Read This First, Heuristics (1), Glossary (A-H), Mini Lessons (2)
-1. Heuristics, 1.1. Incremental Care, 2. Anthropomicrobes, 3. Perception of Scale, 4. Climate Gentry, 4.1. Global Wierding, 4.2. Climate Change and Health, 5. One Health WMD, 5.1. What’s Good for the Lemurs Is ..., 6. Invasive Species Burns, 7. Medical Scam Extortion, 7.1. Policy Scam, 7.2. Synchronicity, 8. Danth War. <ADDED> >1. War Is, >2. DNA Bills, >3. Breast Milk, >4. Evidence Deconstruction, >5. Survivor Stigma, >6. Unprepared for Maria, >7. Unintended Straws. <VCP>.
Other Topics: BioTrumpism, BioPolitics, Vaccine, Biosphere, Disaster, Humor, Climate Change, Anthropocene, Anthropogenic, Communication, One Health, Media and Public Relations, Media Attention, Thailand Boys Caught in Cave, Florida, Real Estate, Algae Blooms, DNA Privacy, Science Advisors, Deforestation, Opioids, Moral Panic, Kaci Hickox, Memorials, Gun Control, Puerto Rico, Ebola, Moral Panic.
-1. Heuristics: The Psychology of Mental Shortcuts are efficient mental processes that help solve problems and learn, making problems less complex by ignoring some of the information, or the insertion of non information: Buffer words to allow time for processing and comprehension, rhetorical devices to influence meaning and provide a priori judgements so thought is unnecessary. Heuristics have become an influential concept in the areas of judgment and decision making. 1) Findings: Humans group objects together into patterns (e.g. a cluster of dots in the shape of a rectangle) (Apophenia). Decisions must be made with limited time, mental resources, and information. People rely on a limited set of heuristics when making decisions with information about which they are uncertain. Although heuristics are useful, they can lead to errors in thinking that are both predictable and unpredictable. The strategies the mind uses are influenced by the environment, to include learning. 2) Representativeness of heuristics judges the likelihood that an object belongs in a general category. 3) Anchoring and adjustment of heuristics allows estimation by starting at an initial value (the “anchor”) and adjusting up or down. Different initial values lead to different estimates. (Framing, Interpretation). 4) The availability of heuristics allows assessment of how often an event occurs or how likely it will occur, based onhow easily that event can be brought to mind, such as personal experience and beliefs. 5) The accuracy-effort trade off (Zipf’s law) is that the use of heuristics is because processing every piece of information takes time and effort. With heuristics, there can be faster and efficient decisions, albeit at the cost of the antipode of accuracy. Not every decision is worth spending the time necessary to reach the best possible conclusion, that the brain simply does not have the capacity to process everything. This implies heuristics to identify what is not pertinent and what has value. This is seen with the silo effect, such as only accepting information from specific sources (echo chambers), and other forms of bias. Ecological rationality theory. This theory states that some heuristics are best used in specific environments, such as uncertainty (no previous information or experience) and redundancy (pervious information and experience). Thus, heuristics are particularly relevant and useful in specific situations, rather than for all situations. This likewise implies heuristics to identify when one’s paradigms are not working, if not dangerous. Parademic speculation is that most people don’t have such heuristics. Why would inethey have a paradigm of feedback echoloction for course correction. They would not have a template unless it were true and consistent, so there is never a need to question one’s basic assumptions.
-‡. Physicians’ Beliefs May Override Cancer Patients’ Wishes for End of Life Care. Availability Heuristic at Play in the Autism Vaccine Wars, Shades of Grey in Vaccination Decision Making: Tradeoffs, Heuristics, and Implications, The Availability Heuristic, Vaccines, and Keeping Children Safe, The Psychology Behind the Anti-Vaccine Movement, How Cognitive Biases Contribute to People Refusing the Flu Vaccine, The Psychology of Vaccine Denial, Going Against the Herd: Psychological and Cultural Factors Underlying the Vaccination Confidence Gap, The Psychological Roots of Anti-Vaccination Attitudes: A 24 Nation Investigation, Beyond Rational Decision Making: Modelling the Influence of Cognitive Biases on the Dynamics of Vaccination Coverage.
-1.1. The Heroism of Incremental Care. This is a long edited excerpt. The original is better written and provides more information, but for those who are too busy this shorter version can be skimmed through. We devote vast resources to intensive, one off procedures, while starving the kind of steady, intimate care that often helps people more. There is rarely a single, immediate remedy. It takes a while – months, sometimes longer. Success is incremental. We have a certain heroic expectation of how medicine works. Following the Second World War, penicillin and then a raft of other antibiotics cured the scourge of bacterial diseases. New vaccines routed polio, diphtheria, rubella, and measles. Surgeons opened the heart, transplanted organs, and removed once inoperable tumors. Heart attacks could be stopped; cancers could be cured. A single generation experienced a transformation in the treatment of human illness as no generation had before. It was like discovering that water could put out fire. We built our health care system, accordingly, to deploy firefighters. Doctors became saviors, rescuers from certain death. But the model wasn’t quite right. If an illness is a fire, many of them require months or years to extinguish, or can be reduced only to a low level smolder. The treatments may have side effects and complications that require yet more attention. Chronic illness is commonplace, and we have are poorly prepared to deal with it. Much of what ails us requires a more patient kind of skill. | I was drawn to medicine by the aura of heroism – by the chance to charge in and solve a dangerous problem, and it was the operating room that really drew me in. I knew there was a place for prevention and maintenance and incremental progress against difficult problems. But surgery seemed like the real work of saving lives. Surgery was a definitive intervention at a critical moment in a person’s life, with a clear, calculable, frequently transformative outcome. Fields like primary care medicine seemed squishy and uncertain. How often could you really achieve victories by inveigling patients to take their medicines when less than half really do; to lose weight when most can’t keep it off; quit smoking; deal with alcohol problems; show up for their annual physical – which doesn’t make that much difference anyway. I wanted to know I was doing work that would matter. I decided to go into surgery. | Then I made the mistake of saying that I had more opportunities to make a clear difference in people’s lives than primary care. I was confronted that primary care is the profession that has the greatest over all impact, including lower mortality, better health, lower medical costs. Places with higher ratios of primary care physicians have lower rates of mortality. People with a primary care physician as their usual source of care had lower mortality rates than others, regardless of their initial health. A ten% increase in primary care improves people’s health as to add ten years to everyone’s life. The more complex medical needs the greater the longevity, quality of life and lower the cost come from primary care. | Frequent medical access increases familiarity. Attention for serious symptoms are sought far sooner, instead of being putting it off until it was too late. Having a regular source of oftlinemedical care, from a doctor who knows you, has a powerful effect on your willingness to seek care for severe symptoms. This alone appears to lower death rates. | When trained in inpatient (impatient) medicine, it is difficult to feel comfortable with outpatient waiting, of not having constant data, and the security of in house. Most of the time people will get better on their own, without intervention or extensive workup. If they don’t get better, then usually more clues to the diagnosis will emerge, and the steps will be clearer. The biggest struggle is trusting that patients will call if they get worse. Being able to tolerate the anxiety that accompanies taking care of people who are sick but not dangerously ill is not a skill expected for doctor, and it’s the hardest to develop. Success is not about the episodic, momentary victories, though they do play a role. It is about the longer view of incremental steps that produce sustained progress. That is what making a difference really looks like. | Officials regarded catastrophes as largely random and unavoidable. They employ reactive strategies. Not investing in maintenance and improvement to prevent disaster and extend life is cheaper that costs of responding after the inevitable crisis. Despite knowing how much cheaper preservation is, we chronically raid funds intended for incremental maintenance and care, and use them to pay for what’s new. It’s obvious why. New and replacement produce immediate and visible success; maintenance doesn’t. Does anyone reward politicians for a disaster that does not happen. With a low percent of loss of life, and lack of public response, these loses are in the tolerable range of risk* (that is the perceived risk of doing nothing are lower than the risks of doing something). Typically a breakdown must occur before people react to the need, leading to rushed funding on an emergency basis with dramatically heightened costs. For incremental maintenance there is generally little certainty about how much spending will really be needed or how effective it will be. Rescue delivers much more certainty. There is a beginning and an end to the effort, and you know what all the money and effort is and is not accomplishing. We don’t like to address problems until they are well upon us and unavoidable, and we don’t trust solutions that promise benefits only down the road. Incrementalists want us to take a longer view, believing that they can recognize problems before they happen, and that steady, iterative effort over years can reduce, delay, or eliminate problems. Yet incrementalists also want us to accept that we will never be able to fully anticipate or prevent all problems. | We are discovering the long term health significance of high blood pressure, diabetes, and other conditions. We’d begun collecting the data, developing the capacity to decode the patterns, and discovering the treatments. Seemingly random events are becoming open to prediction and alteration. Our frame of medical consideration widenx to encompass our entire life spans and all life forms. There is a lot that remains unpredictable, but the patterns are becoming more susceptible to surveillance, analysis, and iterative correction. The incrementalists are overtaking the rescuers, but the transformation has been incremental. | Our ability to use information to understand and reshape the trends towards particular events is accelerating in multiple ways. There are at least four kinds of information that matter to health and well being over time: internal systems, external living conditions, maintenance care, and behaviors. Our health system is not designed for this. We built health care when such information capabilities were nonexistent. Illness was experienced as a random catastrophe, medical discoveries focused on rescue, insurance for unanticipated needs. Then a system for episodic needs was what we needed. Hospitals and heroic interventions got the large investments; incrementalists were scanted. | The potential for incremental medicine to improve and save lives is dramatically at odds with the allocation of rewards. The difference between these financial rewards between medical rescue and medical incrementalism is not just shortsighted, it’s immoral. More than a quarter of Americans and Europeans who die before the age of seventy five would not have died so soon if they’d received appropriate medical care for their chronic conditions and monitored for acute ones. We routinely countenance inadequate care among the most vulnerable people. In this era of information syntheses, it become evident that life is a preexisting condition waiting have a lurking health condition that needs to be managed. Can we can give up the antiquated set of priorities for rescue medicine to lifelong incremental care. Do we leave millions of people to suffer and die from conditions that can now be predicted and managed. This isn’t a bloodless policy choice; it’s a medical emergency.
-*. Parkland School Shooting: Why Work for a Good Solution When There Is a Proven non Starter. <ADDED 180708-180304-3>7. ¶ This may have analogies to what happens for mass casualty/ fatality events from disease outbreaks, collapses, accidents, industrial accidents. What Happens to the Sites of Mass Shootings Depends on Where and What They Are. Sheltering Wings: Charleston Memorial Plan Conveys Solace.
-2. Its not just superbugs but How Humans Created the Ultimate Superpests. As urbanization continues to push wildlife to the brink, humans need to reevaluate their role in habitat destruction. Whether they’re drunkenly waddling through warehouses or setting off frenzied rabies alerts in metropolitan areas, raccoons sure know how to hold the spotlight. Major cities are their own private amusement parks. In the past few years, raccoons have instated a veritable reign of terror in Brooklyn, diving in and out of dumpsters, nesting inside chimneys and walloping neighborhood cats. Inquiries about raccoon control to the city help line went up by almost 70% between 2014 and 2015. [Cartoon]. The Strange and Curious Case of the Deadly Superbug Yeast. A pathogen that resists almost all of the drugs developed to treat or kill it is moving rapidly across the world, and public health experts are stymied how to stop it. It's a yeast, a new variety of an organism so common that it's used as one of the basic tools of lab science, transformed into an infection so disturbing that one lead researcher called it more infectious than Ebola*. Antibiotic Resistant Infections Kill More than Car Accidents: A Review of Superbugs. Novartis Becomes the Latest Pharma Company to Give Up on Antibiotics Research.
-*. The term Ebola is becoming a standard to measure a biocalamity against, often times incorrectly in terms of the real harm, but as the hyped meaning of the term. Its use here is incorrect. Ebola is fatal without effective care, but it is not that infectious. -7, -180513-1.1, VCP-Australia↓.
-3. Biosphere calamities are in temporal and spatial scales that are too slow/ fast, small/ large to be perceived by human senses and cognition, remaining hidden and remote from the awareness of people, much less gaining media attention -180708-8‡↓. People see the dramatic, the unusual, the sudden, the accelerated. 109 microbes die and born within 720 seconds in a .1"x.1" cube. The total biosphere is about 0007% of the total volume of the Earth, and 90% of the biosphere is in the hydrosphere. Doesn’t seem so crowded now, does it). A mass extinction of more than 66% of all life on Earth takes about 10,000+ years – 104 centuries, about the time from the beginning of agriculture to today, or .016% of the time there has been life on Earth. Recovery from a mass extinction takes 106+ years for new species to arise, depending on how many species lost (and those don’t resurrect). [Chart]. A Time Lapsed Glacier Collapse Is the Saddest Science Lesson. One of the first things you notice about videos of calving glaciers is the utter absence of scale. The craggy chunks of ice that break away could be the size of football fields or cities or maybe even whole states—but without a point of reference it can be next to impossible to say. They are unintelligibly immense. That perceptual effect happens in person, too. There's no real way to determine its size just by looking at it. A distant, dislodged iceberg might look small at first glance, but then you'll watch a helicopter fly towards it, and the helicopter will shrink and shrink and shrink and pretty soon it just disappears. [Map, Cartoon, Photo]. An Iceberg the Size of Lower Manhattan Just Broke off Greenland, A Giant Iceberg Parked Offshore. It’s Stunning, but Villagers Hit the Road. ¶ How Often Do Earthquakes Occur [Chart, Meme]. Pink Was the First Color of Life on Earth.
-4. Climate Gentrification: A 21st Century Problem, the intersection of climate change (biocalamity) and real estate (parademic), finds that higher elevations bring higher values. The theory of climate gentrification is based on a simple proposition: Climate change impacts arguably make some property more or less valuable by virtue of its capacity to accommodate a certain density of human settlement and its associated infrastructure. As with any disaster or biocalamity those with greater wealth will seek to buffer themselves from the threat, at as little cost to themselves as possible. This increases the gap of inequality and separation (with actual distance and barriers) between the haves and have nots. Have not’s could include not having health, a safe place to live or work, and life. People can become climate refugees and never move.
-‡. 3 Ways Real Estate Developers Can Stay Ahead of Climate Change, Rising Seas: Florida Is about to Be Wiped off the Map, Climate Change Will Force the Poor from Their Homes, Sea Level Rise and Coastal Development: Science Speaks Directly to Business, 180701-4B, 180527-1, 180527-1, 180422-2‡, 180318-1.1, 180204-3.1, Will Sea Level Rise Kill Coastal Florida’s Housing Market 2017, Seas Rising but Florida Keeps Building on the Coast 2016. [Map, Map, Map, Map]. -180708-8‡↓, Rising Sea, Falling Prices: Climate Change Hits Key Biscayne Home Values. Avoiding the Hazard by Not Acquiring the Land. Scorching Heat Wave Reveals Signs of Ancient Civilization in the UK. Mapping Species Range Shifts under Recent Climatic Changes. California Will Face a Terrible Choice: Save Cliff Side Homes or Public Beaches from Rising Seas.
-4.1. Global Weirding with Katharine Hayhoe is a collection of Climate Change videos. Latest video is this Is All Just a Part of a Natural Cycle, Right. "This is patronising arrogance of the highest order. History shows that there is nothing unusual about current climates across the globe. There is no such thing as "Global Weirding", just climate over time". Each of our Global Weirding episodes is based on many real life comments we've received. Here's the episode that was inspired by comments like this. 180610-3.1. -180624-4.1, -VCP-Research↓.
-4.2. PLOS Climate Change and Health. Climate change and the impacts on health are being increasingly reported and documented. It is expected that with continued rises in global temperature and greenhouse gas emissions the effects on health will become more widely experienced and extreme. Throughout July PLOS Medicine is publishing a Special Issue on climate change and health. The issue focuses on topics including the health effects of extreme heat and flooding, food system effects, non communicable disease risk, such as air pollution, infectious disease risks and the health benefits of greenhouse gas mitigation policies. The issue has a particular focus on evidence based studies focused on policy relevant work on adaptation and mitigation options.
-5. What would you do if you learned government agencies had a file on you. Canaries in the Coal Mine (Video). How does the health of our animal population affect the health of our human population. Tracey McNamara shares her groundbreaking work in veterinary pathology and promotes the advancement of zoonotics, the study of disease as it spreads from animals to people. She specializes in the recognition and understanding of the diseases of captive and free ranging wildlife and is best known for her work on West Nile virus. Her role in the discovery of the West Nile virus is described in the September 2000 GAO report West Nile Virus – Lessons for Public Health Emergency Preparedness. Advancing the One Health Movement: Our Ray of Hope for the Future. This webinar has already happened, registering simply allows one to watch it.
-5.1. Is What's Good for the Lemurs Also Good for the Locals. To protect the ecosystem and its critters, Madagascar made it illegal to cut down rainforest land for agriculture – and promised to give farmers a new way to earn a living. How did that work out.
-6. Giant Hogweed Plant Sends Virginia Teenager to Hospital with Third Degree Burns, ‘Plant from Hell’: Giant Hogweed Can Scar, Burn and Blind 2013. Here are Lists of Invasive Species by country or region. A species is regarded as invasive if it has been introduced by human action to a location, area, or region where it did not previously occur naturally (i.e., is not a native species), becomes capable of establishing a breeding population in the new location without further intervention by humans, and becomes a pest in the new location, threatening agriculture and/or the local biodiversity. The term invasive species refers to a subset of those species defined as introduced species.
-‡. Links to parademic non human invasive species: 180701-1 -‡, 180513-4.1, 180211-2, 180114-4 -6, 171210-3, 180114-6. <ADDED 180708>, 171210-3.1, 171105-8.2A, <ADDED 171008-170924-1A>4,<ADDED 171001-170924-1>1, 170910-9, 170903-1, 170625-7 et al, <ADDED 170625-170108-7>, 170604-6, 170423-4.2 -8.2, 170409-4, 170220-8.6, 170219-11, 170205-11.2, 170108-7.1, 161211-2 -2.1, 161204-3, 161030-11, 160828-6, 160710-7, 160626-3, 160522-2, 160508-13.
-7. Medical Scams are always as issue that can intensify a biocalamity, as well as being a parademic in themselves without having to have a biocalamity. FDA Warns of Fake Gov’t Warning Letters Sent to Consumers. This appears to be a variation of an extortion scheme where claims that a government agency (FBI, IRS) are bringing charges against you. Probably exploiting the current Opioid Epidemic -2*↑ moral panic and resulting shortages DOJ Unveils Proposal Giving Feds More Power to Limit Opioid Production. Medical scams can either exploit a need for a treatment that does not exist, provide a fake treatment at lower costs or that is in short supply for a high price, or be an intentional way to interfere with treatment or prophylactic (vaccine) to neutralized efforts to contain and control a biocalamity. | This letter scam is in part because 1.6 Billion Opioid Doses Poured Into Missouri Over 6 Years, pharmaceutical wholesalers had different standards for reporting suspicious orders to the DEA. This also means the opioids are part of water pollution.
-7.1. A clear example of political policy that could have consequences during a biocalamity. Michael Cohen’s Mysterious Communiques with a Big Pharma Company.
I never thought I'd write a health care newsletter that was also sort of about Russian collusion, but here we are – Dylan. It's easy to forget, but remember that time Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's former personal attorney and fixer who finds himself right in the middle of Robert Mueller's investigation, was paid $1 million by one of the biggest pharmaceutical companies in the world. Yeah, that happened. A trove of new documents, released Friday by Senate Democrats, give us a little clearer picture of what exactly was going on with Mr. Cohen and Novartis. 5 Key Takeaways from the Latest Indictment in Mueller's Russia Probe, and a different 5 Takeaways from the Russian Election Hacking Indictment. This is part of a larger Fake News Story, Fake News: An Origin Story. Apparently Fake News is becoming a meme that the news story is true but there are attempts to discredit it. Rudy Giuliani Attacks Peter Strzok over Testimony, Says It's 'A Disgrace' and That All Results of Mueller's Probe Should Be Dismissed. Speaking of Witch Hunts, Fair is Foul, Foul is Fair. Rudy Giuliani: The Mueller Indictments Are Great News for Donald Trump, The Timing of Mueller’s Russia Indictment Is Extremely Awkward for Trump. ¶ Read the Fine Print: N.J. Senator Sets up Phony Health News Website to Attack Challenger Bob Hugin.
-7.2. A bit on the history of concept of Synchronicity, In parademic synchronicity means when unrelated events happen close together the tendency to think that one caused the other, for example a fake cure is thought to be cure because of apparently feeling better after taking it. The reality is that the person was going to get better anyway, or a placebo that masks a condition for an interval that becomes fatal. On Coincidence. Lightning can strike twice and people do call just when you’re thinking of them – but are such coincidences meaningful.
-8. White House Declares War on Poverty Largely Over amid Push to Revamp Social Programs, and lower taxes because safety nets are no longer needed. This is fake news. The loser journalists deliberately misinterpreted the Whisper House press statement, a blatant attempt to make it appear the administration is out of contact with reality. They did not mean the war against poverty is over, what was meant was the war upon the poor is over. <ADDED 180624-180617-3.2>1C, 180401-2‡, 180325-6, 180301-3.5, <ADDED 180204-180121-4>5. 180128-1, 180114-4. [Cartoon]. Point Refuted a Thousand Times (PRATT): A false statement of misinformation that is still stated no matter how many time it has been refuted and debunked that people stop arguing the point, allowing the source of misinformation to declare victory.
<ADDED 180715>.
-180708-3>1. Changing from just the Ukraine Project to War impacts on health, environment. This Is What Collapsing Health, Education, Water and Sanitation Systems Look like in Yemen. It has the face of a father who has to choose between buying food for his family or buying medicine for his sick wife. In Yemen, one child dies every 10 minutes from a preventable disease. Mothers hold frail, acutely malnourished babies. A girl draws a picture of the world she dreams of, one in which the streets are safe, the sun is shining and the birds are chirping – nothing like the real world around her. Keeping babies alive in a country where nothing works any more is a real challenge: There are not enough respirators and not enough medicine. Health staff diligently report to work even though they have not received their salaries in two years. The malnutrition ward is packed. Parents have no money for health care, and by the time they bring their sick babies in, it is often too late. It has the face of a mother who looks on, powerless, as her eight month old child, who has the weight of a newborn baby, fights for his life. Three years into this conflict, more than half of the health facilities are non functional due to damage or a lack of operating budget and staff. Half of the country’s children do not have clean water. An outbreak of cholera/acute watery diarrhea last year, the biggest on record, killed more than 400 children under the age of five. At least 80 per cent of the population live below the poverty line. The whole public service sector in Yemen, not just health, has been left in tatters. Teachers have not been paid in months, forcing many to abandon their classrooms and find other sources of income. Up to 1,500 schools have been damaged due to airstrikes and shelling, or have been occupied by armed forces and displaced persons. Sanitation workers come to work although they are not paid; not doing so poses a serious risk in a country where cholera and famine are persistent risks. [Art, Art]. War in Ukraine Through the Eyes of Children. VCP-Ukraine↓.
-A. A different aspect of the biocalamity and parademic of war is the post period. This analogy is an illustration of the intersection of confinement, abuse, post conflict, forced migration and medical problems. Rarely is there effective planning for the post conflict, even though every war has one, meaning the post period is as much of a disaster as the event itself. When a Bavarian Monastery Provided a Home to Jewish Refugees. As World War II ended, Europe’s Jews began the process of rebuilding their lives and families. But few places were like St. Ottilien. The Monks, the Dachau Survivors and the Concert That Heralded Freedom, [Plaque, Photo, Photo, Art].
-180708-7>2. Government Told Immigrant Parents to Pay for DNA Tests to Be Reunited with Kids. Strikes me as being equivalent to beating someone up, causing an accident where they are hurt, willfully damaging the environment, and then making those who were the victims of those act have to pay the medical bills. HHS: 5 Adults Claiming to Be Parents of Detained Children Ruled out by DNA Tests, which does not rule out step children, adoption, other family relations, guardianship. | Has Genetic Privacy Been Strained by Trump's Recent ACA Moves. If You Give Your DNA and Tissues to Science, Should You Get a Peek at What They Might Contain. ¶ Trump Administration Says it Has Completed Reunifying Migrant Kids under 5, The US Decided to Keep 46 Kids under Five Separated from Their Families. Here’s Why, All Eligible Children under 5 Reunited with Families, but Thousands of Older Kids Still in Custody. Another collateral damage of the anti-migrant policy, a child needs a place to stay after heart surgery as it is dangerous to return to Haiti, Dear America. -180128-3.1↓.
-180708-8>3. Trump Says US Had Opposed Formula Limits, Not Breastfeeding. If there had been science advisers* the US would have known their stance would be against the majority, and with the foreknowledge avoided bullying tactics. Trying to explain ones legitimate rational after the fact is too late. Trump Stance on Breast Feeding and Formula Criticized by Medical Experts. Continuing to support a position without expertise support on the best way to express a stance (that is give a media spin -2-) is just makes a bad situation worse. Doing so opens more opportunity for inciting more outrage, Trump Administration's Opposition to Breastfeeding Resolution Sparks Outrage, among those with as little expertise on the topic as they have. Don't Listen to Trump, Poverty Is Exactly the Situation Where Breastfeeding May Be Ideal, especially if there is no source of clean water to make formula, and there is means to improve nutrition; Is Infant Formula Ever a Good Option in Poor Countries. | Here's Why It's Important to Support Your Breastfeeding Coworkers. How the Slow Sabotage of Obamacare May Hurt America’s Breastfeeding Rate; and it will not be a surprise that there will be a report about Melina and breast feeding Barron. For Donald and Ivana Trump, Breastfeeding Was ‘Disgusting’ and ‘Totally Unsexy’. *Politics and Science: A Glowing Combination 2008, -180624-4.1↓.
-‡. U.S. Effort to Weaken an International Breast Feeding Resolution Has a Long History, The Epic Battle Between Breast Milk and Infant Formula Companies. Why Breast Feeding Scares Donald Trump. Spoiled Milk. The U.S. Bullied the World to Stop a Pro Breastfeeding Resolution. That's the American Way. Trump Administration Bullies Poor Countries into Disavowing Breast Feeding, Stands with Formula Companies. Trump Denies US Opposition to WHO Breastfeeding Resolution. Trump Blasts Fake NYT Story on US Opposition to Breastfeeding Measure. Trump Is Right to Stand up to the Lactation Bullies. The Trump Administration Isn’t Defending Women’s Choices on Breastfeeding. It’s Attacking Them. Breastfeeding Has Been the Best Public Health Policy Throughout History. Suspect that the high interest is more because of Trump involvement than the issue itself. People are shocked as no one suspected he is anti-breast [Photo, Cartoon]. Breast Feeding or Formula. For Americans, It’s Complicated. Gerber: Feeding Formula to Baby Helps Infant Bond with Parent Corporation. ¶ Breast feeding or the rescue from a cave are not parademic, except that there is still unanswered question why some things get media attention out of proportion to the issue, to include social, while others with greater loss of life do not. Why the Thai Cave Rescue Drew So Much Attention Compared to Other Crises, A Thai Cave, an Extraordinary Tale and a Captivated World, Elon Musk's Mini Sub Not Practical for Thai Cave, According to Rescue Chief, Medical Subspecialty Headlines Show Captivation with Thai Soccer Team Rescue, Empathetic Hedonism: Why We Were So Glued to the Thai Cave Drama. And the highest attention and money making pinnacle a story can reach, Competing Movies about the Thai Cave Rescue Are Already in the Works. This is also a parademic problem as it may only be the vaguest of clues embedded in other stories, or are a single brief blurb, that first indicate a major bioevent is beginning to accelerate, like this item Algae, Seaweed Discolor Florida Waters and Beaches [Photo]. The clue was that algae blooms are moving from an annual occurrence, to becoming year round. Algae blooms are already on the watch list so it was easy to spot an item and find more that was related. Scientists Say Climate Change Will Worsen These Algae Problems, A Toxic Algal Bloom Is Spreading in Florida’s Waterways, Gov. Scott: Toxic Algae Bloom Threatening Southwest Florida, Gov. Scott Declares State of Emergency over Algae Bloom, Algae Bloom in Florida Prompts Fears About Harm to Health and Economy, Legal Fight Pits Historic Preservation Against Climate Change Preparation, Toxic Algae Blooms in Fl. Linked to Too Much Fertilizer and to Climate Change 2016, Slimy Green Beaches May Be Florida's New Normal 2013, Harmful Algal Blooms and Coastal Business: Economic Consequences in Florida 2005, Florida's Harmful Algae Blooms Threaten Human Health 1999. -3, -4↑. 180701-4B.
-180624-4.1>4, <ADDED 180708>3. The original intent was to examine Four Principles to Make Evidence Synthesis More Useful for Policy as a vehicle to examine policy and planning connections and influence, giving some background information for that discussion to make sense. Turns out when looking into the topic more, policy can include not planning as a means to maximize disruption to push an agenda. There are numerous examples from biotrumpism where these principles are violated. As for the ideals of the principles of evidence synthesis – Inclusive, Minimize bias, Transparent process, Accessible – are not just ideals, but if implemented as stated are just as open to being abused, corrupted, causing harm just as biotrumpism does. Inclusive does not mean that willingness to share information means policy makers will accept the information; Controlling bias can also mean eliminating ideas outside of dogmatic consensus, Transparency is a form of intimidation, especially when interpretation of what is seen can be manipulated; and Accessible can be dumbing down or fudging facts to be simple clear and concise, leading people to the right choice. This evidence based has no guarantee how evidence is used or what is considered evidence. There is also the factor that though people on the whole remain the same, the circumstances they are in can change dramatically, meaning the same person will respond differently in different situation that may seem inconsistent. d, to question themselves 1.1↑ Why so few lawmakers get their research directly from universities may have to do with the questions each side is most concerned with. Historically, university researchers have mainly asked research questions that are of interest to themselves and other university researchers. These are often different than the questions that are of interest to policymakers. They don't turn to researchers because they don't think they'll have information that is relevant to the policy decisions they face. This is essentially what boils down to policy influence on a plan. It is not a plan, but the plans for plans. Planning is continuous, not a static document that one completes and it is done until an actual situation arises and nullifies the plan, and then the situation is exacerbated because the plan is implemented anyway despite the emergent situation.
-‡. New EPA Acting Chief Signals More Inclusive Approach. EPA Chief Scott Pruitt: Delete Decades of Science in the Name of Transparency. Three Quarters of U.S. Lawmakers Don't Look to University Scientists for Behavioral Health Research. Humpty Dumpty's Theory of Meaning + 1984 + Overton Window. The Bible Doesn’t Talk about Climate Change, Right, -4.1↑. <ADDED 180401-180304-6>5, 180311-1.1*, <ADDED 180401-180708-8>. Behind Contentious Local Politics: Failed and Toxic Leadership, The "You're Despicable" Style of Politics, How Bad Policy Happens. Conservation Social Science: Understanding and Integrating Human Dimensions to Improve Conservation. Trump Wish for Warm Putin Ties Highlights Policy Disconnect.
-180513-1.1>5, <ADDED 180708>. The latest Ebola Outbreak in the DRC has nearly gone dormant again (until next time). But is it every over either epidemiologically or socially. DR Congo: The Complicated Daily Life of Ebola Survivors. In DRC the end of the Ebola outbreak is emerging. The authorities hope to declare it by July 22, the last suspected case being released from quarantine on June 27. However, for the healed, the situation is always difficult. They must face isolation and ostracism. | I Wasn't Even Seen as a Human: Nurse Wrongly Painted as Public Threat During Height of Ebola Scare, 180701-6, 170806-1. The Hickox situation was one that got a great deal of media attention and demonization Oxford Based Company Develops Ebola Doll That Looks like Quarantined Nurse, [Cartoon] -2*↑. That information however is in the 2014 database which I can retrieve if anyone is interested. | An Ebola Outbreak Has Just Been Stopped. Here's What It Tells Us About Containing Epidemics. After a month with no new cases, the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo appears to be under control and weeks away from officially ending. Less than three months since it was declared, and after only about 50 cases, this outbreak's efficient containment is a remarkable achievement that stands in stark contrast to the West African epidemic that spiraled into a two year global crisis with over 28,000 cases.
-180128-3.1>, <ADDED 180708>9. FEMA Report Acknowledges Failures in Puerto Rico Disaster Response. Unlikely that this will lead to any improvements to FEMA capabilities during the current presidency, or investigation is this may have been intentional. Lack of money is apparently not the issue as there is plenty of it available for self inflicted crisis, Detaining Immigrant Kids Is Now a Billion Dollar Industry, Health and Human Services Grants for Detained Children Approach $1B, -180708-7↑. Probably more a problem of judgements of what is considered important and a priority, or mislabeled as non Americans and type of illegal migrant. Mortality in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria.
-171210-10>, <ADDED 180617>7. Unintended Consequence Plastic Straw Bans Leave out People with Disabilities Proponents of ridding the world of plastic might be quick to call this a big win for the environment. But as these bans become more popular, disability rights activists have started speaking up about how they can erode accessibility. Why People with Disabilities Want Bans on Plastic Straws to Be More Flexible. There are many alternatives to plastic straws – paper, biodegradable plastics and even reusable straws made from metal or silicone. But paper straws and similar biodegradable options often fall apart too quickly or are easy for people with limited jaw control to bite through. Silicone straws are often not flexible – one of the most important features for people with mobility challenges. Disability Group Wants Pause on Straw Ban Campaign. Reusable straws need to be washed, which not all people with disabilities can do easily. And metal straws, which conduct heat and cold in addition to being hard and inflexible, can pose a safety risk. Straws are fomites, not something one wants to have during a contagion. Contaminated plastic straws are easily disposed of by burning, though plastic can be an air pollutant when burned. Paper straws are the easiest to dispose of safely with limited consequences, but as pointed out may not be useful for the very sick. Also if straws become a speciality medical item its costs can go up. [Photo]. | More Recycling Won't Solve Plastic Pollution. An Indian State Bans Plastic Bags, Straws and More. Will it Work.
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Parademic Weekly Notes (Parademic) for Vaccine Confidence Project (VCP) Week Ending 180715-VCP.
Disclaimer: Parademic and its VCP excerpts are not an affiliate of or funded by VCP, The London School of Tropical Medicine, or any other organization. The notes are provided free of any obligation on the part of either VCP or Parademic. The additional related material is provided as additional information for the use of those who wish to pursue a topic further, validity of the information is not implied. If there is disagreement between VCP and Parademic, the curator of Parademic recommends given greater weight to VCP positions. VCP has the greater capabilities, expertise and focus on its subject area. Parademic is a general database on human behavior in the context of biosphere calamities which incidentally overlaps with VCP interests. Human behavior is based on opinions and attitudes concerning what is believed to be true, not necessarily verified fact.
-I. VCP News Archive: {Additional information provided by Parademic}
-USA: The Next Plague Is Coming. Is America Ready, 180617-7. ¶ Why Vaccine Opponents Think They Know More than Medical Experts, {People Who Think They’re Autism Experts Actually Know the Least About It, People Who Think Their Opinions Are Superior to Others Are Most Prone to Overestimating Their Relevant Knowledge and Ignoring Chances to Learn More, -180624-4.1↑. | More Texans Are Filing for Nonmedical Vaccine Exemptions. Child in Clark County Suspected to Have Measles – 3rd in Area in Two Weeks, Third Measles Case Confirmed in Northwestern Oregon, Third Measles Case Confirmed in Multnomah County, 180708-VCP. Changes in Influenza Vaccination Requirements for Health Care Personnel in US Hospitals. Pushback Against Immunization Laws Leaves Some California Schools Vulnerable to Outbreaks. | Alex Jones Vows to Push Anti-Vax Views next Time He Talks to Trump. Will It Take an Epidemic for Us to Do What’s Right for Our Kids. It’s Time to Get Serious on Vaccinations}.
-Italy: Rise of Italian Populist Parties Buoys Anti-Vaccine Movement. VCP-180708. {Why Is Italy the Anti- Vaccination Capital of Europe}.
-Hong Kong: Girl Dies after Catching Flu Infection, the Third Such Death this Year. Though a tragedy, this reads as if someone was trying to find something to generate outraged about. 180204-6.2.
-Ukraine: 1,021 Measles Cases in the past Week. -180708-3↑. Full record of articles is at Outbreak News Today - Ukraine.
-Australia: Child Influenza Death Sparks Flu Vaccine Warning. A previously identified hotspot, Perth, <ADDED 180617-VCP>, 180325-6.1‡ is on the opposite side of the continent from Westmead, but Westmead is a suburb of Sydney 180311-3.1‡, in an area where unvaccinated children have died before 180114-2.3‡, and was the epicenter of a bad flu outbreak last year <ADDED 170924-170917-7A>5, What Australia's Bad Flu Season Means for Europe, North America, <170910-VCP-Not Used>. ¶ Anti-Vaxxers Are Targeting a Vaccine for a Virus Deadlier Than Ebola -2*↑. {Horse Owners Launch $53 Million Class Action Against Hendra Vaccine Maker Zoetis, Inside the Hendra Vaccine Debate, Managing Hendra Without Vaccine, Hendra Virus Protection Cost Too High, Racehorses Unaffected by Hendra Vaccination. Vets concerned about Hendra vaccine myths, Myth Busting Hendra Vaccine, Vaccine Myth Busting Can Backfire. The Subject of a Vaccine for the Hendra Virus Is Driving a Split in Queensland’s Riding Fraternity, Equestrian Industry Being Held to Ransom. Vaccine Wars: The Great Debate. | Lethal Hendra Virus Outbreaks May Be Caused by Man}. As far as I can find there is no connection between this and the Australian Vaccine Skeptics Network. This may not be anti-vaccine so much as other issues, with limited correlation with these people not getting vaccinations for themselves.| I have that there seem to be two two different anti-vax motivators: Misinformation where people make decisions based on partial information, information that is wrong coupled with not having the skills to evaluate and gather more information that is not a repeat of what they already know; Disinformation (Maskirovka), that stems from those who profit in some way by manipulating information, if not outright fabricate information, that will forward their goals. In some cases these disinformation people are aware that they are lying but sincerely believe that their ends justify the means they use to archive those.
-II. Not in VCP New Archive:
-Research: Does Disgust Drive Anti-Vax Sentiment. Does't Look like it to Me. The Autism Holocaust. Why Antivaccine Advocates Are Not Autism Advocates. Conspiracy Beliefs and Anti-Vaccination Attitudes: What's the Link. New Effort for Lyme Disease Vaccine Draws Early Fire. Whooping Cough Vaccine: The Power of First Impressions. Change Health Messaging to Focus on Potential Impact to Help Stop the next Pandemic, but as far as I know message about how not vaccinating harms others has never swayed anti-vax, or any other issue that has become part of personal identity, If I Just Explain the Facts, They'll Get It, Right (Video) -4.1↑. Fractional Dose Yellow Fever Vaccination – Advancing the Evidence Base. Spanish Researchers Develop Five Strain Ebola Vaccine.
-UK: Measles Outbreak Tally in England Now 750.
-DRC: Circulating Vaccine Derived Poliovirus Type 2 – Democratic Republic of the Congo.
-Europe: A Report on the Status of Vaccination in Europe. Vaccine policy, decision processes and outcomes vary widely across Europe. The objective was to map these factors across 16 European countries by assessing national vaccination strategy and implementation, attributes of healthcare vaccination systems, and outcomes of universal mass vaccination as a measure of how successful the vaccination policy is. [Map].
III. Stubs Applicable to VCP from Parademic Notes 180715. -1. -2*, -4.1.
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