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martinelligi

What the Pandemic Is Doing to Our Brains - The Atlantic - 0 views

  • This is the fog of late pandemic, and it is brutal. In the spring, we joked about the Before Times, but they were still within reach, easily accessible in our shorter-term memories. In the summer and fall, with restrictions loosening and temperatures rising, we were able to replicate some of what life used to be like, at least in an adulterated form: outdoor drinks, a day at the beach. But now, in the cold, dark, featureless middle of our pandemic winter, we can neither remember what life was like before nor imagine what it’ll be like after.
  • The sunniest optimist would point out that all this forgetting is evidence of the resilience of our species. Humans forget a great deal of what happens to us, and we tend to do it pretty quickly—after the first 24 hours or so. “Our brains are very good at learning different things and forgetting the things that are not a priority,” Tina Franklin, a neuroscientist at Georgia Tech, told me. As the pandemic has taught us new habits and made old ones obsolete, our brains have essentially put actions like taking the bus and going to restaurants in deep storage, and placed social distancing and coughing into our elbows near the front of the closet. When our habits change back, presumably so will our recall.
  • The share of Americans reporting symptoms of anxiety disorder, depressive disorder, or both roughly quadrupled from June 2019 to December 2020, according to a Census Bureau study released late last year. What’s more, we simply don’t know the long-term effects of collective, sustained grief. Longitudinal studies of survivors of Chernobyl, 9/11, and Hurricane Katrina show elevated rates of mental-health problems, in some cases lasting for more than a decade
jmfinizio

Opinion: How to distribute Covid-19 vaccines fairly around the world - CNN - 0 views

  • how do we distribute vaccines safely and equitably to those most in need in our own countries and across the world
  • set back the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals by an estimated 20 years.
  • to distribute 2 billion doses of a vaccine, as well as 245 million treatments and 500 million tests by the end of 2021.
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  • As of today, 189 economies have signed up or are supported by the facility, but more is needed.
  • "5-point plan to protect humanity against another pandemic like Covid-19,"
  • The more vaccine candidates we have, the more likely we are to end the pandemic quickly.
  • poorer countries will be left behind and all of us will be less safe.
  • killed over 2 million adults and children in a single year at its peak.
jmfinizio

Opinion: UK decision to delay second Covid-19 vaccine dose is dubious - CNN - 0 views

  • The second dose of both vaccines can now be given up to 12 weeks after the first dose
  • Similar proposals about delaying the second dose have been discussed in the US,
  • the FDA does not support changing the vaccine administration protocol initially set forth
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  • how can the public trust the right decisions were made
  • how can the public trust the right decisions were made
  • How can knowledgeable independent healthcare professionals endorse those decisions when they are not privy to the process?
  • Pfizer vaccine to have a 90% short term efficacy, and a single dose of the Oxford vaccine to have a 70% short term efficacy.
  • Would confidence in the vaccine be reduced by multiple reports of vaccine failures among at-risk individuals
  • Perhaps the UK could consider instead other ways to conserve vaccine supplies that may be safer than the delayed second dose option.
  • Also, for people who have recovered from Covid-19 a single vaccine dose may indeed be sufficient to boost their antibodies to high levels
jmfinizio

California Rep. Lou Correa tests positive for Covid-19 - CNNPolitics - 0 views

  • Democratic Rep. Lou Correa of California said Saturday he has tested positive for Covid-19 and will miss President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration while isolating.
  • I look forward to working with the new administration to unite our country and help the millions of people devastated by the pandemic,
  • Correa had received his first dose of the Pfizer vaccine on December 19,
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  • The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says building immunity to Covid-19 "typically takes a few weeks" after vaccination and that it's possible a person could be infected before or after being vaccinated
  • CNN reported earlier this week that Correa was accosted by President Donald Trump supporters at Dulles International Airport following the Pro-Trump insurrection at the Capitol.
jmfinizio

Wuhan: Two WHO team members blocked from entering China over failed coronavirus antibod... - 0 views

  • Two members of a World Health Organization (WHO) team investigating the origins of the coronavirus pandemic have been blocked from flying to China after failing a coronavirus antibody test.
  • IgM antibodies are among the earliest potential signs of a coronavirus infection,
  • False positives are also possible with such tests.
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  • Since November 2020, travelers flying into China have to show neg
  • had previously been tested and found negative for coronavirus multiple times,
  • "I have been in contact with senior Chinese officials and I have once again made clear that the mission is a priority for WHO and the international team."
  • nothing is off limits
  • "We really need to have patience and not judge. It's meticulous work, it will take time,
  • the US would terminate its relationship with WHO,
  • "the investigation itself appears to be inconsistent" with its mandate.
  • As countries around the world struggle with new infection surges and outbreaks, China appears to be rebounding.
  • "more and more research suggests that the pandemic was likely to have been caused by separate outbreaks in multiple places in the world."
katherineharron

Donald Trump's 'bunker' story tells you everything you need to know about him - CNNPoli... - 0 views

  • "Well it was a false report. I was down during the day and I was there for a tiny, little short period of time. And it was much more for an inspection. There was no problem during the day."
  • "I've gone down two or three times, all for inspection. And, you go there, some day you may need it. I went down. I looked at it. It was during the day, and it was not a problem. And I read about it, in like, a big thing. There was never a problem ... nobody ever came close to giving us a problem."
  • This re-framing of history is remarkable solely for the gall it takes to attempt it. After all, every single major media organization reported over the weekend -- with NO pushback from the White House -- that Trump had been taken into the bunker for his own protection, not to, uh, "inspect" it.
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  • "As protesters gathered outside the White House Friday night in Washington, DC, President Donald Trump was briefly taken to the underground bunker for a period of time, according to a White House official and a law enforcement source.
  • "A law enforcement source and another source familiar with the matter tell CNN that first lady Melania Trump and their son, Barron, were also taken to the bunker.
  • So, why would Trump describe it falsely to Fox? Especially when there are a few other things going on in the country -- most notably ongoing protests over the murder of a black man at the hands of police in Minneapolis and a global pandemic that has killed 106,000 Americans and is projected to kill 135,000 by early August.
  • There is nothing Trump hates more than weakness. And the image of him cowering in an underground bunker while protesters stood outside the gates of the White House is simply not something he cannot accept. This is a man who has been telling himself a story of his life -- one in which he is always the toughest, the smartest and the winner-est -- for, well, his entire adult life.
  • He could have gone anytime, of course! It was just a coincidence he was down there amid the protests outside the White House! Just going down to make sure all the buttons worked! All the brass was sufficiently polished! And the like.
katherineharron

Covid-19 in the US: Hydroxychloroquine treatment for Covid-19 linked to a greater risk ... - 0 views

  • Seriously ill Covid-19 patients treated with hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine were more likely to die or develop dangerous heart arrhythmias, according to a large observational study published Friday in the medical journal The Lancet.
  • Researchers looked at data from more than 96,000 Covid-19 patients from 671 hospitals. All were hospitalized from late December to mid-April and had died or been discharged by April 21. Just below 15,000 were treated with the antimalarial drugs hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine, or one of those drugs combined with an antibiotic.
  • Those treatments were linked with a higher risk of dying in the hospital, the study found.
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  • "Previous small-scale studies have failed to identify robust evidence of a benefit and larger, randomised controlled trials are not yet completed," Dr. Frank Ruschitzka, director of the Heart Center at University Hospital Zurich and the study's coauthor, said in a statement.
  • President Donald Trump has repeatedly touted hydroxychloroquine as a potential coronavirus cure. Earlier this week he claimed he was taking daily doses of it as a prophylaxis to prevent infection.
  • Additionally, the study found serious cardiac arrhythmias were more common among patients who received any of the four treatments. The largest increase was among the group treated with hydroxychloroquine and an an antibiotic -- 8% of those patients developed a heart arrythmia, compared to 0.3% of the control group.
  • Items such as masks and hand sanitizer will be familiar sights in stuffed backpacks. Classes and school buses will have fewer people while some office meetings will be conducted by video conference, experts say.
  • Children with underlying health conditions are especially vulnerable, and it's crucial that people follow rules to keep everyone safe, Altmann said. She shared other things US schools must address before unlatching their doors.
  • "We need to quickly test them, diagnose, isolate and then contact trace, which is a lot easier when there's fewer kids they've come into contact with throughout the day," Altmann added.
  • In New York, 16.6% of people have been infected, compared with 1% in California, the researchers said.
  • In the most severe scenario, the CDC assumes that 1% of people overall with Covid-19 and symptoms will die. In the least severe scenario, it puts that number at 0.2%.
  • "Go out, wear a mask, stay six feet away from anyone so you have the physical distancing," he said. "Go for a run. Go for a walk. Go fishing. As long as you're not in a crowd and you're not in a situation where you can physically transmit the virus."
  • Alaska is allowing all businesses to reopen, as well as houses of worship, libraries, museums and sporting activities, starting at 8 a.m. Alaska has the fewest cases of all states and has reported single-digit new cases since mid-April.
katherineharron

The world sacrificed its elderly in the race to protect hospitals. The result was a cat... - 0 views

  • Three months ago, as the novel coronavirus began to gain a foothold in countries across Europe, officials in the UK said they were still confident that the risk to the British public remained low.
  • but at the time there were just 13 confirmed cases and no deaths in the UK. While the government ordered hospitals to prepare for an influx of patients, its advice to some of the country's most vulnerable people -- elderly residents of care or nursing homes -- was that they were "very unlikely" to be infected.
  • By May 1, of the 33,365 total confirmed deaths in England and Wales, at least 12,526 -- or 38% -- were care home residents, according to the latest estimates from the Office of National Statistics (ONS).
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  • The UK is not alone. Many other nations were slow to respond to the threat at care home facilities, and the consequences have been devastating.
  • Comparing death tolls can be difficult: some countries have separate data covering elderly care homes, while others include facilities for those with disabilities. Some countries do not include in their data those residents who die in hospitals, some have regional variation​, and some have no data at all.
  • There had been 1,661 coronavirus deaths among care home residents out of 3,395 total coronavirus deaths in Sweden by May 14, or 49%, according to LTCcovid's report.
  • 19 residents out of 110 had died in the past two months, but only five were confirmed Covid-19 deaths -- the rest were "undetermined," he said. He said he thought there had been "slight under-reporting" of deaths in the UK because of a lack of testing, and said the situation had been "harrowing."
  • A similar story played out in France, where coronavirus fatalities among care home residents in all settings make up more than half of all coronavirus deaths recorded as of May 18, according to health ministry data used in the LTCcovid report.
  • Elderly care sector professionals and care home workers published a letter to Health Minister Olivier Véran on March 20 expressing alarm and requesting 500,000 masks per week in affected areas, to which he agreed.
  • By March 24, the Spanish army was drafted in to help and found "abandoned" ​care home residents dead in their beds, according to Defense Minister Margarita Robles. The government said at its briefing the next day that the information had been passed to the public prosecutor, who was investigating. New care home guidelines called for extended isolation measures, but some homes said they would now have to send all staff home to comply.
  • She said the DHSC was prioritizing testing in care homes and had provided £3.2 billion ($3.9 billion) to local authorities to ease pressure on services including care homes, as well as an additional £600 million ($730 million) for homes last week. "Since the start of this pandemic we have worked to ensure our care homes and frontline care workforce get the support they need. Almost two thirds of care homes have not had an outbreak and deaths in all settings, including care homes, are falling."
  • Raffaele Antonelli Incalzi, head of the Italian geriatric society SIGG, said in a statement in early April that care homes were "biological time bombs," in part because overcrowded hospitals were moving elderly patients to unprepared homes.
  • The UK initially did not record care home deaths. While the latest official ONS data for England and Wales shows that 38% of coronavirus deaths occurred in care homes, LTCcovid said the figure could be far higher.
  • LTCcovid's report found that 3,890 of Canada's 4,740 coronavirus-linked deaths took place among care home residents as of May 8, or 82%, and Health Canada told CNN the percentage was nearly 80% on May 19. Canada's largest province, Ontario, has announced an independent inquiry.
  • Of the 247 total Covid-19 deaths in South Korea that had been confirmed as of April 30, 84 were care home residents -- a share of 34%. No large care home outbreaks have occurred since the measures were implemented.
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