№ 694. Science v. The 2020 Pandemic

NPR

 

Dr. Karikó, the 13th woman to win the prize, languished for many long years without funding or a permanent academic position, keeping her research afloat only by latching on to more senior scientists at the University of Pennsylvania who let her work with them. Unable to get a grant, she said she was told she was “not faculty quality” and was forced to retire from the university a decade ago. She remains only an adjunct professor there while she pursues plans to start a company with her daughter, Susan Francia, who has an M.B.A. and was a two-time Olympic gold medalist in rowing.

The mRNA work was especially frustrating, she said, because it was met with indifference and a lack of funds. She said she was motivated by more than not being called a quitter; as the work progressed, she saw small signs that her project could lead to better vaccines. “You don’t persevere and repeat and repeat just to say, ‘I am not giving up,’” she said.

№ 626. Fruits of Our Covid 19 Experience

 

Past reports have looked at the links between people's trust in government and institutions with happiness. The findings demonstrate that communities with high levels of trust are happier and more resilient in the face of a wide range of crises.

This year's report comes in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has upended lives around the world. "COVID-19 is the biggest health crisis we've seen in more than a century," said John Helliwell. "Now that we have two years of evidence, we are able to assess not just the importance of benevolence and trust, but to see how they have contributed to well-being during the pandemic."

"We found during 2021 remarkable worldwide growth in all three acts of kindness monitored in the Gallup World Poll. Helping strangers, volunteering, and donations in 2021 were strongly up in every part of the world, reaching levels almost 25% above their pre-pandemic prevalence. This surge of benevolence, which was especially great for the helping of strangers, provides powerful evidence that people respond to help others in need, creating in the process more happiness for the beneficiaries, good examples for others to follow, and better lives for themselves."

 

New Yorker

№ 615. 12 Signs of Fake N95, KN95, or KF94 Masks

At best, fake respirator masks are just a waste of money. At worst, they give those who need protection most a potentially dangerous false sense of security.

 

Philadelphia Inquirer

12 signs to separate the real masks from the fake:

№ 590. Travel

You’ve said that you don’t keep track of how many countries you’ve visited. Why is that?

Why would you? Is it a contest? Anybody who brags about how many countries they’ve been to — that’s no basis for the value of the travel they’ve done. You could have been to 100 countries and learned nothing, or you can go to Mexico and be a citizen of the planet. I find that there’s no correlation between people who count their countries and people who open their heart and their soul to the cultures they’re in.

 

Mercury News

 

№ 588. New Covid Alert Level System

 

Rappler

№ 586. Vaccination Metrics

 

№ 582. The Snake Oil Theory of the Modern Right

Consider where we are right now in the fight against Covid-19. A few months ago it seemed likely that the development of effective vaccines would soon bring the pandemic to an end. Instead, it goes on, with hospitalizations closing in on their peak from last winter. This is partly due to the emergence of the highly contagious Delta variant, but it also crucially reflects the refusal of many Americans to take the vaccines.

And much of this refusal is political. True, many people who are refusing to get vaccinated aren’t Trumpists, but there’s a strong negative correlation between Donald Trump’s share of a county’s vote and vaccinations. As of July, 86 percent of self-identified Democrats said they had had a vaccine shot, but only 54 percent of Republicans did.

But vaccine refusers aren’t just rejecting lifesaving vaccines, they’re also turning to life-threatening alternatives. We’re seeing a surge in sales of — and poisoning by — ivermectin, which is usually used to deworm livestock but has recently been touted on social media and Fox News as a Covid cure.

 

Marketoonist

№ 579. Ivermectin

The Scientist

 

Ivermectin, an anti-parasitic drug commonly used for livestock, should not be taken to treat or prevent Covid-19, the Food and Drug Administration said on Saturday.

The warning came a day after the Mississippi State Department of Health issued a similar statement in response to reports that an increasing number of people in Mississippi were using the drug to prevent a Covid infection.

 

Ivermectin, which is also formulated for use by people to treat parasitic worms, had been controversially promoted as a potential Covid treatment earlier in the pandemic, but recent studies found that the drug’s efficacy against the coronavirus is thin, and the F.D.A. has not approved the drug for Covid treatment.

 

Some of the symptoms associated with Ivermectin toxicity include rash, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, neurological disorders and potentially severe hepatitis that could require hospitalization, Mississippi health officials said.

№ 578. Intermission

 

Hope is created at the intersections of 1) passion – a desire for something vital, 2) perseverance – the need to prevail against great odds, and 3) faith – the belief that there could be something greater beyond those odds. When a leader, organization, or even country is facing its darkest days, like the ones we are in today feel like, hope is what gets us through. And while leaders can’t just “give hope” like a pill or “click here for hope” icon, what they can do is create the safe conditions in which people can discover it for themselves.

№ 577. The Delta Variant

 

№ 576. V for Vaccines 5

Strategies to Boost Vaccine Penetration in Communities

 

Twitter

 

“It’s not a public health strategy for any condition to just blame somebody into treatment and prevention,” said Rhea Boyd, a pediatrician and public health advocate. Telling the unvaccinated that they’re being selfish “really runs counter to all the work it’s going to take to convince those folks to be vaccinated, to trust us that we have their best interests in mind.”

№ 575. V for Vaccines 4

Our World in Data

№ 572. The Endgame: How Will the Pandemic End?

This is a long read, written in March 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic just after the borders were closed. Quite prophetic.

Three endgames:

1. One that’s very unlikely;

2. One that’s very dangerous; and, 

3. One that’s very long.

 

№ 570. Had Covid? You May Need Only One Dose of Vaccine, Study Suggests

People who have already been sick with Covid-19 should still be vaccinated, experts say, but they may experience intense side effects even after one dose.

By Cassandra Willyard

Published Feb. 1, 2021 / Updated Feb. 8, 2021

Shannon Romano, a molecular biologist, came down with Covid late last March, about a week after she and her colleagues shut down their lab at Mount Sinai Hospital. A debilitating headache came first, followed by a fever that kept rising, and then excruciating body aches. “I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t move,” she said. “Every one of my joints just hurt inside.”

It was not an experience she wanted to repeat — ever. So when she became eligible for the Covid-19 vaccine earlier this month, she got the shot.

Two days after her injection, she developed symptoms that felt very familiar. “The way my head hurt and the way my body ached was the same headache and body ache I had when I had Covid,” she said. She recovered quickly, but her body’s intense response to the jab caught her by surprise.

 

Pfizer's Vaccine

 

A new study may explain why Dr. Romano and many others who have had Covid report these unexpectedly intense reactions to the first shot of a vaccine. In a study posted online on Monday, researchers found that people who had previously been infected with the virus reported fatigue, headache, chills, fever, and muscle and joint pain after the first shot more frequently than did those who had never been infected. Covid survivors also had far higher antibody levels after both the first and second doses of the vaccine.

№ 568. Manila Extract 3 (NCR+)

Scout Mag

You're Old Testament.
A prophecy of unsealed
memes and fake news.

You are red-tagged.
A metastasis
hooked on ether.
 
You are Manila.
Hangry for cures
sniffed from dystopia.

 

№ 567. Manix Pandemix

 

GMA Network

№ 555. Happy V Day! V = Vaccine

 

Reuters Graphics

№ 548. Social Connections and Our Well-Being

Text from The Atlantic

Marketoonist

The psychological effects of losing all but our closest ties can be profound. Peripheral connections tether us to the world at large; without them, people sink into the compounding sameness of closed networks. Regular interaction with people outside our inner circle “just makes us feel more like part of a community, or part of something bigger,”.... People on the peripheries of our lives introduce us to new ideas, new information, new opportunities, and other new people. 

 

If variety is the spice of life, these relationships are the conduit for it.

The loss of these interactions may be one reason for the growth in internet conspiracy theories in the past year, and especially for the surge in groups like QAnon. But while online communities of all kinds can deliver some of the psychological benefits of meeting new people and making friends in the real world, the echo chamber of conspiracism is a further source of isolation. “There’s a lot of research showing that when you talk only to people who are like you, it actually makes your opinions shift even further away from other groups,”.... 

 

“That’s how cults work. That’s how terrorist groups work.”

The physical ramifications of isolation are also well documented.... social isolation increases the risk of premature death from any cause by almost 30 percent. “The scientific evidence suggests that we need a variety of kinds of relationships in our lives, and that different kinds of relationships or social roles can fulfill different kinds of needs,”.... People maintain hygiene, take their medication, and try to hold themselves together at least in part because those behaviors are socially necessary, and their repetition is rewarded. Remove those incentives, and some people fall into despair, unable to perform some of the crucial tasks of being alive. In people at risk for illness, lack of interaction can mean that symptoms go unnoticed and arrangements for medical care aren’t made. Humans are meant to be with one another, and when we aren’t, the decay shows in our bodies.

№ 546. Not All Masks Are Created Equal

Is there a hierarchy of masks?
 

A new study in Duke University ranked 14 types of commonly available masks, finding that medical masks offer significantly more protection against droplet spread than cotton alternatives – while bandanas protect less, and neck fleeces don’t do much at all.
 

The study revealed that different masks eliminated droplet spray by the following percentages, from the best to worst:

1. N95 - 99.9%
2. Surgical or polypropylene masks - 90%
3. Cotton face coverings - 70% to 90%
4. Bandanas - 50%
   

Neck fleeces, meanwhile, were found to expel more droplets than with no mask at all, probably by dispersing the largest droplets into many smaller droplets.

"The notion that 'anything is better than nothing' didn't hold true," said Eric Westman, one of the study's co-authors.

 

№ 534. Bottoms Up, 2021!

 This was forwarded in a viber group. Credit to the creator of the image. Very pointed sense of humor.