Tar Baby: A Folk Tale about Food Rights, Rooted in the Inequalities of Slavery [Cover]. The tar baby story in which Bre'r Rabbit outwits Bre'r Fox is a classic trickster folk tale. But like all fables, it is a double barreled affair, with entertainment firing in tandem with a serious message. The question the story addresses is a fundamental one: Who controls access to food and water. More crucially, who controls access to food and water when the rules have been turned upside down by giant forces. A Black Food Historian Explores His Bittersweet Connection to Robert E. Lee. On April 9, 1865, Twitty's great great grandfather, Elijah Mitchell, and his older brother, George, happened to be on a street in the village of Appomattox Court House, Va., when General Lee exited the McLean House after surrendering to Union General Ulysses S. Grant. It didn't take long for the two teenage lads to grasp the import of that ceremonial tableau. When he was 15, Elijah Mitchell, was one of the first slaves to know that the war was over. His owner freed him immediately – even as they still held his horse in place, waiting for whatever was to come next. At that moment the Confederacy's 150 year mourning period began. <ADDED 170820-170730-5.2B, -A>, 170618-2.1, 170226-5.3 -9B, 170212-T.3, -170827-5.3 -8↓.
-2.2. ∩ This is a stretch as an analogue to parademic behavior that exacerbate or cause biodisaster. Reading through it I was struck with the comparability to anti-vax, anti-GMO, BioTrumpism 4.1↓, EcoTerrorists and BioTerrorist, Authoritarian Leaders, First Responders and Health Care Workers, Soldiers, and extreme religions. This is especially in terms of how far they are willing to go to see their perspective make all others extinct, even at the cost of their own survival. The Devoted Actor’s Will to Fight and the Spiritual Dimension of Human Conflict. Frontline investigations with fighters against the Islamic State (ISIL or ISIS), combined with multiple online studies, address willingness to fight and die in intergroup conflict. The general focus is on non-utilitarian aspects of human conflict, which combatants themselves deem ‘sacred’ or ‘spiritual’, whether secular or religious. Here we investigate two key components of a theoretical framework we call ‘the devoted actor’ – sacred values and identity fusion with a group – to better understand people’s willingness to make costly sacrifices. We reveal three crucial factors: commitment to non-negotiable sacred values and the groups that the actors are wholly fused with; readiness to forsake kin for those values; and perceived spiritual strength of ingroup versus foes as more important than relative material strength. We directly relate expressed willingness for action to behaviour as a check on claims that decisions in extreme conflicts are driven by cost benefit calculations, which may help to inform policy decisions for the common defense and safety.
-‡. Study of Iraq Fighters Reveals What Makes People Prepared to Die for a Cause, What Motivates ISIS Fighters – and Those Who Fight Against Them, Spiritual Convictions and Group Identities Inspire Terrorist Acts, Willingness to Fight and Die. We Need Political Parties. But Their Rabid Partisanship Could Destroy American Democracy. World Unity Crumbles in Face of North Korea Threat, Have We Reached a Point of No Return. Putin: North Korea Would 'Eat Grass' Before Giving up Nukes, with all due respect the majority of NK already are. 4.1↓. North Korea’s Nuclear Arsenal Threatens China’s Path to Power.
-2.3. A Psychologist Explains the Limits of Human Compassion. Why do we ignore mass atrocities. It has to do with something called psychic numbing. The human mind is not very good at thinking about, and empathizing with, millions or billions of individuals. That’s why it’s not surprising six out of 10 Americans support a travel ban that, in part, bars refugees from entering America. That many lawmakers aren’t horrified by the possibility of booting tens of millions from health insurance. That the world looked on as millions died in war and genocide in Darfur. That we haven’t really grappled as a nation with the opioid epidemic(Search), which killed 33,000 in 2015*. There are also cognitive devices of dehumanizing, othering, distancing, willful ignorance, turning a blind eye, rationalization, minding ones own business, misinformation, intentional neglect, disaster fatigue, blame, echo chambers. Why Trump Keeps Doing Unpopular Things to Please His Base, 76 Percent of Voters Say 'Dreamers' Should Be Allowed to Stay, Disgraced Televangelist Jim Bakker Predicts Civil War If Donald Trump Gets Impeached. ¶ Someone who believes in the validity of the biosocial -4.1↓ heuristic would say that there must be some survival value to this, especially since we have so many mechanisms to accomplish this. *Drug Overdose Deaths Skyrocketed in 2016 — and Traditional Opioid Painkillers Weren’t the Cause, fentanyl overdose deaths were. The New War on Drugs, not every state is responding with public health policies; in fact I would watch for non-medical cures <ADDED 170827-170813-6.1A> being enforced, deportation and increasing fatality attributed to overdose. Fatal Overdoses Spike 22%, a Rate Even Faster than Previously Thought. | Houston Methadone Clinics Reopen After Harvey's Flooding. Medical workers in Houston are dealing with a secondary problem after last week's floods: Clinics that offer methadone and other opioid addiction therapies are just getting back up and running, and many people don't have access to the treatments they need. Hurricanes Drive Addiction Issues into Public Square. -2.4. -170827-8*A↓.
-2.4. Opioid Drug Users Tell of Rarely Discussed Injury: Rape. She, like many women who live on the streets, cope with the daily fear of an attack that they are too sedated to fend off – or of waking up to find their pants pulled down, bruises and other signs of an assault. It's an injury active drug users often don't report out of shame, distrust of police or fear they'll be labeled a "cop caller" and have trouble buying heroin. Sexual exploitation and abuse seems to be a parademic characteristic. Like other exploitations of crime, scams, rumors, conspiracy theory it should be expected, and preemptive action taken. This piece is probably more about outrage concerning rape, giving it another context that makes in doubly heinous, but unlikely to result in any actions that will help. The victim will still be considered deserving of any harm that comes to them due to their other behavior, easily dismissed while those more deserving of help are located and helped. Want to Understand How Big Pharma Created the Opioid Epidemic. Read this Report. A new, blistering Senate report shows how one opioid company misled patients and insurers to sell its drug. However; given the source, an immediate question is if this is this an actual investigation or a crafted a priori conclusion.
-A. What makes this all more sinister in the current context of misogyny represented by rape*‡ and increased restrictions of abortion and reproductive health. This could be considered reasonable if one recognizes the need to increase in birthrate among “Americans” to make up for the prevention of entry and deportation of “undesirables”, The US Can Grow its Own Farm Workers. Since we are at it anyway, why not include in undesirables the homeless* who are already confined to certain areas, criminals whom we don’t have sufficient room for in prisons, and mentally ill. This is the tip of an iceberg of much larger issues, Missing Girl Swims Away from Men Who Abused Her, attacking transgender (2, before moving on to other sexual deviants, except apparently rapists*‡), making America Great for Americans, denial of medical care (repeal, defunding and sabotage of health access), shift in language, 'Cuck,' 'Snowflake,' 'Masculinist': A Guide to the Language of the 'Alt Right' Starting a War, <ADDED 170903-170813-6.1B>, The Coded Language of the Alt Right Is Helping to Power its Rise Displays of Generosity [Photo not a racist, Texas hat; Photo shiny, never submerged truck; Photo dry street, no flood damage apparent, possibly staged trash bags, red shirt; Cartoon]. There are historical antecedents of Fire, Hatred and Speed, and thuggery (legal vigilantes), Alt Right Hopes to Organize Street Fighting Goon Squad: Is it More than Macho Posturing, White Supremacist Threatens to Sue News Outlet Over Photoshopped Gun (That He Tweeted a Month Earlier). This is all supported with the creation of uncertainty and chaos, divide and conquer, working multiple fronts, apparent paradoxes, How Can Alt Right Women Exist in a Misogynistic Movement -2.4A*‡↓. In general this is advocating issues that no one could disapprove of, or are not important enough to fight about. Then there is the reliable tactic of starting a war with a weaker adversary, a despicable one at that – but one that can inflict damage, but only against areas that will not be a severe loss or are political opponents to those in power – and then obliterate them. Ta-Nehisi Coates: The First White President.
-*‡. Schools Need to Get Better at Fighting Sexual Assault. Betsy DeVos Isn’t Helping, Betsy DeVos Signals a Pullback on Campus Sex Misconduct Enforcement, Finally, a New Policy We Know Trump Truly Believes In: Protections for Sexual Assaulters. Betsy DeVos to Meet with Accused Rapists, Campus Rape Policies Get a New Look as the Accused Get DeVos’s Ear, Trump Official Apologizes for Saying Most Campus Sexual Assault Accusations Come after Drunken Sex Breakups, Lawyer Says Devos Sees Sex Assault Rules Unfair, Education Official Apologizes Anew, This Time to Victims. Devos Considers Whether to Roll Back Obama Era Approach to Campus Sexual Assault, DeVos to Move Quickly to Change Title IX Guidance on Sex Assault, DeVos Meetings with Warring Sides of Title IX Draw Concern from Activists, Advocates Read Campus Rape Survivors’ Stories to Get DeVos’ Attention. DeVos: 'Yes,' Trump's Comments in Leaked Audio Describe Sexual Assault, 2 Education Dept. Picks Raise Fears on Civil Rights Enforcement. Betsy DeVos Just Issued a Blunt Attack on Survivors of Sexual Assault, Say Advocates. -2.4A↑.
-Quote: There is no belief, however foolish, that will not gather its faithful adherents who will defend it to the death #8. – Isaac Asimov, The Stars in Their Courses
-*. Full disclosure, I would not be comfortable with homeless people scavenging in my community to get recyclable containers they could sell. At the same time I observe that many people in my area do not bother to collect their own recyclables to take to recycle centers. At most they put in recycle trash (not always), but if not very convenient will discard otherwise and these are not always a regular trash container, but invisible spaces.
-2.5. How Bullwinkle Taught Kids Sophisticated Political Satire. Mr. Chairman, I am against all foreign aid, especially to places like Hawaii and Alaska,” says Senator Fussmussen from the floor of a cartoon Senate in 1962. In the visitors’ gallery, Russian agents Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale are deciding whether to use their secret “Goof Gas” gun to turn the Congress stupid, as they did to all the rocket scientists and professors in the last episode of “Bullwinkle”. Another senator wants to raise taxes on everyone under the age of 67. He, of course, is 68. Yet a third stands up to demand, “We’ve got to get the government out of government”. The spies decide their weapon is unnecessary: Congress is already ignorant, corrupt and feckless. [Cartoon].
-2.6. Beauty’s Knowledge: Hawthorne’s Moral Fable Rappaccini’s Daughter. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s story Rappaccini’s Daughter is a nineteenth century moral fable that sets the fruits of experimental knowledge against obligations to humanity, and stages a dramatic encounter between these two apparent goods. In many ways, the moral it offers seems familiar, and could be recognized by anyone with even a passing familiarity with contemporary bioethical debates. It features a mad scientist’s garden, a gorgeous but poisonous plant of his creation, and a lovely daughter who tends to his terrible plants, and who is – like the plant – both attractive and potentially infectious. The daughter receives the attentions of a naïve medical student, and she falls in love with him, but their fate is shadowed by the actions of not one but two bad scientist father figures who experiment -170827-5.3↓upon the younger characters and try to shape their (biological) destinies without their knowledge. But Hawthorne’s story does not simply anticipate, in an antique and allegorical way, contemporary defenses of human dignity and nature’s inviolability. Nor does it merely rehearse, with its private garden and unknowingly experimented upon subjects, a Lockean 4.1↓ notion of our own inevitable and natural possession of our bodies and the fruits of our lives and labor.
-2.7. The Dangerous Allure of Disaster Porn on TV. Ever since Hurricane Harvey slammed into Texas and flooded Houston, all-news TV has been offering non stop natural disaster coverage. It's seductive, for both the viewer and the channels. We saw reporters and camera crews floating around on boats to individually rescue the elderly, the sick and the simply stranded. It can be mesmerizing to watch – all that massive destruction, the frightened people and the heroism of the few. For all the havoc, an uplifting story emerges. Human nature, especially the impulse to care and protect, triumphs over the irrational wrecking impulse of nature itself. But when language is beggared by the images, television news fails. It Doesn’t Matter if Climate Change Caused Irma and Harvey. The stories we tell ourselves are more influential than science. The back to back storms are quite a story.
-3. If Prices Are Kept Hidden, Consumers Can’t Take More Responsibility for Their Health Care Costs. When my brother bought a car, I helped him research different makes and models. We were able to compare the performance, safety, and pricing of his top choices before stepping into any dealerships. He was able to test drive the cars before making a final decision. I stood by as he haggled with the salesperson to get to a price that worked for both of them. It was a little higher than my brother could cover on his own, but the dealership was prepared with different lending options. Throughout the process, my brother knew what his options were, how much they would cost, and how he would pay for his car. ¶ A month later, our mother was suddenly diagnosed with cancer. She was immediately admitted to the hospital to undergo emergency surgery, the start of what ended up being a year long battle with the disease. My father had no idea how much my mother’s treatment would cost, how much of it would be covered by insurance, if there were alternative treatments that would be covered, or how we would pay for treatments that weren’t covered. Forget about negotiating – how could he negotiate about something whose price he didn’t know. No one explained the options for payment. My mother and father had zero control over, or even understanding of, the costs involved. For months following my mother’s diagnosis, they randomly received bills, including one for $20,000 attributed to the initial hospital stay that didn’t include the cost of three specialist visits and the emergency procedure. ¶ The stark contrast between these two experiences could not be more different. How could health care – far more personal and important than buying a car – be so much worse. Calls for Transparency in Health Care Prices Are Only Getting Louder. But It’s Not That Simple.
-3.1. This Is What Obamacare Sabotage Looks Like, What Happens When You Cut Obamacare Advertising. Let’s Ask Kentucky. ACA Allies Plot Their Own Enrollment Push. Deporting 'Dreamers' Could Hit Home Health Care Hard, Fallout from Rolling Back DACA Would Ripple Through Health Care Industry. [Tweet]. Two Little Girls, Two Similar Paths to Medicine, but One Difference: Immigration. Future of Dreamer Doctors in Jeopardy as Trump Rescinds DACA Status; Medical Community Dismayed by the Decision.
↕4. The Post Harvey Mosquito Invasion Seems like Hell. Houston Braces for a Mosquito Swarm.
Harvey's Next Danger: Massive Mosquito Clouds. -+170827-8B↓. The mosquitoes will be a major problem, but it becomes a biodisaster if they become vectors of diseases.
-4.1. After Feds Scale Back Money for Zika Related Research, Sanofi Ends Vaccine Project. Sanofi was the only major pharmaceutical company working on a vaccine for the virus with a near term market goal. BioTrumpism health policy decisions are consistent with Biological Determinism*, Social Darwinism*, non Lockean -2.3, -2.6↑, -170827-5.3↓, though it seems to be more about specific individuals having the most desirable (American) traits, rather than a specific ethnic population. Xenophobic beliefs appears to be a criteria about undesirables that could degrade the American gene pool, but this is not pure biological eugenics. The overall trend seems to be to create circumstances where the best economic individuals thrive and survive. Once they achieve a particular economic and ideological status these individuals should be permitted to operate without the restrictions and rules that lesser people need to follow – in fact it seems that part of their power derives by not following social norms as a means to dominate those who do. So far I have not found a coherent philosophy for this, though there are vague referents to a perverted form of Christianity. There also appears to be a common thread of belief that those who make these decisions will not suffer negative consequences from those decisions, that somehow they become immune to that affect / infect common people. Essentially this is about power and relative wealth, which disturbingly does not necessarily mean a wealthier society. Widespread poverty, collapse of infrastructure, anarchy would suit their needs. As long as relatively to the masses they are richer and can exercise unrestrained power, other costs are not important. Their ranks are not totally exclusive. Others can join if they have the strength, and others could fall if their strength fails. This would result in a state of constant upheaval, fear and uncertainty. Preventing biodisaster would be contrary to BioTrumpism, which is a form of using environmental warfare 170709-6‡. This is the worst case scenario in parademic – competition dominating over any cooperation, decreasing the odds for surviving the concurrent syndemic biodisasters. This is based on the erroneous belief that relative wealth and power will always buffer and protect one from the consequences of decisions. Due to this they are unlikely to prepare themselves from consequences that to them will never happen (that BTW is a definition of disaster). Current analogues to this are Haiti and -2.2‡↑. The Efficiency Paradox: Republican Orthodoxy and Health Care Reform. Republican efforts at health care reform have been and will continue to be, undermined by the same fundamental reality: the basic economic concept of efficiency. Republican rhetoric on health care reform centers on a core conservative orthodoxy: That efficient markets, free of government interference or regulation, invariably solve societal ills. Proponents of the Republicans’ approach to health care argue that an unfettered free market structure will lead to lower premiums, engender greater access to care, lower overall health care costs, and – through competition – lead to both better coverage and better health care outcomes. From the conservative perspective, unfettered markets are the health care panacea. ¶ Yet, every iteration of the bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act has been scored by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) as dramatically reducing the number of people covered and causing premiums to rise. Indeed, it seems that the more aggressively government is removed from the equation, the worse it becomes. An illustration of how competition in the context of biodisaster is more dangerous that cooperation. This probably applies to other areas where some areas are best served with a mix, such as sometimes centralized control of several diverse and separated agents is best, other circumstances require decentralized and multiple controls of a sole agent.
-*. Reliability of Wikipedia is an interesting issue. At this time the greater controversy then the increased possibility of editing that is erroneous. This will take time to correct and boot off editors who insert misinformation. Its reliability can also act as a indicator of changing attitudes. If more and more false information is left on, its editorial board is replaced by a more “objective” fact check group, then that become negative information. The lack of information, a watch area where nothing happens, or erroneous information that become in fact informative because it is accepted. For example if Alt Right disappears from Wikipedia, or significantly changes from Altright beliefs have been described as isolationist, protectionist, antisemitic, and white supremacist, frequently overlapping with Neo Nazism, nativism and Islamophobia, anti-feminism, misogyny, and homophobia, right wing populism, and the neoreactionary movement. The concept has further been associated with several groups from American nationalists, neo monarchists, men's rights advocates, and the 2016 presidential campaign of Donald Trump. It has already been demonstrated that American’s are vulnerable to such manipulation, 170820-C.1.
-4.2. Whatever Happened to the Zika Virus. If I asked if you’d heard of the Zika virus before 2015, chances are the answer would be no. In fact, many scientists working in the field of mosquito-transmitted diseases probably wouldn’t have heard of it. If they had, it would have been regarded as something obscure from the history books. ¶ Thanks to increased urbanisation and globalisation, including widespread travel and transport of goods and a changing climate, it is likely that mosquito transmitted diseases will continue to have the means to spread. The growing links between societies around the globe makes universal public health an important worry for developed, as well as developing countries. A coordinated response at local community level is vital to limit the global spread of emerging and reemerging mosquito borne diseases. So long as socioeconomic conditions facilitate mosquito life cycles, the risk of importing viruses from endemic areas is a viable threat we should all be prepared for. Infectious Mosquitoes Are Turning up in New Regions.
-5. Art Courses Could Help Medical Students Become Better Clinical Observers. In an effort to explore ways to improve clinical observation skills among medical students. There was significant improvement in observational recognition skills among students who took an art observation course, demonstrating that art training could help teach medical students to become better clinical observers. Observation skills are an essential component of any medical education, aiding doctors during patient exams and in making medical diagnoses, yet there are inadequacies in this area among medical trainees and practicing physicians. In an effort to explore ways to improve these skills among medical students the field of visual arts was examined to see if training in art observation, description, and interpretation could be applied to medical training. ¶ The art sessions were taught by art educators using the Artful Thinking teaching approach, which emphasizes introspection and observation before interpretation. Instruction included sessions in front of works of art, group discussions, and training in visual arts vocabulary. The Artful Thinking approach also emphasizes lessons that encourage particular kinds of thinking such as creative questioning, reasoning, and perspective taking (all associated with critical thinking [Chart]). ¶ One common theme among trainees is that making accurate observations or diagnoses when presented with complex visual information can be challenging. The art observation training in the study provided a structured approach for first year medical students, who have limited experience in navigating visually complex clinical situations. Students who took the art training course anecdotally demonstrated improvements in empathy and emotional recognition, such as noting emotions and sensations (i.e. pain or sadness), but test scores did not show a significant difference between the control group and the students who took the art course. Unsure that improving observational skills increased ability to emphasize, but recognizing the validity of others' opinions (in group discussions) certainly did. Readers will probably have noted that this is also the approach of Parademic, without structure and with even more diverse and complex situations, to include data that is not pertinent (at least at the moment), tangential, or erroneous.
-6. The Unlikely Medical History of Chocolate Syrup. Pharmacists once used chocolate syrup to mask the bitter flavor of their remedies – and make a little money on the side. In the 1700s, the ground beans were avidly consumed throughout Europe and the American colonies as a sweetened, hot drink that was vaguely reminiscent to today’s hot cocoa. At the time, chocolate was touted for its medicinal properties and prescribed as treatment for a range of diseases. It was often prescribed for people suffering from wasting disease: The extra calories assisted in weight gain, and the caffeine-like compounds helped perk patients up. "It didn't treat the actual illness, but it treated the symptoms. For pharmacists, it wasn’t only the supposed health benefits but also the rich, velvety flavor that held such appeal. One thing about medicines, even going way back, is that they are really bitter. Many medications were originally derived from plants and fall in a class of compounds known as alkaloids, which has an acrid, mouth puckering flavor. The first of these alkaloids, isolated by a German chemist in the early 1800s, was none other than morphine. Chocolate, it turns out, effectively covered the toe curling taste of these foul flavors. Few substances are so eagerly taken by children or invalids, and fewer still are better than chocolate for masking the taste of bitter or nauseous medicinal substances. Questions. If chocolate came into the market today as either a food, or a flavoring for bad tasting medicine, would it be approved by the FDA, and how long would it take to be approved. Would it be proven unhealthy,or healthy. Would it be illegal in sports due to the quick extra energy, or should it be considered a sedative. Because it is addictive would it be classed as a schedule 1 narcotic. Would there be incredible hikes in its price as a pharmaceutical, grown by drug cartels and snuck over the border, with a chocolate war for control of the trade and under the jurisdiction of the CEA*. [Photo]. FDA Recognizes NIH Health Claim for Prevention of Peanut Allergy in Infants, 161030-13. *Chocolate Enforcement Agency.
-7. Unless one has direct experience one cannot empathize. Possibly one can sympathize, and from that possibly from that develop rapport, but do not mistake understanding with empathy. I’m an Ambassador to Nightmares. My Medical Training Didn’t Prepare Me for That. I’m a physician, a husband and dad, a guy who tries to live by the golden rule. But sometimes I’m an escort into sadness and despair, plunging families into the darkest emotional depths with the news I must give. I strive for sympathy and absolute clarity, sensitive to the weight of what I’m saying and who I’m saying it to. I use the word “died,” not “passed” or “couldn’t bring her back” or some other euphemism ripe for misinterpretation. My chest aches as I watch their eyes glaze over and their faces crinkle with disbelief. In this case the experience has two sides. The grief from hearing and the grief from telling. This gives a glimpse of what the experience may be like, but it is not the actual experience. Even with having the experience one does well to know that one can only grok ones own experience – with one’s own perceptions, interpretations and behaviors. This does not provide what other’s experience is. Highly recommend that no matter how excellent one is practiced at dissembling, feigning and acting, do not try to do so. The price of failing, of being discovered in the lie will destroy trust well beyond those betrayed, probably permanently and the reputation earned is likely to follow wherever one goes. [Cartoon].
-8. The World’s Parasites Are Going Extinct. Here’s Why That’s a Bad Thing. What if the world’s parasites suddenly went extinct. Given how much work we’ve put into combating malaria-carrying mosquitoes and horrifying Guinea worms, it sounds like a reason for celebration. But think twice: Actually, losing these much despised mooches, bloodsuckers and freeloaders could have disastrous consequences for the environment and human health. Climate change could drive up to one third of Earth's parasite species to extinction by the year 2070. That kind of mass die off could spell ecological disaster. Parasites play an important role in regulating the populations of their hosts and the balance of the overall ecosystem. Parasites and their hosts have often evolved together over many years to maintain a delicate balance. After all, parasites usually have little interest in killing their hosts. Tapeworms are rarely fatal to the people who get them; the worms have evolved to travel to your gut and feed on the food you ingest, but they rarely siphon off enough calories to actually kill you. But if the known tapeworm parasite goes extinct, it creates new open niches in an ecosystem for other invasive species of parasites to exploit. That can create opportunities for new encounters between parasites and hosts that aren't familiar with each other, and haven’t yet developed that non-lethal relationship. In 2014, for instance, a tapeworm species foreign to humans was found in a man’s brain in China, leading to seizures and inflammation of the brain. [Photo].
-9. How Can Job Loss Be Bad for Health, and Recession Be Good for it. The negative effects of job loss have been well documented and fairly well understood. But why would studies also suggest that health improves during a recession. The reasons may surprise you. 1) When there is less economic activity (as in a recession) there are fewer cars and commercial vehicles on the road, and so fewer traffic deaths. 2) Individuals may engage in more positive health behaviors, including getting more exercise and seeing the doctor more often, when hours of work decline. 3) Pollution may decline during times of reduced productive activity like recessions, and less pollution could mean in fewer respiratory related health problems and deaths. 4) Most deaths occur among the elderly. During times of low unemployment, employment of direct care health workers, such as nursing aides and other health aides, declines. These are often physically and emotionally demanding, low paid, high turnover jobs. When these workers have other options, in good economic times, they take them.
-10. #Book, #Food Contamination, #Antibiotic Resistance. Big Chicken: the Medical Mystery That Traced Back to Slaughterhouse Workers. In the 1950s, the poultry industry began dunking birds in antibiotic baths. It was supposed to keep meat fresher and healthier. That's not what happened. For weeks in 1956 blue collar men coming down with hot, red rashes and swollen boils running up their arms. The men were feverish and in so much pain they had to stay home from work, sometimes for weeks. The puzzle was not what was afflicting them. That was easy to establish: It was Staphylococcus aureus, or staph, a common cause of skin infections. Medicine knew that staph could spread rapidly through a hospital, carried unknowingly by health care workers as they went from patient to patient. But outside of hospitals, it was equally taken for granted that staph infections occurred individually and by happenstance. The men coming down with the bug, several a month for five months in a row, were not linked by any hospital or doctor, yet they all had the same pattern of lesions in the same places on their arms and hands. An outbreak was happening that should not be happening. Big Chicken: The Incredible Story of How Antibiotics Created Modern Agriculture and Changed the Way the World Eats [Cover].
-10.1. #Book. The Deadly 1991 Hamlet Fire Exposed the High Cost of Cheap. Using the Hamlet fire as a case study in nationwide trends the book makes a larger argument about American society’s turn against the concerns of workers, and the breakdown of workplace regulations put in place to protect them. Pointing to the political dialogue that dominated the preceding decades and the resulting policy impacts – from the economic downturn of the late 1970s, to the deregulation of the 1980s and the decades spanning decline of the unions. Americans began to believe that more business, less regulation and fewer unions…could decrease prices, create more jobs and cure the country’s economic ills. If business prospers, so will workers. This allowed operation without oversight. The Hamlet fire was a predictable result of the food production industry’s antipathy toward oversight, and the hands off approach taken by the U.S. government. Structural and conditional similarities were replicated in factories throughout the country. By 1991, there was only one federal inspector for every 4,666 worksites across the country. Without government scrutiny, the responsibility to follow the law fell on the business owners, who rarely obliged. If they actually abide by the law, they’re at a competitive disadvantage. Deregulation and the lack of enforcement of laws is like a contagion. Those who made decisions about safety protocols – the city, state and federal officials – were removed from the experiences of the workers impacted by them. Of the 25 who died in the fire, 12 were AfricanAmerican and 18 were women, many of whom were single mothers. While the tragedy received national media attention, it faded quickly from memory. The nation was quick to forget because Americans and their leaders were unwilling to reckon with the human costs cheap economy. The workers were paid cheaply to make cheap products that were sold for cheap prices. [Cover].
↕C. ∩ Not directly about a biodisaster, but includes pertinent information because of the likely question Could It Happen Here.
-170903-3> HHS Has Made Little Progress Toward Implementing Enhanced Situational Awareness Network Capabilities. The Pandemic and All Hazards Preparedness Reauthorization Act of 2013 (PAHPRA) required the Secretary of HHS to establish an electronic nationwide public health situational awareness network and to develop an implementation plan to guide its efforts. The law further required HHS to include in its plan specific activities for incorporating data into the network. Another victim of the cascading impact of defunding and changing policy regarding health security. GAO Blasts HHS over Failed Effort to Build a Network to Track Public Health Threats.
-170903-3‡> It’s Not Just One Suspect Herpes Vaccine Trial: Most Experimental Drugs Are Tested Offshore – Raising Concerns about Data. Is this a subtle American xenophopia. The idea that a foreign place, even if the trial is run by American’s under FDA scrutiny will not be as reliable as if it was done inside the US. Has the potential of a two edged sword because testing may be distasteful to Americans, and human trials may not get enough consenting volunteers, or those who are exposed to the biothreat.
-170903-10> If this becomes a wide spread policy among hospitals and nursing in general, then during a complex parademic the required cooperation and coordination between medical and law enforcement will be compromised. Calling Nurse a Hero, Utah Hospital Bars Police from Patient Care Areas, Police Won't Interact with Nurses at Utah Hospital after Arrest over Blood Draw. Instead of interacting with nurses, law enforcement officers will be directed to health supervisors who are highly trained on rules and laws, and those interactions won't take place in patient care areas. This will be worth watching. If the officer involved is not suspended and is not dismissed from both jobs – he is also a paramedic who should have known the formal and informal rules between police and medical – this could easily spread as either official or unofficial policy among nurses, and create even more awkward situations for law enforcement medics and medics accompanying police at active crime scenes, Utah Cop Who Arrested Nurse over Blood Draw Fired from Second Job, Officer Arrested Utah Nurse After He Was Told to Let Her Go, Police Chief Says, FBI Probing Utah Cop Who Arrested Nurse for Refusing to Draw Blood. Those people who work in this blurred area, such a paramedicas, may have to decide if they are medical or law enforcement. There will probably be additional training for police, greater scrutiny, and it may end up that only specific officers will be permitted to work directly with medical. Even so this is not the whole story. Likely that there have been numerous other altercations that have not received attention, Trooper Who Choked Medic Suspended (2009). Hospital Impact – Utah Nurse's Arrest Is a Teachable Moment for Healthcare Organizations. ¶ -170827-8*A↓, May have to change CS/DS to CS-DS ... . Despite common usage in media and cyber English Slash / Virgule means choice or some form of being joined, while Hyphens-Dashes indicated the words are separated while Hyphen - Dash means continuation as in A to/thru Z. For the Parademic notes / (oft times with a space between the two words) means blended, while -’s are removed due to the confusion that the worlds are joined, and used when the concepts are separate. –’s are used as one of several punctuation devices to break up what quickly become run on – and on and on and on – stubs, sentences, paragraphs, wholes pages or longer rambling, that parademic notes readily become. A question that comes to mind is if a male nurse would have been arrested. The Best Daredevil Storyline in Years Takes Him to the Supreme Court.
-170827-2.1> #Health Diplomacy. Irma: Cuba Sends Hundreds of Doctors to Caribbean Islands Devastated by Hurricane. More than 750 health workers arrive in Antigua, Barbuda, Saint Kitts, Nevis, Saint Lucia, the Bahamas, Dominica and Haiti. U.S. Military Launches Relief Efforts in the Caribbean in Wake of Hurricane Irma's Destruction to aid the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. The U.S. response has included five warships, helicopters, cargo aircraft, 5838 National Guard troops and thousands of pounds of supplies. The U.S. Coast Guard maintains a modest base in Puerto Rico and has auxiliary contingents in St. Thomas and St. Croix. It is unclear how many resources the Coast Guard can commit to the Caribbean as their helicopters and boats will probably be urgently needed in Florida next week. Violence Erupts on Desperate Caribbean Islands. Food and water in short supply, a disintegration of law and order.
-170827-5.3> Dr. Sims Built a Lab and Experimented on Enslaved Women. Take down His Statues. Here are the facts, If these don’t shame someone over supporting Sims then I truly believe nothing can: 1) Sims writings and actions embody the overconfident, arrogant, below average white man who gets ahead by simply being an overconfident, arrogant, below average. 2) Nothing Sims left to modern OB/GYN is unique to him. 3) Had Sims actually read about fistulas, which is what one does when one wants to help women not build a laboratory, he would have known what to do for the first three enslaved women he saw with fistulas. 4) Other surgeons of the day working to advance fistulas operated on women from all walks of life. 5) Other surgeons of the day had empathy for the suffering of their patients with, Sims’ writing and his behavior suggests his empathy was reserved for the wealthy. 6) Sims initial success was based entirely on completely unethical medical experimentation on 11 enslaved women. He built a laboratory for this purpose. 7) Sims sought out famous patients in Europe, was a shameless self promoter, a poor teacher and abused his position at the Woman’s Hospital for fame and regularly flouted the rules at the hospital. -2.1, -2.6, -4.1↑.
-170827-8 et al> <ADDED 170903> Continuation.
-170827-8*> The original cited article could be used by anti-vax in Texas as support for its position, 170806-9.3. Small Anti-Vaccine PAC Has Outsize Clout in Texas Politics This is a re-post of the this article that is behind a paywall on a anti-vaccine site [Logo] which masquerades as not being anti-vaccine. A two year old political action committee is trying to turn childhood vaccines into a wedge issue in state Republican primaries, by scoring lawmakers on efforts to allow parents to claim broader exemptions from mandatory childhood vaccinations. Texans for Vaccine Choice, 170709-9 -‡, casts the effort as an exercise in civil liberties and parental choice. But its direct involvement in political races could tip a sensitive debate that saw state legislatorsgridlock on a series of vaccine safety measures this year. Its messaging echoes that of President Donald Trump, who aired widely debunked claims linking vaccines to autism during his presidential campaign and weighed creating a commission to study vaccine safety that has yet to materialize. The group’s (or at least one blogger) response was on facebook as Friday Night Fun. In the Middle of Massive Flooding in Texas, Antivaxers Fear…School Vaccine Mandates. County Giving Tetanus Shots at No Cost. | I was in error last week. There is a Tetanus only vaccine, still made because of the concern that multiple vaccines are more dangerous. There was no plan to use a multiple vaccine. The repercussions of such a deception was to risk losing trust completely among anti-vaxers.
-A> A Doctor Who Survived Katrina Now Tends Victims of Harvey. Dr. Ruth Berggren spent six days struggling to keep patients alive in New Orleans' Charity Hospital (2005) after Hurricane Katrina hit. She's now caring for evacuees from Hurricane Harvey. Why Was New Orleans’s Charity Hospital Allowed to Die (2011). Inside a New Orleans Hospital Which Has Been Abandoned since Hurricane Katrina (2016). Cleaning out Charity Hospital will begin Tuesday (Jan 2017). I suspect that for Texas to get substantial aid through congress they are going to have to be willing to add back payments for Sandy and Katrina which they blocked 2, eld HYPERLINK "https://www.dallasnews.com/news/harvey/2017/08/29/texas-lawmakers-likely-seeking-harvey-aid-criticized-supporting-budget-cuts-o" 3, 4. Disasters and Politics [Tweet]. Estimating the Cost of Disasters is a process that is a far cry from someone sticking their finger in the air and pulling out a number from what in the military we called our fourth point of contact; Seat of the pants, SWAG. This will be argued this month in Congress, well before a useful estimate and recovery planning will be available. Adding Up thePrice of Tragedy in Storm Ravaged Texas. Senior and Disabled Harvey Evacuees Face Tougher Health Challenges after the Flood. When a Red State Gets the Blues. We Already Knew How to Reduce Damage from Floods. We Just Didn’t Do it. | Meanwhile another hurricane is on the way, [Tweet], Emergency Response Jobs in Trump's Government Vacant as Irma Looms. In Preparation for Hurricane Irma, Hospitals in Florida Keys Evacuate Patients, Irma Forces at Least 30 Hospitals to Evacuate Patients. Here’s a Rundown, Bracing for Irma, Miami’s Largest Hospital Stocked up a Record Number of Drugs. After Harvey Hit, a Texas Hospital Decided to Evacuate Here's How Patients Got Out, -2.3↑. | Two Florida Nuclear Plants Likely to Shut If Irma Stays on Path. How Labs Are Coping with Hurricane Harvey's Devastating Floods. ¶ Hurricane Irma> Florida Sheriff Threatens to Arrest Fugitives at Shelters -170903-10↑, 170827-8‡1, is an effective way to keep those who are more likely to cause trouble in a shelter out, but at the same time could be expanded to other people like illegal immigrants. It’s a win win either way. One can arrest undesirables, or they have an increased chance of serious injury or death. Jose Now Category 2 Hurricane, Seen a Major Storm on Friday. Trump and Mar-a-Lago Have a Long and Questionable History with Hurricanes, instead of the art of the deal this is the art of turning disaster to ones advantage, -170827-8*C↓. ¶ Hurricane Irma Rumors Debunked: Here's the Truth to Some Confusing Messages on Social Media. FEMA Debunks Hurricane Irma Rumors on New Webpage, accurate information can be the difference between life and death during a hurricane. First Harvey, Then Irma and Jose. Why. It’s the Season. You could be forgiven for having apocalyptic thoughts amid nature’s chaos. And what if the disaster does not happen, is not as bad as forecasted, is worse than predicted, hits some place else. Miami Always Thinks the Storm Will Turn. More Than 6 Million Are Told to Evacuate, lain that is a lot of angry people if the storm does not destroy everything. Irma Shifts West in Churn Toward Florida, but with it being the size of Texas a dead center hit is unnecessary to be fatal. [Cartoon, Cartoon]. What Lies In Irma’s Path [Maps]. ¶ The Irrational Way People Calculate Hurricane Risks. It is a challenge for disaster planners, a genuine paradox, that people become receptive to planning for awful events mainly after an awful event [Cartoon]. [Tweet, from someone who recommendedbefore not to follow government directions]. The People Who Won’t Flee Irma’s Path – and the People Who Can’t. Rush Limbaugh’s Hurricane Survival Guide: Stop Buying Water and Don’t Listen to the News, Rush Limbaugh Argues Hurricane Forecasts Are Liberal Conspiracies, Is Also Evacuating Because of Hurricane Forecast. ¶ Authorities on Loudspeaker Plead with Holdout Characters to Evacuate Disney World While They Still Can. Climate Change Denier Battens down Worldview to Weather Hurricane Irma. Climate Change Researcher Describes Challenge Of Pulling Off Worldwide Global Warming Conspiracy. Coast Guard Drags DecoyBoca Raton into Middle of Ocean in Attempt to Lure Away Hurricane Irma. Hurricane Irma Most Powerful Atlantic Storm in History.
-A¶1)> Public Health Hurricane Harvey’s Public Health Nightmare. Flooding from Hurricane Harvey Causes a Host of Public Health Concerns, Receding Floodwaters in Houston Expose Long Term Health Risk. The Invisible Toll of Trauma and Stress from Storms like Harvey. | Toxins / Contamination In Texas, Concerns about Damage to Flooded Toxic Waste Sites. Officials are still trying to confirm whether Texas floodwaters have spread contamination from decades old toxic waste sites, as water recedes and residents return to homes that, in some cases, were flooded with water that passed over known contaminated areas. Residents who live near multiple Superfund sites in the Houston area say they haven't heard from officials, and some are concerned that the mud left behind by flooding could be dangerous. In Texas, Distrust of Washington Collides with Need for Federal Aid. Trump’s Hamstrung EPA Is AWOL as Toxic Chemicals Flood Houston, EPA under Trump Shrinks to near Reagan Era Staffing Levels, Pruitt Slams Scientists for Talking about ‘Cause and Effect’ of Harvey, Irma, Donald Trump's EPA Is Now Attacking Journalists, The False Equivalence Plaguing Our Discussions of Climate Change. | Chemical Plant's Close Brush with Public Health Disaster from Harvey May Serve as Wake Up Call, it may rouse briefly, but the pattern is that people will go back to sleep. To be a true wake up that results in an action it needs to be loud enough, for long enough, and repeated. The Exploding Chemical Plant Outside Houston Faces First Lawsuit. | Mold After the Flood, the Monster That Grows like ‘The Blob’ — and Doesn’t Die. Harvey Might Have Been Fiercer Than Katrina, but its Effects Could Fade Faster. Hurricane Harvey First Responder Gets Flesh Eating Bacteria from Texas Storm Water, this specific story is unconfirmed, but it is one of the differences between biodisaster and other disasters. In providing aid in a biodisaster one can fall victim to the same causative agents, that the people themselves become the source of the disaster.
-A‡> How Transit Can Speed Houston's Recovery. Hurricane Harvey hit one of the most famously auto dependent places on Earth> nearly 91 percent of the commuters in the Houston metro travel alone by car to get to work. Somewhere between 500,000 to 1 million cars were destroyed by the storm, the most of any natural disaster in US history. [Photo]. A mixed blessing, the city is paralyzed but less air pollutants for a while, but more contaminants in and on the cars going into the water. Here's What Happens to All of the Flooded Cars after Hurricane Harvey. Car Dealers Are Rushing to Ship Vehicles to Houston After Harvey, possibly because they can profit, price gouge, get higher payments for used cars.
-B> Xenophobia> In Disaster Recovery, White Homeowners and Black Renters Are Not Always Treated Equally. There obviously is inequity regarding insurance of all kinds. However is it ethnically based or economic racism, perception that minorities are less likely to be able to pay rent, or to continue being insured by the same company by becoming a reliable money stream. Homeowners would be seen as a better risk by insurance than renters. Racism Alive and Well in Housing is one of many anecdata and clearly it seems that minorities (not an accurate term if one means numbers) have unequal access to housing, banks, health, economic opportunity, equal treatment by law. All of these impact on odds of survival of biodisaster. After the Water Recedes – Expect Housing Issues. Citizenship Is Not a Requirement for Disaster Assistance. -170730-5.2.
-C> Economics> How Washington Lobbyists Fought Flood Insurance Reform. The federal government’s troubled flood insurance program, is nearly $25 billion in debt after huge payouts following Katrina, Sandy and other devastating hurricanes. As Houston starts the long process of recovering, lobbyists have already maneuvered to slow lawmakers efforts’ to overhaul the National Flood Insurance Program and protect their industries’ profits. When a red state gets the blues. Most Florida Flood Zone Property Not Insured if one anticipates a possible repeat with Irma and Jose -170827-8*A↑. Trump’s Harvey Dilemma. Gas Trucks Turn Around as Shortage Shifts to Florida. Sen. Rand Paul: Pay for the Emergency Funds with Cuts from Elsewhere, With Harvey and Now Irma, Federal Funds and FEMA Are Put to the Test. Trump Sets Emergency Aid in Motion in Deal That Upsets GOP -170827-8*A↑. Coastal Cities Are Increasingly Vulnerable, and So Is the Economy That Relies on Them.
-F. Some Say Natural Catastrophe Was Divine Judgment (2005), Hurricane Sandy God's Punishment. Priest Shuts Down Claims as Twitter Users Mock Pat Robertson (2012). Kirk Cameron Says God Sent Hurricanes to Teach Us 'Humility'. -+170827-8A-Quote↓. [Tweet].
-I. A Makeshift Army, Marching on Adrenaline*. The labor of saving and serving flood victims seems without end. The relief workers, exhausted, push on. I’m pretty sure it is not adrenaline that is keeping people working. Harvey Tests the Limits of How We Feed People During Disasters. Each hurricane season, Brian Greene calls in reinforcements, in the form of tractor trailers. Long before a particular system is swirling on the horizon, Greene, the president and CEO of the Houston Food Bank, dispatches 40 plus hauls of disaster relief supplies to local shelters so each outfit will have a stockpile of water, granola bars, and cleaning supplies. In a normal catastrophe – to the extent that any crisis is normal – you’ve got maybe a 24 hour period where you’re shut down (Harvey stalled over the area five days, as forcasted). In this case, the food bank was snarled for days – not because it had flooded, but because nearby roads had turned to rivers with white capped waves. With the paved arteries clogged by churning water, supplies had to stay where they were. Parademic has already mentioned a solution to feeding is readily available and would have been set up and fully functional by now. Politics however trump alleviating suffering. Texas Farmers Suffer Extensive Crop Losses in Wake of Harvey 2.1↑.
-K. How Do Criminals Make Money from Disasters. Hurricane Harvey was still raining on Texas when the American government sent out an alert about disaster related phishing scams. Links and attachments in such e-mails, it said, could lead to malware infected websites. But illicit requests represent only a small part of disaster fraud. The big money is made elsewhere. Of the $6bn in relief payments made after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, $1bn went to improper or fraudulent recipients. As Irma Approaches Florida, Stay Ahead of Hurricane Scams.
-+170827-8 et al> <ADDED 170903> New information.
-A. In the conditions of uncertainty of a disaster it is not unusual for ritual and magical thinking to manifest. Hurricane Katrina and the Tyranny of Magical Thinking. The Psychology of Disaster. Phases of Disaster> Pre Disaster Phase, Impact Phase, Heroic Phase, Honeymoon Phase, Disillusionment Phase, Reconstruction Phase, Emotional Phases of a Disaster> Collective Reactions. Coping with Disasters> Goodness of Fit, Emotional Coping, Problem Focused Coping, Believing in Control that You Don’t Have. 7 Ideas We Really Need to Stop Believing. Objects carry essences. Symbols have power. Actions have distant consequences. The mind knows no bounds. The soul lives on. The world is alive. Everything happens for a reason. This is not strictly true. Parademic is not about fact, it is about what people believe, and therefore how they will behave. A Stop [Sign] will in no physical way hinder movement, but even those who failto obey its message feel some degree of guilt (or elation for breaking the rule without suffering a consequence), will suffer consequences if caught, and suffer more severe consequences if they cause harm by violation of the law. Biodisaster is verifiable fact. Denial, blame on other causes, make claims its negative impact are outweighed by benefits, does not change it as a fact. Behavior as if a biodisaster is not pending will have consequences to life and livelihood, no matter how strongly one believes otherwise, or how many believe the same. Parademic is oft times this intersection of fact that will enforce itself, versus behavior that is socially enforced, risking the social structure that is the foundation of the belief. Likewise trying to correct erroneous beliefs of what another believes is reality is violating the hard fact that if someone perceives something as fact (and more so if their identity is tied to that fact), then it is the fact of behavior, no matter the extent of disaster it does or will bring. When Disaster Relief Brings Anything but Relief, this crush of useless, often incomprehensible contributions is called "the second disaster".
-Quote> I don't believe Hurricane Harvey is God's punishment for Houston electing a lesbian mayor. But that is more credible than climate change. – Ann Coulter. [Tweet]. [Cartoon]. -170827-8*F↑.
-B. How Coastal Cities Are Evolving to Deal with Extreme Rain. As flash storms increase in frequency and intensity, the aging infrastructure of American cities – especially older coastal cities – are proving unable to handle the extreme rains. In most coastal cities there's no elevation. The water is not going anywhere. It just overpowers the infrastructure. While the focus is often on rain from hurricanes like Harvey, which last week dropped more than 50 inches of rain on portions of Texas, heavy rains from storms have increased throughout the country. In the Southeast, heavy rains are up 37 percent, while they have surged by 71 percent in the Northeast since mid century. These events are now so common that officials have given them a name> rain bombs. ¶ Health officials note that increased runoff also pollutes waters and creates exposure to toxins, increasing the risk for infectious disease and mosquito borne illnesses -4↑. Impacts include degraded storm water systems, infiltration into waste water systems, contamination of fresh water supplies and salt water flooding of roads, homes and businesses. Tidal flooding is disrupting commerce and ways of life. To Soften a Hurricane's Blow, Don't Drain the Swamp [Cartoon]. Diverse Landscapes Are More Productive and Adapt Better to Climate Change.
-C. Two Houstons Emerge from Harvey Aftermath> One Wet, One Dry. Two different outcomes from a biodisaster is not uncommon where there is not only inequality, but to what amounts to segregation between economic classes. This distinction however is temporary if the poorer at risk and more vulnerable population is eliminate or becomes too few in number then there will be negative outcomes for the other sector, to include ones from the fact that the vulnerable population may still outnumber the protected one. In addition; wealthier areas tend to set up barriers and be more concerned about protection of the whole community, rather than individual homes. More than a week after Harvey swamped the greater Houston area, the metropolis is divided into two cities. One still covered with water and flood debris, the other largely unblemished by the storm. Some people have their whole life on hold. Others took selfies, standing in water up to their ankles and complained about having to redo their flower beds.
-170827-1> This took longer to be mentioned in public media than I thought it would take. Cyber attacks are not something that will happen to exploit a crisis, but ones that have already happened so as to be available when there is a crisis. This is not just against power and communications – though both of those will harm public health – but public health and medical during a biodisaster to exacerbate its lethality and negative parademic behaviors. It is better to put in place sabotage, espionage, sedition and other cyber capabilities before a conflict when defenses will be up to protect from such attacks. Hackers Lie in Wait After Penetrating US and Europe Power Grid Networks. Nation sponsored hackers have penetrated the operational networks multiple US and European energy companies use to control key parts of the power grid that supplies electricity to hundreds of millions of people, researchers warned Wednesday. Thousands of Facebook Ads Tied to Bogus Russian Accounts. Russia Linked Hackers Are Infiltrating the US Power Grid.
-170813-6.1B> <ADDED 170903>. Courts' Critical, Underappreciated Role in Climate Policy. The number of federal and state climate lawsuits has been growing since 2006. In the most extensive study to date on the nature and impact of judicial resolutions of legal actions related to climate change, a first of a kind analysis shows that air pollution and coal fired power plants were the subject of the majority of the studied cases and 58 percent of all of the cases were won by litigants opposed to government regulation. The analysis also shows that pro regulation plaintiffs won more than twice as frequently in cases involving renewable energy and energy efficiency. Climate Science Is Playing a Bigger Role in Environmental Law.
-170806-4.1> The Victorian Debate over Rabies. In 1885 no fewer than 27 people died of rabies, and since dogs roamed city streets, urban dwellers became afraid of suffering random bites and contracting hydrophobia (the historic name for rabies, drawn from a stage of infection in which people experience fear of water and can’t drink anything). But as momentum for government intervention through the newfangled rabies vaccine or compulsory dog muzzling grew, so did arguments against government control of dogs. By 1895 672 cases of rabies in humans were recorded in England. Ultimately, it was science, not public opinion, that ended England’s arguments about rabies. Louis Pasteur’s rabies vaccine eventually gained public acceptance. Britain was almost entirely rabies free by 1903, and since 1902, there have only been 26 deaths from rabies in the UK. Will that change with the growth of the anti-vaccine movement. Check back in a century for more. It is just happenstance that the next stub is about craziness, which is an alternate meaning for rabid.
-170730-5.2> <ADDED 170827>. Fire Doctors Who Call Trump Crazy author probably unaware crazy is not a medical term but a legal one or personal opinion which is protected by the 1st Amendment. I Helped Write the Manual for Diagnosing Mental Illness. Donald Trump Doesn’t Meet the Criteria. Trump’s disagreeable traits in no way indicate that he is mentally ill. Instead, they reveal him to be the ruthless self promoter he has always been, now poorly cloaked in fake populist clothing. Confusing Trump’s behavior with mental illness unfairly stigmatizes those who are truly mentally ill, underestimates his considerable cunning, and misdirects our efforts at future harm reduction. ¶ The three most frequent armchair diagnoses made for Trump – narcissistic personality disorder, delusional disorder, and dementia – are all badly misinformed. 1) Trump is an undisputed poster boy for narcissism. But to qualify for narcissistic personality disorder, an individual’s selfish, unempathetic preening must be accompanied by significant distress or impairment. Trump certainly causes severe distress and impairment in others, but his narcissism doesn’t seem to affect him that way. 2) Diagnosis of delusional disorder is based on Trump’s being an avid consumer and creator of conspiracy theories. Conspiracy theorists are a dime a dozen, while those with delusions are more rare. Up to half of all Americans believe in strange conspiracy theories. They are wrong, but not delusional. Having a delusion means being a minority of one. 3) The dementia diagnosis is based on the supposed poverty and perseveration in Trump’s current speech patterns compared to his earlier ones, 170528-10.2. Trump is simply lacking in eloquence. He uses the same words over and over again because they successfully work up the crowd. Trump is not demented in his undiminished creative and canny skills at blaming, bare knuckle political fighting, and self serving. ¶ My long experience with psychiatric diagnosis has taught me a recurring and painful lesson. Anything that can be misused in the DSM will be misused, especially when there is an external, non-clinical reward for doing so. Though perhaps frustrating to learn that Trump is not legally insane – just immoral, self serving, ignorant, manipulative, short sighted – this means that if he is legally charged with crimes of corruption, abuse of office, violation of oath, tax and insurance fraud, extortion and worse, that a possible insanity defense is already neutralized. Just as it is unfair to stigmatize all people with mental health problems by the actions of a mass murderer* who by definition is not normal, it is likewise unfair to stigmatize those with diseases of the mind and brain are like Trump and his psycophants. Besides what better way to implement nefarious plans than by appearing incompetent and creating confusion. *Myth vs. Fact: Violence and Mental Health.
-A. Our Columnist Bids Farewell. Donald Trump is a natural demagogue. He spotted how, after years of the war on terror, America was weary of trying to fix an ungrateful world. He grasped how, at home, millions could conceive of no benign explanation for economic and social changes that worried or disgusted them, and heard no argument from the two main parties that reassured them. He sensed that voters are more than adding machines, weighing the costs and benefits of this stale tax plan or that tired promise of help. He won in part by understanding how much people need to feel that they are useful, respected and heeded. A better man than Mr Trump could have done great things with that insight. Politics is an aspect of parademic but this was purely a political comment. However; if generalized, it is applicable to the parademic phenomena of exploitation in conditions of uncertainty. Trump is hardly the first person to exploit this type of leadership of a lynch mob, New Hampshire Police Refuse to Release Information in Case of 8 Year Old Biracial Boy Who Was Nearly Lynched. Torches and Pitchforks [Video].
-170730-5.2B> <ADDED 170820>. Yemen's Cholera Epidemic Hits 600,00, Confounding Expectations. Yemen's cholera outbreak has infected 612,703 people and killed 2,048 since it began in April, and some districts are still reporting sharp rises in new cases. It is almost as if Cholera is being repeatedly introduced into Yemen, especially if one was conspiracy minded or wondered why infectious disease models are so far off. The Biological Weapons Convention at a Crossroad.
-170618-2.3 -‡> <ADDED 170827> <ADDED 170730> <ADDED 170723>. Melting Permafrost in the Arctic Is Unlocking Diseases and Warping the Landscape. The consequences of climate change can be weird and apocalyptic.
-170129-T.1.2> <ADDED 170716>. Senate Panel Votes to Reverse Mexico City Policy, Signaling Support for Global Family Planning Assistance. In a move likely to prove only symbolic, the Senate Appropriations Committee voted on Thursday to overturn the Mexico City Policy, which President Trump announced in January he would reinstate and which the State Department formalized in May. The vote, nonetheless, is another indication of GOP legislators’ reluctance to go along with many White House positions on health, from repealing the Affordable Care Act to reducing funding for biomedical research to its desire to more specifically direct money destined for overseas health organizations. Senate Appropriators Rebuke Trump on Abortion Policy. Senate Appropriators Approve $2 Billion Increase in NIH Funding.
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