№ 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.

№ 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.”

№ 574. V for Vaccines 3

 The 3 Simple Rules That Underscore the Danger of Delta:
 

1. The vaccines are still beating the variants.
2. The variants are pummeling unvaccinated people.
3. The longer Principle No. 2 continues, the less likely No. 1 will hold.

Twitter.com

№ 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.

 

№ 520. Data in Color

 

№ 473. Vitamin S (Science)

Taiwan scientists find antibody that fights coronavirus.

BUT...

As many experts have reminded us, it will take about 12-18 months AT BEST to have a vaccine. 

Many viral diseases like polio, flu, chicken pox, hepatitis, etc. took many years, even decades, to manage with an effective and affordable vaccine. We will have to put in a community of resources --- time, scientists, governments, funds, cooperation and goodwill, etc. --- to invent another "miracle" of science. 

We need unity in diversity.

AND...

To be philosophical about this collective pandemic experience, it makes me appreciate how wonderful it is to be alive and how truly worth saving humanity is. Because what is the other path? Death? Despair? Descent into chaos?

№ 472. Cynicism is Sanity 2

Virus misinformation has human costs. It's very real. Lives are at stake.

"In one case we verified, a 5-year-old boy went blind after his parents plied him with illegal booze in an attempt to fight the disease."

How do we navigate across the lies, falsehoods and other misuses of information? Cynicism.

Here's the ABC of cynicism.

A - Ask for proof.
B - Be doubtful.
C- Confirm the information from reliable, independent sources.

Critical Thinking versus Fake News

№ 448. A Bucket List for an Extended Lockdown

The plague has the real world on lockdown. Thankfully, not the "Westworld."

Whittier Daily News

Here's a list of things to do during our extended free time:

1. Get involved in the community. Red Cross.

2. Visit museums.

3. Tour libraries, borrow and read books.

4. Plan the next trip. Pre-Visit or travel to countries and cities: Moscow Metro; Along Dusty Roads; and, Cool Hunting.

5. There's still free television, cable TV, Netflix, Amazon, Apple TV and other streaming services.

6. Brush up on or, at least, keep up with the unfolding current events. The pandemic will pass sooner or later. But we need to hit the ground running. We lost an entire month already. Ah yes, I faintly remember the concept of deadlines and conferences. Yup.

7. Keep in touch, stroll, curate the world, troll and stalk on social media. We could do this so well before the plague. There's so much more time to waste now.

8. House chores, laundry and sundry. Clean out the ref., that butter looks green.

№ 444. Virtual Tours in the Age of Covid

Max Gustafson

Here's a safer and cheaper way to travel while the world is on quarantine: virtual tours.

Soon, I think, we can reinvent the internet and involve the other senses in the virtual tours. For example, we can walk through the tour and touch the exhibits, if allowed. Or smell and taste them, if the curators want us to sample them.

Fast forward to science fiction reality about a hundred years from now. After this 2020 pandemic becomes an uneventful entry in history, I look forward to teleporting directly to any tourist attraction, museum, restaurant, concert on the planet or off.

Teleporting will dispense with a lot of the necessary inconveniences of travel in the present like check-in, immigration, pre-departure wait and baggage carousels. Viruses and other contaminants, like terrorists, can also be safely isolated in the ether before they reach their destinations. Some thought.

№ 440. The Pandemic of Xenophobia and Scapegoating

Societies facing novel pathogens have often engaged in scapegoating of marginalized populations, especially when the infective source can be linked to a distant place and the disease associated with a racially distinct “foreign” peoples. During the nineteenth century, rather than curtail commercial shipping, which ferried cholera around the globe, rattled cholera-stricken societies from New York to London turned their ire onto Irish immigrants instead. In 1832, a group of Irish immigrants, irrationally scorned as carriers, were first quarantined, and then secretly massacred and buried in a mass grave. Erroneously blamed for spreading HIV in the early 1980s, Haitians were beaten and harassed. Falsely scapegoated as carriers of SARS in 2003, Canadians of Chinese descent were kicked out of their homes and their businesses avoided.

№ 438. The Dark Side of Globalization: Pandemics 2

If we put the Novel Coronavirus in context, we help guard against irrational fears, biases, panics and prejudices. 

Outbreak

Globalization, the flow of information, goods, capital, and people across political and geographic boundaries, allows infectious diseases to rapidly spread around the world, while also allowing the alleviation of factors such as hunger and poverty, which are key determinants of global health.The spread of diseases across wide geographic scales has increased through history. Early diseases that spread from Asia to Europe were bubonic plague, influenza of various types, and similar infectious diseases.

In the current era of globalization, the world is more interdependent than at any other time. Efficient and inexpensive transportation has left few places inaccessible, and increased global trade in agricultural products has brought more and more people into contact with animal diseases that have subsequently jumped species barriers (see zoonosis).

№ 437. The Dark Side of Globalization: Pandemics

All about the Novel Coronavirus

How contagious is the virus?
It seems moderately infectious, similar to SARS.

How deadly is the virus?
It’s hard to know yet. But the fatality rate is probably less than 3 percent, much less than SARS.

How long does it take to show symptoms?
Possibly between 2 to 14 days, allowing the illness to go undetected.

How much have infected people traveled?
The virus spread quickly because it started in a transportation hub.

How effective will the response be?
The W.H.O. has praised China’s efforts, but critics fear lockdown measures may not be enough.

How long will it take to develop a vaccine?
A vaccine is still a year away — at minimum.