Via The Guardian: Lockdowns and face masks ‘unequivocally’ cut spread of Covid, report finds. Excerpt:

Measures taken during the Covid pandemic such as social distancing and wearing face masks “unequivocally” reduced the spread of infections, a report has found.

Experts looked at the effectiveness of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) – not drugs or vaccines – when applied in packages that combine a number of measures that complement one another.

They found that those requiring a small cuff reported consistently low blood pressure readings. In contrast, those requiring a large or an extra-large cuff reported high blood pressure measurements with major errors. //

In the end, the experts concluded that the traditional, one-size-fits-all approach too often yields incorrect blood pressure readings that mislead medical professionals, resulting in incorrect diagnoses and health advice.

If you’re using an oximeter at home and your oxygen saturation level is 92% or lower, call your healthcare provider. If it’s at 88% or lower, get to the nearest emergency room as soon as possible.

Brain scans showed that Botox injected into the forehead altered people’s brain chemistry, impacting how they interpreted other people’s emotions, a new study published in Scientific Reports found.

Botox is an injectable that temporarily reduces or eliminates facial fine lines and wrinkles and is popularly used to reduce the appearance of frown lines, forehead creases and crow’s feet near the eyes. //

As more and more people across the country continue to schedule appointments to get Botox, researchers questioned how the temporary paralysis of the facial muscles that results from the treatment impacts a person’s ability to interpret emotions. //

Botox was found to hinder the facial feedback hypothesis, which claims that people instinctively mirror facial expressions in an effort to identify and experience the emotion being expressed in front of them.

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slugabed Ars Scholae Palatinae
16y
1,273
I guess bad things are bound to happen in the center of the Venn diagram of Greed, Vanity, and The Most Toxic Compound Known. And maybe the only thing worse than real toxin is counterfeit toxin?

Glad I read to the end, though. Love horses.

Giving young babies - between four and six months old - tiny tastes of smooth peanut butter could dramatically cut peanut allergies, say scientists.

Research shows there is a crucial opportunity during weaning to cut allergy cases by 77%.

They say the government's advice on weaning - which says no solids until around six months - needs to change.

Experts warn whole or chopped nuts and peanuts are a choking risk and should not be given to children under five.

The current NHS guidance does say peanut (crushed, ground or butter) can be introduced from around six months old.

A baby is ready for their first solid food if:

• they can stay in a sitting position, holding their head steady
• co-ordinate their eyes, hands and mouth so they can look at their food, pick it up and put it in their mouth
• swallow food, rather than spit it back out //

There had been long-standing advice to avoid foods that can trigger allergies during early childhood. At one point, families were once told to avoid peanut until their child was three years old.

However, evidence over the last 15 years has turned that on its head.

Instead, eating peanut while the immune system is still developing - and learning to recognise friend from foe - can reduce allergic reactions, experts say.

It also means the body's first experience of peanut is in the tummy where it is more likely to be recognised as food rather than on the skin, where it may be more likely to be treated as a threat.

Israel, where peanut snacks are common in early life, has much lower rates of allergy.

Other studies have suggested introducing other foods linked to allergies - such as egg, milk and wheat - early also reduced allergy.

https://www.jacionline.org/article/S0091-6749(22)01656-6/fulltext

“There’s still no evidence that masks are effective during a pandemic,” the study’s lead author, physician, and epidemiologist Tom Jefferson, recently told an interviewer.

Many public health experts vigorously disagree with that claim, but the study has caught attention, in part, because of its pedigree: It was published by Cochrane, a not-for-profit that aims to bring rigorous scientific evidence more squarely into the practice of medicine. The group’s highly regarded systematic reviews affect clinical practice worldwide. “It’s really our gold standard for evidence-based medicine,” said Jeanne Noble, a physician and associate professor of emergency medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. One epidemiologist described Cochrane as “the Bible.”

The new review, “Physical interventions to interrupt or reduce the spread of respiratory viruses,” is an updated version of a paper published in the fall of 2020. It dropped at a time when debates over COVID-19 are still simmering among scientists, politicians, and the broader public. //

The polarized debate conceals a murkier picture. Whether or not masks “work” is a multilayered question—one involving a mix of physics, infectious disease biology, and human behavior. Many scientists and physicians say the Cochrane review’s findings were, in a strict sense, correct: High-quality studies known as randomized controlled trials, or RCTs, don’t typically show much benefit for mask wearers. //

In a recent interview with Undark, Brosseau stressed that she thinks cloth and surgical masks have some protective benefit. But she and others, including Osterholm, have urged policymakers to emphasize tight-fitting respirators like N95s, rather than looser-fitting cloth and surgical masks. That's because there’s clear evidence that respirators can effectively ensnare those tiny particles. “A well-fitting, good quality respirator will trap the virus, almost all of it, and will greatly reduce your exposure to it,” said Linsey Marr, an engineering professor at Virginia Tech who studies the airborne transmission of viruses. //

Huang's analysis found that mask mandates were associated with substantially dampened COVID-19 spikes, although the benefit waned over time in some counties. The reason behind that waning was unclear, but could perhaps be could be due to fatigue with the mandates, the researchers suggested. Similar studies have often—but not always—found a positive effect.

Whether the masks were responsible for those benefits, though, was hard to pin down, Huang said. It’s possible that other factors—such as other policies implemented alongside mask mandates, or greater social distancing—actually kept COVID-19 rates lower, rather than the masks themselves. “I think it’s very difficult,” Huang said, “to make a causation conclusion.” //

“Strictly speaking, they're correct that there's no statistically significant effect,” said Ben Cowling, an epidemiologist at the University of Hong Kong whose research is cited in the Cochrane review. “But when you look at the totality of evidence, I think there's a pretty good indication that masks can protect people when they wear them.”

In particular, Cowling said, mechanistic studies—like those conducted with mannequins—do offer strong evidence that respirators cut down on the passage of viral particles.

Huang, the Penn biostatistician, is among others who argue that, in many RCTs examining mask use, the sample sizes are just too small. Even if masks are effective, that may not show up as a statistically meaningful result. “When the effect is moderate, or small, we really need a large sample size to find a significant difference,” said Huang. Many of these RCTs, she said, simply weren’t large enough to find some potentially meaningful signal.

And even if the effect is modest, during peak periods of a pandemic, small advantages can have a large impact by reducing the number of sick patients seeking hospital care at the same time. “From a public health perspective," said Cowling, "reducing the reproductive number by even 10 percent could be valuable." //

That's the thing,” said Shira Doron, a physician and the chief infection control officer at Tufts Medicine. A respirator, used perfectly and continuously, may work to reduce the spread of COVID-19. But if there’s a public health intervention that requires strict adherence, and almost nobody seems willing or able to follow it, is that actually an effective intervention at all? What does it even mean to say that it works? //

Cowling, who heads the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of Hong Kong’s School of Public Health, expressed doubts about that kind of policy. He argued that the evidence is clear that widespread masking, deployed during a pandemic surge, may help to flatten the curve and save lives. “That's the exact scenario that public health measures are designed for,” he said. But “that's not the way they've been used in the last years,” he added.

"What's happened in many parts of the world is that measures are brought in and kept in place,” Cowling said, “far longer than they're needed."

• Diagnostic criteria for postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome
  All of the following criteria must be met:

• Sustained heart rate increase of ≥ 30 beats/min (or ≥ 40 beats/min if patient is aged 12–19 yr) within 10 minutes of upright posture.

• Absence of significant orthostatic hypotension (magnitude of blood pressure drop ≥ 20/10 mm Hg).

• Very frequent symptoms of orthostatic intolerance that are worse while upright, with rapid improvement upon return to a supine position. Symptoms vary between individuals, but often include lightheadedness, palpitations, tremulousness, generalized weakness, blurred vision and fatigue.

• Symptom duration ≥ 3 months.

• Absence of other conditions that could explain sinus tachycardia (Box 3).

The orthostatic tachycardia must occur in the absence of classical orthostatic hypotension, but transient initial orthostatic hypotension10 does not preclude a diagnosis of POTS.5 The patient’s heart rate should rise by at least 30 beats/min (or ≥ 40 beats/min if patient is aged 12–19 yr) in at least 2 measurements taken at least 1 minute apart (Box 2). The Canadian Cardiovascular Society statement5 set a minimum supine heart rate of 60 beats/min to prevent the diagnosis of POTS being made in a patient with a low resting heart rate that increases to a normal level on standing.

It is physiologically normal for orthostatic tachycardia to vary slightly from day to day and for diurnal variability to exist such that greater orthostatic tachycardia occurs in the morning than later in the day.11 If a clinician has a high suspicion of POTS, but a patient does not meet the criterion for orthostatic tachycardia at their initial evaluation, reassessment at a later date is prudent, preferably in the morning.

An extensively drug-resistant bacterial strain is spreading in the US for the first time and causing an alarming outbreak linked to artificial tears eye drops, according to an alert released Wednesday evening from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. So far, the germ has caused various infections in 55 people in 12 states, killing one and leaving others hospitalized and with permanent vision loss.

Without wastewater sampling, the eradicated virus could have easily spread.

An eradicated form of wild polio surfaced in routine wastewater monitoring in the Netherlands last year, offering a cautionary tale on the importance of monitoring for the tenacious virus, researchers report this week in the journal Eurosurveilance.

The sewage sample came up positive for infectious poliovirus in mid-November and genome sequencing revealed a strain of wild poliovirus type 3, which was declared globally eradicated in 2019. Its potential revival would be a devastating setback in the decades-long effort to stamp out highly infectious and potentially paralytic germ for good. //

For brief background, there are three types of wild polioviruses: type 2 and type 3 have been eradicated, with the former being knocked out in 2015. Wild poliovirus type 1 continues to circulate in Afghanistan and Pakistan. There are also occasional vaccine-derived polioviruses that circulate in communities with low vaccination rates, which recently occurred in New York.

The positive wastewater sample last year was the first and only indication of a polio infection with the bygone strain in the Netherlands. It occurred in an employee of a vaccine production facility run by Bilthoven Biologicals, which makes inactivated polio vaccines. The Netherlands had set up routine wastewater surveillance around the production site to monitor for such a viral escape. //

reviewer1 Smack-Fu Master, in training
3y
40
As a brief supplementary primer on poliovirus vaccines, there are two major versions, Salk's inactivated polio vaccine and Sabin's oral polio vaccine. Both of them are incredibly good at protecting against the paralytic disease of poliomyelitis. They are both less than 100% effective at preventing infection and replication of the virus in a vaccinated person's intestinal tract. So they protect the vaccinated person but should not be counted on to build towards herd immunity because they don't prevent someone from getting infected, making a few million new copies of the virus and putting those back into the water supply (or whatever else they touch without washing their hands properly). For more, see: https://www.who.int/teams/health-pr...specifications/vaccines-quality/poliomyelitis

The oral polio vaccine is better at producing a mucosal immune response in the intestines, so it's better at preventing someone from getting meaningfully infected at all. However, the oral polio vaccine uses live attenuated virus. The tricky thing about live virus is that it mutates and, given enough time, those mutations can undo the attenuation mutations and allow it to become more virulent.

So each vaccine has strengths and weaknesses. At this point, I think the most important thing to know is that being vaccinated for poliovirus protects against getting sick, not against getting infected, and infected people can and do shed virus that can infect others. //

FreeRangeOrganicSoyLatteCappuccino Ars Praetorian
2y
2,629
Uncivil Servant said:
Just to be clear, the inactivated vaccine still protects against infection as well as paralytic polio, but the oral attenuated vaccine provides better protection against the initial infection compared to the inactivated vaccine.

There's an important distinction between "the inactivated vaccine is less effective in preventing (non-paralytic) infection compared to the oral attentuated vaccine" and "the inactivated vaccine does not prevent (non-paralytic) infections".

The oral vaccine also has some advantages in terms of storage and transporation in rural areas of developing nations. It's also a lot easier to administer, especially to young children. But yes, it comes with risks. Hopefully soon polio will go the way of smallpox and rinderpest.
Click to expand...The inactivated vaccine (iPV) provides minimal protection against intestinal mucosal infection. So a person vaccinated with iPV is immune from paralytic complications of polio, can still be infected with polio and continuously poop out viral particles. iPV protects the person, not the population.

The oral vaccine (OPV) provides protection against BOTH intestinal mucosal infection and the paralytic complications of polio. However, there is a chance that the OPV mutates and reverts back to an active virus.

Presumably, this vaccine factory worker was working with a lab sample of type 3 polio and got sloppy with technique. That some worker was presumably vaccinated using the iPV which protected them from paralytic polio, but did NOT protect them from getting polio into their gut and replicating/shedding virus.

CKing123 Wise, Aged Ars Veteran
7y
192
mgforbes said:
Does getting both the injected and oral version of the vaccine confer better immunity, or is it a case of when you've had one, the other one doesn't work?
So OPV (Oral Polio Vaccine) provides antibodies in the guts which means you can blunt transmission and provides protection against infection for a few months. IPV (Inactivated Polio Vaccine) only creates antibodies in blood so you can still get infected and shed the virus (you can for OPV after a while too, but you will blunt transmission). However, the antibodies in blood prevent polio from getting to nerves and causing paralysis. However, if you ever have had OPV, you can be given IPV later and it will increase antibodies in the guts once again without requiring you to take OPV again.

“The dose makes the poison,” as they say. So just how many days of consecutive Tylenol consumption are too many for a pregnant mother? That’s not clear. The general principle seems to be that the more Tylenol a woman takes, and especially the longer she takes it, the higher the risk for her baby or babies of developing autism or ADHD. The 2016 Spanish study researchers wrote that “These [autism and ADHD] associations seem to be dependent on the frequency of exposure.” And, as University of Texas Southwestern OB/GYN Dr. Robyn Horsager-Boehrer pointed out, none of the studies reviewed in the 2018 meta-analysis found an increased risk of ADHD when mothers used Tylenol for a week or less. //

While not a research study, in 2021, the journal Nature Reviews Endocrinology published a consensus statement* signed by more than 90 researchers, scientists, and clinicians, cautioning pregnant women to limit their use of Tylenol. The statement, which listed more than 160 references as evidence, read:

“We recognize that limited medical alternatives exist to treat pain and fever; however, we believe the combined weight of animal and human scientific evidence is strong enough for pregnant women to be cautioned by health professionals against its indiscriminate use, both as a single ingredient and in combination with other medications….Packaging should include warning labels including these recommendations.”

The statement signers recommend pregnant women take Tylenol “cautiously at the lowest effective dose for the shortest possible time” //

Differentiating correlation from causation

A 2017 position statement of the Society for Maternal Fetal Medicine, which issues practice guidelines for high-risk pregnancy specialists, called the research thus far “inconclusive.” While it’s true that research to date does not definitively establish causation, meaning that it doesn’t spell out ‘this amount of Tylenol use can definitely cause autism or ADHD in offspring,’ those raising the alarm point out that pregnant women deserve to know about the possibility of a connection because it may impact their decision to take Tylenol or not.

Is Tylenol during pregnancy better than other pain medications?

The USA Today story quoted Dr. Andrea Edlow, an OB/GYN and obstetric research director at Massachusetts General Hospital, noting that whereas she believes the potential Tylenol-neurodevelopmental disorders connection is “a nuanced area,” the common pain relief alternatives to Tylenol are already known to be unequivocally problematic for pregnant women and/or their preborn children. As Dr. Edlow points out, “Ibuprofen is clearly associated with developmental risk and maternal opioid use is also associated with maternal, fetal and neonatal risks.”

It has resistance or reduced susceptibility to all drugs recommended for treatment. //

The most highly drug-resistant cases of gonorrhea detected in the US to date appeared in two unrelated people in Massachusetts, state health officials announced Thursday.

The cases mark the first time that US isolates of the gonorrhea-causing bacterium, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, have shown complete resistance or reduced susceptibility to all drugs that are recommended for treatment.

Fortunately, both cases were successfully cured with potent injections of the antibiotic ceftriaxone, despite the bacterial isolates demonstrating reduced susceptibility to the drug. Ceftriaxone is currently the frontline recommended treatment for the sexually transmitted infection.

But health officials said the cases are a warning. "N. gonorrhoeae is becoming less responsive to a limited arsenal of antibiotics," they said.

Dwyane
@Dwyanosaurus
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"In 1995, America’s cannabis had an average strength of 4% THC, the active compound used to measure pot potency. The pot sold in California's pot shops today often boasts potency over 40% THC, a 900% increase in THC potency."

-SFGate article
10:44 AM · Nov 10, 2022 //

Most of the cannabis complications are “caused by injuries and falls, paranoia, cardiovascular trouble or cannabis interfering with other medications,” according to SFGATE.

The study used government data from more than 300 hospitals statewide to measure emergency department visits between 2005 and 2019. The analysis found that 366 people over the age of 65 visited a California emergency department after using cannabis in 2005, but by 2019, that number was 12,167. The frequency of visits increased every year in the study, although the legalization of cannabis for recreational use in California in 2016 did not cause visits to increase at a faster rate.

While the numbers might be concerning, alcohol still causes far more senior ER visits, with over 187,000 admitted in 2020. //

Before author Alex Berenson became a renowned COVID vaccine critic, he penned a book called “Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence” in which he details “the link between teenage marijuana use and mental illness, and a hidden epidemic of violence caused by the drug—facts the media have ignored as the United States rushes to legalize cannabis.” Mother Jones wrote that the book “takes a sledgehammer to the promised benefits of marijuana legalization, and cannabis enthusiasts are not going to like it one bit.”

90% of people living with long COVID initially experienced only mild illness. //

We found that a staggering 90 percent of people living with long COVID initially experienced only mild illness with COVID-19. After developing long COVID, however, the typical person experienced symptoms including fatigue, shortness of breath, and cognitive problems such as brain fog—or a combination of these—that affected daily functioning. These symptoms had an impact on health as severe as the long-term effects of traumatic brain injury. Our study also found that women have twice the risk of men and four times the risk of children for developing long COVID.

EDS COMPLICATIONS AND TREATMENT CONSIDERATIONS

Obtain my information packet by emailing golderwilson@gmail.com

You have contacted me to request information on Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) and related connective tissue laxity disorders. This packet contains 1) history, 2) natural-family history, and 3) physical examination forms for your self-assessment followed by 4) summary of finding frequencies in my EDS patients, 5) general information on how clinical and DNA findings in EDS fit together, and 6) a sample summary letter that for a fee of $100  I could write for you to take to your doctors as discussed below. Those who request a summary letter, have severe impact from EDS as indicated on the lower part of the history form, and have interest in social security disability, I can refer to a specialist although there is no guarantee you would qualify.

The history and physical forms list common findings that were noted in 946 EDS outpatient evaluations and converted into standard forms I used on a subsequent 710 outpatients (596 females and 114 males). You can see the full results in the article: Clinical analysis supports articulo-autonomic dysplasia (reference 1 in the attached information) that includes the summary of finding frequencies attached here. In essence I found that people with more than 10 history and 8 physical findings had EDS by traditional criteria and that women have higher scores than men (more than accounted for by 3 extra points for questions regarding gynecologic issues). Most findings of patients with hypermobile hEDS (more flexibility complications like subluxations, dislocations, and deformations like scoliosis and flat feet) versus those with classical EDS (more atypical cigarette-paper or keloid scars, less hypermobility complications) are similar, the reason I emphasize recognition of a general EDS clinical pattern before considering specific types. 

An Information Service for EDS and related disorders

What does the service consist of?

After 40 years of academic and private practice encompassing over 27,000 new medical genetic evaluations, I am changing my genetics practice to an information service that will be backed by continued article and book publication. I stopped in-person clinics in 2018 due to my own arthritis issues and now will provide information including standardized history and physical forms that will allow people to assess their probability of having an EDS diagnosis. Patients can send in their forms for my interpretation and I will provide a packet with a summary letter that they can take to their doctors to obtain appropriate diagnoses of EDS and dysautonomia. I will provide the information free of charge but ask payment of $100 to provide the summary letter and information packet. I no longer have the resources to coordinate DNA testing but the $100 fee will include my interpretation of DNA testing provided with the history-physical information or sent to me afterwords. For patients with large numbers of history-physical findings on my standard forms and who additionally register significant difficulties with work, school, and activity functions on my physical form, I also offer referral to a specialist in social security disability who can help them with an application; there is of course no guarantee that the specialist or court will approve their application.
​.
The next page has a description of the information service that describes options for the summary letter and possible referral for disability consideration. If you are interested in receiving the described information package you should email me at golderwilson@gmail.com and I will forward it to you with the introductory letter, medical history/natural-family history/physical forms along with a table of these finding frequencies in 710 EDS patients, discussion of how EDS clinical and DNA findings correlate, an overview of preventive management and therapy for EDS, and an example of my summary letter. The latter table, correlation discussion, overview of therapy, and summary letter example are shown on later pages of this website.

The devastation of the plague pandemic left such an incredible genetic mark on humanity that it's still affecting our health nearly 700 years later.

Up to half of people died when the Black Death swept through Europe in the mid-1300s.

A pioneering study analysing the DNA of centuries-old skeletons found mutations that helped people survive the plague.

But those same mutations are linked to auto-immune diseases afflicting people today.

The Black Death is one of the most significant, deadliest and bleakest moments in human history. It is estimated that up to 200 million people died.

Researchers suspected an event of such enormity must have shaped human evolution. They analysed DNA taken from the teeth of 206 ancient skeletons and were able to precisely date the human remains to before, during or after the Black Death.

The analysis included bones from the East Smithfield plague pits which were used for mass burials in London with more samples coming from Denmark.

• b.i.d. (on prescription): Seen on a prescription, b.i.d. means twice (two times) a day. It is an abbreviation for "bis in die" which in Latin means twice a day.
• q.d. (qd or QD) is once a day; q.d. stands for "quaque die" (which means, in Latin, once a day).
• t.i.d. (or tid or TID) is three times a day ; t.i.d. stands for "ter in die" (in Latin, 3 times a day).
• q.i.d. (or qid or QID) is four times a day; q.i.d. stands for "quater in die" (in Latin, 4 times a day).
• q_h: If a medicine is to be taken every so-many hours, it is written "q_h"; the "q" standing for "quaque" and the "h" indicating the number of hours. So, for example, "2 caps q4h" means "Take 2 capsules every 4 hours."