Read This First 170423, Heuristics Updated 170928, Glossary Updated A-B 171008, Mini Lessons 170827
Summary of this week: [Cartoon].
1. Anthropocene Layer, 2. Solution = Problem, 3. Conflagration, ↕4. Mosquito Borne, 5. Health and Crime, 6. Census and Public Health, 7. Agency Uncertainty, 8. Computer: Disaster Vulnerability and Facilitation, 9. Then, Now, Between, 10. Cancer Humor, 11. Pseudo Research, 12. Band Aid . <ADDED> 1. Madagascar Plague, 2. Left of Outbreak Research, 3. Vaccine Custody, 4. Puerto Rico, 5. Answer, 6. Disaster Neutrality, 7. Hepatitis A Costs, 8. Worthless Borders, 9. Cubano Sonido Sin Sentido, 10. Yemen Cholera, 11. Carter’s Worm, 12. Trees and Health (Mosquitos).
Other Topics: BioTrumpism, BioPolitics, Vaccine, Biosphere, Disaster, Humor, Climate Change, Anthropogenic, Anthropocene, Trees, Book, Coal, Food Security, Floods, BioEconomics, Zika, Public Health Sabotage, ACA Obamacare, Gangs, Megafire, Mail and Disaster, FEMA, Collapse, Yersinia Pestis, Rome, Forced Migration, Research, Bureaucracy
-1. Toxicity, Waste, Detritus: An Introduction. Planet Earth has entered the time of the Anthropocene. For natural scientists, this means that human activity, taken as a whole, has come to rival geological and biophysical forces in its effect on the planet. Disturbing material comparisons communicate the deep weirdness of this fact. For example, there’s now enough concrete on the planet to produce a 2mm thick [Photo 1.95mm], full scale replica of Earth, and enough plastic to completely wrap that replica in cling film. In the time of the Anthropocene, humans are turning the planet inside out, redistributing matter, putting molecules out of place. The responsibility and benefits of wasting the planet – and toxifying the bodies that reside on it – are wildly, but unsurprisingly, uneven. Charts and maps readily capture such inequalities. You can critique the UN’s Human Development Index on many fronts, but it comes in awfully handy for visualizing aggregate differences between ecological footprint and economic prosperity. -2, -3↓. <ADDED 171008-170917-6>8.
1.1. Environmental Groups Denounce Trump Override of Climate Plan. Chief Announces Reversal of Obama Era Curbs on Coal Plants. EPA Chief Tells Coal Miners He Will Repeal Power Plan Rule Tuesday: The War on Coal Is Over [Cartoon]. Mr. Trump Nails Shut the Coffin on Climate Relief, though apparently unaware he is nailing it from the inside of the coffin. <ADDED 171008>-170528-3.1>13. – Pruitt/Trump will probably discover this is mirror like of the Zombie ACA Repeal and Replace*‡. Declaring pyrrhic victory does not means it’s over. For one thing there is too much deep science and historical evidence against, Sooty Bird Feathers Reveal a Century of Coal Emissions History. More importantly as people’s landscapes -3A↓, skies and lungs turn black they may decide to disagree with the premature pronouncement. [Cartoon]. EPA Vows to Speed Cleanup of Toxic Superfund Sites Despite Funding Drop. Beyond EPA's Clean Power Decision: Climate Action Window Could Close as Early as 2023. Clean Power in America: Up in Smoke [Cartoon]. Odd Bedfellows Fight Trump Bid to Boost Coal, Nuclear Energy, when an issue has groups that normally don’t cooperate join together in opposition that usually indicates a disaster or a temporary advantage for both to unite. [Cartoon]. Trump Taps Climate Skeptic to Lead White House Environment Office. Trump Nominates NOAA Head Staunchly Opposed by Agency Employees. Supreme Court Lets Criminal Conviction Stand Against Coal Executive Blankenship. The Grandfather of Alt-Science
has seeded scientific skepticism within the GOP for decades. Now maybe he our nation’s next scientist in chief.
-*‡. As ACA Enrollment Nears, Administration Keeps Cutting Federal Support of the Law, Trump Has a Backdoor Way to Lift Obamacare Regulations [Tweet, Cartoon], Trump Uses Executive Pen to Chip Away at Obamacare. Trump Administration to End Obamacare Subsidies for the Poor. U.S. States to File New Suit Challenging Trump Healthcare Subsidy Cut. Trump Unveils Full Bore Obamacare Sabotage [Tweet, Cartoon, Chart]. Insurers Push Back Against Trump's Cuts to ObamaCare Subsidies. Poll: Large Majority Want Trump to Make ObamaCare Work. I wonder why the continued focus on majority. That did not get him elected and doesn’t form what he considers his base or those he has responsibilities toward. [Photo, Photo, Photo, Photo, Photo]. Exhausted Trump Supporter Just Decides Massive Cuts to Healthcare Subsidies Reason He Voted for Him. The Trump’s Administration’s Misaligned Approach to National Biodefense, Federal Efforts to Develop Biological Threat Awareness.
-2. The problem is Droughts and Wildfires: How Global Warming Is Drying up the North American Monsoon, while the possible solution of Sustainable Irrigation May Harm Other Development Goals. This could result in climate forced migrations as has happened before, Ancient Humans Left Africa to Escape Drying Climate, leading to anthropogenic climate change, with droughts, floods, megafires, over population, pollution, more pathogens, loss of global diversity, which will force migrations. -1↑, -3↓. Climate Change May Accelerate Infectious Disease Outbreaks, natural disaster in Ecuador showed 12 fold increase in Zika cases. Combination of El Niño and 2016 Ecuador Earthquake Likely Worsened Zika Outbreak, likely there was a unnoted syndemic of other diseases also increasing, and the syndemic was worsened by a synaster (synergized disaster, it combination of concurrent disaster -D↓). Keeping Up With a World in Motion: Screening Strategies for Migrating Populations.
-3. Forest fires are not a biodisaster, Megafires, firestorms are classed as a biodisaster because of extensive areas involved, the toxins that go into the air and get circulated globally -3↓, the loss of life (not just human), change of a biome (in not outright obliteration of it), and the fact that Megafires are anthropogenic -1 -2↑. In my opinion the thin layer of ash should also be added as the geological marker of the anthropocene <ADDED 171008-170917-6>8, California’s Wildfires Aren’t Natural – Humans Made Them Worse at Every Step. We fuel them, we build houses by them, we ignite them. 171001-3.1 -‡. ¶ Fires Break Out Across Wine Country, with the sound of explosions, mostly bursting propane tanks (Propane, LP Gas Tanks and Wildfires - How to Prepare, Enclosures Around or over Tanks), punctuated the rush as authorities raced to evacuate hospitals, senior centers and apartment complexes. More Than 5,000 Homes Evacuated as Southern California Fire Grows to 6,000 Acres, Destroying 24 Structures. Santa Rosa Fire: How a Sudden Firestorm Devastated a City, Northern California Death Toll Rises to 11 as Fires Continue Statewide, One Death and 1,500 Structures Lost in Northern California Firestorm, Among Worst in State's History. These sound bad, but what will get to people is Public Calamity as California Wildfires Leave Apocalyptic Scenes in Wine Country. Even if people have never been there, pictures of the Napa and Somona wine country are widely circulated, any many visitors have probably shared about the area. The wines and wineries of the region are worldfamous (or infamous if you are from Europe), so oenophiles world wide will fell positive or negative emotions about the fire; [Photo, Photo. Photo, Photo, Photo yes these are in California, Photo], Bottles Sucked Dry of Wine among Charred Wildfire Remains.
-‡. Amid Harrowing Tales of Escape, Death Toll Climbs to 17 as Northern California Fires Continue to Rage, Dogs Rescued from Hurricane Harvey Once Again Being Evacuated from North Bay Shelters. Calif. Fires Shake Winery Owners: Hours of Real, Gut Wrenching Fear. Now think if such a firestorm hit a food producing region, then we are talking famine. For those who are not worried about food, wine, beauty of nature and architecture, they then may worry about or find joy with Wildfires Are Endangering Parts of California's $2B Weed Industry. Firestorms can also have waves of outbreaks, just as other biodisasters, Catastrophic Event: Deadly California Fires Explode Again. Calistoga a Ghost Town after Mandatory Evacuation Order. More Flee California Wine Country as Deadly Wildfires Spread, More Flee California Wine Country as Deadly Wildfires Spread, Emergency Alerts Draw Complaints in Fast Moving Wildfires. California Fires Produced as Much Pollution in 2 Days as All the State’s Cars Do in a Year, the pollutant PM 2.5 is associated with respiratory and cardiovascular problems in people. This Week's Air Quality Is Worst on Record for San Francisco Bay Area -2↑. Just Ash and Bone: Calif. Fires Death Toll Reaches Historic High. [Cartoon]. This Thing Could Get Worse: Calif. Wildfires Force Hospital Evacuations and Hit Medical Personnel. A School for Kids with Autism Copes with Fire's Physical and Emotional Damage. More than Just Wine Country Is Burning in California. ¶ California Blazes Are Part of a Larger and Hotter Picture, Fire Researchers Say. Why the North American West Is on Fire. Climate change and forest management practices both contribute. But the worst may be yet to come.
-A. Maybe it was the wine, or the book I am currently reading, or yet another beautiful place being obliterated (even if it “recovers” it will still be gone), but the terms terrain and landscape(Search) -1.1↑ do not seem to quite work. Terrior – Terroir's direct translation is 'a sense of place,' the sum of the effects of a localized environment. To study everything about the history, natural and human, of the area, in addition to all other elements, to include interactions (or not) outside the area. This achieves a deep understanding where if all of it is considered, one can draw conclusions. There is an overemphasis of discrete elements (disasters) that jut out of the landscape, and history, while the landscape and larger history is ignored. ¶ History, Ethics, and the Environmental Archive. In Marshallese culture the environment itself is sacred, yet the Marshall Islands were used for devastating nuclear weapons testing and related environmental research. Cutting Islanders off from their ancestral atolls was like amputating an American’s limb without consent. Marshallese beliefs about abiding connections between people and their ancestral atolls endure to the present day. Though I no longer do field work – in fact I’m one removed as I see through other’s eyes who are not even seeing as I do – but I try to remember that I am both seeing through other people into the exposed lives of other people, both of whom perceive and interpret differently than I do. My analysis may give brilliant insights to help support the disaster control and containment, but it will never make things right for the people impacted.
-B. Should the Bay Area Expect the Puerto Rico Treatment When The Big One Hits. California is the state the is most associated with resisting Trumpism, and the administration has been terse in comments about the fires, Trump Vows US Will 'Stand With' Californians During Wildfires. Trump Approves Disaster Declaration for California Wildfires. FEMA Mounts Response to California Wildfires. FEMA Rejects Appeals Worth $1.2B over a Decade, Common Reasons FEMA Denies Money after Major Disasters. California Burns: Where’s the President, Californians Wonder Why Trump Isn’t Tweeting about the Fatal Wildfires.
-3.1. Likewise hurricanes are not biodisasters but geodisasters; except when they increase in frequency, size, strength, are one of several global trends of extreme weather, and are in part anthropogenic - check A if unfamiliar with what anthropogenic means. Warming Seas Could Lead to 70 Percent Increase in Hurricane Related Financial Loss, and if this is true industries and pharma will not replace damaged facilities as they will only be destroyed again, which will force more migration from Puerto Rico. Best place to put new facilities is Cuba, which has the skills, cheap labor, and a safer location. Puerto Rico's Recovery Is More Uncertain than Ever. ¶ In addition to size and frequency another indication that hurricanes are part of biodisaster is they are beginning to happen where they have never been before, in fact from what is known about Atlantic Hurricanes the following isn’t possible as they follow the Atlantic Trade Winds from the warm water off Africa heading west, then up the East coast. Normally the Northern Atlantic is too cold to sustain a hurricane, much less go against the Atlantic current [Map]. Hurricane Ophelia, Category 1 Storm, Could Bring Damage to Ireland and Britain.
↕4. Now moved to -160515-↕4↓. Prior to this were stubs with other numbers that were focused on Zika and Mosquito (Search).
-5. The Striking New Evidence That Expanding Health Coverage Reduces Crime. On going debate if health insurance actually improves people's health and how much financial security it provides. Health coverage also helps our society in ways that aren't so obvious: Health insurance seems to help fight crime. • Incidents of reported violent crimes decrease 5 percent, per 100,000 people, in Medicaid expansion states compared to non expansion states. • Incidents of property crime decreased by 3 percent. • Homicide, aggravated assault, robbery, and vehicle theft all saw statistically significant declines. • At the county level, counties that saw bigger coverage gains saw bigger crime reductions. A 1 percent gain in coverage correlated to a 0.7 percent drop in violent crime. • Estimated that this decrease in crime led to $400 million in savings to society, based on existing estimates of how much different crimes cost. Fortuitously we may have an opportunity for a natural experiment with to test the observation with Trump May Do the Harm to Insurers That Congress Couldn't. Trump Signs Order to Eliminate ACA Insurance Rules, Undermine Marketplaces, President Trump Signs Order to Rewrite Federal Health Insurance Rules. Trump Is a Real World Political Science Experiment. However, perhaps better to use previous documented analogues as it risks fewer lives, Tennessee Has Insurance Rules like the Ones Trump Proposed. It's Not Going Well. Trump's Executive Order Has a History. And the Government Says its Not All Great. Trump Touts Executive Order as First Step Toward ACA Repeal, but Move Was Largely Ceremonial.
-6. There have already been several negative impacts from Trump Leaves Top Administration Positions Unfilled, Says Hollow Government by Design. One of these will be The 2020 Census May Be Wildly Inaccurate—and it Matters More than You Think. The federal government distributes about $600 billion in funds to state and local governments for education, Medicaid and other health programs, and much more. The decennial Census provides the baseline for demographic distributions. Without an accurate Census, many states and cities will be denied the full funding they deserve and need, and the federal government will have to fly blind for a decade across a range of important areas. It also makes it easier to push harmful programs if there is not data to counter it.
-7. #Document: Taking the Long View: Smart HHS Strategies for Uncertain Times. After nearly a decade of relative certitude around the federal government’s approach to HHS programs, state and local leaders now are coping with the unknown. Against this backdrop of uncertainty, how should states and localities make critical decisions around improving HHS systems and programs to meet the needs of their citizens and communities. The answer is to take the long view. This Special Report has insights and strategies on how HHS agencies can deliver better outcomes, improve accountability and control costs while forging ahead into a shifting landscape. First question that comes to mind is what if HHS itself is one of the uncertainties, making decisions based on politics not evidence, is mistrusted, avoids collecting data and doing studies. These Conditions of uncertainty (Search) leads to ritual behavior and magical thinking. Does this mean the lead US Public Health agency will have decisions made by politically appointed shamanistic bureaucrats.
-Quote: What do you do when faced by something that doesn’t care what you do and isn't affected by your actions. You go nuts. – Jeff Vandermeer, Authority, -171008-5Quote↓.
-8. Data Breach Digest: Cybersecurity in the Wake of Disaster. Natural disasters like Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria can leave communities, and even the entire nation, reeling. The horror of such events can bring out the best in human nature, sparking charitable movements to help victims and survivors recover. Unfortunately, amid the outpouring of goodwill, the dark side of human nature also emerges, and fraudsters will attempt to dishonestly profit from the tragedy. Companies need to be vigilant to disaster related scams, and do their part to educate employees and consumers about this unfortunate reality.
-8.1. Computer Software Developed after Irene Being Used to Aid Puerto Rico's Disaster Relief. A Halifax resident who developed a software program to help with the federal disaster relief process is in Puerto Rico managing the relief effort there. Christina Moore got into disaster relief management out of necessity. After Tropical Storm Irene devastated the Windham County town of Halifax, where she lives, Moore discovered there wasn't any computer software that helped communities manage the mountains of paperwork that follow disasters.
-9. Written in 2005 this is worth comparing then to now, and what happened and did not happen in between. Pandemic Influenza: A Catastrophe in Waiting. The Flu Vaccine Does Not Cause the Flu.
-10. Cancer Humor. Cracking up may be a better option than breaking down, or so three recent books by young people with cancer suggest. “Thank you for the taco casserole. It worked even better than my stool softeners”. “Thoughts and prayers are great, but Ativan and pot are better”. “Thank you for the flowers. I hope they die before I do”. “All your phone messages about how not knowing exactly what’s going on with me has stressed you out really helped me put things in perspective”. “Xanax is white, Zofran is blue, steroids make me feel like throttling you”. Gallows Humor.
-10.1. #Book Quackery Chronicles How Our Love of Miracle Cures Leads Us Astray. Since the beginning of time, humans have been searching for ways to make ourselves feel better fast. Unfortunately, history has shown that many of those ways – cannibalism, cocaine tooth drops, ingesting heavy metals – left us sick, broke, or both. Yet we keep looking for that fast cure. Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything, [Cover]. Discover 67 shocking but true medical misfires that run the gamut from bizarre to deadly. Like when doctors prescribed morphine for crying infants. When snorting skull moss was a cure for a bloody nose. When consuming mail order tapeworms was a fad diet. Or when snake oil salesmen peddled strychnine (used in rat poison) as an aphrodisiac in the '60s. Seamlessly combining macabre humor with hard science and compelling storytelling, Quackery is a visually rich and information-packed exploration of history's most outlandish cures, experiments, and scams.
-11. Different perspectives by the same author. Another Antivaccine Paper Bites the Dust. The kindest possible interpretation is that the researcher runs a loose ship, so loose that he didn’t notice that many of the bands on the images of his DNA gels and the autoradiographs of his Western blots were duplicated, flipped, and otherwise manipulated. The worst possible interpretation is about the image manipulation was known (or even ordered) or that he put pressure to produce results that of what he wanted. Zombie Science. Retractions of scientific studies do not always mean that the studies die a deserved death. Sometimes they live on as zombie studies, continuing to be cited by other researchers and having an effect on the scientific discussion. We can fix this. | Study Claims Vaccines Autism Link; Scientists Find Fake Data, Have Rage Stroke. It’s the second retraction for authors, who accuse critics of being trolls, pharma shills. A Poor Marker of Truth. Another Antivaccine Retraction. ¶ The Pathological Optimist: More Hagiography than Documentary about Andrew Wakefield. The director takes great pains to emphasize that she "doesn't take a side" about Wakefield. Unfortunately, her film demonstrates that, when it comes to pseudoscience, "not taking a side" is taking a side, 171001-1.1‡. -171008-6>2↓.
-11.1. An Experiment That Didn't Work. My PhD thesis research was a dead end, but that’s why it was important. Failure is the natural product of risk, and there’s nothing riskier than the pursuit of ignorance – asking those big bold questions that probe the unknown. Yet, while the practice of science is riddled with failures – from the banal failures of day to day life at the bench to the heroic, paradigm shifting failures that populate whole books – many scientists are uncomfortable with the idea. We publish our innovations, the stories of how our ignorance led to success. Where the “publish or perish” mantra prevails, these stories are essential to making a name for ourselves and securing grant money. So there is little incentive to replicate the work of others or report experimental failure. In fact, there is barely a medium to publish these sorts of efforts, which are relegated to the bottom of the file drawer. But the scientific method hinges on self correction, which requires transparent reporting of positive (or negative) data and corroboration (or contradiction) of previous experiments. This is how we avoid chasing false leads, how we improve our practices, how we move science forward. This is handled differently in Weekly Notes. When a observation does not pan out it becomes a stub for the database. -171008-6>2↓.
-12. Get Stuck on Band Aid History. Small injuries are a commonplace problem, but before the Band Aid, protecting papercuts and other such wounds was a huge hassle. The History of the Band Aid. 18 Fun Facts About the History of Band Aid® Brand Adhesive Bandages. [Photo]. Literally a small change of technology, actually the combining of two technologies into a new product, that has changed wound treatment.
-171008-5>1. Deadly Madagascar Plague Outbreak Could Also Happen in the U.S., Infectious Disease Expert Warns. If one only read this scareline it would leave the impression that the US is in danger of Plague from Madagascar. In actual fact it is already endemic in the US, held in control by Public Health programs. Air Seychelles Suspends Flights to Madagascar over Plague Fears. The representative of WHO in Madagascar said at the press conference with the Ministry of Health that "for the time being, there are not yet any restrictions on Madagascar". She made the term "for the time being" quite clear. This means that this situation may change depending on whether the epidemic is under control or not. The first "sanction" has just fallen; it remains to be seen if others will follow the measures taken by Air Seychelles. We the plague stricken are likely to find ourselves at the mercy of international society. Similar to calls for irresponsible measures that were made during Ebola in West Africa. Why Sealing off Ebola Stricken Countries Is Not the Answer, [Tweet, Tweet], An Interim Examination of the US Public Health Response to Ebola. The CDC Issues Travel Notice for Madagascar Due to Plague Outbreak is a prudent advisory, not a suspension of all travel and commerce to and from Madagascar. Plague Outbreak in Madagascar Spikes to Almost 400 Cases. Seychelles Reports a Case of Plague which will justify the freezing of flights. No information if they will do contract tracing of who the individual was exposed though one would think that those who can afford to fly would not interact with the impoverish people that plague is circulating among. The people who were on the same flight are being monitored, usually it takes 2-6 days after exposure to have symptoms. Ask the Disease Specialist: Why Is it So Hard to Beat the Plague. Madagascar: WHO Warns of Very High Risk of Plague Spreading. Plague Cases Double in Madagascar as Treatment Center Sent. Madagascar Increasingly Isolated, reading this sounds very much like Sierra Leone during the its Ebola outbreak, barriers that prevented containment and control, and measures intended to contain and control that caused the opposite. Fighting Plague with Jail Sentences, historically this has not only not worked, but made the outbreak worse. Doesn’t hurt (except for all those who die) to prove this once again, Resistance to Burial of a Plague Victim. ¶ China Offers Medical Supplies for Madagascar to Fight Plague , once again China’s health diplomacy is superior to the US’s, not that what the offer is better, but they seem to be better at that game, 170827-2 et al, but both countries also sabotage themselves, Fraud Saps China’s Dream of Being a Science Superpower, U.S. Slashes Funds for Family Planning in Madagascar.
-Quote: Sometimes you had to keep things from people just so they wouldn't do the first thing that came into their heads..... So long as you don't tell people you don't know something, they'll probably think you know it. – Jeff VanderMeer, #Book Authority [Cover], book two of the Area X: The Southern Reach Triology. The Ecological Uncanny: On the Southern Reach Trilogy. [Chart, Map]. Annihilation Author Says Alex Garland’s Film Is Extremely Horrific and Mind Blowing [Photo, Photo, Photo, Photo]. 170709-1.1, -9Quote↑.
-A. Was the Fall of Rome a Biological Phenomenon. The risk of a “big one”, a biological event that threatens to break down our public health infrastructure and rattle the foundations of the global order, is out there, lurking. Human history offers us a deeper and more tangible sense of the unpredictable role that invisible biological enemies have played in the story of our species. Take the example of the fall of the Roman Empire one of single greatest steps backward in the long but uneven march of human civilization. Some 200 answers have been compassed for the fall , and the vast majority of them are human – all too human. The most devastating enemy the Romans ever faced was Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that causes bubonic plague and that has been the agent of three historic pandemics, including the medieval Black Death. The first pandemic interrupted a remarkable renaissance of Roman power under the energetic leadership of the emperor Justinian. In the course of three years, this disease snaked its way across the empire and carried off perhaps 30 million souls. The career of the disease in the capital is vividly described by contemporaries, who believed they were witnessing the apocalyptic “wine press of God’s wrath”, in the form of the huge military towers filled with piles of purulent corpses. The Roman renaissance was stopped dead in its tracks; state failure and economic stagnation ensued, from which the Romans never recovered. There is no evidence that a single biodisaster has destroyed a society, but a combination (oft times self inflicted) of syndemic and synaster does. Human behavior is usually the mechanism that weakens society and its ability to weather a combination hits.
-171008-6>2. The case for prior research, left of boom. Explore Harvey's Broad Reach. It's important that we do the research into how much rainfall could we get, how the watersheds are going to respond to that rainfall event, how deep, who will it impact. Note that this article was adapted from an original printed Sep 3, FEMA Flood Data Shows Harvey's Broad Reach. More than 90,000 residential structures in three Texas counties could have flood damage, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. 170924-5, 170917-1.1‡, 170219-11*, 160918-5.1, #↓. In Search of Global Governance for Research in Epidemics -171001-1.1‡>3. <ADDED 171008>1. Mother Who Ignored Deal to Vaccinate Son to Share Custody. She will no longer have primary custody but will have joint custody with her ex husband, who wanted the boy vaccinated and she agreed last November but didn’t. She says vaccinations go against her religious beliefs. The court ordered her jailed for contempt and the boy to be vaccinated. Her attorney plans to appeal. As often happens in divorce and custody battles the only one who ends up happy is the attorney, What Happens When Divorced Parents Don’t Agree on Immunizations. Fights about immunization also enriches unscrupulous lawyers, those who want to sell their “health” products, Parents Beware: the Government Has Found a New Way to Force Children to Be Vaccinated Without Parental Consent, or push an agenda, Court Rules State Can Force Child Vaccines Against Parents Wishes. Jailed Mom Devastated That Her Son Was Vaccinated While She Was Behind Bars, other articles use Outraged instead of Devastated. Second Michigan Mom in Court over Refusal to Vaccinate Child. Kansas Acting as Religious Police in Mandating Vaccine for Grandson, Couple Argue. The Perfect is the Enemy of the Good. -11 et al↑.
-A. A Century Old Vaccine Vial Sheds Light on One of Medicine’s Enduring Mysteries. Medical legend has it that Edward Jenner, the father of vaccination, used cowpox virus to protect against the dreaded smallpox. But a new report shows a virus closely related to the horsepox virus was used in a 1902 smallpox vaccine, providing fresh ammunition to those who believe the history books have it wrong. The current vaccine virus is called vaccinia – vacca being Latin for female cow, ecuua is Latin for horse. so we might have had ecuusina instead – and, oddly, no one knows from whence it came. An Early American Smallpox Vaccine Based on Horsepox.
-B. Perhaps the penultimate of anti-vax. UN Says Syria Fighting Destroys Vaccines, destroying at least 140,000 doses of vaccines. UNICEF is working to verify, but it is alarming and is likely to hamper an ongoing vaccination drive in the area that has been at the center of an outbreak of polio caused by vaccine shortages. This is the second outbreak of polio in Syria since the start of the civil war in 2011. National vaccination coverage has dropped from over 80 percent to just over 40 percent. The Assad Regime Is Quietly Bombing Hospitals While the World Looks Away. WHO Says Attack on Syria Vaccine Store Leaves Children at Risk. ¶ Vaccines Made in China – Another Ridiculous Anti-Vax Myth. | Though apparently there are vaccines manufactured in Puerto Rico I am unable to determine which ones and if there may be at risk of a shortage. However; suspect that there is no risk. <ADDED 171008-171001-2.1‡2>2.
-171001-2.1 et al>4. <ADDED 171008>2. It will be some time before the death, Puerto Rico's death toll from Hurricane Maria now stands at 48, injury and damage totals are tallied, with the possibility of continued shortages, disease outbreak, and becoming a zone of abandonment, Puerto Ricans Leave for US Mainland as Storm Woes Linger, Florida Docs Told to Screen Storm Evacuees from Islands for Illness and Monkey Bites, Get Us out of Here: amid Broken Infrastructure, Puerto Ricans Flee to Florida. | U.S. Mail Carriers Emerge as Heroes in Puerto Rico Recovery. Restoration of power is months away and many rural roads are blocked by mudslides, sink holes and downed trees and telephone poles. The Postal Service has nonetheless been delivering letters and care packages to family members desperate for news*, a mundane, and to some primitive, communications service that proves critical. Another indicator of normalcy is For Puerto Rico's Children, Finding a 'Safe Place' in the Few Schools That Are Open, but sometimes normal emphasizes things are no longer normal [Photo, Photo, Photo, Photo, Photo]. Puerto Rican Students Head to the Mainland for School.
-*. The US Postal Service Is Building a Self Driving Mail Truck might interfere with the Post Office provide their services post disaster, not that it is likely Puerto Rico will get such a system anytime soon. ¶ And though one can admire the Postal Service Creed, sometimes after a disaster one should stop following procedure and determine what would be the best thing to do under changed circumstances, 'Neither Snow Nor Rain Nor Heat ...': Watch Mail Carrier Deliver to Burned Out Homes. [Photo]. Life Goes on in Northern California City Hit Hard by Fire.
-Quote. Neither rain nor snow nor glo m of ni t can stay these mes engers abo t their duty. Don't arsk us about: Rocks, Troll's with sticks, All sorts of dragons, Mrs Cake, Huje green things with teeth, Any kinds of black dogs with orange eyebrows, Rains of spaniel's, Fog, Mrs Cake. – Terry Pratchett, Going Postal [Cover].
-‡. Preliminary Cost of Maria at $20 Billion, first analysis only counts destruction, not reconstruction, which may take more than a decade. Lawmakers Seek Puerto Rico Exemption to Law That Slowed Aid. From Cut Off to Connected: HHS and the U.S. Army Work Together to Protect Health in Utuado, Puerto Rico Following a Landslide. Puerto Rico Investigates Post Hurricane Disease Outbreak, Groups Warn of Infectious Disease Threats in Puerto Rico. | Trump Botches Reference to ‘President’ of Virgin Islands a Day after Rick Perry Called Puerto Rico a ‘Country’. For some reason the Jet Song [Photo] from West Side Story keeps running through my head. From 'West Side Story' . . . the Sharks & the Jets Chapter 53.
-A. 'Hell to Pay' over Water, Food Deliveries, Puerto Rico Governor Warns, for mishandling of supplies. Under current conditions this could become a political witch hunt or cover up, which will slow recovery. FEMA Chief: Political Disputes Hurting Puerto Rico Relief, true but who caused and continue the intransigence. Part of who will be blamed will be based on controlling when the struggle began. If the start is made post Maria then Puerto Rico local authorities will be blamed, if the start is months before then the US Administration. Having underfunded emergency management and public health Hurricane Maria Could Devastate Puerto Rico's Underfunded Health System + long term financial crisis + being a fringe area (no political clout) + not maintaining infrastructure + a direct hit by a Cat 5 hurricane + continued ground saturation (floods and mudslides) = a local catastrophic event Puerto Rico’s Health Care Is in Dire Condition, Three Weeks After Maria, 171001-2.1. Both the climate change and health care issues of Puerto Rico would undermine biotrumpism narratives, and so are likely to be attacked, displaced blame Trump to Puerto Rico: It's Your Own Fault, or be ignored by the administration and executive orders will not change nature. Three Weeks since Hurricane Maria, Much of Puerto Rico Still Dark, Dry, Frustrated. Everything That's Been Reported about Deaths in Puerto Rico Is at Odds with the Official Count. There are two conflicting narratives about the Puerto Rico disaster. The first one, from the federal government and Puerto Rico’s governor, is of a disaster that’s been managed well, with lives being saved and hospitals getting back up and running. But images and reports from the ground tell a story of people, cut off from basic supplies and health care, dying. They tell of hospitals running out of medication and fuel for their generators and struggling to keep up with the avalanche of patients that came after the hurricane. 90 percent of the 3.4 million don’t have power, and 35 percent still don’t have water. Given how deadly power outages can be, 45 deaths seems low. <ADDED 171008-171001-2.1C>, -170730-5.2B↓. Members of Congress Want a Federal Audit of the Official Puerto Rico Death Toll. This is all creating an interesting situation of COG vs Humanitarian. In this case the governor does not seem to be looking out for the interests of the people he is responsible, that is deflecting blame, shifting it from themselves to the victims of the problem, putting the mayor of the largest city in that position. “WE WILL DIE”: San Juan Mayor Sends Extraordinary Plea to President Trump. San Juan Mayor Rips Trump: ¡Shame on You!. Trump Lashes out at Puerto Rico as House Passes Aid Package. Should FEMA Aid Distribution in Puerto Rico Supersede Local Efforts There. GOP Lawmaker Accuses CNN Host of Making up Severity of Puerto Rico Crisis. Desperate Puerto Ricans Are Drinking Water from a Hazardous Waste Site. Puerto Rico: US Officials Privately Acknowledge Serious Food Shortage.
-B. There are continued economic ripples from Puerto Rico. Hospitals Scramble to Avert Saline Shortage in Wake of Puerto Rico Disaster.<ADDED 171008-171001-2.1>2. The mundane becoming critical is not uncommon in disaster. Hard to consider a ubiquitous item as critical, especially if one never asks where it comes from, how it is processed, why it is so cheap and easy to obtain. FDA Permits Importation of Saline Bags to Address Shortages Exacerbated by Hurricane Maria. Pharma's Puerto Rico Problems Could Mean Drug Shortage. ¶ This Was a Beautiful Place: Puerto Rico's Coffee Farms Devastated by Maria. Hacienda San Pedro had harvested just 2 percent of its beans before Hurricane Maria blasted through. The ripple effects will continue, it is expecting to run out of beans in December. ¶ Puerto Rico Fiscal Lifeline Included in $36.5 Billion Storm Bill. Puerto Rico Relief Bill Cancels $16 Billion in Debt – But Not for Puerto Rico. 4 Things Congress and the White House Could Do to Stop Puerto Rico’s Crisis from Getting Worse. Trump: We Cannot Aid Puerto Rico Forever [Tweet], The Situation in Puerto Rico Is Still Dire. Trump Is Threatening to Pull Recovery Efforts. We cannot keep FEMA and the military in Puerto Rico forever. It’s been three weeks, [Cartoon]. Trump’s Tweets Anger, but Do Not Surprise, Puerto Ricans, [Tweet]. Let Them Eat Paper Towels. If Puerto Rico Were a State, its Health Care System Would Recover Faster from Maria. Flu Season 2017: Medical Supplies Shortage Could Leave U.S. with Deadly Pandemic.
-C. HHS Acting Secretary Wright Declares Public Health Emergencies in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi Due to Hurricane Nate, this being one day after the weak storm, and I cannot find requests from aid from these states, an argument could be made that declarations for the Caribbean were remarkably slow at some points, and this may divert effort from the Islands: September 26, 21, 19, 19, 10, 6, 6, 6, 6, 5, 5, 5, 2017 is the full list. Will be interesting to see if this disappears, as other official US website information has, if it is used as evidence).
-D. Florida’s Hurricane Response System was Ill Prepared for Disaster, Audit Warned, in December 2016 by the agency’s inspector general detailing a lengthy list of deficiencies needed to prepare and respond to a hurricane. Florida has had some emergency management public health defunding (self inflicted) like Puerto Rico’s (inflicted by others), but not the other issues and yet Florida was not prepared for what hit Puerto Rico. Fortunately it was not the worst that hit them, but still there was a syndemic – synergistic epidemic, or maybe synaster (synergistic disaster) is a better neologism – Florida's Orange Crop at 76 Year Low, Crushed by Hurricane Irma <ADDED 171001-170917-1.3* -‡>3. #Mosquito Florida Confirms 1st Zika Infection from Mosquito for 2017.
-171001-5.1>5. We Asked, You Answered: Which Global Problem Keeps You up at Night. Climate Change and Trump were the top two concerns. I am not sure these two are not aspects of the same problem. Climate Change Will Always Hurt Poor People the Most.
-171001-2.1E>6. <ADDED 171008>2. Brock Long Needs to Think Switzerland. Better to be neutral on all things political. There will be plenty of other people seeking to make disasters political. We don't need the boss throwing gasoline on the fire, no matter which way the wind is blowing. 170924-5. [Poster] <ADDED 171008-171001-2.1‡1, FEMA Restores Deleted Puerto Rico Stats after Uproar. FEMA Has Been Deleting Facts About Puerto Rico from Its Website\fs24plain , painting a picture of the recovery effort that tracks with Trump’s comments about the rosy recovery he claims is taking place in Puerto Rico. [Cartoon]. ¶ 1663. Protection of Government Property – Protection of Public Records and Documents, 18 U.S. Code § 1519 - Destruction, Alteration, or Falsification of Records in Federal Investigations and Bankruptcy, 18 U.S. Code § 2071 - Concealment, Removal, or Mutilation Generally, Records Management by Federal Agencies (44 U.S.C. Chapter 31).
-A. Why Bureaucrats Don't Seem to Care. Bureaucracy is so baffling that it can be funny, until it isn’t. When it’s personal, absurdity stops being comical and starts being terrifying. The bureaucrat has rules: innumerable, entangled, impenetrable, with stiff identical waiting rooms. They are the supposedly human face of the state – cold, distant, unconcerned. They look without seeing, they listen without hearing, and they proclaim decisions that can change people’s lives with the indifference of a butcher slicing a piece of steak. ¶ The routine of everyday work at the front lines of public service is not quite what it seems from the outside. It is neither as simple, repetitive, nor rule governed as one might believe. If frontline work is soul sucking, it is less because bureaucrats must mechanically apply rules than because they must shoulder, day in and day out, the weight of difficult discretionary decisions which most people have the luxury to ignore. The rules are sufficiently ambiguous that they lend themselves to various plausible interpretations, or so numerous that they conflict with one another. When this is the case, bureaucrats must exert independent judgment to figure out what to do. If they were to stop doing so and adhere religiously to the scripts provided to them, all help would come to a halt. ¶ Bureaucrats combine three core functions: processing clients, providing services, and applying the rules evenly. They must process incoming cases by sorting people as efficiently as possible into pre defined administrative categories. They must provide clients with services that are tailored to their needs, taking into account their particular life circumstances. They must, finally, enforce program requirements and eligibility criteria meticulously, treating everyone impartially.
Taken individually, each of these demands is sensible. Who wouldn’t want the provision of public services to be efficient, responsive, and fair. Combined together, however, they often yield conflicting guidance. When resources are limited, they give rise to endless, morally draining dilemmas. ¶ Frontline Bureaucrats are forced to choose between an option that is bad and one that may be even worse. They have to make such difficult decisions, in front of the very people who will suffer the consequences, and watch as disappointment and despair color their faces. The clients vent their frustration at the only person in front of them: the bureaucrat. How do workers cope with that? Some cannot or will not take it and quit. Others stay, but become desensitized, turning the blame onto clients. Others don a professional mask. Others seek out a delicate balance, carefully guards their emotional exposure, to not get attached with a lot of folks. ¶ Seen through the eyes of clients, the result of these coping strategies look the same: an air of indifference. This is misleading, not only because it covers up multiple types of responses, but also because it often originates from the opposite inclination. Bureaucrats end up appearing indifferent not because they are uncaring, but as an adaptive response to the fact that they do, or at least at some point did, care. Add to this demoralizing, uncertainty about rules and direction, leadership that hates and dismantles bureaucracy, being directed to perform the opposite of purpose. This type of damage is more disastrous, and will take longer to repair than the more visible damage of physical disaster. [Cartoon].
-170924-3>7. <ADDED 171008>5. County Has Spent $3 Million on Hepatitis A Crisis So Far. The outbreak that has infected hundreds and killed 17, and that total could double by 2018. California Declares State of Emergency over Deadly Hepatitis A Outbreak. California Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency Friday due to a lack of vaccines in a deadly Hepatitis A outbreak in several California counties. The declaration allows the state to increase its supply of Hepatitis A vaccines in order to control the current outbreak. While immunizations from the federal vaccine program have been distributed to at risk populations in affected areas in Los Angeles, San Diego and Santa Cruz counties, Brown's proclamation allows the California Department of Public Health to immediately purchase and distribute vaccines to affected communities. California's Hepatitis A Outbreak May Linger for Years.
-170917-7>8. <ADDED 171008>9. Superbugs Don’t Respect Borders. For me this is stating the problem incorrectly. Microbes, pathogens and ideas don’t know about borders. It is humans that have the belief that borders, jurisdictions, distances, natural obstacles, big beautiful walls, will provide protection from the invisible. Indeed these symbols and barriers of safety and protection may actually facilitate spread, increasing vulnerability. Long Sleeves on Doctors' White Coats May Spread Germs.
-170827-2.1>9. <ADDED 171008>11. In some ways this is amazing that it is still making the news, but then there is not that much difference between fake news that persists, and fake attacks <ADDED 171001>8. AP Releases Audio of Noise Heard by Some Diplomats in Havana Attacks. White House Says Cuba Could Stop Attacks on Americans.
-170730-5.2B>10. <ADDED 171001>12. Yemen's Cholera Outbreak Now the Worst in History as Millionth Case Looms. Yemen’s Man Made Cholera Outbreak Is About to Break a Record. In a matter of days, the deadly cholera epidemic in Yemen will set a world record. The outbreak is entirely man made. Two and a half years of civil war have decimated Yemen’s water sanitation system and its hospitals. Without access to clean water, doctors, or medical supplies, hundreds of thousands of Yemenis have contracted cholera, which spreads through fecal bacteria in water. Aid organizations blame both sides in the conflict. -171001-2.1↑. H5N1 Comment. I'm used to trusting WHO numbers, but this is after all a civil war. It seems unlikely that the Houthis are dutifully reporting their cholera numbers to the government they kicked out of Sana'a, or vice versa. I don't even know who's in charge of the Ministry of Public Health and Population. Yet the numbers have been rising for over five months, and we keep on trusting them. If anyone with a better understanding of the civil war can explain the reliability of Yemen's cholera numbers, I would be very grateful. What is meant by reliable. If one defines reliable as exact and close to the current time then the numbers are clearly not reliable. If reliable is used to mean that if circumstances don't change, the previous trends of case counts will be within a given range, and indicate if the situation is getting worse or better. Keep aware that are waves in outbreaks so one is looking for tendency down or up. If precise numbers were being given daily at this point of a civil war and epidemic I would suspect someone is lying to satisfy Westerner's ideas of reliability being a simile for precise and exact. If the numbers prove to be correct I would even be more concerned about why effort is being directed to satisfying curiosity of Western voyeurs, instead of directing effort to helping others and protecting one’s self. There has been a report of numbers but where they come from cannot be determined the question of numbers now needs to be questioned, Where Are Yemen's Cholera Numbers. I disagree about the accusation of "official silence" for the reason that have been stated previously. Keeping count in a epidemic is problematic, and if one is keeping accurate counts are not there more important things to be doing to save lives. However if there is a statement with an accurate number then the question needs to be asked. Is someone making something seem worse for some reason (usually to get money), or making it look better than the situation really is, usually to protect an economy.
-160612-2>11. South Sudan Winning Against Guinea Worm, Says Jimmy Carter. In 2006, when the Guinea worm program launched in South Sudan, the country had more than 20,500 cases in over 3,000 endemic villages. At the time it was one of nine affected countries. Today, it remains one of three still tackling the disease, with Chad and Ethiopia. This year South Sudan reported zero cases. If this continues, the country will be on track to becoming certified Guinea worm free in the next couple of years. This feat is being touted as one of the few successes to emerge from the young nation, while it battles a 4 year civil war, starvation and grave human rights atrocities being committed against its own people. ¶ Jimmy Carter has been at the helm of the international campaign to eradicate Guinea worm for more than 30 years. From 1986, when there were an estimated 3.5 million people infected annually in 21 countries in Africa and Asia, the number has dwindled to 10 confirmed cases all of which are in Chad. A good legacy, hopefully he will live long enough to see the end. Why the World Isn't Close to Eradicating Guinea Worm (2016). A surprising wrinkle has cropped up: The worm has found a new way to hide and thrive. Back in 2013, something strange started happening in Chad: Dogs were showing up with Guinea worm emerging from their legs. This is an example of creating a selective pressure that moves a problem to another location, or species in this case. In other words Guinea Worm infection was not solved, except in humans. If it can jump to canines, it can it jump to other species to include other domesticated animals that human livelihood depends on, making the problem worse. Please, don’t mention this to President Carter. Good people deserve to not learn that there was a bad consequence from a good act they did, when they can no longer correct the error. Bad people never see the bad consequences of their acts even if the evidence of that is what kills them. Oct 11, 2002, Jimmy Carter wins Nobel Prize.
-160515-↕4>. And every week after and for several weeks before #↓. Disease Carrying Mosquitoes Abound in Deforested Lands. Global Kids Study: More Trees, less Disease. Urban Greenness and Mortality in Canada's Largest Cities: A National Cohort Study, showed significant decreased risks of mortality in the range of 8–12% from all causes of death examined with increased greenness around participants' residence. ↕4↑.
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