Read This First 170423, Heuristics 170928, Glossary Updated 171008, Mini Lessons 170827
1. Word of the Year, 2. Fake Medicine, 3. Blockchain, 4. The Disaster that Shall Not be Named, 5. Journal Club, 6. Anthropology of the Medical Milieu, 7. Give up on Healthy School Lunches, 8. World AIDS Day. <ADDED> 1. Yemen, 2. Tobacco, 3. Flat Conspiracy, 4. Coal Hearing, 5. Antimicrobial, 6. Puerto Rico, 7. Neurological Different, 8. Lead Pipes, 9. Dual Use Mosquitoes.
Other Topics: BioTrumpism, BioPolitics, Vaccine, Biosphere, Disaster, Humor, Climate Change, Anthropocene, Anthropogenic, Communication, Book, Scarlet Fever, Immunity Loss, Fourth Wall, Sesame Street, Autism, Flat Earth, Lysenkoism, Madagascar, Cultural Keys, Ebola, Malaria, Climate Rating, History, Tax, Dengue.
-1. #Linguistics. Word of the Year 2017: Complicit. Climate change has been thrust into the spotlight this year with President Trump’s decision to withdraw the US from the Paris Climate Agreement. Additionally, the EPA chief Scott Pruitt(Search) has been complicit in his refusal to acknowledge that humans play a primary role in climate change. And, we can’t forget that information on climate change was removed from the government’s website this year, as well. This year, displays of extreme weather have made us all more aware of the widespread destruction that climate change can wreak. Rightfully so, the terms climate change, global warming, and carbon dioxide all showed up in our trending searches this year. [Cartoon, Photo, Poster fake].
-‡. Deceptive Tactics Abound in Our Modern Media World. Conspiracy Thinking less Likely with Greater News Media Literacy, Just the Facts. Are We Making Progress in the Fight Against Fake Medicines. Science Deniers Lurking on NZ Internet - Environmental Watchdog. Renewed Antiscience Legislation manipulating what is taught, Myths You Learned in Health Class (Video).
-1.1. Credit Rating Agency Issues Warning on Climate Change to Cities. Moody's Investor Services says it might downgrade the credit ratings of U.S. cities if they do not deal with the risks posed by climate change. Moody's breaks the U.S. into seven climate regions*, based off of geography, regional economies and expected risks. Money Talks: Why Moody's Climate Risk Warning Is One Policy Makers May Actually Listen to. [Chart, Map International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) Climate Zone Map]. These are not created by Moody but adaption of climate region building codes. These are based on a combination of temperature ranges, precipitation / flood / sea level rise, wind / tornado, fire risk, energy and water usage, economy (also based on a number of considerations), and more. These in turn are used for insurance rates, and insurance risks are used for credit ratings. To lower insurance rates and increase credit rating one needs to be mitigate climate risks. These climate regions correspond with disease and vector risks. All About Climate Zones. How the Internet of Things Can Prepare Cities for Natural Disasters. If pandemic insurance becomes a real thing wonder if an area would end up with a higher rate because of anti-vaccination in an area.
-2. UN: About 11 Percent of Drugs in Poor Countries Are Fake. Not a biodisaster but of parademic interest as the circulation of treatments that don’t work could conceal an outbreak, or hinder effective response, for a longer period. This is not limited to disease as there can be fake treatments or protection from pollution (water, air), temperature extremes. These fakes will not necessarily be cheaper as responsible medical sources may say there is no treatment, while irresponsible ones will say there is and charge very high prices. These will leave those in need with fewer resources. Treatments can have active toxins. Fake Medicines + Medical Scams(Search).
-3. ⊓ Blockchain is one technology that will affect healthcare, but at the same time its part of the larger social trends toward a distributed society from hub society. What Is Blockchain and How Can it Be Used in Healthcare, Blockchain Is Ready to Completely Transform the Healthcare Industry, Blockchain in Healthcare: Will You Lead or Follow, SimplyVital Health Is Using Blockchain to Revolutionize Healthcare.
-3.1. ∩ #Communication (Video) Expert Explains One Concept in 5 Levels of Difficulty – Blockchain, the key technology behind Bitcoin, is a new network that helps decentralize trade, and allows for more peer to peer transactions. A political scientist and blockchain researcher to explain blockchain technology to 5 different people; a child, a teen, a college student, a grad student, and an expert. Actually there were six levels of comprehension presented, the introduction and summary were to an unseen audience who view this video. Each explanation started each explanation by asking what the person at each level knew about blockchain. Unknown if this is the individual style of the person who is providing the information, a gender style, or a practiced style from occupation or organization. The general trend was that the less knowledgeable had more initial questions about the concept, while the later levels were developing the concept further. Level 1 had a great deal of interaction during the answer. Level 2 asked the most questions of the person providing the information throughout – this is the language level parademic shoots for Making a Case for Health Literacy. Level 3 waited for all information to be provided and then asked more questions about the consequences at the end, with high use of body language to show engagement in the answer, indicating better comprehension (this is parademic’s assumed level of comprehension and cognitive ability to learn new concepts, vocabulary tending to lag behind comprehension). Level 4 was information exchange and validation of each others information, and discussion of current state of the art and potential difficulties. With Level 5 the question assumed knowledge with more sophisticated questions of clarification (perhaps intended for the unknown audience). Tie ins to other interrelated issues, going beyond consequences to positive outcomes and vulnerabilities. Use of historical analogues and more conversation like as seen in Level 1, though far the longest interaction of the five conversational explanations. Nonverbal communication was important to each conversation, while the introduction and summary lacked nonverbal communication but one can see a higher degree of exaggerated nonverbal communication. There was also a high degree of multiple level language use, possibly an awareness of speaking to likely viewers (probably not Level 1), where Level 5 viewers are probably peers and may be personally known.
-4. #Linguistics. Climate Scientists Watch Their Words, Hoping to Stave off Funding Cuts. After years of budget and political pressure, some climate scientists are changing the way they describe their research, and avoiding the term “climate change” in public grant summaries. The use of alternative terms such as 'global change', 'environmental change', and 'extreme weather', appears to be rising slightly. ¶ This is not the first time scientists have resorted to euphemism to protect their research. Early studies of human sexuality referred to "fertility related behavior". Stem cell research was referred to by some Bush era researchers as "therapeutic cloning". The web of alternative language can be confusing to policymakers and frustrating for science. Some are concerned that the language scientists use to describe climate change research may lead to similar problems. And, anecdotally, some scientists worry that political pressure may be driving young scientists away from climate studies. Avoiding the term "climate change" could also lead to a more fractured scientific community. Climate change research is an inherently interdisciplinary field and shared terminology allows people to collaborate, either through interagency groups or through university departments that reflect the larger trends in available funding. All of this could translate into problems for average citizens. Cities, some of them already dealing with rising sea levels and more severe storms, rely on the federal government for information about climate change. Water resource managers and emergency officials look to federal climate programs for long term data. And insurers are using climate change data to determine rates for homeowners. This is not the first time the terminology was changed. Originally this was called global warming, but political and funding pressures changed it to the more benign sounding (as well are more accurate) climate change. Wording Change Softens Global Warming Skeptics (2011). Timeline: The Politics of Climate Change (2012). Climate Change vs. Global Warming: How Politics Created a New Term (2014). “Global Warming” versus “Climate Change” and the Influence of Labeling on Public Perceptions (2016). Climate Change Used to Be a Bipartisan Issue. Here's What Changed (2017). Polar Bear Blogs Reveal Dangerous Gap Between Climate Change Facts and Opinions.
-‡. Clearing the Air on Climate Education: A Reporter Returns to the Scene of Her Story. #Book Stalin and the Soviet Science Wars [Cover]. The New Lysenkoism (2007), Lysenkoism and Global Warming (2009), In Which Climate “Skeptics” Drop the Lysenko Bomb. No, I’m Not Kidding (2012), The Disgraceful Episode of Lysenkoism Brings Us Global Warming Theory (2013), How Climate Scientists Are Being Framed (2013), The Lessons of Lysenko (2016).
How G.O.P. Leaders Came to View Climate Change as Fake Science, Climate Change Denial: The Lysenkoism of the Present Day Republican Party, Republicans Doubt 'Global Warming' More than 'Climate Change'. -7AQuote↓.
-Quote: The question is asked in one of the notes handed to me, “What is the attitude of the Central Committee of the Party to my report?”. I answer: The Central Committee of the Party has examine my report and approved it {Stormy applause. Ovation. All Rise}. Glory to the great friend and protagonist of science, our leader and teacher, Comrade Stalin!”. {All rise. Prolonged applause}. – Trofim Lysenko, Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes: Further Reflections in Natural History, Stephen Jay Gould. -160515-↕4B↓.
-5. CDC Announces Mandatory Journal Club on Vaccines for All Americans. The Centers for Disease Control announced in a press release today that they would be holding a mandatory journal club about vaccines. The anti-vax movement has continued to gain steam since The Lancet published a deeply flawed article purporting a correlation between vaccines and autism. After years of combating vaccine misinformation, the nation’s foremost authority on infectious disease has had enough. The CDC Director after hearing about another measles outbreak caused by an unvaccinated child. We’re having a mandatory journal club. This is ridiculous. This is the first known mandatory journal club in human history -160515-↕4B↓. The nationwide journal club will occur January 3 and go over roughly 8,000 peer reviewed articles on the benefits of vaccines. It will be hosted by a polio survivor in an iron lung, and free pizza will be served. Accommodating 320 million people at a single meeting will surely be a logistical nightmare. Officials anticipate that many anti-vaxxers will not be taking the journal club seriously and may not read any of the thousands of articles that will be covered. We’re all adults, we expect people to come prepared, but I’m sure a few will blow it off. Essentia Fires about 50 Workers for Refusing to Get Flu Shot, Health Worker Firings Spark Debate on Mandating Flu Vaccine, Midwest Health System Fires Staffers for Not Getting Flu Shot: Public Health Watch in the context of what may be a bad flu season, The 2017-18 Influenza Season: Predicting the Future by Looking to the Past, CDC Sees Some Signs of an Early Flu Season. Vaccinations Now Definitively Linked to Pregnancy. Another Antivaccine Conspiracy Theory, Flu Vaccine Edition. The Long Shadow of the 1976 Swine Flu Vaccine Fiasco.
-‡. VCP News Archive↕: USA: Anti-Vaccination Messages Startle Shoppers at Kids’ Store. Flat Earth Movement – Controversial Conspiracy Theory is Booming in the US -171126-5‡↓. Texas Falling Behind in HPV Vaccinations the most common sexually transmitted infection (actually Texas Has the Highest Rate of Repeat Teen Pregnancy in the Country is the highest sexual transmitted infection); New Zealand: New Benefits Discovered for HPV Vaccine; -6.2↓. Nigeria: Monkey Pox Vaccination Rumour: UNICEF, NOA Engage Abia Communities on Need for Immunization, Vaccination – and this rumor was probably supported by Failure to Diagnose Monkeypox Highlights Nigeria’s Poor Health Infrastructure. UK: Health Officials Fear Russian Cyber Units Are ‘Spreading False Information’ on Flu and Measles Jabs |– which is in the wider context of Russian Election Hacking Efforts, Wider Than Previously Known, Draw Little Scrutiny, Security Finally Has the Awareness it Needed. Now What. This includes the outside threat to medical cyber Hospital’s Electronic Health Record to Be Replaced by New, Efficient Paper Chart System and self inflicted damage to data Hudson Institute Fellow Jeffrey Anderson Appointed to Lead Health Reform Office at Department of Health and Human Services. India:Kerala’s Malappuram District Is Against Measles Rubella Vaccine and Here’s Why It’s Dangerous.
-5.1. Skepticism Takes Many Forms. Not every kind of science skepticism is the same. For example, skepticism about climate change is linked to political ideology (which says the skepticism and denial are similes, 2, 3, 4, 5), whereas skepticism about vaccinations consistently correlates with religious beliefs -5.3↓. In contrast, skepticism about genetically modified foods is not fuelled by religious or political ideology.
-5.2. Science Moms Fight Fears with Facts. A new documentary takes a novel approach. It features scientist moms who are just like other moms except that they understand the science. They set the record straight about GMOs, vaccines, and other subjects of interest to parents. They provide the facts to counteract unreasonable fears.
-5.3. There are many examples of fiction and comedy that may not be true, but do explore real issues that are socially real and meaningful. Vaccination is the Real Baptism: From the Mouth of SMILF. What is the difference between baptism and vaccination That's a question that is raised in the latest episode of Showtime's SMILF. Readers might say that baptism is a mystical religious ritual and vaccination is a science based medical practice that are completely different and they would be right. But SMILF sets up a great juxtaposition. A couple of episodes back the character Bridgette, confronted with the threat of chickenpox in her unvaccinated child, and with the biological father's opposition to vaccination, because he believes they are poison and government mind control, has the child vaccinated. When the child's father finds out about the vaccination and simultaneously is offered an opportunity to have the child baptized, he falsely creates an equivalency between the two actions and has the child baptized. It's this false equivalency that is worth thinking about -5.1↑. From 1524 to 1648 the European Wars of Religion were often religious framing of political conflicts, the issue of baptism being one of the populist justifications of armed conflicts between factions. Why Is There a Religious Exemption for Vaccinations, almost no religions object to them. FAQ: Religious Exemption. -171126-5‡↓.
-A. Something along the same theme: Quoth the Antivaxer: Vaccination Is a Religion. Quoth Orac: Nice Projection, There. With this comment. The Cult of AntiVax – sacred tenets of belief//
- Trust & Truth – Verse 1: All vaccines are Evil. Period. Verse 2: Never trust anyone who is positive about vaccines. Verse 3: Pharmaceutical companies lie about efficacy and side effects of vaccines. Verse 4: Doctors lie about efficacy and side effects of vaccines. Verse 5: Governments lie about efficacy and side effects of vaccines. Verse 6: Scientists lie about efficacy and side effects of vaccines. Verse 7: All the above parties are only interested in our money, not in our health.
- Knowledge – Verse 1: The Cult of Antivax by definition has Supreme Knowledge about vaccines. Verse 2: One day with Google and YouTube provides more Knowledge than ten years of study. Verse 3: Verifiable facts are subordinate to anecdotes. Verse 4: Verifiable facts are subordinate to what we think is likely. Verse 5: Verifiable facts are subordinate to what we make up (a.k.a. “think for ourselves”)
- The Nature of Vaccines – Verse 1: All vaccines contain Toxins. Verse 2: All vaccines are untested. Verse 3: Vaccines are a diabolical instrument to keep the sheeple weak and sick.
- The cause of Disease – Verse 1: Vaccines cause autism. Verse 2: Vaccines cause immune disorders. Verse 3: Vaccines cause diabetes. Verse 4: Vaccines cause chronic fatigue syndrome. … (omitted for reasons of brevity) … Verse 187: Vaccines cause infertility.
And of this we witness as our immutable Truth, under the guidance of our enlightened prophet Wakefield.
-6. Mobilising Experience from Ebola to Address Plague in Madagascar and Future Epidemics. The Madgascar outbreak is affecting both rural and urban areas, and anthropologists have been mobilised by global health agencies to contribute to the emergency global health response. Many of these specialists previously worked on the 2014–16 Ebola virus disease epidemic in West Africa and possess experience and expertise gained from this context. How urgently these experts were sought out by public health programmes showed that the relevance of the social sciences in global health is being increasingly recognised. However, exactly how these cross discipline collaborations can be most effectively implemented, how anthropology can best contribute to epidemic response, and how anthropologists should be prepared require additional reflection. The west African Ebola virus disease epidemic was the first time that social science researchers were called upon by UN agencies to be involved with a global health emergency response at every stage. Originally, anthropologists were asked to help identify and address barriers to controlling the spread of Ebola virus and to encourage compliance from local populations. However, this role quickly expanded. In addition to helping adapt Ebola related messages and activities to specific contexts and populations, anthropologists helped shape understanding of the disease from a global health perspective. This approach included critiquing the overuse of the terms sociocultural factors and resistance (to modern western medicine) as catch all explanations for the spread of the epidemic; insisting upon the need to conduct in depth qualitative research to complement the rapid knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and practices surveys proposed by many public health programmes; and adapting public health measures to local contexts. As the Madagascar plague epidemic expands, expert knowledge gained from the Ebola virus disease epidemic will be crucial to address topics that are relevant to both diseases. For example, avoidance of patients by health workers, hiding of the sick by their relatives, resistance to contact tracing and safe burials, over reaction of the media, and discordance between the biomedical and lay representations of the illness. Anthropologists in Madagascar have been asked to examine burial practices, therapeutic itineraries, and the population's relationship to (and fear of) global health interventions. Although the contexts are different from the west African Ebola virus disease epidemic, this previous experience is useful to help anthropologists face current situations. Cultural Differences Complicate Ebola Treatment in West Africa. Another similarity is that the Global Risk of Madagascar's Pneumonic Plague Epidemic Is Limited, the same as Ebola global risk. Good News: Madagascar’s Plague Outbreak Is Finally under Control.
-6.1. The “Good Enough Anthropologist”. In a pandemic we don’t have the time to spend two years in a village to understand why people behave (irrationally from some perspectives) as they do. Responders want cultural keys to quickly determine what is needed to counter hindrances to containment and control, as a form of culturalism. Unfortunately shallow understanding of complex phenomena serves no one, in fact can lead to bad decisions that make the situation worse. Good Enough Ethnography: Reflections on Becoming a Medical Anthropologist. 160828-10 et al, 160925-2.1.
-6.2. Attitudes About Vaccines to Prevent Ebola Virus Disease in Guinea at the End of a Large Ebola Epidemic: Results of a National Household Survey. In 2014-2016, an Ebola epidemic devastated Guinea; more than 3800 cases and 2500 deaths were reported to the World Health Organization. In August 2015, as the epidemic waned and clinical trials of an experimental, Ebola vaccine continued in Guinea and neighboring Sierra Leone, we conducted a national household survey about Ebola related knowledge, attitudes, and practices and opinions about hypothetical Ebola vaccines. >84% would accept safe, effective Ebola vaccines. Acceptance was higher in persons aware of Ebola cases and epidemic response teams, and was especially high in persons whose children had routine vaccines. Acceptance was higher in participants who were male, wealthier, and more educated. High vaccine acceptance favors future introduction of Ebola vaccines in Guinea, unless anti-vax sentiment enters the area. ¶ Why Japan’s HPV Vaccine Rates Dropped from 70% to near Zero. Each year in Japan, 27,000 to 28,000 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer and around 3,000 die. HPV vaccines can prevent this disease. Yet because of the campaigners' videos and the government's decision to suspend recommending the vaccine, many mothers and children do not know this vaccine is safe. The long term impact will be preventable suffering and death 5‡↑.
-6.3. Studying How People React to Disaster Evacuations. The challenge from studies like this getting the information applied in real life. Getting building architects, airplane designers to pay attention to the research is not always a given. And are there any cities or rural areas designed beforehand to consider evacuations from fire, flood, pathogens, toxic air, and are any of those same types of areas designed to take in a large influx of evacuee’s. What Happened When the California Wildfires Engulfed Our Headquarters, <ADDED 171119-171015-3>4.
-7. Trump Administration Halts School Lunch Salt Reduction. The Obama administration had set targets that envisioned school reducing the amount of sodium in school meals each year. But the Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service said Wednesday that it would keep the current targets for sodium levels reductions unchanged through 2019. Those targets are currently not more than 1,230 mg per meal for elementary, 1,360mg for middle and 1,420 mg for high schools. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue has said previously that relaxing the restrictions is necessary because children simply don’t eat the healthier meals and the food gets thrown away. The Trump administration has also been pushing for deregulation across many agencies. Health Experts Turn up Their Noses at New School Lunch Rule. The Trump Administration’s Tone Deaf School Lunch Move. However, this is something that biotrumpism can potentially face consequences to in their own life time , Trump's Food Choices Grow More Disconcerting.
-A. Unable to identify what was the source of validated and nationwide information was used to support decisions based on kids are throwing out healthy food. Possibilities are: Study: Kids Throwing Away Healthier School Lunches (2014), this is the same source as 170326-5.1. | Making School Lunches Healthier Doesn't Mean Kids Will Eat Them (2014), a study (suggestive, not conclusive findings) found that less than half of students took a vegetable from the lunch line and ate some of it. Yes, Some Students Are Throwing Out Their School Lunch Veggies (2015), but that doesn’t mean Congress should throw out healthier eating standards. Fun fact: Congress passed the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) in 1946, after a federal investigation concluded many young men had failed to pass draft requirements as a result ofchildhood malnutrition. Serving meals in schools was a measure of national security, to safeguard the health and well being of the Nation’s children. Why Are Children Throwing Away School Lunches. With a hint of a hyperbole, Ag Secretary Perdue Moves to Make School Meals Great Again somewhat relaxing dietary regulations imposed by the Obama administration and Congress in 2010. This announcement is the result of years of feedback from students, schools, and food service experts (the people who prepare and serve the food, not nutrition experts) about the challenges they are facing in meeting the final regulations for school meals. Sounds more like anecdata but then that is what one would expect, 170820-1.6¶. Could not find a record of this data and how it was gathered. Probably more of a money saving measure, which as pointed out many times before tends to end up costing far more than what was saved. | No Appetite for Good for You School Lunches (2012), Young Children Take but Often Barely Touch Healthy School Cafeteria Food Options (2014), Children Tossing School Lunch Fruits and Vegetables (2015), School Lunch Fruits and Veggies Often Tossed in Trash, Study Finds (2015). | As usual with biotrumpism contrary information is ignored and supporting information cherry picked (or invented) to support it’s a priori decisions; Nutritious Meals Make Better Grades (2009), How School Lunch Became the Latest Political Battleground (2014), Atkins Center Study: Students Prefer New, Healthier School Meals, #Document Health and Academic Achievement, Impact of Malnutrition on Health and Development, Childhood Obesity: Causes and Consequences, More than Half of Today's American Kids Will Be Obese by Age 35, Harvard Study Projects , An Abbreviated History of School Lunch in America -160515-↕4B↓, Team Trump Wants to Make School Lunches Great Again. It’ll Make Kids Fatter Instead. | This isn’t a biodisaster, but like other biotrump actions makes people more vulnerable to biodisaster and increases the probability of a biodisaster occurrence, and takes place in the wider context of Trumpism aversion to data that would contradict decisions and policy, Criminologists Are Asking Jeff Sessions to Release FBI Crime Data. Given this administration’s statements about addressing violent crime, victims’ rights, the opioid epidemic and terrorism, it is unfortunate that the 2016 report removes key data about these topic areas. The data used to track intimate partner violence, gang homicides, and arrests relating to narcotics – including heroin and synthetic opioids – is now missing from the report, 170820-1.6¶, note that weekly notes was already pairing DOJ and Dept of Ag. The departments may be different but were both showing the same trend of ignoring data.
-Quote: When you can't attack the evidence itself, you attack the method of gathering the evidence. – Gil Grissom, The Accused is Entitled. This tactic has been use several times by pseudoscience, to include using the legal system. Even more effective when pseudoscience has control of the legal system. -4‡↑.
-B. My own anecdotal observations, as a school teacher and parent, agree that many (not all) children will not eat healthy combinations of food. It seems a reasonable conclusion that children will consume more food that is unhealthy in large quantities. This also applies to adults from what I have seen. However, logic leads me to believe that if insufficient quantities and no nutritious foods are available then 100% of children (and adults) will be malnourished. It doesn’t seem to me that making a decision concerning sufficient and nutritious food because of a few, or even a majority, of children (known authorities of what is best for themselves) reject eating healthy amounts and nutritious forms of food. Seems to me a better approach is to find ways to encourage healthy habits, to include food intake. [Cartoon, Cartoon, Cartoon, Cartoon]. The reality is as always more complicated than the simplified polarized view that the other side is always wrong and our side is always right. There already was an Extension Notice: Requests for Exemption from the School Meals’ Whole Grain Rich Requirement for SY 2016-17, No Cut in Salt, Fewer Grains: Gov’t Eases School Meal Rules, USDA Tweaks School Meal Rules. The longue duree before this became political issue. There were extensions and relaxation of the rules during the Obama administration. In 2015 the Obama administration authorized an extension for meeting the requirements as it was hard for districts to comply due to supplies not being available for schools at reasonable costs. These changes don’t really change any thing, but does cause delay. Largely this is the Trump administration framing as a win over Obama over regulation and as controlling waste of money, while anti-trumpism is framing as irrational, self serving, irresponsible and intentional harm of children and future generations.
-8. We Need a Day. Meet the Man Who Helped Create World AIDS Day. When the first World AIDS Day was launched in 1988 by the WHO, the disease had been identified only four years prior. Of the 65,780 cases reported in the U.S. since June 1981, 37,195 of those patients had passed away. As it continued to spread, more than 1,000 protesters seized the Food and Drug Administration’s headquarters to pressure the agency to hurry up its notoriously slow drug approval process, and patients were desperate for some sort of magic bullet – or at the very least a drug that would provide a lifeline. But there was one medicine that did not need government approval: information. That has apparently changed since then. Trump Forgets to Mention the LGBTQ Community on Worlds AIDS Day. It's a miracle when America can go 24 hours without President Trump doing or saying something wildly offensive. Alas, today is not that day. President Donald J. Trump Proclaims December 1, 2017, as World AIDS Day. However in his defense it is not like there is anything to remind him. The Aids quilt was not in front of the White House this year (it’s now too large to fit in the National Mall) [Photo 2016] and the AIDS Awareness Ribbon [Photo 2016] was not hung from the White house. Probably clashed with the Christmas decorations.
-‡, Trump Budget Cuts Could Result in Millions of New AIDS Related Infections. It is also too soon to be able to tell if the cuts in HIV/AIDS funding will reverse the decline of cases of the past few years. Probably will not have validated information until 2020 or later. Russia Stands on Brink of Unprecedented HIV/Aids Crisis as Thousands of Victims Deny it Even Exists, The Expanding Epidemic of HIV-1 in the Russian Federation. To End AIDS, We must Tackle Gender Inequality. Gwyneth Paltrow to Feature Doctor Who Thinks AIDS Is a Big Pharma Scam at In Goop Health. What We've Learned Treating People with HIV Can Make Care Better for Us All. Texans with HIV Cope with Homes and Medicines Ruined by Hurricane Harvey, one should assume in the aftermath of any disaster that chronic conditions that existed before the disaster will continue during and after the disaster. -170528-5.2↓. World AIDS Day 2017, Everybody Counts. Since the very beginning of the epidemic, the HIV response has been centred on human rights, equity and communities, the very foundations upon which universal health coverage has been built. As the HIV epidemic has evolved over the years, it has been the most vulnerable, marginalized communities and individuals that have been disproportionately affected. U.S. Funded HIV Prevention Effort Reaps Rewards in Uganda. Austerity Is Linked to Increased Deaths – the Data Is Clear. The Importance of Continued US Investment to Sustain Momentum Toward Global Health Security.
-171126-3.1‡>1. Vaccines Arrive in Yemen after Blockade. WHO Delivers Medicines as Diphtheria Spreads in Yemen. <ADDED 171119-170730-5.2B>8. United Nations Leaders Call on the Saudi Led Coalition to Fully Lift Blockade of Yemeni Red Sea Ports. Joint statement by UNHCR and WHO. The partial lifting of the blockade of Yemen’s Red Sea ports by the Saudi led coalition in recent days is allowing humanitarian organizations to resume the provision of life saving assistance to people in desperate need. Given the massive scale of Yemen’s humanitarian crisis, however, all this does is slow the collapse towards a massive humanitarian tragedy costing millions of lives. It does not prevent it. Without the urgent resumption of commercial imports, especially food, fuel and medicines, millions of children, women and men risk mass hunger, disease and death. Yemen Diphtheria Cases Soar amid Dire Vaccine Shortage, How War Created the Cholera Epidemic in Yemen. Yemen Conflict: Saudi Led Coalition Welcomes Saleh Talks Offer, which could be interpreted as the blockade working.
-171126-4>2. In Ads, Tobacco Companies Admit They Made Cigarettes More Addictive. Why You’re Going to See Ads by Tobacco Companies Admitting That Smoking Kills.
-171126-5>3. America’s Flat Earth Movement Appears to Be Growing. Conspiracy theories are not always harmless. The bogus notion that vaccines cause autism has led to a decline in immunisation rates in some places, which has allowed outbreaks of measles. Scepticism about climate change has infiltrated schools. A recent survey found that a third of American science teachers tell their students that climate change is driven in part by natural causes. One in ten say humans play no role in it. Conspiracy theories are appealing because they offer simple explanations for complex phenomena, or because they let people believe they are in possession of secret knowledge that the powerful wish to suppress. They tend to be most popular among less -educated people who do not trust public institutions. They are extremely common in dictatorships, where people assume, often correctly, that the authorities are lying. Simply rebutting conspiracy theories may make adherents even more entrenched in their views. (If “they” are so keen to deny it, it must be true). Absence of evidence is taken as evidence of a fiendishly effective cover up. Some conspiracy theories are irrefutable. The American government cannot prove, for example, that it is not storing dead aliens in a secret underground laboratory. If schools were better at teaching analytical thinking, that might reduce the appeal of conspiracy theories. And it would not hurt if governments were more open and trustworthy. Meanwhile, the best response is often to ignore the tinfoil hat brigade. What Does it Take to Believe the World Is Flat.
-‡. -5‡↑. I’m a Skeptic, and I Love the Flat Earth Movement. Anti-Vax Organization to Merge with Flat Earth Society. In Defense of Flat Earthers. David Wolfe: Flat Earther Brings Anti-Vax Message to Australia. Flat Earth Science and the Bible, All Posts by Anti-Vaccine Scientific Support Arsenal. | Provaccine Facts Only Strengthen Doubter's Misconceptions. Why the Flat Earth Movement Is the Best Symbol of the Increasingly Diminished Value of Truth and Intelligence. The rhetoric suggests a sort of proud alienation. Flat Earthers are alone, but only because they’re the only ones courageous enough to see the world as it really is. The Relativity of Wrong. People that think the earth is flat are wrong. People who think the Earth is spherical are wrong. If you think that thinking the earth is spherical is just as wrong as thinking the earth is flat, then your view is wronger than both of them put together. The basic trouble is that people think that "right" and "wrong" are absolute; that everything that isn't perfectly and completely right is totally and equally wrong. Right and wrong are fuzzy concepts, the theories we now have might be considered wrong in the simplistic sense, but in a much truer and subtler sense, they need only be considered incomplete. 35 Science Facts That Are Totally Wrong. During the early Middle Ages, virtually all scholars maintained that the Earth was round, not flat. The myth that people thought the Earth was flat was started in the 1940s by the Members of the Historical Association, Myth of the Flat Earth, Modern Flat Earth Societies, and may be another form of continuation of religious conflict -5.3↑.
-171105-4>4. This may not have gone the way that the Pruitt EPA planned. EPA Hears Worries about Climate in Heart of Coal Country. After more than four decades as a coal miner, Stanley Sturgill ambled into an ornate room at West Virginia’s state capitol Tuesday to deliver a stark message to the Trump administration: Climate change is real and continuing to burn the dirty fossil fuel hurts future generations. He was among dozens of who squared off at a public hearing over the intended repeal of an Obama era plan to limit planet warming carbon emissions. The EPA was holding the only scheduled hearing on the policy reversal in Charleston, capital of a state heavily dependent on coal mining. The hearing was expected to last two days. There were warnings from the other side, too – that the regulations threaten to choke off livelihoods in coal country and drive up people’s energy costs. But despite the locale of the hearing, those concerned about climate change packed the hearing room. However; the pattern of biotrumpism has been to ignore information contradicting a priori positions. Likely there will be claims the meeting was packed with people who were anti-coal, paid for by the Democrats of other demagogue trope*‡ (moral panic)ain [Meme]. Coal Country Criticizes Trump's Repeal of Obama Era Carbon Rule. In Germany's Appalachia, the Last Coal Mine Is Closing. US Officials Drop Mining Cleanup Rule after Industry Objects. U.N. Body Alarmed Over Mining Waste Disasters.
-*‡. What We Talk about When We Talk about Demagogues (2015), Here’s What Demagogues like Trump Do to Their Countries When They Take Power (2016), Donald Trump Is the First Demagogue of the Anthropocene (2016).
-Proverb: When the last tree is cut down, the last fish eaten, and the last stream poisoned, only then will you realize you cannot eat money. – Attributed to Native Americans, possibly to give the statement legitimacy.
-171126-7>5. Turning AMR Words into Action. Owing to the massive threat that it poses to world health and the economy, antimicrobial resistance has finally started to receive the attention it deserves. But awareness is only the first step; to solve the problem, governments, drug makers, and healthcare professionals will have to start taking more concrete action. #Linguistics Antimicrobial Resistance appears to be an umbrella term that includes antibiotics, antifungals, antivirals, antimalarials, and anthelmintics and superbugs. Antibiotic Resistance: an Old Problem with New Ramifications. Spread of Insecticide Resistance in Africa Threatens to Derail Malaria Prevention, Malaria Is No Longer in Decline and That Should Worry Us All, <ADDED 171126-171119-3.1>1. Antibiotics Gave Us Routine Surgery. Growing Resistance Could Change Everything, 170305-5. Exclusive Interviews: Tackling Regulatory and Economic Challenges of Antimicrobial Resistance. The “Antibiotic Apocalypse” Is Upon Us: Five Ways We Can Turn Things Around, killing 700,000 people per year, but a new report shows all hope is not lost. Maryn McKenna: What Do We Do When Antibiotics Don’t Work Any More (Video).
-A. Scarlet Fever, a Disease of Yore, Is Making a Comeback in Parts of the World. Normally this is just a watch item that is not noted in weekly notes but in the database. However from familiarity with this particular author (not the only author and source I tend to check further) there is a tendency to be superficial paraphrasing of sources, not getting more background, and not questioning what is provided. As Scarlet Fever Cases Rise, Baffled Researchers Investigate. At this time, unable to determine if there is a human cause, but there is a media and clinical attention. Is this an antibiotic form, has it been brought in from areas it is endemic (that is immigrants as disease source), has changing environment or climate fostered spread and reemergence. Scarlet Fever: Past and Present indicates it is a global endemic disease that has been known to go dormant, but became a problem in dense urban conditions until controlled by antibiotics. It may be more severe now because humans have been protected from it for so long that immunity is gone. The Mysterious Return of Scarlet Fever.
-171001-2.1>6. <ADDED 171008>2C. How Many Hurricane Deaths from Maria in Puerto Rico. The "official" Puerto Rico death toll from Hurricane Maria is 55. Four hundred seventy two more people died in September 2017 than in September 2016. New Data Shows Hurricane Deaths in Puerto Rico Could Be 20 Times Higher than the Government Claims. ¶ Puerto Rico's Medical Manufacturers Worry Federal Tax* Plan Could Kill Storm Recovery. Big Contracts, No Storm Tarps for Puerto Rico. They Do Everything for Their Sick Baby, but They Can’t Fix What Hurricane Irma Broke. Puerto Rico's Hurricane Recovery Hinders Farm Businesses' Seed Research. Over 200,000 Puerto Ricans Have Arrived in Florida since Hurricane Maria. A Controversial Oversight Board Could Take over Puerto Rico's Hurricane Rebuilding Effort, this is the Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico that has had a Mixed Reaction in Puerto Rico to New Financial Oversight Board, and then came into direct conflict with the governor with Puerto Rico’s Oversight Board Is About to Slash Government Workers’ Hours – and Pay, as well as questions about Post Maria recovery Puerto Rican Contract With Whitefish Energy Still Under Scrutiny , <ADDED 171112-171015-3A>2. We Don't Feel Safe Here: Building a Post Hurricane Life in Puerto Rico.
-*. The Senate’s Tax Bill Is a Sweeping Change to Every Part of Federal Health Care, Senate Tax Bill Accomplishes Major Obamacare Repeal Goal, Senate Republicans Pass a Tax Bill Giving Corporations a Massive Tax Cut and Cutting Health Care, GOP Leaders Celebrate Passing Point of No Return, this is not final as the House bill has to be reconciled with this one. The Tax Bill Is a Health Bill. A Tax That Would Hurt Science's Most Valuable, and Vulnerable.
-170528-5.2>7. Why the Team Behind Sesame Street Created a Character with Autism. The bravest new face on television is a Muppet that doesn’t say much. But she speaks volumes about life on the spectrum. For years the show’s creators have been spicing up their alluring, hand held curriculum of ABC’s and 1,2,3’s with lessons about life as it is. There has been standout content on marriage and death, on the families of those in the military, on hunger in America and kids with incarcerated parents, and there was an HIV positive Muppet on the South African series. But one of the most groundbreaking innovations in its long history of wondrous storytelling began in the late 1990s, when an editor at Sesame Magazine, noticed that she had company at work: other folks who had kids with autism. What was more, the characters that her colleagues crafted spoke powerfully to her son. At 3, he seemed to connect deeply to Sesame characters. Mention Elmo, he’d turn to you. A naturally musical child, he watched episodes with glee, singing the songs. By age 5, he’d spent two Halloweens dressed like Elmo. There was a little cell of parents with kids on the spectrum, who knew how powerful the show’s effect was on our children. Of course, they all thought about their kids someday seeing a reflection of themselves on the show, and then other kids could see them, too. Autism is a diverse and divided continent. The spectrum stretches from what, in the 1940s, Hans Asperger first dubbed his “little professors”, chatty but socially obtuse children, intensely focused on some narrow interest – to kids with no speech who are often self injurious, caught in sensory tsunamis. It’s also a battleground, with self advocates asserting they’re just differently abled, not disabled, and others crying out for supports to live the most basic life. How would it be possible to create a Sesame Street character that could bridge this span. Autism is not a biodisaster, though there is evidence based speculation that the trigger is environmental. There is parademic behavior toward people with it, and the behavior of people basing their decisions and behavior on it is very informative and seminal of what happens in biodisaster. Researchers Have Ditched the Autism-Vaccine Hypothesis. Here’s What They Think Actually Causes it. 171015-3‡ -11, ADDED 171008-170917-7>9, 171001-1 et al, 170924-7A, 170917-7A, <ADDED 170910-170827-8*>, 170827-3, 170806-4.1, 170625-5, 170604-2.1, 170521-2, #↓, Navigating Life on Campus When You're on the Autism Spectrum. -8↑.
-170205-5.1>8. <ADDED 171126>6. Michigan Wants All Lead Pipes Replaced Within 20 Years. Gov. Rick Snyder’s administration is planning to require the replacement of every underground lead service pipe in Michigan within 20 years while delaying by four years a deadline to implement the nation’s toughest lead limit for drinking water, in the wake of the Flint lead crisis.
-160515-↕4>9. One of the issues of biology is that it can harm and/or heal. Add technology that can also harm and heal and one has the major dilemma of biotech. Drones Distribute Swarms of Sterile Mosquitoes to Stop Zika and Other Diseases, the combine with large area distribution of vectors, Isis Will Use Drones to Spread Deadly Viruses, Warns EU Security Chief. Part of the issues involved is one side is praising the potential benefits of both a GMO and drones, the other is pushing fear of GMO (synthetic disease) and drones. This is further complicated that both these medical vs security perspectives have an interest in benefitting and profiting themselves, and their agendas may help others. There are other actor’s involved, anti-GMO and potential bioterrorists.
-A. Why a Brazilian State Went from 0 Cases of Dengue to 35,000 a Year. They lived in the right climate for the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which carries dengue fever. But that mosquito was nowhere to be found, and there were no recorded cases of dengue in the state. Then in the year 2000, Acre recorded its first case of dengue. Ten years later, there were 35,000 cases among a population of under 1 million. ¶ In the 1990s new roads were built linking Acre with areas further east in the Amazon basin. Also the number of flights in steadily increased. The government was actively encouraging commercial development in the western state. The new transportation infrastructure delivered more than just jobs and economic advancement. The roads and airstrips brought the ingredients needed for a dengue outbreak – the vector (aka the mosquito), the virus and more hosts. A study shows how increases in human movement in and out of Acre closely track with the rise in dengue cases. [Photo]. -B↓, 171008-4.1, 170924-4.1, 170820↕4, 170813-4.1, 170806-8B -9.3, 170730↕4, 170723↕4 -4.2, 170709↕4, 170702↕4, 170514-4.3, 170212-T, 170115-4.2, #↓, -B↓.
-B. New Dengue Vaccine Could Worsen Disease in Some People, should only be given to people who have previously been sickened by the virus, according to new long term data. Philippines Puts Dengue Immunization Program on Hold after new findings by the vaccine manufacturer that severe cases of dengue can occur in the longer term among those vaccinated without prior infection. An analysis based on up to six years of clinical data showed that in the longer term, more cases of severe dengue can occur following vaccination among people who have not had previous dengue infection. The analysis confirmed that the vaccine provides persistent protective benefit in those who had prior infection, and that those who were not previously infected by the dengue virus the vaccination prevented severe illness for at least 30 months. People who catch dengue more than once can be at risk of a hemorrhagic version of the disease. The mosquito spread disease is found in tropical and subtropical climates worldwide. It causes joint pain, nausea, vomiting and a rash. In severe cases, dengue can cause breathing problems, hemorrhaging and organ failure. About half the world’s population is at risk of dengue and about 96 million people are sickened by the viral infection every year. There are currently no reports of severe dengue infection among those vaccinated. The government will profile all those who received the vaccination and heighten its surveillance mechanisms. That will include mandatory history* taking of those vaccinated, mandatory reporting of all hospitalized vaccine recipients regardless of symptoms and 5 years of post vaccination surveillance. Seems to be a precautionary measure until more data is analyzed, with follow up collection on the risk. -A↑. Philippine President Vows to Get to the Bottom of Dengue Vaccine Health Scam. This is more in keeping with what I expected the rhetoric to be, more in line with other narratives. * ∩ But how valid is history. No Such Thing as Rohingya: Myanmar Erases a History, NBC News Is Erasing All Memory of Matt Lauer, ER Installs “Reverse Matt Lauer” Switches to Lock Drugseekers Out, -4Quote, -5, -7A, -3.1B‡↑.
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